Nordicum - Real Estate Annual Finland 2011 | Page 57

Photo: LogiCity

the hunt is on for 2-3 strategic
partners who will help LogiCity live up to its full potential.
“The City and Finavia
serve more in an enabling role,
and by summer 2011 we want to
find the right partners to help develop this thing further on,” says
Jouko Turto.
Business Consultant Ari
Niemelä has been watching over
the project from its infancy. He
points out that LogiCity is not
meant to be a nest for only logistics companies – also assembly
industries can benefit from the
multimodal environment and
the added value service package
here. However, the area will not
materialise over night:
“LogiCity will take 10-15
years to fully develop, but we’re
on to a good start.” TNT, for instance, has focused all of its air
cargo operations here and also
DHL has launched new services as well air cargo at LogiCity.

RFID Emerging
With the long timeframe in mind,
new operative concepts have
been worked out with regards
to e.g. labour supply and radio
frequency identification. The latter topic is also a subject of no
small national interest, as LogiCity is a part of a large RFID project launched by the Federation
of Finnish Technology Industries
and TiVit Oy. The project is coordinated by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.
“Previously, the problem
has been that the technical solutions of the logistics buildings
did not support the use of RFID
to sufficient degree. At LogiCity we want to take these things
into consideration already in
the infrastructure construction
phase,” says Niemelä.
And, of course, one can’t
get away from culture even at
LogiCity – in November, an
environmental art piece was
unveiled at the area. Similar
“touches of beauty” have been
felt all through the Turku Region business scene lately, reveals Jouko Turto.
“In BioValley, there is
plenty of art which cuts all the
way down to level of infrastructure,” he says, mentioning
bridges and lighting as examples
of solutions that are extremely
functional also aesthetically. b

Turku 2011 – This city’s on fire!

T

urku shares the European Capital of Culture 2011 honours with Tallinn. The Turku 2011
Foundation has been commissioned by the City of Turku to oversee the implementation
of the Capital of Culture year. The activities of the Capital of Culture year are complemented by the City’s desire to keep developing the community on all fronts.
The main goals for Turku 2011 are well-being, internationalism, and the commercial
export of creative enterprise and culture. The activities are based on a rather wide definition
of culture with the emphasis on the culinary arts, exercise and well-being, science and multicultural encounters and, of course, the creative arts.
The Turku 2011 Foundation is responsible for managing the Capital of Culture programme and for coordinating