COVID-19 pandemic in Finland : Converting a forced digitalisation into an opportunity

COVID-19 pandemic challenged the Finnish society in terms of economic, institutional, and social aspects. Quick measures to support economic stability and institutional resilience were undertaken by the Finnish government. Private entrepreneurs could apply for funding to convert their products into digital format or develop digital platforms. The digitalisation of public services has been ongoing for years, but institutional change is slow and has tendency to resist the change. The sudden disruptive situation caused the change to speed up. The geographic location, sparsely populated country, and lack of digital skills especially
among the oldest citizens have, however, brought challenges in the resilience of the society. While the preparedness for converting public and private services into digital format was high, the willingness or ability of citizens to use them have led to awareness of social resilience as part of recovering from the shock. For building and supporting the design of even better digital tools and services, the role of geographic data has become more important. Economic, institutional and social resilience rely heavily on this data, which emphasizes the importance of open and accessible data.