The Finnish Maritime Cluster includes, from left to right: Juha Mutru, the Managing Director of the Finnish Port Operators Association, Tiina Tuurnala, the Managing Director of the Finnish Shipowners’ Association, Elina Andersson, the Managing Director of Finnish Marine Industries and Annaleena Mäkilä, the Managing Director of the Finnish Port Association.
The Finnish maritime cluster is significant by international standards. There is strong high technology development like digitalisation and environmental expertise in Finland, and these areas represent two global megatrends. Among Finland’s defining characteristics are its small size, agility and mutual trust, which are reflected in strong collaboration between the public sector and companies. Various joint projects are also spawning startups.
Collaboration is bearing fruit in the form of innovations. Finnish vessels act as references and testing platforms for innovations in the marine industry and, once testing is complete, the innovations can be launched on world markets. The competitive shipowning sector underpins the growth of the maritime cluster as a whole.
The industries are intrinsically linked – ports and port operators do well when shipowners and the marine industry are buoyant. In turn, these industries require good ports and fairways, functional logistics chains and good mutual collaboration.
The Finnish Maritime Cluster includes the Finnish Shipowners’ Association, the Finnish Port Association,the Finnish Port Operators Association and Finnish Marine Industries.