Formal Agreement on Fehmarn Belt Bridge
4 September 2008BDF welcomes the formal agreement between the Danish Minister of Infrastructure Carina Christensen and her German counterpart Wolfgang Tiefensee on building the Fehmarn Belt bridge by 2018.
- Undoubtedly, large scaled infrastructural investments like the Fehmarn Belt bridge helps the smaller economies of the Nordic Countries gaining better access to the larger European markets, thereby overcoming some of the impediments of economic size, says Baltic Development Director Hans Brask, commenting the formal decision by Denmark and Germany to build the Fehmarn Belt bridge.
Hans Brask also believes that the Fehmarn Belt Bridge significantly will contribute to a more integrated Baltic Sea Region by improving the transport corridors:
- The Fehmarn Belt bridge is an important investment in terms of future economic growth, says Hans Brask.
Also the CEO of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Southern Sweden Stephan Müchler - a close partner in the BDF network - welcomes the agreement and believes that the political pressure will increase to complement the Fehmarn Belt bridge with a land connection between the cities of Helsingborg and Helsingör.
- The Fehmarn Belt bridge will bring us closer to the European continent. But the capacity with regard to rail ways on the current Oresund Bridge will have to increase in the future.
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The dynamic development in the Øresund Region is the best example of cross border integration that follows from infrastructure improvements. If the Fehmarn Belt area achieves a bit of the same dynamism, then we will have a new center of gravity in the southern parts of the Baltic Sea Region reaching from northern Netherlands via Hamburg to Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki. It is important for the growth potential of whole Baltic Sea Region that strong growth centers are established. Neighborhood matters to national growth and competitiveness.
At the BDF 2008, Summit BDF intends to organize a high-level discussion on the growth perspectives of the Fehmarn Belt bridge and its wider influence on the Baltic Sea Region.
Read further comments relating to the decision on the Fehmarn Belt bridge here:
Jerker Swanstein, Region Skåne
Hamburg Handelskammer
