18.01.2021
Decisions of the provincial government
At the beginning of the meeting, Jouko Luukkonen, Project Director of the POPsote project, presented the state of preparation of the North Ostrobothnia Welfare Region, focusing on financial issues. The financing of the wellbeing services counties is based on generalised imputed state funding, as well as payment and sales revenue. In the first stage, welfare areas do not have the right to tax. The needs assessment, which is the financing basis, has changed many times during the preparation, weakening the financial position of the North Ostrobothnia wellbeing services county. The changes made endanger the well-being area's ability to respond to the rapid growth in demand for services related to the ageing of the population. According to Luukkonen, the calculations will be updated several times before 2023, and the actual situation is impossible to estimate. This complicates the strategic planning of the wellbeing services area.
The ICT services of the Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia will be outsourced
The provincial government approved the ICT service agreement to be concluded with Kuntien Tiera Oy and the agreement on the ICT transfer project, and authorised the provincial director to sign the agreements. Outsourcing aims to secure IT infrastructure, cloud management and security issues in a rapidly changing operating environment. The transfer is not part of the outsourcing agreement between the Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia and Tiera.
New support programme for the construction of broadband networks
Under the new support programme, EUR 5 million has been earmarked for the construction of broadband networks. Support will be directed to areas that will not receive commercially fast broadband before 2025. The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom will start granting aid on 1 January 2021. The aid covers not only permanent dwellings, companies and public administration establishments, but also leisure dwellings. The Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia has activated municipalities in the construction of broadband during the previous programme. However, the need for broadband construction has not ended and continuous development is still needed. The provincial government held a referral discussion and instructed officials to prepare for further work.
Preparation of a tourism strategy underway
The provincial government held a referral discussion on the tourism strategy for Northern Ostrobothnia, the preparation of which began in autumn 2020. The strategy is guided by the Tourism Development Committee. Strategic development focuses on competitiveness, responsibility and accessibility.
Preparation of financial plans under way
The financial programming of the Structural Funds programme for sustainable growth and jobs 2014-2020 for the period 2021-2022 will be prepared for REACT-EU funding. REACT-EU funding will support regions to repair the damage caused by the COVID-19 crisis and lay the foundations for a green, digital and resilient recovery of the economy. In autumn 2020, the Northern Ostrobothnia Corona Action Plan 2020-2021 was drawn up in Northern Ostrobothnia. The up-to-dateness of the document is checked with the regional stakeholders and REACT-EU funding tables are added to the document, which divide the granting powers into financial instruments available to the Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia and the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment of Northern Ostrobothnia.
In brief
- The preparation of the Interreg programmes and the consideration of the Council initiative were postponed to the next meeting.
