2009-04-29
Recently we gathered all our consuls at the embassy to look at what has happened and what will happen. We meet occasionally to discuss the new information. I believe that the fifteen Norwegian consulates we have in Sweden today is becoming more and more important. The reason for this is the regional approach we do between our countries.
21.04.2009: In the cooperation between Norway and Sweden we are now four regional investments areas.
One is the Gothenburg-Oslo cooperation. The second is what we call a growth corridor. Here, we talk about everything that is coming up in research, industrial and infrastructure cooperation along the route in Oslo, Karlstad, Örebro and Stockholm.
The third, we like to call the Technology Belt. Here, technology environment cooperates in Trondheim, Östersund and Sundsvall. The fourth priority effort is the cooperation of
northern areas. A lot is happening, and it is especially exciting with all research, which in many ways is the spearhead of cooperation.
But it is not only at a regional level cooperation must be further developed. It is also important to development intraregional. Today, we already have several very exciting intra collaborations coming up, including in bio prospecting and telemedicine.
Marin bio prospecting is the hunt for valuable, biologically active components from organisms in the sea. The idea is that these should be used for new medicine. It is collaboration between researchers in Tromsö, Umeå, Trondheim and Gothenburg. Here neither the region’s borders nor national boundaries are an obstacle. And so far the project looks very promising. In telemedicine, Tromsö telemedical institute, NTNU in Trondheim and the Karolinska Institute are cooperating.
The intraregional cooperation is important to capture broad knowledge and to provide critical mass to the projects. This we will discuss in more detail in Karlstad in November. Then the embassy, the Norwegian-Swedish Chamber of Commerce, Ministry of Karlstad and Värmland Chamber of Commerce will organize a seminar on this theme.
There are resource persons and knowledge in all regions. This is something that should be taken advantage of. During the seminar, we hope to be able to identify four or five different projects that can be developed across regional borders, on equal terms with the bioprospect project.
At the same time, I believe that it is also important to include a new region, the Öresund region. The Danish-Swedish region can give a new dimension of our cooperation for several reasons. Öresund is a infrastructure hub. If it turns out as we hope, Lund will be the host for the European neutron source, ESS. In this case, the field will be one of the most important centers for basic research in Europe. In this region we also find another leading edge in research, Ideon Science Park in Lund.
Ideon is one of the leading research environments in areas such as IT, mobile telephony and clean tech. We should take advantage of this opportunity in Scandinavia.
In addition, the Öresund region resolved many of the challenges associated with the border between Denmark and Sweden. The border service has come a long way in the border between Norway and Sweden. I think we can learn a lot from the Öresund region.
Let us invite the Öresund region to our regional investment areas. It is also in line with the Nordic cooperation thought.
The regional and intraregional cooperation is the future of our cooperation in the Nordic countries