High levels of education, hardworking people, positive environment for innovation and green energy, both hydrogenerated and geothermal, create Iceland´s favourable conditions according to Professor Gregory Miller, Harvard Business School.

The small size and perceived isolation are the main threats says Miller: "When I tell people I´m going to Iceland the reaction I get is: Wov, that´s a long flight! But that is not true. People travel similar distances with domestic flights in the US without thinking about it and the people who say this simply jump aboard an airplane and travel to India or Hong Kong."

Prof. Gregory Miller addressed the 2006 Annual General Meeting of the Eignarhaldsfelagid Verdbrefathing ehf., the company that owns and operates the Iceland Stock Exchange. His address dealt with the enormous possibilities which Iceland has on international financial markets and the barriers which the isolation and small size of the market present. He pointed out how ICEX could in the future manage and utilise its resources to overcome these barriers. The Iceland Stock Exchange could become the active representative of the Icelandic Business environment and attract investment and business to Iceland. Investors like to invest in countries and companies they know about so the visibility of companies is very important.

The high-profile investments abroad by Icelandic companies are important in this context according to Prof. Miller. He mentioned Icelandic innovation as another important factor in representing Iceland, e.g. the world renown Rheo Knee from Ossur Ltd.

It is also beneficial for Iceland that the nation is young with powerful pension funds. So Prof. Miller believes that Iceland could well compete internationally for foreign investments, e.g. by cooperating with the other Nordic countries or other regions who face similar tasks, such as New Zealand or the Caribbean nations.

 Click for her an icelandic version of a newspaper interview with Prof. Gregory Miller (PDF format)