Until 1993, the border between Germany and Denmark was a physical and practical border between two peoples and two markets.  Today, it is gone and every day tens of thousands of people cross between the two countries without giving any more thought to nationality, politics or economics.  For the inhabitants of the Danish-German region, it feels quite natural to go where one pleases and trade freely on both sides in spite of differences in currency and nationality. 

Yet, businesses and organisations in the Danish-German region have been very slow in seeing the potential of cross-border cooperation and subsequently carry out such cooperation.  Thus, there are still too few who cooperate across the border and that inhibits growth in a region which truly does have a number of obvious growth opportunities in e.g. foods, tourism and logistics.

’The Growth Centre – Success for the Danish-German region’ (Vækstcentret – Succes for den dansk-tyske region) project has been brought into this world to change this fact and to break down the mental barriers between businesses and organisations.  We do this by providing cooperation between players in Southern Denmark and the northern part of Schleswig-Holstein - and by pointing at areas in which the Danish-German region has great potential for a joint future.

 The Growth Centre Project, which will run until 31 December 2013, is supported by INTERREG 4A Syddanmark-Schleswig-K.E.R.N. by funds from the European Regional Development Fund.  With more than 2.2 million inhabitants, the location of the project area (the northern part of Schleswig-Holstein and the Region of Southern Denmark) is characterised by the so-called Jutland route.  To the south, the region borders on the metropolitan region of Hamburg.  To the north, we find the Danish triangle region (consisting of the cities of Vejle, Fredericia and Kolding), followed by Aarhus, the second largest city in Denmark.  Administratively speaking, the region consists of the three German counties of Schleswig-Flensburg, Northern Friesland, Rendsburg-Eckernförde and the cities of Flensburg, Kiel and Neumünster on the German side and the Region of Southern Denmark with the Southern Jutland and Funen provinces on the Danish side.

Lead partner

The Region of Southern Denmark, Communication Department
The main responsibility of the Region of Southern Denmark is public health service.  Furthermore, the Region is generally responsible for regional development and solves tasks which the districts in the region cannot solve appropriately on their own.
Click here for more informations

Project partners

Entwicklungsagentur Nord GmbH

Since 31 October 2006, Entwicklungsagentur Nord (EA Nord) GmbH has formed the strategic and operating organisation basis for business and regional development as a whole in the Schleswig province.  The goal is to gather regional resources, to mobilise endogenous growth and employment potential and necessary funds for building a future-oriented infrastructure in the region.
Click here for more informations

Kiel Region GmbH 

Since 1 January 2009, the Business Development Corporation of the Kiel, Rendsburg-Eckernförde and Plön Region mbH (Wirtschaftsförderungsgesellschaft für die Region Kiel, Rendsburg-Eckernförde und Plön mbH) (Kiel Region GmbH) has been the contact address for all businesses, institutions and federations in the Kiel, Rendsburg-Eckernförde and Plön region.  The goal is to increase the economic potential of the region.  For this purpose, the Business Development Corporation works for the interests of the businesses and provides the necessary contacts.  At the same time, the Business Development Corporation contributes to an intensive marketing of the region and helps to attract new investors in and outside Schleswig-Holstein.
Click here for more informations

In cooperation with The Growth Centre, Rambøll Management Consulting in Hamburg and Georg Ottenstöer Immobilienwirtschaft I Regionalökonomie have prepared an extensive report on which core strengths the region can exploit most effectively.  Here are the six most important areas:

TOURISM AND EXPERIENCE ECONOMICS, FOODS, HEALTH AND WELFARE TECHNOLOGY, SUSTAINABLE ENERGY, LOGISTICS, KNOWLEDGE, RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

The Danish-German area portal will support the development from border region to growth region.  To achieve the general objective, the portal has, so to speak, two tiers strategically speaking: The core strengths and the players.  This prepares the ground for networking between the players on the basis of the core strengths.  The portal explicitly communicates the common core strengths.  At the same time, the portal integrates content from a number of external content suppliers in e.g. business development, news communication and job databases.  The purpose is to create an overview of the many options in the area across the border.