At the OECD Transforming Place conference in Malmo last week,we heard from a panel comprised of the Mayor of Malmo, Katrin Stjernfeldt Jammeh, Copenhagen Airport Director, Soren Clausen, the Oresund Bridge CEO, Linus Eriksson, Swedish Board of Trade DG, Anders Anild and the VC Regional board of Halland, Helene Andersson chaired by Karen Maguire for OECD.
The panel discussed how the 16km bridge which will celebrate 25 years next year since it opened in 2000 connecting Malmo in southern Sweden with Copenhagen in Denmark has transformed the cross-border region economically.
There are so many parallels with vision of all island of Ireland regional co-operation and in particular the Belfast Dublin Economic Corridor ambitions. In Malmo, accommodation is 20% cheaper than Copenhagen so they have lots of commuters, 20,000 who travel to work in Denmark each day; Malmo has higher unemployment while Denmark has skills shortages and almost full employment; Malmo is a Port city with industrial heritage while Copenhagen is a tech powerhouse: immigrants from outside EU have the right to work in Sweden but not in Denmark so they must cross the bridge. Aside from these tangible impacts, the Danish tradition of ‘Hygge’ a philosophy of wellbeing and karma has been embraced by the Swedes who bring consensus politics and organisation to the Danes.
In terms of the quantifiable economic impact, Ricardo Ferreira from the EU Commission stated on his panel that the benefits of removing obstacles to cross border trade and cooperation translate to a 2% GDP uptick. Mr Ferreira mentioned a ‘B Solutions’ team within the Commission that offer free consultation and expert advice on specific border challenges. On the same panel, Eliane Demollins-Schneider an EU Regional Minister from Linburg near Maastricht explained that in her region they have 5 nationalities (Wallon, Flemish, Dutch, French and German) with 3 spoken languages and yet they do not regard each other as foreigners but as one community with common values who have more in common with each other that their political capitals in the Hague and Brussels where policies are often at odds with cross border community goals.
There are many lessons for island of Ireland cooperation, and whilst we do not need to build a billion dollar bridge, we do need to build many other types of bridge to span the divide between communities North and South. OECD has a mandate to support these ambitions and brings best practices and insight from other regions around the world who have transformed themselves in a sustainable and economically meaningful way, with no loss or compromise on their identity. I feel a study tour coming on!
Mark O’Connell is a director of Eutopia a place consultancy and Chairman of OCO Global trade and investment experts.