Foreign Direct Investment between US and Finland holds massive capacity for growth

The prognosis is only mildly assuring: despite global recession and high growth from emerging markets, the transatlantic market place continues to remain the world's largest commercial artery. According to The Center for Transatlantic Relations Johns Hopkins University's annual survey of Jobs, Trade and Investment between the US and Europe published last week, US investment flow to Europe considerably outweighs US investment elsewhere. However, investment flow between the US and Finland, while respectably modest, is severely imbalanced. In 2008, Finnish investment in the US totaled USD12.5billion, versus just USD2.3billion of US investment in Finland.

By contrast, US investments in similar sized Denmark in 2008 were four times the size of its investments in Finland.

The affiliate employment balance tilts more evenly. In 2008, Finnish companies employed over 26,000 Americans while the US employed 23,600 Finns.

On a historic cost basis, the US investment position in Europe was nearly four times larger than corporate America's investment position in all of Asia at the end of 2008. But its centre of gravity has clearly changed, with Hungary, Czech Republic and Poland become rising stars for America's investments, outperforming traditional favorites Ireland, Spain and Germany.

The upside for Finland? There is tremendous room for growth. Are we content to play catch up? How can we make that fundamental leap forward? AmCham Finland welcomes your views. Call us if you would like a copy of the Transatlantic Economy Report 2010.