A new and innovative investment initiative dedicated to boosting equity investments made into Baltic enterprises has now been launched by the European Investment Fund (EIF) and Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The Baltic Innovation Fund will invest EUR 100 million into private equity and venture capital funds focussed on the Baltic States over the next four years through a ‘fund of funds’…
More than 600 participants took part in 19 different events in Hamburg and Lübeck on 26-28 Sept to discuss the future development of the Fehmarnbelt Region with regard to the future tunnel between Denmark and Germany. BDF being a co-organiser of Fehmarnbelt Days was represented by BDF Chairman Hans Skov Christensen and Head of Public Affairs Torben Aaberg. Mr. Skov…
Why is the Nobel Prize-winning economist mocking the countries that have escaped the eurocrisis? BY ANDERS ÅSLUND | SEPTEMBER 13, 2012 Amid the carnage of the European financial crisis, the Baltic countries, by and large, are doing quite well. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are booming. Last year, their growth rates reached 7.6 percent, 5.5 percent, and 5.9 percent, respectively. The…
“No doubt, the revised action plan is a step forward to ensure a more effective and transparent structure, but it should be more acknowledging the horizontal efforts in the Region. I am afraid we might lose coherence in the future if cross-border initiatives on for instance business and communication are not upgraded. The objective to create a clearly defined European…
How to finance energy efficiency in Russia? The market for energy efficiency in Russia is huge and the demand is high but often the financing of the projects is an obstacle. We need to develop the best practice and know the lessons learned. Within the RENSOL project we have an ambition to identify best practice financing engineering models that will…
The Russian Presidency of CBSS (Council for the Baltic Sea States) will be used as a one of many means to join forces with international partner organisations to create new projects in the Baltic Sea Region. In an interview in the Amber Bridge Magazine Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov elaborates on a future more active Russian role in the area. One of the main CBSS…
BDF is pleased to present the general outcome and the different features from the thematic sessions, speeches, debates and activities that took place during the the European Commissions Annual Forum on the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region and the BDF Summit 17-19 June in Copenhagen in Conference Report 2012. The conference turned out to be a very timely reminder to…
“There is no doubt that a region as Pskov wants seriously to reach out, and there are indeed possibilities for entrepreneurs of the region to do business here. Still the context is not clear – the different Russian players do not seem to have reached a common stance”, was the impression said by BDF Director, Hans Brask, who – together with BDF Chairman…
Baltic Development Forum and the Baltic Sea Region Investment Promotion Agencies (“BSR IPAs”) are proud to introduce the BSR Investor’s Guide 2012-2013. This publication is an outcome of a co-operation between the Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs) of countries and major cities in the Baltic Sea Region with an objective to introduce and highlight business and investment opportunities in the countries and…
This week the Russian Federal Assembly hosted the 21st conference of the Baltic Sea region Parliamentarians at the regional assembly of St. Petersburg in the beautiful Mariinsky Palace. The topic of the meeting was energy, ecology, and social welfare: cooperation for a sustainable development of the Baltic Sea region. Baltic Development Forum’s Director Hans Brask was invited as a speaker…