For Tarja Pienimäki, chairman of Liiver's board, the development of the countryside and her own region are matters of the heart. Pienimäki works in his civilian profession as a private consultant at Develop Train Oy, and he has served as Liiver's chairman since 2018. A lot has already been accomplished in his chairmanship, which started three years ago.
- Operations have been booming. Leader activity has been impressive in the region, and thanks to that, we have also been successful in increasing the shareable funding pool, Pienimäki sums up.
Pienimäki emphasizes the promotion of international activities. He himself has worked in Japan for 1.5 years as an export manager, and that time increased both his professionalism and brought perspective to life in general.
- One of the star moments as chairman of Liiver has been that we managed to start international cooperation in the form of entrepreneurial exchanges to Sweden, Pienimäki says.
Entrepreneur exchange has mainly involved sole proprietors, for example from creative fields and the care sector. The experiences so far have been good.
At the moment, it is topical to start planning Liiver's new strategy. The phase of collecting ideas and mapping development needs is underway.
- It would be important for as many people as possible from villages, companies and associations to bring their ideas forward, says Pienimäki.
Pienimäki considers it important that everyone is consulted in the development of the area. The voice of young people in particular must be heard. Nuoriso Leader and Liiver's youth division are good channels if you want to directly influence the affairs of your home region.
- I hope young people will actively participate in the development of their community. Based on young people's views, we also develop future strategy, Pienimäki describes.
Pienimäki hopes that rural companies and those who intend to become entrepreneurs would boldly develop new, commercially usable products and solutions. A big challenge is how the countryside can offer interesting jobs in a variety of ways, even for trained experts. Making remote work possible and the importance of new innovations is also essential.
- The advantage of our region is that there is room to think here.