Indian IT welcomed by the Finns

BANGALORE: Located in the northern part of Europe, Finland is inviting Indian IT houses to come up and set up shop in the country. Easy access to European, Nordic, Russian and Baltic markets, skilled manpower and superior infrastructure as some of the selling points for investing in the country.

The home for the world's largest mobile phone maker, Nokia, Finland is already a home for Indian IT majors such as TCS, Wipro, Blue Star Infotech, Zensar technologies and Tooltech Europe. "While last year we had one Indian IT company, Blue Star Infotech, we foresee at least five Indian IT companies investing in Finland in the next two years. If all goes well, we might even witness a major Indian IT company announcing an acquisition in Finland to enter the market," said, Sirkka Aura, Chief executive, Invest in Finland, a Ministry of Trade and Industry funded agency assisting Indian companies set up base in Finland.

Finland is ranked third in terms of spending in research and development in proportion of GDP, behind Israel and Sweden, according to Tekes, OECD, Main Sciences and Technology Indicators, National Statistics Authorities. Another attractive factor is that the country is competitive in terms of cost as compared to other European countries. The global competitiveness report for 2004-'05 by the World Economic Forum ranks Finland in growth competitiveness and ranks second, behind US, in business competitiveness. The world competitiveness yearbook 2004 by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) has ranked Finland second, behind India, in terms of qualified engineers.

"As part of the promotion, the government has set up a fund to invest in technology companies which has set up a base in the country. As a Schengen country, Finland offers free movement within the country and becomes a good business locale for the industry," adds Aura.

Telecommunication, mobile and wireless solutions, embedded software, data and mobile security are some of the opportunities for Indian companies. The ICT industry's turnover is over $50 billion and the software industry turnover is over $1.1 billion. The domestic market poses a $5.5 billion opportunity to the companies.

Some of the trends in the Finnish software industry are Internet services, mobile solutions, GIS, product development based on open source, system testing, ASP services, process and quality management.