Vantaa wants to put up technology Chinatown next to Helsinki-Vantaa Airport

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The city of Vantaa in Southern Finland wants to tap into China’s economic growth. Plans have been drawn up to create a centre for Chinese businesses in the Aviapolis area close to Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport, as a gateway to the European market.
      "There is plenty of loose money in China, for which investment targets are currently being sought in Europe", explains business development manager Ritva Alatalo from the City of Vantaa. Vantaa simply wants its own slice of this potentially lucrative pie.
      The city plans to create a centre large enough to give jobs to several hundred Chinese workers. Financing for the project is being sought from China: the construction work alone calls for investments in excess of a hundred million euros.
     
Chinese hi-tech companies looking for a foothold in Europe are of a particular interest to Vantaa. "The centre is not going to be a junk market or centree for kitsch, that’s for sure", comments City of Vantaa deputy mayor Jukka Peltomäki.
      The idea is to offer the Chinese businesses a beachhead to the European market: an office in secure surroundings accompanied by advantageous transportation links.
      Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport is rapidly forming into a node for air traffic between Europe and Asia. This is the trump card Vantaa is banking on as it tries to market itself as a place of business for the Chinese.
      votsikko>The plans include more than just an army of Chinese white-collar workers in a colossal office in Vantaa. Development manager Alatalo envisions an entire small Chinatown surrounding the China Centre: offices upstairs, but restaurants, shops, and perhaps even Chinese medicine services at the street level.
      To entice Chinese workers, Vantaa is even introducing comprehensive school teaching in Chinese at the international school in Kartanonkoski, on the southern fringe of the Aviapolis area.
      Years of groundwork, such as getting familiar with the Chinese administration, universities, and businesses, have gone into the project. Just yesterday, Monday, a group of Chinese visitors arrived in Vantaa to acquaint themselves with the city’s potential. The delegation included top officials from the Chinese Ministry of Education as well as directors of business parks of various universities.
      The whole idea of a China Centre is still very much in its planning stages. The project will get the go-ahead if funding can be established during next year.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  China Center in Kouvola opens today (20.9.2007)

Links:
  Aviapolis

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