Home » News » Europe

7th annual Baltic Development Forum Summit

Baltic Development Forum just finished its 7th annual Summit in Stockholm 16-18 October. More than 500 prominent CEO's, prime ministers, mayors, and academic experts met in Stockholm in order to discuss how innovation and competitiveness can help secure future growth and prosperity in the Baltic Sea Region. The summit was co-organised with VINNOVA and hosted by the City of Stockholm and the Swedish government with Nordea as official Summit Partner.

The main theme at the summit was Competitiveness and Innovation and a significant part had been dedicated to the new Lisbon Strategy. European Commission President Barroso spoke on how the new Lisbon Strategy has been implemented through national and regional ownership in the Baltic Sea Region.

As a regional equivalent to the Global Competitiveness Report the 2005 State of the Region Report was officially presented at the summit as a benchmarking tool for the region's development. The report reveals, that The Baltic Sea region, especially the Nordic countries, is ahead of the EU-25 in terms of overall achievement in the new Lisbon Strategy objectives. You can find the report for downloading on the website. The Baltic Sea countries are particularly performing well in terms of employment, social cohesion, and innovation and research.

Baltic Development Forum is a leading network for decision makers and experts from business, politics, research institutions, and the press, working to promote competitiveness, growth, and innovation in the Baltic Sea Region.

The Baltic Sea region comprises eleven nations, more than 100 million inhabitants, consumers equivalent to more than one third of the US market and growth rates higher than most major economies in Europe. The region boasts stable democracies, institutional structures favourable to business, proximity of markets, good infrastructure, high levels of education, strong industrial traditions and a shared history of co-operation and trade. The enlargement of the EU represents a unique opportunity to reintegrate the region and establish the Baltic Sea area as a leading growth and trading centre.

For an overview of the Summit and the speakers represented, please visit www.bdforum.org.

You can learn more about the Baltic Sea Initiative on our annual conference in Hong Kong, where the outcomes, opportunities and challenges will be discussed in one of the sessions. Dr. Christian Ketels and Dr. Sylvia Schwaag Serger will report on the state of the region, followed by reflections on the experiences under the moderation of our President Alec Hansen with representants of the Region (Deputy Director General Heikki Kotilainen, Director General Per Eriksson, Senior Adviser Thomas Winther, Secretary General Jaanus Pikani (ScanBalt) and Director Ole Frijs-Madsen (BD Forum).)