Growth zone-based regional development is highlighted as a key goal of regional development in an extensive report commissioned by the Prime Minister’s Office. A key purpose of the growth zone is to function as a tool, particularly in marketing regions, attracting investments and increasing cooperation between operators across administrative borders.

The foundation of a growth zone or corridor that is situated between urban centres is a functional transport system. There is a great deal of connections and mobility between the cities in the growth zone that are related to commuting, studying, business operations and the use of services. The areas between large cities benefit from their location by sharing in the growth of the population centres.

The essential thing in growth zone-based regional development is to look for a shared strategic vision across administrative borders in order to avoid partial optimisation in the development solutions. The abundant interaction between the centres within the zone strengthens the region’s growth potential.
The Prime Minister’s Office recently published a report titled ‘Functional areas and growth zones in Finland’, which examines the significance of growth zones and their needs for development. The report is based on statistics, geographic information, opinions of regional developers and companies as well as international benchmarks. The changes in the zones were approached by studying trends in population, migration, employment, jobs, construction and the development prospects of companies.

The results provide tools for assessing zones and steering development efforts so that the interaction occurring in the zones can be taken into account in the regional reform and other changes.

Reports (in Finnish)