Territorial Review Copenhagen - Region Hovedstaden

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Potential of a more integrated Øresund economy
The creation of the cross-border Øresund area has been described both
as a gigantic social experiment (Maskell and Törnqvist, 1999) and as an
interesting bench test for regional integration within the European Union
(OECD, 2003). There is little precedent for a merger of two regions, and the
embeddedness of the two regions in their national institutional arrangements
makes it difficult to predict whether integration into one functional region is
feasible, and how quickly it can be accomplished. A clear increase in crossborder
commuting in the Øresund Region has run parallel to university cooperation
in the Øresund University, which has received both attention
(OECD, 2003, and OECD/IMHE, 2006) and acclaim (as expressed in a
recent RegioStar EU award to the Øresund Science Region). Within the
Øresund Region, a considerable overlap of economic and public functions
offers the potential for economies of scale and specialisation. A more
functionally integrated Øresund Region could also provide the critical size
that is needed for certain urban amenities and knowledge spillovers that
could attract international business.
1.3 The performance of Copenhagen
Copenhagen scores reasonably well on many economic indicators…
Copenhagen has average regional GDP per capita and moderate annual
growth rates. The average GDP per capita in Copenhagen in 2005 was US$
32 200, considerably lower than several US metropolitan areas, but
reasonably high compared to other European metropolitan areas, even
though several of them had higher GDP levels, such as Stockholm, Dublin,
Paris and Vienna. The real annual growth rate over 1995-2005 has been
moderate in Copenhagen (2.0%), considerably lower than those of several
cities with similar or higher levels of GDP per capita (Figure 1.11), such as
Dublin (8.2%), Stockholm (4.5%), Houston (5.6%) and Washington DC
(4.5%). Within Denmark, Copenhagen has experienced the highest growth
rate: over 1997-2006, Copenhagen‘s average annual growth rate was around
twice as high as the slowest-growing region in Denmark. Regional
disparities between the Capital Region and other areas has gradually
increased since 2004, although the differences in growth rates between the
Capital Region and regions such as Central and North Jutland were limited
from 1997-2006 (Figure 1.12).