NIB President: Nordic and Baltic countries need to coin common standards

On 30 August, NIB President Johnny Åkerholm delivered a speech at the seminar “Nordic and Baltic Countries: The Next Twenty Years” arranged by Finland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to discuss the highlights of the political and economic cooperation between the Nordic and Baltic countries.

In his speech, Mr Åkerholm pointed out the challenges the Nordic-Baltic region will face in the future.

“The gravity of growth and development will shift further out of Europe. We will be even smaller and more marginalised in the world economy. Growth will have to be based on technological advances. The basis of the Nordic welfare model will change with the ageing of the population. For the Baltic countries, the challenge is to be able to attract activities, which have a higher added value,” said NIB President.

In speaking about the opportunities, the region can identify for its development, Mr Åkerholm suggested “the mobile phone experience be repeated by the creation of common standards in, for example, the area of clean tech, as this is the area, where NIB can contribute.”