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OECD's comprehensive territorial review of the Oresund region of Denmark and Sweden. Competitiveness is increasingly cited as the key objective of regional economic policy. In the same way that company executives strive to improve their market share and national governments are introducing competitiveness strategies, policy makers in urban areas are looking for ways to increase or maintain the competitive edge of their cities. This is a daunting task in any situation, but particularly so when, as in this case, the functional economic area concerned stretches across national boundaries. The constituent regions of Öresund, comprising the island of Zealand in Denmark, home of Copenhagen, and Sweden’s Skåne region which hosts the country’s third biggest city, Malmö are both wealthy areas. It is a “learning region” and has a strong presence in some high technology sectors. As such, the key to future growth is not simply the creation of a fixed link between the two parts of the region or improved flexibility in an expanded labour market. The region must look outward and compete with other metropolitan areas to retain and augment the assets that give it, at present, a strong competitive position in the “new economy”.
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