Integrating regional policy with technology policy – the experience of Finland

Abstract

In order to be responsive to the ideas of new governance, governments have seen the demands of policy integration as increasingly important. In Finland, both regional policy and technology policy have received hegemonic positions. Regional policy had a key role in the welfare state programme that supported equal rights and opportunities, and only slowly promoted structural change in industry. Technology policy has been taken as an evidence of Finland’s rapid transformation into a competitive high-tech and market-driven country that has adopted the knowledge-based economy as the key model for further development. The Centre of Expertise Programme, a central government effort to promote technological development and competitiveness at the regional level, illustrates
a shift towards technology-driven regional policy. As the programme has become internationally renowned, this paper takes a closer look at its concept, and scrutinises the kind of a model it provides for regional policy efforts. The analysis shows that the programme has a partly conflicting position at the
intersection of regional and technology policies. The evolution of the programme also reflects changes in the interpretation of the regional dimension of the knowledge-based economy.