There was some good news this week for Finland’s tech sector, with a new deal that will lead to production of indigenous ethanol in India.
The deal comes shortly after the announcement that Finland’s once highly-respected phone company, Nokia (News - Alert), will sell its phone unit and patent portfolio to U.S.-based Microsoft in a $7.32 billion acquisition. It will close in early 2014, with some 5,000 former Nokia employees heading over to Microsoft (News - Alert).
The Finnish-Indian deal will have ONGC, the state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, and Chempolis, a clean tech company from Finland, setting up a project to produce ethanol, bio-chemicals and bio-coal from biomass residual matters, according to news reports.
"We have signed an MoU with a Finnish company called Chempolis. It is for conversion of cellulose into ethanol. We have developed a technology by which all cellulose-based waste products can be converted into ethanol," ONGC chairman Sudhir Vasudeva said in a statement to the media quoted by The Business Standard.
For India, the deal will mean less oil imports and a cleaner environment.
Recent reports also indicate India may look to partner with Ripasso, an alternative energy company, to convert solar energy into thermal energy.
But not everyone in India is happy about the new deal.
“Once again, we are buying technology from overseas. This technology that is being sold to India will be overpriced, and already obsolete by the time it is put to use here,” Atul Bhargav said on the comments section of The Hindu. “Instead of funding and supporting Indian research agencies, which are well-qualified to develop these technologies, the government chooses to simply import the technology, which kills local enterprise and local R&D. This is very dangerous in the long term.”
Still, the agreement illustrates Finland’s forward-thinking approach in the tech sector. It is considered a global leader in sustainable development.
In addition, Jan Vapaavuori, Finland's minister of economic affairs, said, when Microsoft acquired Nokia, the economy had already been shifting to a changing marketplace.
"Nokia was close to 4 percent of Finland's GDP between 2000 and 2007," Vapaavuori told The Guardian. "It was one-third of all Finland's research and development spending. But that ended in 2007. Since then its economic impact hasn't been that big."
Finland also saw the drop in Nokia coming. This year, Finland is now the third largest nation in Europe in terms equity financings, according to VentureSource.
"If this had happened five years ago, it would've been a completely different story," Samuli Hänninen, vice president of software program management for Nokia's smart devices business, told Wired UK. "Nokia was the first Finnish multinational global company. Nokia made us feel proud to be Finnish, but it also gave us the confidence for other ambitious Finnish companies to be born."
Nokia was reducing its workforce, and the Finnish government was promoting small businesses. Tekes, Supercell, Rovio, Sauna and Slush are examples of new companies in Finland.
It seems the atmosphere in Finland’s tech sector is one of hope and confidence in the future.
Edited by Alisen Downey