"For us, as a smaller municipality, it has been invaluable"

This week, 24 people from Haparanda Municipality gathered to work on attracting new residents. The journey began in April when Jenna Laitinen and Anu Lakkala from the development unit accompanied them to the large Emigration Expo fair in the Netherlands.

 - It was a stroke of luck. At the fair, it turned out that it was the smaller municipalities that many people were interested in. It is the lifestyle in smaller communities that is attractive. After the fair, we had visitors who came to Haparanda and whom we took care of and guided in both Haparanda and Tornio during the summer. Some people thought that Haparanda felt a bit too big, that was a surprise. We have not heard that before! They wanted to see more of the villages, says Jenna.

During the North Sweden Green Deal project, all 14 municipalities in the county have worked intensively on their own receiving capacity. Using various methods and tools, the digital and physical receiving capacity has been examined. Various solutions, plans, strategies and services have then been developed. The idea has been that they can also be implemented and used by other municipalities.

Plans for continued investments

Stina Almkvist from Region Norrbotten drew a picture for the assembled politicians and civil servants. She spoke about the project's intentions and results, and about the plans for continued efforts towards the municipalities.

Ella Jonsson from the Swedish Lapland Visitors Board, who led the municipalities' innovation work, described the work on an immigrant's value chain and what it looks like in Haparanda.

Lightning decision jam is a workshop methodology that has often been used during innovation work with municipalities.

Then followed a quick workshop on the way forward. It became clear that the work on improving one's own self-esteem and values ​​must continue. Another priority issue is how the business community can become more integrated into Haparanda's development and that the community must develop. It is an analysis that is shared by other municipalities, but how to solve the issues must be designed in different ways in each municipality.

Thanked for the project

Municipal councilor Nina Waara concluded the day.

 - We from Haparanda would like to say thank you for this day, but above all we would like to say thank you for the region doing a project where all municipalities have been involved in the work on the county's development. For us, as a smaller municipality, it has been invaluable to be able to receive support and resources so that we, in turn, can contribute our efforts to the development of Norrbotten.

Municipal councilor Nina Waara thanked for the year with the North Sweden Green Deal.

Text and photo: Stina Almkvist.

The North Sweden Green Deal is an initiative to realize a sustainable societal transition, in the wake of the new industrial establishments.

The project is run by Region Norrbotten and Region Västerbotten together with a number of other actors. It is financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).