East Iceland delivers 8.7 billion more to state than it receives

East Iceland contributes 8.7 billion Icelandic krónur more to the state treasury than it receives, according to new calculations presented at the autumn conference of the Association of Municipalities in East Iceland, SSA, held in Neskaupstaður on September 17 and 18, mbl.is reports.

Ragnar Sigurðsson, chairman of SSA, said the figures called for a new kind of dialogue with the authorities. They showed that investing in infrastructure in East Iceland paid off many times over for the state, he said.

Representatives of the region’s four municipalities, Vopnafjörður municipality, Fljótsdalshreppur, Múlaþing and Fjarðabyggð, attended the conference. There were 28 representatives, along with municipal managers and guests. Attendance was unusually high because SSA was marking its 60th anniversary.

The association was founded at Egilsbúð on October 8, 1966. The anniversary was marked with a celebratory coffee gathering and formal dinner, while Smári Geirsson, a former SSA chairman and historian, reviewed the association’s history.

Infrastructure benefits the whole country

In his opening speech, Ragnar urged ministers and members of parliament to abandon the view that public investment in infrastructure was a cost. SSA wanted to move the dialogue to another level and stop focusing on individual projects, he said.

“The big question is how one of the country’s most important areas for value creation can grow and continue to generate greater income for the national economy,” Ragnar said.

He referred to assessments by academics showing that East Iceland accounts for a quarter of the country’s goods exports.

“Strong infrastructure in East Iceland does not benefit East Icelanders alone. It is a prerequisite for continued value creation for the entire country. We are not asking for charity, nor are we interested in becoming a region that receives more than it contributes. On the contrary. We are proud that East Iceland creates significant value for the national economy. We want that to continue, preferably on an even greater scale. But it will not happen automatically,” Ragnar said.

He said repeatedly postponing infrastructure investment while increasing charges created an imbalance.

Ragnar said those who founded SSA 60 years ago could not have foreseen all the development that had taken place in the region. He stressed that unity had been one of SSA’s strengths in recent years, adding that the key to a stronger East Iceland was to expand the whole region, improve connections between communities and present a united position in dialogue with the state.

Hanna Katrín Friðriksson, the minister of business affairs, and Logi Einarsson, the minister of culture, innovation and higher education, congratulated SSA in speeches and briefly discussed various issues affecting the region.

Hanna Katrín said allocations from the Tourist Site Protection Fund would increase to 800 million krónur next year. Special emphasis would be placed on development in less-visited areas to encourage a better distribution of tourists around the country and reduce seasonal fluctuations.

She also said she regretted that a bill on aquaculture had not advanced in parliament last winter, attributing this primarily to a lack of unity within the industry itself.