Partnership raises Nordic innovation and prosperity
There was plenty to discuss when business men and women, politicians, professors and civil servants from the EU and the Nordic countries met on 7 May in Copenhagen at a conference on innovation and prosperity in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR). A study conducted earlier in the year has shown that the Nordic region has lost its lead as the world’s most innovative region. Countries such as the USA and Canada are ranked highest and several of the Nordic countries have dropped down the list.
Top of the conference agenda was a discussion on tools which the Nordic region and the coming Swedish EU Presidency can use to make the Nordic region once again the world’s leading region in innovation, growth and entrepreneurship.
”The Nordic and Baltic Sea regions have a splendid starting point to become one of the world’s innovative hot spots. The human capital is extremely high and there seems to be an incredibly strong will for cross border collaboration”, said the well-known Japanese innovation strategist Dr. Kenichi Ohmae.
The importance of transnational collaboration was also underlined by the General Secretary of the Nordic Council of Ministers, Halldór Ásgrimsson. ”Co-operation in the region is a necessity if we want to have sustainable economic growth. The BSR InnoNet project stands as clear proof of the value of partnership.”
Ten countries in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) and the EU Commission are behind the InnoNet project which started in 2006. In three years the project has created a great number of successful methods of innovation and growth in the entire region, and a joint programme is expected to be launched during the upcoming Swedish EU Presidency.
The Nordic region must win back first place on the innovation rankings through political and business partnerships and the BSR InnoNet project is the flagship to make this happen. The Nordic region must be the dynamic region that other countries and regions can learn from. We must further develop co-operation in the region using each others’ strengths to improve each others’ weaknesses, emphasized Halldór Ásgrimsson.
