Finland as a knowledge economy: elements of success and lessons learned edited

With CD at Acc. No.CD1247

Knowledge is fueling economic growth and social development in every region of the world. New ideas and innovation are spreading faster than ever. This book showcases the Finnish experience in the 1990s as an example of how knowledge can become the driving force in economic transformation and growth. Finland is a country that has successfully transformed itself into a knowledge economy in a short time. During that decade, the country became the most ICT- (information and communication technology) specialized economy in the world and thus completed its move from the resource-driven to knowledge- and innovation-driven development. Four times to date at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the country has ranked as number one in the World Economic Forum's (WEF) competitiveness index, and as one of the most developed IT economies. It was ranked top in the OECD's Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) studies of learning skills and educational attainment, and also achieved the highest Knowledge Economy Index in the World Bank comparisons (figure 1). The various elements pertinent to a knowledge economy -economic incentives, education, innovation, and IT infrastructure - also seem to be well balanced in Finland