Public sector innovation and productivity
The Ministry of Finance is working to structure the overall picture of public sector innovation activities and increase its effectiveness. A public sector innovation is a new or improved service,
product or process that differs significantly from the previous one or a combination of them that aims to achieve effectiveness for the common good.
Innovations often address the challenges and opportunities at hand, but innovation activities can also be used to anticipate the future and create new opportunities both in the public sector and in society at large.
The Finnish Central Government innovates
The Innovation Barometer carried out in 2022 showed that central government is able to create concrete innovations that make operations more efficient and help to adapt to changes in the operating environment. The premises for innovation activities emphasise customers needs, productivity and new technology.
Successful innovations bring cost savings and enable the use of working hours to explore new opportunities and create new ones instead of routine work. When the public sector and society as a whole struggle with different resource pressures and at the same time try to promote ecological, economic and social sustainability, innovation activities are outright necessary.
You can find the innovation barometer here (link to external website)
Join the innovation network and get to know OECD's work on innovation
Ministry of Finance Public Governance coordinates an informal innovation network. The network is open to every actor that is currently involved in innovation activities.
Join the innovation network by contacting valtionhallinto.vm(at)gov.fi.
The Ministry of Finance actively disseminates information on public sector innovations to international partners and influences the objectives and activities of the OECD's OPSI working group.
OPSI website (link to external website)
Finland has adopted the OECD Declaration on Public Sector Innovation and is committed to its five principles:
Read the Declaration on public sector Innovation in Finnish (PDF-file)
OPSI's resources (all links below are directed to the OECD website)
Improving productivity
The Ministry of Finance is responsible for the general development of public administration. Promoting productivity and efficiency is part of this responsibility. In the Government Action Plan, objective 2 of the section ‘Finland as a sustainable economy’ states that, given normal global economic circumstances, general government finances will be in balance in 2023.
The objective of improving productivity is to develop processes and procedures in public administration in a way that speeds up processes, reduces working hours, improves the quality of activities and enhances customer impact. Improvement also means seeking synergies and reducing duplication between different administrative branches and people, and ensuring that management and guidance structures support effective action. For example, productivity can be improved through centralised support services for state administration.
In order to improve the productivity of public administration procedures, the Ministry of Finance, together with other ministries, has carried out productivity analyses to identify areas which could benefit from improved productivity and digitalisation. Productivity analyses are part of the curbing of public sector costs included in the General Government Fiscal Plan for 2019 –2022. Identifying areas for digitalisation and productivity improvement aims to produce benefits for both organisations and society at large.
Contact information
Matti Kuivalainen
Senior Specialist
Tel. +358 2955 30344
firstname.lastname(at)gov.fi
Pauliina Pussinen
Senior Specialist
Tel. +358 295 530 292
firstname.lastname(at)gov.fi
Ira Alanko
Ministerial Adviser
Tel. +358 2955 30353
firstname.lastname(at)gov.fi