THE CREATION OF A REGION

Creating a region STRING (South Western Baltic Sea Transregional Area Implementing New Geography) Partners: Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Region Zealand, Capital region of Denmark, Region Skåne Lobby organisation established in 1999 to lobby for The Femern Belt Link Today an organisation that works for green growth and development of the Femern Corridor crossing borders between Sweden, Denmark and Germany

Creating a region The Zealand Agreement: Our vision is that the STRING region will be the driver behind a North European green growth corridor consisting of the STRING region in a functional partnership with our neighboring regions. The corridor will be a green European powerhouse; a strong strategic axis contributing to knowledge, growth, welfare and sustainability in Northern Europe, including the Baltic Sea Region.

A new region?

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Traffic flows across the 3 straits 16. februar 2014jv7

Creating a Region The Agenda Infrastructure: creating an efficient infrastructure in order to ensure both growth and sustainability Universities: Create a Science Corridor where universities and competences work together in Northern Europe. Ex. Material Science Industry: Collaboration to facilitate meetingplaces, co- operation and clusters Labor Market: indentify and eliminate barriers for an integrated labor market Tourism, culture: create knowledge through marketing and information and thereby create contact, physical meetings and mutual understanding

Creating a region The Agenda Communication – the lesson learned from Øresund is that communication and information is mandatory if your objective is integration Both for the individual and the economy the lack of knowledge and the uncertainty are the largest obstacels to integration and new behavior Communication and your own experience are the foundations of the mental bridges Credebility comes from the individual – not through mass communication or marketing. I.e. storytelling and statements are vital elements – in combination with interactive dialogue fora´s and Q&A-sites regarding culture, labormarket, tax, housing, management style etc.

Creating a region Strategic economics growth sectors/clusters: Material Science Life Science Cleantech Transportation and logistics Food Industry Media Industry Tourism

Creating a Region The Theory We have both metropolian areas and rural areas. We want to create growth, development and prosparaty in both

Center Periphery Center Border Center - center interaction Periphery

Center Real border region Center Border Center to center interaction

Strong public belief in the idea 15 Q: Will a fixed link harm or benefit the development in Northern Germany and the Øresund region ? (Source: Femern A/S)

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION Jacob Vestergaard