CEO Jari Jokinen from the Academic Engineers and Architects in Finland TEK applauds the government for not cutting from research, development and innovation (RDI) funding, despite substantial adjustment needs.
“The building blocks for growth were not targeted in this spending limits session (kehysriihi), which is a wise decision. RDI investments improve productivity, which, again, is a condition for growth, and growth is exactly what we need in this situation,” says Jokinen.
However, the government's tax decisions receive a lower score from Jokinen.
“Work should always pay off, and unfortunately, the spending limits session made a decision that makes this situation worse. The decision outlined by the government to increase the progression of earned income taxation is not a step in the right direction, because progression in Finland is high enough as it is.”
The government’s growth package also has some positives. The government decided to make an investment of a total of 300 million euros in the state capital investment company, aiming, together with private funding, to build a package of 900 million euros for growth companies. This will hopefully brighten the investment outlook of growth companies in an otherwise challenging situation.
In its session on spending limits, the government also decided that students would no longer be eligible for general housing allowance, but only the housing supplement to student financial aid.
“I see it as a risk that students may have to work more while studying in order to afford housing, which puts them at risk of burnout. According to the TEK Graduate Survey (in Finnish), last year 46% of technology students in higher education said that they are constantly or often concerned about their ability to cope. Growth requires talent. The situation does not look good if the graduates starting their careers are already burned out. That is not humanly sustainable either,” says Jokinen.