World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 secures State financing, organization gearing up to full speed
Finland’s Minister of Employment and Economy Mauri Pekkarinen declared at Helsinki City Hall on Friday, September 24, 2010, that the Finnish government will finance the World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 project (WDC Helsinki 2012) with five million euros. He made the announcement in connection of a joint meeting in Helsinki by the main international organizations behind the World Design Capital project.
The five million euros is additional to six million committed to the project’s financing by the five participating cities of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen and Lahti.
According to Pekkarinen, the Finnish Government sees the WDC Helsinki 2012 project as an important opportunity both to enhance the nation’s competitiveness and to improve public services through user-driven innovation policy. “Design is an instrument to reach both objectives,” Pekkarinen pointed out.
Icsid President Mark Breitenberg said in the same occasion, pointing out that the 21st century is defined by challenges of cities, “World Design Capital is an opportunity to address the problems, and creativity and economic development are the key drivers of the new century. Design is a tool for cities to reinvent themselves.”
Icsid, International Council of the Societies of Industrial Design, is the organization that grants the World Design Capital designation.
Also on Friday, WDC Helsinki 2012 announced new job openings, designed to bring the management organization of the project, International Design Foundation, to full speed in the near future.
International Design Foundation will be housed at Aleksanterinkatu 16 on the south side of Senate Square in the Helsinki city centre. Named WDC House, the facilities will accommodate both the offices of the Foundation and an information and service area for the general public. There are plans for further WDC Helsinki 2012 facilities Lahti.
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