About us

Business Kemijärvi provides business services in the Kemijärvi area and is responsible for the tourism marketing of the city. The company is wholly owned by the City of Kemijärvi. The company actively seeks to develop the operating conditions for businesses in the area, to facilitate the establishment of new businesses, to serve new businesses coming to the area and to act as a link between businesses and city officials. The company develops the business environment through its own projects or through joint projects. The company also handles the tendering of the city’s public transport services.

Organisation and staff:

link to contact details
Link to members of the board

About the action

In addition to the fact that the main tasks of the company mentioned in the text of the presentation are in reality divided into numerous sectoral subdivisions, the company’s field of activity is very diverse. A reasonably good picture of the business services offered by this site is provided by the business services as a whole, and the Visit Kemijärvi site for tourism services.

A key but less well-known form of other activity is participation in the business team of the Itä-Lapi Association of Local Authorities. The team is made up of business operators from the municipalities in the region, in the case of Kemijärvi the company. The team prepares joint development projects for the sub-region and works to influence the business environment in various ways. This does not mean just meeting, but planning, preparing and writing together. These activities are often reported and publicised only under the name of the municipality, but in reality they are carried out by the municipal business services and, in the case of Kemijärvi, by the company.

The former also includes working and influencing in numerous different cooperation and expert networks and working groups at local, sub-regional, provincial and national level. In these, the company makes a special effort to meet local needs, from the point of view of the owner city, the sub-region and the business community in the area. Although networking is time-consuming, it is often the only way to promote many local goals and needs.

The region’s various educational and research institutions and other training providers are also a key focus for action and cooperation. The aim is to promote the provision of training to support the region’s industries, to help plan and organise precision and recruitment training, and to improve the provision and availability of services to support business RDI activities in the region.

The company also participates in the projects of research and education institutions in many different ways: either as an active participant in various measures, or, for example, through project steering groups. The owner-city does not finance only a small part of these projects. More extensive project cooperation is based on the company’s involvement through practical work.

A brief history

Business Kemijärvi – officially known as Kemijärven Kehitys Oy – was originally registered as a company back in 1979. At that time the business name was Kemijärven Teollisuuskylä Oy and the purpose of the business was the ownership and development of real estate. The business name Kemijärven Kehitys Oy was registered in 1991.

The city’s tourism marketing tasks were transferred to the company at the beginning of 2014. In 2019, the company took on a broader form of operation when the city’s business and economic services were transferred from the city to the company. Since then, the content of the company’s activities has remained largely unchanged. The exact scope and content of the services purchased by the City from the Company are agreed in an annual service contract. The service contract also determines the amount of funding to be provided to the company for the provision of the services. The value of the contract has remained broadly the same in recent years, regardless of changes in the value of money or cost trends.

The company became a member of SEKES in 2020, and Business Kemijärvi was registered in 2022, and its day-to-day use in marketing and other non-official contexts was introduced in 2023. The name Business Kemijärvi in modern times is more about the activities and their content for the company’s customers and stakeholders than the official name of the company. The company also uses the name Visit Kemijärvi in its operations, under which the tourism marketing of the city is mainly done.

By 2024, the manned tourist information point at the Toritalo will be closed and will become part of the city’s customer service point Sortteer. In the future, the advisory service provided by the company will move more strongly to electronic channels, where today there is more demand and need for the service. New and much sought-after service channels will also be offered. This will also enable a stronger focus on tourism development.