INTERVIEW
difficult to create the right kind of ecosystem. This explains
why in certain areas, we need governments. Business needs
government to digitalize.
What influence do you think Finland’s political
system has on how the European economic crisis has
affected Finland?
Finland has a system based on egalitarian thinking. It’s
based on the idea that the role of society and government is
to create equal opportunities for all. Also, it’s based on the
idea that governments are guaranteeing that in the midst
of different types of crises; there is some security for individuals and local communities. This design of worker-state
has worked quite well. In fact, it has made it possible for
individuals to take higher risks because they had this kind
of insurance provided by the government. However, now in
the economic crisis, the system is less efficient than how it
was. In certain respects, welfare state structures have become
obstacles to create competitiveness in the global economy.
That’s why reforms are urgently needed. Partly, they are
dependent on technological changes. And partly, they are
dependent on demographics. For example, if you look at
pension system. It’s difficult to keep pension system as it is
when people are living longer and unfortunately, many of
these welfare states have been rather weak or slow in making the necessary reforms to adjust to new circumstances.
Can you give an example of a specific change the
Finnish government has undergone recently?
Our main weakness is that we have been too slow to
move resources from old structures to new ones. Some of
these old systems work nicely in previous circumstances but
not anymore as our environments have changed and our
population and labor force are aging. The second reason
why I’m worried about the future of Finland is that despite
the fact that we have abundant assets, well educated population, technological advances, and a small competitive society,
unfortunately, countries like Finland have not been able to
create the right kind of infrastructure and ecosystem for digital services to be used in many sectors. The best example is
healthcare. Despite the fact that healthcare costs are getting
higher and we have unsustainable financial burden, we have
developed lots of new healthcare technologies. However, we
have not been able to create the right kind of environment
to use these new technologies. Just the opposite, the government has put main emphasis on administrative structures and
those are completely secondary to the processes and capacity
to use new technology.
Compared to the US where the economy has been
recovering and Asia where emerging economies are
growing quickly, Europe appears to be struggling in its
growth. What do you see as a good recovery path for
Europe in the next five years in order for the region to
promote global competitiveness?
Photo Courtesy Rickter Franck-Jurgen CC (by-sa-2.0)
Esko Aho at the 2012 Horasis Global Russia Business
Meeting. In 2012, he stepped down from the Leadership
Team at Nokia to pursue research as a senior fellow at the
Harvard Kennedy School.
Europe has started to recover but this path to normal is
going to be very painful due to high level of unemployment
and lots of problems in public sector funding. An even bigger
problem is Europe has not been able to put enough emphasis
on a growth strategy, especially in creating a digital market.
Secondly, Europe has not been able to provide enough
resources for research and development. Europe has been
lagging behind despite having targets for increasing R&D.
We have invested too little for the future and long-term
improvements. Finally, another weakness is having too low
risk-taking capacity. It’s not just about financial risk-taking
capacity but also attitudes. Europe is relying too much on
traditional way of doing things. Europe needs to make
changes in three key areas.
i. Rapid improvement in digital single market.
ii. More investment in future technology, research, and
developme