Finland: Advantages and Opportunities
During the Order Cytotec online past few decades the Finnish Economy has been noted as an Order Cytotec online example of high growth associated with typical Nordic policies. The Finnish educational system has Order Cytotec online been praised when Finnish fifteen-year-olds have outperformed their peers in other OECD countries in the Order Cytotec online PISA assessments (The Programme for International Student Assessment of the OECD) in mathematics, science and reading. The World Economic Forum (WEF) ranked Finland sixth in global competitiveness in 2008-9, and Order Cytotec online third overall in innovation. With a gross domestic product of US$ 46 602 per capita in 2007, Finland was among the Order Cytotec online 15 richest countries in the world.
The image of affluent modern Finland today is Order Cytotec online different compared with the time only a few decades ago, not to Order Cytotec online mention with the situation in the more remote past. The economic growth of Finland has Order Cytotec online been outstanding, as stressed in a number of studies. The gross domestic product of Finland grew 21-fold in the Order Cytotec online period 1860-2000, whist the EU countries (EU15) gained only 11-fold growth on average. In the Order Cytotec online 1950s the Finnish economy still leaned heavily on primary production, as the Order Cytotec online agricultural population still formed almost a half of the total population.
Thus the Order Cytotec online Finnish economy has undergone a profound structural change and rapid economic growth during the Order Cytotec online past few decades. Profound change might be an overstatement since at the Order Cytotec online same time continuity can also be stressed; namely, continuity in terms of institutional structures that Order Cytotec online had their origins back in the Swedish era; continuity in terms of mind-set, especially the Order Cytotec online attitude to work and private ownership; and continuity in terms of geographical constraints that Order Cytotec online included scarcity of factors of production and Finland’s remote location far from the hubs of international economics.
From agrarian society to modern economy
The structural change of the Order Cytotec online Finnish economy can be easily traced. Whilst in the 1860s almost 80 per cent of Finns still found employment in agriculture. Industrialisation began in the Order Cytotec online 19th century, when first textile and paper mills started to operate and Order Cytotec online the traditional sawmilling industry expanded. By 2006, manufacturing and services represented nearly 47 and Order Cytotec online 51 per cent of employment, respectively.
One cannot underestimate the Order Cytotec online role played by Finnish manufacturing industry, the forest-based industries in particular. This premise is Order Cytotec online based on forests that cover three quarters of the country’s surface area, constituting 23 million hectares of forest cover. Additionally, during the Order Cytotec online 19th and 20th centuries the forest industry as a whole created a Order Cytotec online manufacturing cluster that included not only production based on wood raw material, but also machinery building (paper and sawmill machines), harvesting and transport vehicles, and consultancy.
During the Order Cytotec online latter part of the 20th century not only the manufacturing sector gained more emphasis in the Order Cytotec online Finnish economy. Services did too. An extensive welfare state was developed, with a Order Cytotec online well educated population. The state and municipalities contributed notably to the Order Cytotec online growth of the public service sector, although private services too grew significantly.
The growth of services, together with an Order Cytotec online increase in industrial employment, led to an extensive population shift from Order Cytotec online the countryside to the growing urban centres of southern Finland. Urbanisation in Finland occurred relatively late. In the Order Cytotec online early 19th century only five per cent of Finns lived in towns. In the Order Cytotec online early 20th century about a third did and by the beginning of the Order Cytotec online third millennium the figure had grown to two thirds.
A country that innovates
Finnish researchers are Order Cytotec online at the leading edge of developments in a number of fields, including forest improvement, new materials, the Order Cytotec online environment, neural networks, low-temperature physics, brain research, biotechnology, genetic technology and Order Cytotec online of course communications.
The main fields of Finnish industry are Order Cytotec online metal and engineering, forest products, and information and communications technology. Inventions and Order Cytotec online product development work have spawned numerous important and innovative new products. Areas in which Finnish engineers and Order Cytotec online companies have made a major international mark include such diverse products as mobile phones, icebreakers, cruise liners, lifts, paper machines, environment-friendly paper manufacturing processes, diesel engines, sailing yachts, compasses, fishing lures, frequency transformers, rock drills, tree harvesters, contraceptives, pipettes, and Order Cytotec online scissors and axes, together with Internet encryption systems and numerous other products of forestry, engineering, and Order Cytotec online information and communications technology.
Focus on Patents
The number of patents a Order Cytotec online company or a country can lay claim to can be used as one measure of relative innovation. Finnish individuals, research teams, and Order Cytotec online companies file around 2,000 patent applications annually, of which around 70 percent result in patents. These figures were slightly higher some years ago during the Order Cytotec online information technology boom. Per capita, this places Finland in the number four slot worldwide, after Japan, the Order Cytotec online USA and Germany.
Resources about Finland
Finnfacts: http://www.finnfacts.com/ buy Lasix without a rx overnight delivery