What The New Top Three Parties In Finland Think Of Entrepreneurship
The three largest parties to gain power in last night's Finnish parliamentary elections have dramatically different political agendas. Fortunately for entrepreneurs, employment and entrepreneurship is one of the areas with the fewest differences overall. However, there are differences and depending on how the new government will be formed - these might have significant effects on entrepreneurs and their incentives as well. Below are some of the key areas of change these three parties are trying to achieve (from an entrepreneurial point of view).
Making Growth Entrepreneurship Political
Finland will be having its parliamentary this April. Naturally, entrepreneurship and welfare are on the agenda, but one aspect of entrepreneurship that has been missing is the lobbying of growth entrepreneurship. On 21st of March, Aalto ES will be putting together an event together with a whole bunch of organisations to promote growth entrepreneurship for the candidates running for parliament. The event is controversially called Finland Post Welfare.
Russian Gov't Approves E-Payment Bill
Russia has come a long way in the recent years in terms of establishing itself as an internet superpower. However, it has done it at such a speed that many parts of its legislation have not been up to date, regarding online payments for example. Yesterday, the Russian government approved a bill to clarify and regulate e-payments. The bill has been much awaited, according to Moscow Times, and online payments are expected to increase by 400 million euro this year.
Holy Schmoly! Finnish PM Gets Startups' Anxiety
Helsingin Sanomat ran a story on Mari Kiviniemi, the Finnish Prime Minister, who has expressed her thoughts on European state of affairs regarding digital media. She states that, "it's no co-incidence that the digital superstars, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, are all from the US, where they share a large, functioning domestic market". What she's saying here is that the European non-functioning markets should be better built for both consumers and online companies generating value.
Killing Finnish Entrepreneurship With Tax
The debate on the tax code for entrepreneurs in Finland is becoming more surreal by the day. The origins of the debate lie in the tax code working group set up by the Finnish Parliament. This group, headed by Martti Hetemäki, is to devise a new tax code for areas such as capital gains, options and carried interest for VC funds. The biggest verbal and rhetorical battle is waged around the double taxing of dividends in non-listed companies.
Just as with any tax code, the more transparent and simple the tax code to understand, the better it incentivizes people to invest in a risky and uncertain future. The tax code should make it easier to see how the future plays out for businesses, not make it more difficult. All the scenarios the working group is considering are rather complex and won't help the state of entrepreneurship in the country.
The Future Is In Entrepreneurship
To kick off this week I want to take things to the macro level regarding entrepreneurship, politics and media. It is a topic we seldom talk about as we promote entrepreneurship here at ArcticStartup from the bottom of our hearts each and every day. I want to stress the importance of growth companies in our economies, as it is something that isn't given too much column space in the more traditional media. This is also one of the reasons ArcticStartup was founded - to give more coverage to growth companies and help them achieve more.
The topic in itself is very simple so we don't need to back it up with passion, all we need to do is look at the statistics. I've gathered some statistics from the Swedish statistics bureau (SCB) and the Confederation of Finnish Industries (CFI). While these only represent the systems in Finland and Sweden, I'm sure this can be extrapolated to other regions in Northern Europe with some adjustments. In this economic era, I'm focussing on the employment contribution these companies make to our economies since it is usually thought to be the most effective form of social welfare available.
