LEHTIKUVA/MARTTI KAINULAINEN
Finland ranks third in terms of gender equality in the EIGE index which surveys equality in terms of work, money, knowledge, time, power and health.

Finland has been placed in the third place in the first gender equality index provided by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) just after Sweden and Denmark. The index shows differences in outcomes between women and men at the individual level in European Union countries.

Finland received a total score of 73.4 out of 100 which is much higher than the EU average of 54 points. Sweden scored 74.3 points and Denmark 73.6 points.

EIGE index scores countries based on gender equality in the areas of work, money, knowledge, time, power and health. Finland does especially well in work participation (82), knowledge (67), financial resources and economic situation (78), and power (68.8).

— Although gender equality values have been recognised since its earliest days, the European Union is only halfway towards a gender-equal society, with an average EU score of 54, comments Virginija Langbakk, the Director of EIGE.

According to institute, the lowest level of gender equality in Europe is in decision-making, with an average score of only 38 at European Union level. EIGE also notes that the greatest distance from gender equality is apparent in boards of the largest quoted companies, with an average score of only 23 in Europe.

www.eigeeuropa.eu

MM

Story courtesy Good News Finland / Finnfacts.

Pianist Kathryn Selby AM brings together two brilliant Finnish guest artists for the first time with Vesa-Matti Leppänen (Concertmaster, New Zealand Symphony) and Timo-Veikko Valve (Australian Chamber Orchestra Principal Cellist). Performing three highly impassioned works – by Grieg, Mendelssohn and Brahms – in a single program, these masterful artists will provide plenty of romance for a thrilling evening of music making!

Concerts in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide, Turramurra and Bowral

In an exclusive offer for friends of the Finland Australia Chamber of Commerce, regular-priced concert tickets are available at a 20% discount. Go to www.selbyandfriends.com.au and enter code FINN to purchase, or ring 1300 511 099. (For City Recital Hall Angel Place, go to www.cityrecitalhall.com, or ring (02) 8256 2222 and use code FINN – additional fees may apply.)

Offer expires 29 June.

LEHTIKUVA / JARNO MELA Outotec and Neste Jacobs have signed oil shale development deals

Technology, engineering and project management company Neste Jacobs, has also signed a deal with GOS to collaborate in oil shale processing and plant design for converting oil shale into liquid fuel and gas as well as any upgrading required for synthetic crude oil production.

Oil shale contains kerogen, a mixture of organic chemical compounds from which oil and natural gas can be manufactured. However extracting oil from oil shale is more complex than conventional oil recovery.

In both deals, the parties will initially focus on GOS’s existing oil shale resources, such as a 2.18 billion barrels oil shale project in Julia Creek, Queensland, Australia and other deposits under evaluation and acquisition elsewhere in the world including North Africa and the Middle East.

We believe that kerogen concentration has the potential to unlock significant value as well as improve the environmental performance of the oil shale industry, says Kari Knuutila, Chief Technology Officer of Outotec. Our collaboration with Global Oil Shale will complement our expertise in the energy sector.

The agreement with GOS is a significant milestone for our company and strengthens further Neste Jacobs’ already good position in the oil shale business, says Jarmo Suominen, Managing Director of Neste Jacobs.

GOS is a global energy company exclusively focused on oil shale mining and processing.

The volume of worldwide deposits of organic material in oil shales have been estimated as equivalent to about 2.8-3.3 trillion barrel of oil.

www.outotec.com
www.nestejacobs.com

VL

News courtesy of Finnfacts / Good News! from Finland

Outotec is a member of the FACC

The United States rose to the number one spot, with Sweden and Switzerland coming second and third respectively. Finland ranked higher than the UK, Germany and France, among other countries.

TOP 10 higher education systems

1. United States
2. Sweden
3. Switzerland
4. Canada
5. Denmark
6. Finland
7. The Netherlands
8. Australia
9. Singapore
10. UK

The study assessed the resources, environment, output and national and international connectivity of the higher education systems of 48 countries.

The strong points of Finland’s higher education system in the comparison included good resources and output. Finland has the highest number of researchers per head of population and the number of research articles published in the country in relation to its population is high. In addition, Finland ranked among the best in the amount of funding afforded to tertiary institutions.

Finnish higher education institutions achieved weaker results in international connectivity, which was measured in terms of, for example, the number of articles authored by foreign students and as a result of international co-operation.

This was the second time that the global research university network Universitas 21 carried out the U21 Ranking of National Higher Education Systems study. In 2012 Finland was ranked fourth.

www.universitas21.com

EH

Article courtesy of Finnfacts/Good News from Finland!

The Finnish tackle and fishing lures company Rapala is launching Angry Birds products in Nordics, Baltic and China during this spring.

— Promoting fishing as a hobby to children and youngsters becomes a lot easier when we can work with characters that are so widely recognized, says Information Manager Jaana Vetikko of Finnish Federation for Recreational Fishing.

According to a Rapala press release, the companies see big potential in the countries where recreational fishing is an important hobby. After the initial launch, the company is planning to launch its Angry Birds product line including lures, fishing combos and pole fishing rods, globally.

Rovio has co-operation and licensing agreements already with multiple Finnish companies such as the playground equipment manufacturer Lappset, cosmetics producer Lumene, confectionary company Fazer, brewing and soft drinks firm Olvi and clothing company Reima.

www.rapala.com

MM

News provided by Finnfacts / Good News! from Finland.

Rapala and Lappset are members of the Finland Australia Chamber of Commerce.

LEHTIKUVA / MARTTI KAINULAINEN The new Titanic is scheduled to make her maiden voyage in 2016.

The ship will be a replica of the RMS Titanic that sank in the Atlantic in 1912. Just as its predecessor was intended to, Titanic II will begin transporting passengers between England and the US.

Blue Star Line’s Clive Palmer, the Australian master-mind behind the project, says that Deltamarin will be responsible for coordinating the various parties involved, including the shipyard, architects, interior designers and operations managers. Deltamarin will also perform a full review of the Titanic II project to ensure the vessel will be compliant with all current safety and building regulations.

Deltamarin has co-operated with Palmer before: last June we reported that Deltamarin would be carrying out a feasibility study for the building of the new Titanic.

The ship will be built by Chinese shipbuilders CSC Jinling Shipyard. Titanic II is scheduled to make her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York in 2016.

www.deltamarin.com

SK

Article courtesy of FinnFacts / Good News Finland

Nordic Festival is a not-for-profit event organised by the Warburton and District Chamber of Commerce, Industry & Tourism in consultation with the Victorian Nordic community. The aim of the event is to celebrate the culture and heritage of the five Nordic Countries – Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

The festival will be held for the 3rd time in the picturesque township of Warburton in the Upper Yarra Valley. The traders in town and other fellow Warburtonians have embraced the Nordic theme – Viking helmets can be purchased in town, Nordic delicacies like herrings and Swedish meatballs can be found on the menu and locals join in the activities with gusto!

Come and experience yourself how the beautiful mountain village of Warburton turns into a Nordic hamlet for the weekend. Visit the Viking Camp, enjoy Nordic performances, sample some Nordic delicacies and buy unique handicrafts, design products and other Nordic goods at the Market.

The unique TipiKata Sami Reindeer Herder Tents will provide a magnificent venue for our music performances on the weekend. Our Lapland themed Opening Night Dinner will be served by an open fire in these beautiful tents on Saturday night.

A lantern parade along the Yarra River will offer a magical outing for the whole family on Saturday night. More fun will follow on Sunday, when we encourage you to dress up in your favourite Nordic outfit and join us for a Street Parade along the Main Street.

Upper Yarra Arts Centre will play host for a mini Nordic Film Festival over the weekend and a good old Nordic Community Dance will finish off the festivities on Sunday afternoon.

Musical highlights include Australian-Swedish duo Nick & Liesl, Finnish-Australian song writer Jack Larm, Nordic folk music group the Red Herrings and the Scandinavian Choir from Melbourne.

For more information, please contact Leila Myllymäki-Hay on 0407 875 404 or by email at nordicfestivalaus@gmail.com.

More information is also available on the Nordic Festival website at www.nordicfestival.org.

The wonders of the Great Barrier Reef are now on display on a giant touchscreen

MultiTouch, the Finnish manufacturer of touchscreens, has delivered the world’s largest multi-touch installation to an Australian university. The multi-touch wall is approximately 14 metres wide.

The display installation will be located in the main building of the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane, giving visitors the chance to familiarise themselves with the ecosystem of the Great Barrier Reef. The display will give users pointers on saving energy and it can be used to play educational games.

48 ultra-thin bezel 55-inch MultiTaction Cell display units have been installed in the Cube, the heart of QUT’s new Science and Engineering Centre. Users can manipulate the interactive displays using their hands or, for example, a pen. The total value of the delivery is some EUR 800 000.

MultiTouch was established in 2007 and its display systems are being used in more than 50 countries around the world. In 2012, MultiTouch was named Growth Company of the Year by the economic magazine Kauppalehti.

www.multitaction.com

Story courtesy Finnfacts / Good News

The move could also help Finland keep pace with other Northern European countries taking down the tax burden on corporations.

The move was unveiled as part of a broader structural reform package unveiled Thursday by Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen, who became prime minister in 2011 as Finnish policy makers were looking to maintain the small nation’s economic stability in the face of a growing euro-zone crisis. Finland, which has high wages and has weathered a contraction in core industries, slipped into recession in 2012 but remains one of the healthiest nations in the currency bloc.

Finland is historically reliant on the paper and pulp industries, and the tech sector. In recent years, the nation has sought to diversify its corporate sector by attracting new start-ups, particularly in the software and gaming industries.

“We are launching a significant reform in business taxation,” Mr. Katainen said at a press conference in Helsinki. The move follows similar actions recently taken by Sweden, Denmark and the U.K. to slash corporate taxation.

Finland most recently cut its tax rate in 2012 to 24.5% from 26%. It is currently the only euro-zone member that has the best possible triple-A credit rating with a stable outlook from the three major credit rating agencies. However, its fiscal position and employment outlook are deteriorating as forecasts project only negligible growth this year.

The nation’s six-party coalition government unveiled a structural reform and fiscal adjustment package after concluding its annual fiscal framework review. Sweden has lowered its corporate tax rate to 22% from 25%, while the U.K. is cutting to 21%. In February, Denmark said it will drop the rate to 22% by 2016.

By taking the tax rate down 4.5 percentage points, Finland will see about a 1-billion-euro ($1.29 billion) decline in revenues. The lost income will be recovered, in part, by discontinuing certain subsidies and grants to companies and by tightening taxation of dividends.

The Finnish government’s new economic policy pact also includes budgetary adjustments expected to yield €600 million in economic benefits. Half of the adjustment will come in the form of tax hikes and half in the form of spending cuts, Mr. Katainen said.

Finnish public finances have been in deficit since 2009. Its ratio of public debt relative to the gross domestic product has shot up to an estimated 56.1% in 2013 from 35.2% at the end of 2008.

Because Finland is a member of the European Monetary Union, it is subject to rules setting a ceiling of 60% for the public debt ratio. Finland is one of the few members still conforming to this rule.

When Mr. Katainen’s coalition government came to power two years ago, it set as its goal to halt the rise of Finland’s debt ratio by the end of 2015, when the current parliamentary term in Finland ends. During the past two years the government has agreed on and started to implement spending cuts and tax hikes totalling €5 billion.

Combined with the €600 million fiscal adjustment announcement, the total adjustment should be sufficient to cap the rise in the debt ratio by the original goal of 2015, according to a government official familiar with the matter.

Story courtesy WSJ, Juhana Rossi

Rovio Entertainment, the maker of Angry Birds which has now been downloaded over 1.7 billion times, is launching a cartoon series this weekend.
Angry Birds Toons will be viewable through video-on-demand services, smart TVs and select TV networks around the world.

The animated shorts will also be available from a dedicated video distribution channel launching across all of the Angry Bird game titles on smartphones and tablets.

To watch the series through this channel, fans simply need to download the latest update for any Angry Birds game, which will unlock the new channel button on the homescreen.

— With over 1.7 billion downloads, we can reach a far wider and more engaged global audience than traditional distribution would allow, said Rovio CEO Mikael Hed.

— Launching the channel, and partnering up with some of the best video-on-demand providers and TV networks, is an important milestone for us on our journey towards becoming a fully-fledged entertainment powerhouse.

The series, which was first announced last April, will comprise 52 episodes, released at the rate of one a week from March 16 on TV, and March 17 in all Angry Birds apps and video-on-demand platforms.

Comcast will carry the channel on its video-on-demand services in the US, as will Samsung’s range of connected TVs globally, with Roku set-top boxes to follow.

Networks in Australia, South Korea, Indonesia, India, Finland, Israel, France, Germany, Norway, Chile and Brazil have signed on to air the cartoons.

www.rovio.com

VL

News courtesy of Good News Finland/Finnfacts