Partner & Member Meeting 2006

 
Dear Partners and Members, dear Friends,
 
It is encouraging to see so many of our Members and Partners here today. Working together towards common goals, we can make a difference. This is what Baltic Development Forum is all about.

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At last year’s summit in Stockholm, President Barroso referred to the Baltic Sea Region as a ‘beacon for Europe to learn from’. What President Barroso referred to was our impressive Lisbon Strategy results. The openness of our economies, our ways to cooperate, share best practices and learn from each other, and thereby excelling the region into one of the most dynamic and attractive places in the world to do business in.


The other day I read a report by the renowned UK based Economist Intelligence Unit, which concluded that among the top twenty top business climates in the world, 6 are to be found in the Baltic Sea Region (Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Norway and Estonia). That’s not a bad achievement for a couple of relatively small countries in the periphery of Northern Europe.

All this is of course very good news, and some might think, ‘what are we then worrying about?’ Well, as we’ve clearly can see from our own analysis in the State of the Region Report, all is not great news and we are actually loosing ground to peer regions in Europe and beyond. We need to prepare for this now, and not sit idle until the situation becomes unbearable. In Stockholm, I used the words, ‘let’s not consider the Lisbon goals the ceiling, but the floor’.

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As I think any successful business leader can testify to, in order to stay ahead of the competition, you need to have a good understanding of your surrounding environment, plan ahead to position yourself strategically, and act on opportunities whenever the emerge.

So how does the surrounding environment look like today?

Globalization: By improved communication and transportation means, and a world market built on free trade, competition is increasing. At the same time, new gigantic players such as China and India are developing, requesting ‘their piece’ of the world market. The demand for oil, gas and electricity and raw materials will increase significantly in the future, thereby making the availability of such resources scarce.

From a Chinese or Indian perspective, countries such as Denmark, Lithuania, or Sweden are not necessarily individually known, but are bundled together into larger units. This is also the case in the financial sector, where investors have already divided Europe into regions. As a result, a number of the Baltic Sea countries have joined forces and set up mutual investment promotion office in India.

EU enlargement: Within the EU context, regionalization used to be a bad word. Today, however, with the expansion to 25 countries and soon maybe more, it’s a reality and seen as something positive that is beneficial for the EU as a whole.

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In the global economy, small countries with similar needs and goals need to join forces and gain strength and critical mass to attract investments, brainpower, business etc.

In this regard, we are fortunate in the Baltic Sea region. With the complementary strengths between our mature and transitioning economies, and our open mentality we have lot to offer. Hans Dalborg, Chairman of Nordea, summarized this very well from a business perspective at last year’s summit in Stockholm.

"We are similar enough to co-operate, different enough to have a lot to learn from each other, and numerous enough to form a strong home market."

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But how will this market look like in the future? What about the growing competition? What about the scarcity of resources? How will all this affect us?

And most crucial, how can we in the Baltic Sea Region do to position ourselves for the future?

We at Baltic Development Forum of course have our ideas and opinion on this, and we have several channels to draw from when we develop our strategies. Ole pointed to our main priorities earlier on.

In this regard, our Summit is a primary source, and we intend to devote this year’s Summit to "the Baltic Sea Region in the Global Economy". Though most of us believe it will be a necessity for us to use our resources better, is it realistic to believe that we can compete as one?

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But the Summit is not our only source, and we are now keen to hear your views. I am therefore looking forward to the coming discussion on visions, priorities, positioning etc, and from your perspective, how Baltic Development Forum can assist in shaping the future agenda to the benefit for all of us.

Thank you.