Info-Finlandia.ru – the whole country at one address
Press release 105/2009
7 April, 2009
The cooperation partner responsible for designing the appearance and usability of the portal is Steerco Oy. The visual appearance of the portal was designed by graphic artist Tino Rossi, in line with the new country brand instructions for visual appearance. The user interface was planned by consultant Virpi Blom.
The net portal has been created in response to the need to improve Finland’s visibility and familiarity, and knowledge of how Finland operates, in countries where Russian is spoken. The portal will also be used to market Finland’s image in a concentrated way, to make it easier to find Finnish actors in Russia and to maximise Internet visibility in Russian-language search engines.
Aside from users in Russia, Info-Finlandia.ru will also reach Russian speakers in Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic states and CIS countries. In all, a total of about 300 million people live in these areas. The site is marketed on the most popular Russian search engines, and it is linked to the Internet pages most important for information searches. In addition, the portal is actively marketed in local universities, friendship societies, foreign missions, chambers of commerce and cultural institutes.
The Internet service is made up of six parts that shed light on Finnish practices from different angles. The parts provide information about Finland as a state, a society, a culture and a travel destination. The service offers practical information and data sources for entrepreneurs, job-seekers, students, visa applicants, researchers and tourists.
The site includes concise, factual information articles and journalistic articles on topical issues that go into depth about interesting events, people and phenomena.
Info-Finlandia.ru strives to give a dynamic, attractive and positive image of Finland. It addresses current events of interest to Russians quickly and provides accurate, checked data. The portal also seeks to give a clear general picture of Finland in texts of suitable length that focus on the essential, with a link at the end to further reading for those interested in deeper knowledge. The site is clear and easy to use.
Additional information: Editor-in-chief Hanni Hyvärinen, Institute for Russian and Eastern European Studies, mobile tel. + 358 45 1337 337 or tel. +358 9 2285 4445, [email protected], Director General Petri Tuomi-Nikula, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Department for Communication and Culture, tel. +358 9 1605 5800 or mobile tel. +358 40 568 3896, [email protected]
Editorial Board of the portal:
Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation Tekes
Eeva Landowski
Communications Manager (International Communications)
[email protected]
Finnish Tourist Board MEK
Marjo Ranta-Irwin
Web Editor
[email protected]
City of Helsinki
Pirkko Perheentupa
Director, Helsinki Centre in St Petersburg
[email protected]
Finnfacts
Henriikka Ahtiainen
Communications Officer
[email protected]
Invest in Finland
Minna Hakaoja
Marketing Communications Manager
[email protected]
Finnish Forest Association
Hannes Mäntyranta
Communications Coordinator
[email protected]
- Webcast of the press conference(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window)
- www.info-finlande.fr(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window) - Information about Finland in French
- virtual.finland.fi(Link to another website.) (Opens New Window) - Information about Finland in English