Visit to Finnish Science Park, Technopolis Oulu

Tsietsi Maleho attending the Conference on "Finnish Best Practices of the Innovation Hub and Science and Technology Park Concept" at the Technopolis Plc in Oulu, Finland.

Corporate Affairs Manager at The Innovation Hub, Tsietsi Maleho, visited several institutions in the Oulu region in Finland, where he also attended a workshop on the "Best Practices of The Innovation Hub and the Science and Technology Park Concept" at the Technopolis Oulu in Finland.

He brought back interesting insights about innovative economic growth in the Oulu region, as well as a number of lessons to be drawn from the Oulu experience and Finnish systems of innovation.

Oulu - unique attributes and a thriving economy

Founded by King Karl IX of Sweden, the city of Oulu - a Sami word for floodwater - is the oldest, and today with a population of 126 000, also the largest, city in Northern Finland. From humble beginnings and a reputation for tar and salmon, Oulu has evolved into a modern business centre boasting companies such as Nokia. With an average age of 35,9 years, the city's youthful population is certainly unique amongst other, mostly ageing, populations of cities in Europe.

The Oulu region is well-known in Northern Europe for its technology development and high-tech Centers of Expertise. Initially, the economic landscape was dominated by paper and chemical factories, but in the late 1980s the introduction of new and innovative economic measures launched an era of accelerated technological growth for the region. In 1982, Technopolis Oulu was launched as the first Science Park in Scandinavia. From inception, high-tech focused Technopolis Oulu forged close working relationships with the University of Oulu, the city itself, private companies and other research institutions. Soon after, other Science Parks were established in the region, including Medipolis Ltd, with its focus on biotechnology and medicine, making the Oulu region an important regional bio centre in Finland.

The sustained economic growth and development of the Oulu region has been centered in three programmes:

• A 2002-2006 Business Strategy - visible nationally and internationally - to create high-tech jobs, lower unemployment and increase knowledge about the traditional industries
• A 2003-2006 Centre of Expertise Programme, launched in 1994, to develop regional innovative environments and create a sound platform for future growth and regional success
• The 2006 Oulu Growth Agreement, a regional growth sector strategy to create an enabling environment with exceptional business and living standards for stakeholders in economic clusters including ICT, content production and media, wellness technology, biotechnology and the environment.

All of these initiatives in Oulu has been inspired by the central Government programme on the Finnish Information Society, driven from the Prime Minister's office and permeating all levels of Finnish society, and aggressively pursued by regions.

Lessons from Finland

Without trying to replicate the Finnish information society model, there are many lessons to be drawn from the Oulu experience and the Finnish innovation systems. Important characteristics of the Finnish national system of innovation that certainly bear emulation is a good quality education system and good relations between the education, research and industry sectors.

On the home front, within this context, the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality (CTMM) has the attributes to make it a successful city. It has the highest level of education attainment in the country, is the national centre of research and learning with four universities, and the headquarters of six of the eight Science Councils, including the CSIR and the HSRC, and houses two Blue IQ projects, The Innovation Hub and the Automotive Supplier Park. Unlike the Finnish system, however, these institutions in Tshwane are not aligned and integrated to optimise on synergies.

In the transition to building the Oulu as a Smart City, all stakeholders committed to a single, unifying vision, underpinned by "purposeful development". This clearly points to the need, locally, for a common strategic intent amongst the high-tech community stakeholders in Tshwane.

Lastly, the Centre of Excellence model in Oulu was created to exploit specialised technological knowledge, create operating environments and internationalisation opportunities for companies and research. This model could be considered for application in the Tshwane environment as a way to increase intellectual capital, either through value extraction or value creation.

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