Industrial Park to Help Finns Set Up Businesses
These Finnish companies will help others open businesses in Russia and provide support.
Published: June 6, 2012 (Issue # 1711)
Finnish company Industry Park East Management and the government of the Leningrad Oblast’s Vsevolozhsk district signed a lease agreement on 20.5 hectares of land to be used for the company’s Industrial Park Morozova at the Finnish Business Forum last week.
The park, which will be located in the village of Morozova, 35 kilometers from St. Petersburg, is designed to house small and medium-sized Finnish companies that work in metal processing and other types of production.
In addition to their manufacturing capacities and infrastructure development, the companies will provide clients with services ranging from helping people open businesses in Russia to providing support for projects that have already been launched.
Industry Park East Management will invest about 15 billion euros ($18.6 billion) in the park, whose first stage is scheduled to be completed in 2014 and the second in 2015.
Martti Huttunen, president of Industry Park East Management, said the new facility would help bring more Finnish companies to Russia because the park would become “a convenient, profitable and safe basis for entry into the Russian market.”
“In fact, it’s not that easy to open a foreign business or production line in Russia, especially for small and medium-sized businesses,” Huttunen said.
“When foreign companies, in particular small and medium-sized ones, come to Russia, they often just do not know how to deal with local legislation, administration, infrastructure and other things,” Huttunen said in an interview with The St. Petersburg Times. “Therefore they need someone to take them by the hand and help them. That’s a service our company will provide, along with many other ones,” he added.
“Newcomers often don’t know where to buy property, what today’s lease rates are, what those rates will be tomorrow, what resources to use — Finnish or local ones — what the real background of the person they hire is, how to modify their infrastructure and how much it costs, etc,” Huttunen said.
“Another complicated part of the process is the administrative barriers, which can make the process of opening a business long and complicated,” he said. “Businessmen often need to collect a lot of documents, wait up to three months to get them signed, then get together another batch of documents and wait another three months for signatures. In addition, laws sometimes change and tax services do not always work as they should. Since we have experience in all of these spheres, we can help to make the process of opening a business here go more smoothly,” he said.
Park East’s services will cover four major areas. The first offers help with preliminary planning, including researching opportunities and investment needs of a company planning to enter the Russian market. The research will be carried out in the company’s head office in Finland and in the country where the new business is to be launched.
The second area will ensure that the production facilities meet European standards. The technical maintenance and cleaning of equipment and machinery will be performed to European ecological standards.
The third service will help small and medium-sized Finnish businesses launch their projects on the Russian market on time and without problems with aspects such as setting up a business, getting all of the necessary licenses, finding personnel and technical support.
In the fourth stage, Park East will help new companies make business contacts with people such as successful professionals in their field and company representatives interested in the client’s production and services.
Huttunen said the park’s planned location is convenient as it is on the highway to Finland and Moscow.