Helsinki, December 6 (Prensa Latina) Finnish authorities today showed their willingness to promote public and private investments in the country to stimulate the economy and secure the future.
Finnish Science Minister Sari Multala said she wants to increase public and private investment in R&D (research and development) to four percent of gross domestic product (GDP) so that many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have the success that mobile phone manufacturer Nokia did back then enjoyed.
In Finland, as in most of the world, it is known that investing in science improves jobs in an economy, gives it flexibility and increases the value of its exports, he emphasized.
The government also recognizes that these fruits typically do not come in the four or five years that election cycles generally last.
Therefore, unlike much of the world, this does not stop successive governments from continually relying on science, so that research and development spending (public and private) now accounts for almost three percent of GDP, twice as much in countries like Italy and Spain, he explained.
According to Sari Multala, the basic idea of the new government has always been to increase productivity. In a press interview, he assured that scientific findings will be used by companies to realize innovations in collaboration with universities.
He noted that research and development has not yet reached the pace of 3.54 percent of GDP in 2008, thanks to the phenomenal contribution of Nokia research.
According to the official, the current government intends to reconstruct this system by encouraging official research institutes to further promote cooperation between companies and universities. He stressed that the goal of these four years is to eliminate the boundaries between science developed by universities and science in the private sector, so that by 2030, research and development of both together reach four percent of GDP.
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