The City will use the survey results to further develop its services for businesses.
The City of Rovaniemi invites entrepreneurs to share their views on how services for businesses are functioning in Rovaniemi and what kinds of services they will need in the future. The survey is available at
rovaniemi.fi/survey until August 30th 2026. It is open to all entrepreneurs operating in Rovaniemi.
A similar survey was conducted in Finnish in spring 2025. Based on the results, the City has developed its operations and services to become more business-friendly. In particular, the survey findings have guided improvements in communication, predictability, and cooperation with businesses.
More Transparency in Public Procurement
The City has made its communication regarding public procurement more transparent and easier to understand.
- Our goal is to provide information about upcoming procurements well in advance. This allows companies to prepare more effectively for tendering processes, says
Satu Räisänen, Head of Procurement at the City of Rovaniemi.
As a next step, the City plans to publish procurement plans through Hilma, Finland’s public procurement notification service, enabling businesses to prepare for upcoming tenders more efficiently.
Räisänen also highlights the legal framework within which municipalities operate:
- Not all suggestions made by entrepreneurs in last year’s survey can be implemented directly. For example, procurement legislation does not allow municipalities to favour local businesses.
Business-Friendly Approach as a Strategic Priority
In the 2025 entrepreneur survey, respondents called for a more business-friendly approach and a stronger long-term commitment to developing services. The City of Rovaniemi’s strategy emphasises strengthening an inspiring and business-friendly operating environment.
- We updated the growth programme together with local entrepreneurs and organised discussions to engage businesses in shaping the future direction of our work. We want to make Rovaniemi an even more business-friendly environment by listening to companies and developing services in collaboration with them, says
Samppa Määttä, Director of Business and Development Services.
From a land use perspective, the City is also striving to improve services for both existing and new businesses. Rovaniemi is committed to developing its planning and permitting processes in close dialogue with entrepreneurs. According to a recent study, Rovaniemi is the fastest municipality among ten compared municipalities in processing land use plans and the second fastest in processing building permits. Processing times have also remained consistently stable in recent years.
- It is important for us to strengthen dialogue and provide more accessible information about our services in the future, summarises
Pertti Onkalo, Director of Technical Services.
Entrepreneurs Encouraged to Continue Providing Feedback
The results of the 2025 survey have also been used in developing the city’s new employment services. Employment Services has introduced a continuous feedback system for interactions with business customers.
- Direct interaction with businesses is very important to us. We hope companies will continue to provide feedback through the entrepreneur survey - for example, on how well they are aware of the public recruitment services offered by Employment Services and how these services should be further developed, says
Hanna Palovaara, Service Manager at Employment Services.