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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Risto Valkeapää
editorial
seatec 1/2013
ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS
A COUNTRY...
If you have total belief on the quality and knowledge base of the political decision-makers who are making decisions that influence industries, I have to issue a warning here. If that is, indeed, the case, I recommend that you stop reading any further.
But if you are somewhat skeptical of politicians and you do not
believe that cruise shipping is a sunset business, please read this editorial. You may find interesting information.
Once upon a time there was a country with a specialty industrial area to build the best large cruise ships in the world. In this country
EDITORIAL COORDINATOR
Mirkka Lindroos
there was know-how to build excellent ships and also the shipyards and
a cluster of companies, which could realise big projects right on time.
The government of the country was not interested in shipbuilding
OFFICE SECRETARY
Liisa Hyvönen
and the leading political decision-makers were more interested in the
economic problems of the European Union than the needs of the marine industry in their own country.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Riitta Yli-Öyrä
The needs of the Southern European banks were several billion
euros. The other EU states asked and got money from this country. The
country’s own modest shipbuilding industry asked their government for
CONTRIBUTORS
Sami J. Anteroinen
Merja Kihl
Ari Mononen
a 50 million euro loan to help finance a large cruise ship project. They
never got the money. The government said that the rules of the European Union did not permit such support. The vessel order was lost to
another EU country.
COVER PHOTO
Royal Caribbean International
The specialists of the government noted that there was not very
much money in the shipyard’s pockets and the company was very poor.
They did not understand the nature of the business: every project was
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PunaMusta Oy
economically independent, money came and money went to the workers and subcontractors of the yard and of course the owner company took its share. About 20 000 people per year got work and money from the project.
The customer is a good one. A big American company which had
ordered already several cruise vessels from the country. The company
is rich and their payment behaviour towards the yard had always been
solid. This information was not enough for the government. The sector
minister said that to give a loan to a marine ship project was the same
as to give money to the country’s other sunset business, the forest industry. Talking about these cases together is like comparing day and
night, as everybody in the cruise business knows.
Finland is known as a dependable builder of large cruise vessels.
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We have an excellent marine cluster and long history as a high-level
shipbuilder in the cruise ship industry.
Governments come and go, but the Finnish marine industry stays
and continues its excellent work.
We will come back one day as a builder of large cruise vessels. In
spite of this government, there is a strong will to go on building these
ships. We are also proud of our know-how.
RISTO VALKEAPÄÄ
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF