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OULU
AS A CONGRESS CITY |
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HISTORY
AND PRESENT The
city of Oulu was founded by the order of Kaarle IX at the mouth of the Oulu
River in 1605. Oulu has the sixth largest population amongst Finnish towns. In
January 2006 the city had
128 962 inhabitants. Oulu is considered one of the
northern Europe's most significant centres of competence. A significant amount
of high technology ability has been concentrated in the area. City of Oulu,
Northern Ostrobothnia Hospital District, Nokia, University of Oulu and Stora
Enso are the largest employers in the region. The
history of the globalization of the city of Oulu began as early as 1605 with
the founding of the city. After the trading embargo in the Gulf of Bothnia was
removed trade became free and the sailing fleet of Oulu grew in the 1860's to
be the largest in Finland. Previously the most important exports from Oulu
were furs, salmon and later also tar, which was used throughout the world to
protect wooden ships. Today
the basic idea behind the city's international activities is to develop into
the leading centre of competence for the entire north of Europe. Oulu has
Finland's second largest university and many public and private research
institutes. Oulu is a university, science, and technology city. The sphere of
influence of the University covers over half the area of Finland. The
university has created Finland’s leading molecular biology research
institute Biocenter Oulu and Infotec Oulu which investigate information
technology. The electronic laboratory of the State Technical Research centre
investigates and developments hitech products in the Science Park. Technopolis
Plc is Finland’s largest company specializing in the provision of operating
environments for hitech companies. There are over 200 companies with over 5000
employees working in its premises. Technopolis’ subsidiary Medipolis is a
unique centre for medical science, medical science technology and
biotechnology companies, research and information. Hitech
companies in Oulu region, that are internationally known, are e.g. CCC,
Elektrobit, Ericsson, F-Secure, Metso Automation, Nokia, PKC
Group, Polar Electro ja Sonera. Arizona
Chemical, Kemira Chemicals and Stora Enso are examples of
companies in paper and chemical industries. Oulu
is located in the northern part of the Baltic Sea with good communication
links to the largest European centres and Oulu airport is the second busies in
Finland. This means that the city is a natural gateway to the Euroarctic
Barents region. The strong and advanced infrastructure of Oulu offers flexible
links both to Europe and to the northern regions of northwest Russia. The city
has links to all countries in the European Union and many outside it. NATURAL
ENVIRONMENT During
the last ice age the whole Fennoscandia was covered with ice. In the area of
Gulf of Bothnia the thickness of the ice cover was about three kilometres. The
weight of the ice cover compressed land that now is tending to rise to the
earlier level. This causes land uplift that has changed the sea bottom into
dry soil since the end of the ice age. In Oulu as well as in the whole coast
of the Bothnian Gulf the land still rises at the rate of one metre per
century. The
Gulf of Bothnia is a shallow sea with several islands. The Culf is covered by
ice in the winter and brackish water characterizes the nature of the Oulu
region.
Liminganlahti and Kempeleenlahti bays are world famous bird waters whose birds
are visited by researchers from all over the world. Salmon fishing has been a
significant source of income. Oulu salmon has been, in its time, a valued dish
at the Swedish court and fish are still caught in the mouth of the Oulujoki
river, in the centre of the city. The
four seasons are distinctive in the nature and city. The dark and cold winter
days changes into the light, mild summer nights. The difference between winter
and summer temperatures can be as much as 50 Celsius degrees.
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