Background information

Team Finland brings together under its umbrella a number of services supporting the internationalisation of businesses. This includes everything from basic guidance on internationalisation to export promotion and financing, promoting and protecting investment abroad, networking and promotion services abroad, and international foresight information.

The purpose of the network is to provide businesses with a smooth service chain, ranging from advice services to financing. The government, and more particularly the competitiveness and employment objectives set in the government programme, guides the activities of Team Finland.

Ministry of Education and Culture, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment and Ministry of Foreign Affairs are represented in the Executive Group together with the senior management of organisations in the Team Finland network, key business and industry organisations.

Content of measure

The instrument comprises services to support exports and international growth of companies. Although all companies may use the services provided by Team Finland, the target group is SMEs.

Public employment services (TE-services) support internationalisation of companies by supporting them with recruitment of competent labour force and providing help with competence development. Main network partners include Business Finland, Finnvera, Tesi help providing financing and finding business contacts, and information to support the internationalisation of businesses.

The Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (ELY Centres) guide companies with internationalisation. Together with the public employment service (TE-service) ELY Centers facilitate recruitment of competent workforce. ELY centers have appointed Team Finland-coordinators whose task is, in coordination public employment services (TE-services) and other partners in the Team Finland network, to match local companies needs with the right type of services provided by Team Finland. At the local level, public employment services support companies international growth by assisting them with recruitment of competent workforce and competence development of already existing workforce.

Use of measure

According to a survey conducted by Confederation of Finnish Industries EK, 59% of Finnish export industry SMEs reported a need for the type of services that Team Finland provides. Approximately 6,000 companies reported having used Team Finland's services.

One of the main internationalisation services are the minister-led export promotion trips abroad. In 2015, there were 11 trips with a total of 309 participants from companies and other partners. The tours reportedly resulted in significant cooperation projects as well as in smaller partnerships between individual companies and foreign authorities. In 2016, Finpro reported having organised 41 export promotion trips, on which 568 companies participated.

In a survey among Finnish SMEs in 2017, 58% of the companies aiming for the international market reported that it is important to find all services through one contact. The network seems to be fairly well known among international SMEs in a growth phase, since half of them reported having used Team Finland’s services.

An evaluation from 2022 on the added value of the services concluded that the efficiency of the services has improved. The improvement has been aided by development of the services' operating model and customer management. The companies surveyed for the evaluation state, that Team Finland's internationalisation services are well-used. Between 26 and 41% of companies had used the four most popular services. 14% of companies had not used any internationalisation services during the last 3-5 years. The efficiency of the Team Finland network is however not high enough and the network's division of labour is in need of improvements, the evaluation concludes (Prime Minister's Office, 2022).

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Does not apply to workers	SMEs Other businesses	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government Public employment service	National funds Regional funds Other

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Unknown	Unknown
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Unknown
• Main level of involvement: Unknown

Involvement

Unknown

Views and reactions

According to representatives for the Confederation of Finnish Industries EK, gathering all services supporting internationalisation under one umbrella facilitates the internationalisation process as available services are easier to identify this way. Once a company is under the network umbrella, it has access to a wide range of services and can receive versatile support for its businesses.

Sources

• 01 February 2016: Prime Minister's Office's Publications (2016) Team Finland in 2015 (vnk.fi)
• 28 March 2017: Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment (2017) - Tekes ja Finpro yhdistetään, ulkoministeriön rooli vienninedistämisessä vahvistuu [Press release on the merge of Tekes and Finpro] (tem.fi)
• 03 January 2018: Confederation of Finnish Industries EK (2018) - EK:n yrityskysely: Lähes 60 % vientiyrityksistä tarvitsee ja 26 % käyttää Team Finlandin palveluita [Press release on the EK company survey] (ek.fi)
• 30 October 2019: Team Finland -verkosto: Strategia 2019 (www.team-finland.fi)
• 06 June 2022: Prime Minister's Office (2022) 'Evaluation of the Team Finland network' (julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi)
• 13 October 2022: Team Finland-netowrk has been launched globally (Team Finland- verkoston toiminta käynnistyi maailmanlaajuisesti) (madrid.fi)
• 14 June 2024: Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2024) 'Changes to management structure and foreign functions of Team Finland network' (um.fi)