Rapporteur to draw up roadmap on opportunities and impacts of data economy – work kicks off at meeting with Prime Minister and actors in the field

A data economy roundtable convened by Prime Minister Petteri Orpo brought together actors and experts in the field to discuss topical issues related to the data economy and data centre investments on Tuesday 24 June.

Prime Minister Orpo has appointed rapporteur Veli-Matti Mattila to draw up a national roadmap for data centres. The goal is to increase understanding of developments in the data economy, the potential impacts of the data economy on Finland and the opportunities it presents for Finland. 

Finland is an attractive location for data centres, but the rapid increase in the number of centres also poses challenges from a national standpoint. 

“Data centres are a rapidly growing global business in which Finland seems to be doing well. In this respect, too, we should proceed wisely and ensure that the development is economically sensible and benefits all of Finland as widely as possible. The roadmap project will help us find the right path,” said Prime Minister Orpo.

“The discussion was very useful and allowed many different parties to raise their views on both the opportunities and the risk factors in the sector. We will examine the views of different parties more closely as the work proceeds,” said rapporteur Mattila. 

Among other things, the rapporteur’s roadmap for the data economy assesses the qualitative or quantitative added value that data centres can produce and discusses their significance with regard to trade policy, security policy and geopolitics.  

The roadmap also assesses the positive or negative economic impacts of data centres on other business activities and society, as well as information security and data protection threats related to the operation or location of the centres.

The rapporteur’s term of office will run until 31 October 2025.  

In addition to the Prime Minister and the rapporteur, Minister of Finance Riikka Purra, Minister of Economic Affairs Sakari Puisto and around fifty experts and actors involved with data centres took part in the roundtable event. Speakers at the event included Managing Director of Microsoft Finland Mervi Airaksinen and Vice Managing Director of CSC - IT Center for Science Tiina Kupila-Rantala.   

​​Inquiries: Veera Svahn, Special Adviser to the Prime Minister, tel. +358 295 160 745 and Pekka Sinko, Secretary General of the Economic Council, tel.  +358 295 160 189, Prime Minister’s Office.

Email addresses are in the format [email protected].