At the “New Nordic” seminar, the audience was presented not only with arguments in favor of a fixed link over the Kvarken and other infrastructure investments – they also received concrete facts about the potential effects of infrastructure improvements, their estimated costs, and which initiatives should be prioritized. These presentations were delivered by economists Theo Herold and Maria Persson.
Theo Herold, doctoral candidate in economics at Hanken School of Economics, has produced a report commissioned by the Swedish People’s Party of Finland and the think-tank Agenda. In the report, he highlights which infrastructure investments would have the greatest impact on Finland’s role in Europe and the Nordic region. The first is building 722 km of new motorway, and the second establishing a fixed link over the Kvarken.
– We need to become better at thinking big in Finland. It’s entirely possible to remain realistic and pragmatic while also being visionary, stated Herold, whose main message was the importance of long-term thinking with investments that address and prevent the country’s challenges.
– Investing in infrastructure is an end in itself, he emphasized.
Major infrastructure investments are currently underway elsewhere in the world: the world’s longest suspension bridge is being built across the Strait of Messina, Rail Baltica will integrate the Baltics into the European railway network, Denmark and Germany will be connected through the Fehmarnbelt tunnel, and there are plans to complement the Øresund Bridge with a metro line.
The changed security policy environment adds another dimension to the discussion, while a fixed Kvarken link would open transport routes to Norway’s Atlantic ports and create a new joint labor market in the region.
– The international situation places new demands on us, but it is also indisputable that infrastructure investments generate welfare, Herold pointed out. He added that such projects are also about meeting future traffic forecasts, as well as addressing the fact that Finland has the highest logistics costs in the Nordic region.
Herold presented a concrete proposal with two major measures: a fixed link over the Kvarken and upgrading the road corridors between Vaasa and Tampere, Vaasa and Oulu, as well as Turku and Tampere into motorways. This would increase the share of motorways in Finland by 76 percent. Today, only 1.2 percent of the country’s road network is motorways.
– It’s an ambitious investment, but not an impossible one. It would make Finland a significantly more integrated part of Europe while improving both competitiveness and crisis preparedness, argued Herold, adding that the economic benefits and time savings would outweigh the costs of the investments.
Theo Herold, doctoral candidate in economics at Hanken School of Economics, has produced a report commissioned by the Swedish People’s Party of Finland and the think-tank Agenda highlighting which infrastructure investments would have the greatest impact on Finland’s role in Europe and the Nordic region. This includes a fixed link over the Kvarken and an expansion of the country’s motorways by more than 700 kilometres.
Maria Persson, Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer at Lund University’s Department of Economics, presented a study showing that trade between Sweden and Denmark increased by as much as 25 percent thanks to the Øresund Bridge – an effect as significant as joining the EU.
The greatest obstacles to realization are the country’s road network’s growing maintenance backlog, financing issues, environmental risks, and the skepticism that exists among politicians. Together with her colleagues, Maria Persson, Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer at Lund University’s Department of Economics, has carried out a study on the effects of the Øresund Bridge’s opening precisely in order to provide better decision-making support for politicians.
– We hope to contribute to the knowledge base, said Persson. Surprisingly little was previously known about the impact of fixed links on bilateral trade, that is, trade between two countries.
The study sought to determine how much additional, aggregated bilateral trade was created between Sweden and Denmark in the years after the opening of the Øresund Bridge in 2000.
– Trade barriers between the countries were already low beforehand. We had plenty of ferry connections, so one might have expected the effect not to be so significant, she began.
That assumption proved to be wrong. Results of the study indicate that trade between the two countries increased by as much as 25 percent up until the financial crisis in 2008 – a figure comparable to the trade effect of joining the EU. The study examined only trade in goods, not services.
– A fixed link means that no change in mode of transport is required, you get continuous service without waiting times, and it also facilitates face-to-face meetings, which can often be decisive in trade, Persson explained.
Herold and Persson’s presentations can be viewed (in Swedish) on YouTube, where the full seminar is available via the link:
https://www.youtube.com/live/NONokA4dmwg?si=lqCOStck3sic6Bwt.
Text and photos: Anna Sand/bySand
The seminar was organized by the Finnish-Swedish Chamber of Commerce in cooperation with the Kvarken Council, which carried out the event within the framework of its project FLINC – Financing Large-scale Cross-border Infrastructure – case Nordic Connector, financed by Interreg Aurora. The event was part of Wasa Future Festival, which every year in early August brings together experts, innovators, and decision-makers to discuss current societal issues and future collaborations.
