Democracy festival in Almedalen: Nordic and Baltic region as a greenhouse for innovations

2018/07/04

The future of the Nordic and Baltic region, as a forerunner for innovation and digitalization was discussed on Monday, July 2, at Nordic Tent at Almedalen Week, the most important forum in Swedish politics.

This year the three Baltic countries are celebrating 100 years anniversary of their independent states. The cooperation, both financial and political, between the Baltic and the Nordic countries has been essential for the development and modernization of the Baltics, especially during the last 25 years. The Nordic and Baltic region has achieved amazing results in developing innovative companies and effective public sector, well prepared for digital era. How can this advantage be sustained and developed in the next 100 years, how will the countries overcome the challenges of further digitalization, automatization and fierce competition with other regions?

These issues were discussed by a distinguished panel of experts and politicians from the Nordic countries and Lithuania: Daina Klepone, Managing Director of Enterprise Lithuania; Svein Berg, CEO of the Nordic Innovation; Micaela Rosenlew, Head of Nordic operations, SLUSH; Pyry Niemi, Member of Nordic Council; and Mantas Zalatorius, President of the Lithuanian Bank Association. The event was moderated by Mary Gestrin from the Nordic Council of Ministers Secretariat.

The speakers underlined the existing advantages of the region when it comes to the ITC infrastructure, simple and transparent environment for starting business, and a high level of digital services. Niemi pointed out the historical and cultural similarities shared by the countries. Both in the Nordic and Baltic countries there is already a well established community of start-ups but the next challenge outlined by the speakers is how to develop start-ups into so called scale-ups (the large scale companies generating substantial value for society in terms of employment and GDP growth).

As Rosenlew mentioned, there is a need to create mechanisms supporting scale-ups, similar to what has already been created for start-ups, were a close mentorship and risk assessment are of upmost importance. As Berg informed, one good example is the Nordic Scalers program, initiated by the Nordic Innovation, designed to help high-growth companies.

Another topic which received much attention from the panel was how the region should address great challenges, which will without any doubt change our societies in close future, such as increasing digitalization, changes of labour market due to automatization, or artificial intelligence. Among the most important tools to address the change the speakers mentioned education and development of social skills. Klepone expressed the generally optimistic mood shared by the panel, that “digitalization will at the end contribute the humanity”.

The cooperation between the Nordic and Baltic countries remains another important prerequisite for success because as Zalatorius underlined “We are and will remain neighbors, and only if we learn to respect our differences and learn from them, the Nordic and Baltic region will remain the greenhouse for innovation in the coming 100 years”.

The first official Almedalen Week took place in 1982. In recent years, the event has grown larger, with hordes of journalists, lobbyists, local and national politicians, employees from local, regional and national organisations and representatives of non-governmental organizations all coming to Visby to meet, discuss politics and socialize. This year, The Nordic Council of Ministers Office in Lithuania marked 100 years anniversary of the restoration of the State by participating in Swedish Almedalen and Danish Folkemødet festivals with discussions about the future of Nordic and Baltic cooperation.