The North Karelian way of life is a combination of life amongst an abundant, pristine nature, life near the border region between east and west, and life amongst the open and safe society of Finland. North Karelia provides attractive facilities for living, studying, working and entrepreneurship.

Combining resources, know-how and modern technology

The key, underlying causes behind the success of North Karelia is that the region`s enterprises create today`s jobs, the development of technology and innovations create tomorrow``s jobs and training and education are creating jobs for the day after tomorrow.

During the past few years, North Karelia has experienced a period of very positive economic development. Parallel to this, an extremely fast structural change from an agricultural society towards a modern information based society has taken place. The strength of North Karelia`s industrial sector derives from three diverse directions: forestry, plastics and metals, and stone industries.

The success of many international top companies and several innovative small and medium-sized enterprises has been based on our local multi-sectoral training and research system. The Joensuu Science Park and our centre of expertise programmes support this positive development. These enterprises have benefited from the availability of the latest technology, a skilled labour force and the region`s abundant natural resources.

North Karelia lives off the forest. This sector is the most important provider of export income in the region. A rich combination of forest resources, forest industries and forestry know-how in the region has led to the unofficial recognition that North Karelia is the "Region of Forests in Europe". The fact that The European Forest Institute, the Research Centre of the Finnish Forest Research Institute and the high-tech workshop of wood product technology, Puugia, are located in Joensuu, the region`s capital, attests to this unofficial recognition.

The plastics and metal industry is the most important growth sector in North Karelia. This sector`s increased demand for employees and premises has been stronger in North Karelia than in other parts of Finland. Training and education and a local centre of expertise programme have strongly supported the growth of this sector`s enterprises.

North Karelia has a traditional stone sector, which along with new forms of production and research have been developed into successful business activities. North Karelian produced ovens and fireplaces, and the region`s soap stone in general, are world famous.  

North Karelia is also renown for its training and educational institutes. Students of the University of Joensuu, the North Karelian Polytechnic and other educational institutions which offer degree programmes account for more than 10 % of the region`s population. Co-operation between these educational institutes and local enterprises has created many new innovative products.

Basic information

Statistics of North Karelia 2005
Weather in Joensuu today
Virtual Finland - Information Pages