At the the VI. BSI Stakeholder Meeting new ways of solving the current problem of talent scarcity in the Baltic Sea Region were discussed. Among the participants were General Secretary of the Nordic Council of Ministers, Halldór Asgrimsson, Excecutive Vice President of NIB, Nils E. Emilsson, Vice President of Novo Nordisk, Børge Diderichsen and many others.  

The central question at the one-day seminar was:

How do we, jointly, in the Baltic Sea Region secure the allocation of talents, how do we attract, educate and hold on to them?

Background

In the knowledge based economy, talent has become the world’s most sought after commodity, and the hunt for the best and the brightest is intensifying. Due to partly demographic reasons, there is at present an emerging lack of Talents in most parts of Europe, including the Baltic Sea Region. Companies have difficulties to allocate employees that match the demanded qualifications and it is therefore increasingly important to recruit from outside of the Region. At the same time, the continuous development of talents within the Baltic Sea Region is of utmost importance in order to secure future supply of work force. 

Baltic Sea Region

The Baltic Sea Region – on Top of Europe – owes much of its strong competitive position to its successful high-tech and knowledge intensive industries. In order to hold on to this strong position in the long-run, these industries will have to retain the best and the brightest, and acquire new talents.

Baltic Sea Initiative

The central topic of the VI. BSI Stakeholder Meeting on 19 April 2007 was therefore dedicated to the following main theme: “Talents in the Baltic Sea Region”. 

The above mentioned challenge paved the discussions of the BSI meeting, where different sub-themes connected to the problem of talent scarcity were discussed.

• Brain circulation & Mobility between clusters, industries and countries in the Baltic Sea Region are core parts of the solution for creating a more balanced demand-supply relation of qualified workforce.

• Entrepreneurship and the Education of talents are essential ingredients in developing a sharp, intelligent Baltic Sea Region and an Innovative Europe. Improving the education of talents including entrepreneurs in the Baltic Sea Region would allow the optimization and utilization of the already existing competence potential in the Region without having to rely too much on extra-regional human resources.

• Efforts in the area of Attraction and Maintenance of Talents from outside of the Baltic Sea Region need also to be increased, as the scarcity of talents in several industries at present is likely to have negative effects on the overall competitiveness and economic development of the Baltic Sea Region in the long run.          

See also Nordic Council of Ministers' refernce of the BSI meeting here:

http://www.norden.org/webb/news/news.asp?id=6868&lang=1