The perfect example of how the right infrastructure will turbo-charge an economy is found in Denmark, says Stephen Selwood.
Before 1998, Danish citizens travelling from Copenhagen to mainland Europe endured a lengthy ferry journey: until the Government funded the construction of the Great Belt Bridge. Instead of three hours, the
20km journey now takes only 20 minutes at a cost of $60 a trip. "It just opened up connectivity in the nation that previously hadn't been there," Selwood says. "The ability to leverage growth in the economy was enormous."
So much so, that in 2000 the Government commissioned a second road-rail bridge and a tunnel, the Oresund, connecting Copenhagen and Sweden.
"This has opened up huge opportunities for growth and economic development between the two countries," Selwood says, citing cross-tourism and employment traffic. "Denmark has become the full bridge between Scandinavia and Europe."
Now the Danes have opened tenders for a third bridge to connect the country with Germany, with obvious economic benefits waiting to be tapped.
Such has been the success of the bridges that there is cross-party political support for national infrastructure projects, including a plan to link the three major cities by high-speed train.
"They will be no more than an hour's separation in time. You think of the need in New Zealand to link Bay of Plenty, Waikato and Auckland in that golden triangle - we need much better connectivity," he says. "In New Zealand, we've adopted a market approach, which has been a strength in many ways but we've thrown any sort of government direction out of the window when we adopted that approach."
Selwood says this narrow thinking about infrastructure development is a flaw, pointing to government involvement in Scotland and Vancouver, Canada, in addition to the Danes and Swedes' hands-on philosophy. Nowhere is the need for long-term strategic government thinking more pressing than over port reform. "The Government doesn't have to pick winners but what it can do is recognise the strategic importance of the ports. It's critical we achieve transport linkages between those ports to enable them to grow and develop.
