Nordicum - Real Estate Annual Finland 2016 | Page 46

It’s All in the Pipeline
New Growth Corridors call the shots in
tomorrow’s competitiveness game
In terms of boosting competitiveness, the creation of new, powerful growth corridors is a rising trend
internationally. While cities and regions may be in fine form, economically speaking, there’s a lot to be
said for synergy benefits when one seeks broader collaboration with neighbours.

R

esearcher Timo Aro notes that building such corridors is one way to link
separate labour markets together more
effectively. He believes that smooth traffic
connections play a key role in all this.
“In lieu of distance, it makes sense to
talk about the actual time it takes to travel
from one place to another. Whether a region
is a successful one or not, this is based, more
and more, on fast road and rail connections,” Aro says, adding that both the inner
44 Nordicum

and outer accessibility of any given area is
directly linked with the area’s growth and
competitiveness.

There Can Be Only One?
Nevertheless, Timo Aro is of the opinion
that Finland is just getting started on this
front: he argues that the only true growth
corridor – which features a common institutional and physical structure – and that is

Helsinki – Hämeenlinna – Tampere. Linking
the country’s capital with the largest inland
city in all of Scandinavia seems like a nobrainer to begin with, and Hämeenlinna is
a burgeoning community in its own right,
too, so the seeds for growth fall on fertile
soil here.
“Elsewhere in Finland, the construction of corridors still requires a lot of work.
In addition, what is missing from Finland at
the moment is a mega-corridor that would go