25 years of ‘The Bridge’
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Hi there and welcome to Business Daily. I'm Maddy Savage in the Danish capital Copenhagen and today's programme is about one of Europe's most iconic bridges, the Öresund Bridge, which connects this city with the city of Malmö in southern Sweden. This year the bridge is celebrating its 25th birthday so I'm digging into its impact on cross-border business and jobs and what other places might learn from its success.

When two countries agree, now we'll build a bridge from one to the other. That's a very strong signal of openness and cooperation. I'll also look into some of the challenges the bridge has faced, including a special half marathon I took part in to mark its anniversary, which turned into a bit of a branding disaster. It was great during the run, but post and pre-run, not so much. The buses were chaotic, no signs, long lines. More stressful than we had hoped.

For sure. That's all coming up on Business Daily from the BBC World Service.

We're starting the programme in central Copenhagen, where the cobbled streets are dotted with design and fashion boutiques. This is also a city known for its cycling culture, lots of people whizzing past on their way to work on bikes. And the noise in the background is because I happen to have turned up on rubbish collection day, so there's trucks everywhere. I'm just arriving at Matrikil Et, which is a popular co-working space for the city's tech sector.

Hello, Maddy. Nice to meet you. Thanks for showing me around. You're welcome. That's Jens Muller. He's the chairman for Tech Barbecue, an annual conference for Nordic start-ups, and a business veteran. He's worked for big global brands, run a confectionery company and chaired Denmark's Employers Association. And his career began before the bridge opened in the year 2000.

Denmark and Sweden spent decades discussing a potential bridge link, and construction finally began in the 1990s.

The goal was to boost cross-border business, trade and tourism. And for Sweden, which had just joined the European Union, it offered a much smoother connection through Denmark to other member nations.

When two countries agree, now we'll build a bridge from one to the other. That's a very strong signal of openness and cooperation. And I guess if some of the same you have, you know, in the Alps, when you have suddenly a tunnel from one country to another, it completely changes the dynamics in terms of how you cooperate.

The Öresund Bridge was an expensive project, costing around US$4 billion. But Sweden and Denmark hatched a plan to pay back the cost using toll fees over the next 30 years. Today, it's not cheap to make the journey, costing almost $80 to drive a car over. But regular travellers do get big discounts, and a journey takes just 10 to 15 minutes.

The bridge is a combined motorway and railway and it's around $17 for a one-way train ticket from central Copenhagen to Malmo and takes about 40 minutes.

The whole construction is 16 kilometers long, including a tunnel section. Here's Jens Møller again. When you come from the Denmark side, you actually go down into a tunnel and then you come up on a small artificial island and then you're on the bridge. It has two towers that are very, very lean. You know, it's a very lean and neat construction. Very minimalist Scandinavian design. Yes, true. So even today, you know, when you pass the bridge, you look at the elegant architecture there.

the seaside and so on. It is magnificent. So it also gives a pride, you know, for both things in Swedes. So how did your day-to-day business life change

once the bridge was established? It's like a door that opens, you know, because suddenly you can just cross at any time. Also, if you're sitting on the other side in a meeting, you're not so worried about duration because you don't have to get to the ferry at a certain point in time. It gives you flexibility, and that means a lot. Alongside making meetings and networking easier, the Ericsson Bridge has helped Swedes and Danes launch businesses on the opposite side to where they're from –

Since it opened, there's been a 73% increase in these sorts of companies. That's according to recently released data by Öresunds Institutet, an independent research organisation in the region. When I ran the confectionery company, we had made an acquisition in Sweden, which was, you know, if you cross the bridge, then it was a few hundred kilometres into Sweden. And we had a lot of people who were interested in it.

And part of the reason for owning such a company was, well, we can easily get there anytime, you know, we can send people over. Even, you know, if you needed larger groups of people, they could take a bus, which would be far cheaper than if you had to fly, for instance.

Freight transportation in the region has also increased by 132% since the bridge opened, according to Ericsson's Institute's data. And cross-border commuting is up by 412% and is now at record levels despite a dip during the pandemic.

Just around the corner from the tech co-working space, this is IOI, a Danish gaming company known for creating the popular Hitman franchise and currently working on a new James Bond game. Don't think we've had the pleasure. Now let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Something I've been doing a lot recently is looking at the reaction videos of our launch trailer. That's Sandra Mundahl, who's originally from Denmark but now lives in Sweden, where she runs the company's Swedish studio in Malmö. She also commutes to the firm's headquarters in Copenhagen several times a month.

It's a shorter commute than many people who live in Copenhagen actually have to work. It takes me about an hour door to door because of the infrastructure with the bridge and the trains. And it's super easy. The train ticket systems work across the border. My phone has roaming and I don't even notice that I'm in a different country. The only thing I do is get a little text.

You're welcome to Denmark, welcome to Sweden. But I think it's so seamless and it makes me very empowered to be able to contribute to the development of both game development scenes in Denmark and in Sweden. Working in Copenhagen part-time also gives her the chance to meet up with her Danish family. And she enjoys socialising in the buzzing capital, which is home to around 700,000 people.

But for other commuters, a key advantage is that they can work in a big city but avoid spending their free time there. I'm Laurine Deschamps. I'm the global brand manager at IO Interactive. I commute four days a week. I live in Marmara. I work in Copenhagen. I used to live in Paris for two years and Capital City really isn't my jam. I very much prefer Marmara. It's a human-sized city. It's fairly small. You can work everywhere.

I'll be crossing the bridge to Malmö shortly to tell you more about the vibe there. First though, another factor that's helped enable cross-border business and commuting in this region is language. The Danish and Swedish languages are similar, so if you know one language you can at least get the gist of the other.

Danes and Swedes are also among the best in the world when it comes to speaking English as a second language. And English is the corporate language at most global businesses, which is a big draw for international talent. Laureen is originally from France. Because we have so many nationalities, of course, the main language, of course, is English, whether it be in the office, at the coffee machine, during the emails or the presentations that we have.

When it comes to the cultural differences that can come with the different nationalities, usually, of course, the way that we always hire people is people that will be a good fit with the studio culture. So in a sense, we don't have the sort of challenges that could come usually with international work environments. Jens Möller, the Danish business veteran I spoke to earlier, was more vocal about the potential for cultural differences to create challenges.

He says Swedes and Danes have very similar approaches to how they run businesses, such as strong workers' rights and flatter management structures than many parts of the world. But there are still nuances to be aware of if you're building a career in the region.

We normally say about the Swedes that they think longer before they decide and act, but then maybe they are more thorough. It's true we are more direct, but maybe we are also quicker at making decisions and we are quicker at changing again. Well, that was a bad decision, I'll change it. Where maybe the Swedes, you know, they think longer.

When I ran the confectionery company, I would know that when I got to the plant in Sweden to make a presentation about how things were going and so on, I would have to have a different tone of voice than I would do at the plant in Denmark. So did it help you spending more time on the ground and being able to visit more regularly than you would have done before the bridge to understand that? Absolutely, yes.

If you just fly in once in a while, you know, then also even if you're the CEO of a company, you can make massive mistakes, you know, where people get the meaning of what you're saying wrong, you know. It can give some complexity that you need to understand each other's culture, but it also maybe creates more dynamism that you see things differently. You're listening to Business Daily from the BBC World Service.

Over the past 25 years, technology has transformed our world in amazing ways. We've gone from dial-up modems to 5G connectivity and bulky PC towers to AI-powered microchips. Every day, innovators are redefining what's possible. Through it all, Invesco QQQ ETF has connected investors to the forefront of innovation. Access the future today with Invesco QQQ. Let's rethink possibility. They're

There are risks when investing in ETFs, including possible loss of money. ETFs risks are similar to those of stocks. Investments in the tech sector are subject to greater risk and more volatility than more diversified investments. Before investing, consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. Visit Invesco.com for a prospectus containing this information. Read it carefully before investing. Invesco Distributors Inc. I'm Maddy Savage in Copenhagen, and today I'm finding out how the Öresund Bridge has helped boost business in Denmark and Sweden since it was completed 25 years ago. And now I'm taking the train over to the Swedish side.

Malmo immediately feels less intense than Copenhagen, although it's got a thriving international food scene and former industrial areas are home to edgy bars, apartment blocks and offices. It is less popular for people to commute here from Denmark than the other way around.

That's partly because salaries tend to be higher in Copenhagen as its capital city. The Swedish currency has also tended to be weaker. And in the last few years, Sweden has experienced higher levels of inflation and unemployment than Denmark. But the bridge has still played a major role in boosting Malmö's economy. My name is Helena Boman. I'm Associate Professor in Economics at the Department of Urban Studies at Malmö University.

Once you open up the connection, companies can share input markets, customer markets. Finding specialized, skilled staff is easier. And then we have the learning component, which is kind of learning spillovers. We learn by doing, we learn by being close to each other and so on. Since the Ericsson Bridge opened, the Malmo region has experienced a surge in new tech firms and innovative medical companies.

A study by Lund University in 2022 found it has a higher number of patents in relation to its population size compared to Sweden's other major regions, Gothenburg and Stockholm. And it concluded that increased access to talent due to the bridge is a core driver. Malmo has also benefited from some Swedish and global companies moving or setting up their Nordic headquarters here because of the strong infrastructure in the region. So the evidence that there is on this...

do suggest that there has been positive economic impacts.

Then we must acknowledge that it's always difficult to do these kind of counterfactual studies because we do not know what would have happened otherwise. So what do you think other regions looking to improve cross-border infrastructure and transport links can learn from the region? I think they should expect to have a lot of positive effects. But I also think for people living on one side of the border and working on the other side, there's a lot of administration involved with taxes, not having to pay double taxes and so on.

And it's not trivial to synchronize two countries like that. But I would say also in general, when it comes to commuting, one big challenge is the reliability of the train system. You know, trains running on time, the system has to be reliable. It has to work. So you have to be able to trust the system.

Trains over the Öresund Bridge do largely have a reputation for reliability. There were major disruptions during the pandemic due to border controls and service cuts due to reduced demand. But a major study for Swedish public broadcaster SVT last year found more than 90% of commuter trains were punctual. The reliability and frequency of public transport is also important for tourism in the region, which has increased on both sides of the bridge since it opened.

A key driver is Danes and Swedes visiting their respective countries. It's also become more popular for international visitors to include both Copenhagen and Malmö in a single holiday, especially if they've flown in from places further afield like the US and Asia.

We have trains here running or departing from Copenhagen every 15 minutes to Malmö, going back again. It only takes 40 minutes to go there, so it's closely connected. That's Brigham Peterson from Copenhagen's tourist office, speaking to Business Daily back in 2024.

Our reporter Daniel Rosny made a programme about tourists who had tickets for the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, choosing to base themselves in Copenhagen instead, partly because it has more choice when it comes to hotels and nightlife.

I would expect many of the people going to Eurovision, they come to Copenhagen because we are the metropolis of Denmark and the whole Öresund region. A spokesperson for the tourist board in southern Sweden told me Malmö's also benefited when Copenhagen's hosted gigs or sporting events. And exchange rates and prices have made it more budget-friendly to stay in Sweden.

A few weeks ago, hotels in both cities benefited from a special Jubilee half marathon over the Öresund Bridge to celebrate its 25-year anniversary. It was one of only a couple of occasions in its history that it was open to people travelling on foot and tickets sold out in hours. I was one of the runners whooping excitedly at the start in Copenhagen.

But the event turned into a bit of a branding disaster. It started late, several kilometre markers were inaccurate, some runners had to queue to get over the finish line due to a bottleneck of people completing the course at similar times, and organisers ran out of medals because fewer runners dropped out than they predicted. Yeah, well, it was great during the run, but post and pre-run, not so much. No signs, long lines, couldn't even finish the race running properly.

Also delays transporting runners, bags and long queues for dedicated buses away from the venue. I waited over an hour with friends from my running club. Some people we knew gave up and walked several kilometres to the nearest train station.

Well, my husband's walking with my six-month-old baby an hour and a half in the heat. Thankfully, she's in the pram and in the shade, but a little bit more stressful than we had hoped, for sure. My name is Annika Knudson, and I am the project manager for the bridge run. How do you feel about how things went? We know that it would be a challenge, but it was a bigger challenge than we expected. And of course, it's...

We are sorry that we couldn't provide the experience for some of the runners as we would have liked. This event was supposed to be a real symbol of collaboration, a flagship example of cross-border tourism. Are you worried it might impact future races or future travel to the region?

Of course, that I don't hope, of course. And there were also a lot of people that experienced a very nice race and we cannot forget that. So we will, after this, of course, sit down and have an evaluation of what went in the correct way and what went wrong. After that, we will have better answers and know more and also know if we will do it in 10 years' time, we know what to take with us.

In the meantime, the European men's handball championships are being jointly hosted by Denmark and Sweden and Norway next year. And the three countries are also bidding to host the women's football Euros in 2029. Organisers will likely be plotting a way in even more detail to help the region regain trust when it comes to this sort of event-led tourism, to show off the planning and efficiency that Scandinavia is typically so good at.

That's it for now from me, Maddy Savage. I'm back at Malmo Station and getting on another train now, but this time it's to the Swedish capital, Stockholm, where I'm based. Thanks for listening. For more from Business Daily, just search for us wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

Over the past 25 years, technology has transformed our world in amazing ways. We've gone from dial-up modems to 5G connectivity and bulky PC towers to AI-powered microchips. Every day, innovators are redefining what's possible. Through it all, Invesco QQQ ETF has connected investors to the forefront of innovation. Access the future today with Invesco QQQ. Let's rethink possibility.

There are risks when investing in ETFs, including possible loss of money. ETFs risks are similar to those of stocks. Investments in the tech sector are subject to greater risk and more volatility than more diversified investments. Before investing, consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. Visit Invesco.com for a prospectus containing this information. Read it carefully before investing. Invesco Distributors, Inc.