Government issues resolution on promoting entrepreneurship

The Government issued a resolution on entrepreneurship on 21 April 2022. By investing in a strong entrepreneurship policy Finland can diversify its business structure and create opportunities for sustainable growth for companies of all sizes. The resolution will be in effect in 2022–2027.

The government resolution on entrepreneurship is based on the Entrepreneurship Strategy included in the Government Programme. The vision and purpose of the resolution is to enhance companies’ trust to employ people, develop business and invest in Finland, and to grow and become more international. The vision also aims to increase trust in Finland as a good place to become an entrepreneur. In addition, the aim of the vision is to make Finland even more attractive so that foreign employees and students are willing to seek employment or run a business in Finland. 

The Government has an important role in supporting the development of the operating environment for entrepreneurship so that the business and economic structure can renew and become more diversified. The resolution aims to: 

1. Increase companies’ opportunities for growth by accelerating sustainable growth, employment and renewal, with special attention paid to responding to the dual challenge related to the digital green transition.
2. To ensure the long-term competitiveness of the operating environment for SMEs.
3. Seek solutions to improve labour market matching and to ensure the availability of skilled labour for companies. Strengthen the knowledge management of SMEs and skills of employers and recruiters to ensure the availability of skilled labour. 
4. Enable flexible transitions between employment and entrepreneurship, make regulation simpler and more predictable, and provide better social protection for entrepreneurs. Improve the wellbeing of entrepreneurs.
5. Promote conditions for successful ownership changes.
6. Increase intersectoral cooperation and dialogue with interest groups beyond government terms.

In a turbulent operating environment, it is important to identify longer-term strategic policies and practical measures to support the diversification of economic structure and to encourage SMEs to renew and grow sustainably.  Long-term policies are particularly important in the recovery from crises, as low investment levels and challenges in the availability of labour may slow down economic growth more than in the reference countries. It is therefore important to facilitate longer-term structural renewal and transition to new types of work and business as well as internationalisation. The operating environment for entrepreneurship must support and encourage all kinds of SMEs to renew themselves, promote new entrepreneurship and attract foreign investments and companies to Finland.

The resolution proposes the establishment of an advisory board for entrepreneurship, which would be a key cooperation structure for implementation and monitoring.  In addition, a regular situation picture on entrepreneurship will be produced during the implementation to monitor the development of entrepreneurship based on certain monitoring indicators.

Inquiries: 
Jaana Lappi, Ministerial Adviser, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, tel. +358 29 506 2658