Hamburg sees itself as the city to gain the most from the fixed link. And the city’s political ‘number one’ Olaf Scholz can see great opportunities in a collaboration with the business region of Copenhagen-Malmö. More than 900 businesses from Hamburg have business relations in Denmark while Hamburg is the most important base in Germany for 250 Danish companies. The port of Hamburg is of vital importance to the Danes, but Copenhagen Airport is also a very important hub for transcontinental flights supplying routes that Hamburg Airport do not offer.
– Our cities are among the best cities in the world to live in because our ancestors had the courage and grand ideas to fuel their development. In this spirit, we will drive forward the development of today, Olaf Scholz underlined at the Hamburg Copenhagen Business Forum in the Danish Capital.
Scholz’s colleague Lord Mayor of Copenhagen Frank Jensen announced concrete agreements on a closer cooperation between the two cities on four main areas: Sustainable urban development, tourism and business.
Olympics in the game
Hamburg is a candidate for hosting the Summer Olympic Games in 2024 – they are competing against Budapest, Paris, Rome and Los Angeles. In Olaf Scholz’s mind, the city will not see the Olympics as a sole event but as an event “at the gateway to Scandinavia”.
Hamburg’s First Mayor can easily envisage an Olympic cooperation with Copenhagen. Although no tangible plans can be drawn as of now – seeing as the decision of the host is not to be made until after the summer 2017 – the mayors agree that a bicycle race between the two metropolises could send out a positive signal for the close partnership between Hamburg and Copenhagen.
During the Hamburg Copenhagen Business Forum in Copenhagen, Olaf Scholz appointed President and CEO of the Rambøll Group Jens Peter Saul (and chairman of the Danish-German Chamber of Commerce) as HamburgAmbassador. HamburgAmbassadors represent the Hanseatic Cities in commercial and insutrial policy related matters.
