Tampere, Finland, is investing 6-10 Billion Euro in development of smarter city by 2030 – Smart Tampere possibilities on display at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona

 

Finland’s second biggest city region Tampere Region is developing heavily and investing 6-10 Billion Euro by 2030 in order to build an internationally attractive Smart City. In the process the quality of life of the citizen increases with digital solutions while the companies taking part in this development ecosystem gain a possibility to build better products for the international markets.

Through city planning Tampere has been able to ensure public and private investments of 6-10 Billion for the upcoming years. Tampere has several projects in motion that aim for innovation, new business models and enhancing communities. They include better digital solutions for companies, city organizations and daily lives of the citizens. The City of Tampere offers more and more open data for anyone to use including traffic data, location data, tourism information, as well as, city budget and procurement information.

The City of Tampere has launched the Smart Tampere economic policy to make sure the investments are used to build a smarter city and to secure economic growth. The city itself has multiple roles in this new way of city development. Instead, and in addition to, the traditional role of procuress the city can act as a testing ground, can bring the right parties to work together or, for example, enable new solutions through city planning. At the same time the city develops its own ways of working into more community driven, experimental and sustainable direction.

”All this will make Tampere even more attractive to international companies than it is now. Tampere has a strong history in cooperation between different organizations and companies and now we have a dynamic process that enhances active cooperation even more”, says the City of Tampere’s Executive Director of economic policy, competitiveness and innovation, Teppo Rantanen.

Examples of future Tampere city development on display at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona this week are Central Deck Deck and Arena, Light Rail and a new city part, Hiedanranta:

• Central Deck and Arena is urban scale development on top of existing railway tracks in the heart of the city. The 110,000 m2 will hold a multi-purpose arena with capacity of 11,000 people, office blocks topped by residential towers, a hotel and a casino. Constructions start spring 2017.
• Hiedanranta is an old pulp factory area right on the shore of Lake Näsijärvi is being built into what the Finnish media called “Dubai of Finland”. The area will offer housing for 15,000-25,000 residents and jobs for 12,000-14,000 people. Zoning will begin 2017.
• As a new form of public transportation in Tampere the light rail will offer a perfect testing ground for smart mobility solutions, as well as, smart building and smart infrastructure solutions. We are one final decision away from starting the constructions by the end of 2016.

Smart Tampere is the new economic policy of the City of Tampere, Finland, for years 2017-2021. The program brings together business life, universities, organizations, citizens, the city government and other important parties. The first seven themes of Smart Tampere are Smart Health, Smart Education and know-how, Smart Industry, Smart Building, Smart Infrastructure, Smart Mobility and Smart Government and Citizen.

”Our plan is to open the big challenges of the city and develop innovative solutions to them together with companies”, says the Mayor of the City of Tampere, Anna-Kaisa Ikonen.

Smart Tampere program and Tampere city development projects on display at Smart Solutions From Finland stand (GRAN VIA , Hall P2 , Level 0 , Street D , Stand 421) at Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona November 15th to 17th.

www.growsmarttogether.fi

More information:

• Executive Director of economic policy, competitiveness and innovation, City of Tampere, Teppo Rantanen, +358 400 235 442, teppo.rantanen@tampere.fi
• Smart City Architect, City of Tampere, Kari Kankaala, +358 50 351 3020, kari.kankaala@tampere.fi
• Smart City Program Director, City of Tampere, Tero Blomqvist, +358 50 585 1080, tero.blomqvist@tampere.fi