The US is an important market for networks company Nokia, and one of the main drivers behind its merger with French rival Alcatel-Lucent. The Finnish company is now re-assessing its plans for making inroads into the market under a new administration headed by billionaire businessman Donald Trump.
Last weekend Trump announced a partial and temporary ban on immigrants entering the US from countries with large Muslim populations, citing a desire to curb the potential for terrorism. Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri condemned the move, but said that the new government has tabled both positive and negative measures.
"For example there are some positives because the new administration there is pro-infrastructure; there could be more funding from the government there for telecom networks, public safety could happen quicker. There are positions on net neutrality that could be favourable for our communications service provider customers, corporate tax might come down," Suri noted as the company announced its full year financial results.
"On the other end, there are also some headwinds that are potentially possible due to … some impact to trade policy, potentially some import taxes, so it’s so early to tell," he ventured.
Nokia reported that earnings before interest and taxes fell 27 percent from a year ago to 940 million euros. However the results well above analysts' average forecast of 788 million euros. Suri said that the results prove that the fusion with Alcatel-Lucent and its 1.2 billion-euro cost-cutting programme improved competitiveness.
The company said it expects the global networks market to fall by around two percent this year - but says it sees opportunities in North American, Indian and Japanese markets
Business leaders express optimism on Twitter
While Nokia’s Suri was guarded in his assessment of the impact of the new US administration on business, other business heavyweights took to Twitter to express hope that President Trump’s immigrant ban could turn out to be a silver lining for Finland.
Lauri Järvilehto, one of a group of alumni from Finnish game maker Rovio who banded together to launch the learning startup Lightneer, tweeted in English "Trump kicks technology experts out of the US – Finland welcomes them with open arms."
His comment was swiftly countered by F-Secure co-founder and chairman Risto Siilasmaa, who responded in Finnish, "Unfortunately it won’t go quite that way. Getting top experts into Finland has become way too difficult. This must change."
Peter Vesterbacka, a Lightneer co-founder and former Rovio marketing guru, joined the call for a change to immigration rules to entice foreign professionals to bring their expertise to Finland.
The Ministry of Employment and the Economy chimed in, saying that the importance of top expertise had already been discussed at a ministry workshop.
Twitter natives speculated that the bottleneck getting work permits for talented migrants lay with local employment offices, with some charging that officials were either slow or reluctant to grant permits.
Elina Immonen, a specialist with the Interior Ministry weighed in, pointing out that the ministry had been able to develop its electronic services to the point where employers could track the progress of work permit applications and even make payments online.
She added that officials will continue to further develop permit services this year.