Finland Has the Arctic Maritime Technology Edge: Arctia CEO

According to CEO Tero Vauraste of Arctia Shipping, who spoke at a recent Arctic research seminar at the University of Turku, Finland has great potential in the maritime technology of the arctic region.

The University says that Vauraste sees three trump cards in the Finnish arctic strategy from the point of view of business and investment policy: maritime technology, mining and tourism. He explains:

At the moment, there are about a hundred icebreakers in the world and 60 of them were built in Finland. Most of the current icebreakers are rather old and it has been estimated that in the next few years there will be a need for even 150 new icebreakers.

Finland has great potential and technological know-how in the icebreaker business. The economy of Finland has always been dependent on the sea traffic at the Baltic Sea and it has been a prerequisite for the economy that the ships can operate in the arctic region all-year round.

We are trying to bring the Finnish know-how and business we have gathered during several decades increasingly to the international market.

However, maritime technology is not only limited to ships. For example, we have a floating office and it is these kinds of new innovations that could be significant in the Arctic region.

Finnish Research on Business in the Arctic Region
At the moment, interest in the arctic region is great, which can also be seen in the amount of research that is done on it. According to Vauranen, of the Finnish universities, University of Lapland, University of Oulu and Aalto University have been profiled in arctic research in their own areas of strength.

However, there are some areas that have not been much researched in Finland. In particular, business in the Arctic region has great research potential and very little research is done on it in Finland. For example, we have no extensive research on the aspects of free trade in the arctic countries. One vision is a Pan-Arctic free-trade zone that could be a fruitful research topic.


Source: University of Turku