Largest technology prize in the world to be awarded in Finland
The largest technology prize in the world is to be awarded next year in Finland. The Millennium Technology Prize, amounting to one million Euros, is awarded for an innovation promoting the quality of life or economic development.
"The aim is to make citizens as well as policy makers to see the vital role technology has in the modern knowledge society," says Jaakko Ihamuotila, the chairman of The Finnish Technology Award Foundation.
Technology has become a part of our every day lives. It is meant to serve people and thus it does not contradict humane social values. At the same time the prize is an acknowledgement of Finnish knowhow in high technology. Ihamuotila cites former Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen's words at the prize founding ceremony: "The Millennium Prize is needed, because Finland today is ranked No. 1 in technology and we benefit so much from world markets in high technology so that we owe this to the world."
The international prize is to be awarded for the first time on 15 June 2004. "That is the time when Finland is at its most beautiful," notes Ihamuotila.