Around the world with DI

Greenland

Mining opportunities await 

In early March the Confederation of Danish Industry, thirty-six Danish and Greenlandic companies and HRH Crown Prince Frederik travelled to Canada to highlight the many business opportunities Greenland has to offer. It was the first time the royal family took part in an initiative focussed specifically on Greenland’s business development.

The mining projects in Greenland represent major opportunities for businesses because they often require competences and infrastructure development. Following a new agreement between Denmark and Greenland on the financing of new airports in Greenland, investment in the Arctic and Greenland are especially interesting.

Contact: Camilla Mai Petersson, camp@di.dk

- DI, Advisor, Market Development

China

Stock market surge creates optimism

Despite a difficult 2018 and lowered expectations for 2019, there is hope in China’s economy which can boost opportunities for Danish companies in the country. The year is off to a great start for one of China’s major growth engines – the stock market – which has jumped over 20 per cent at the time of writing.

Underlying this are three main factors:

1) Hopes of an agreement that will bring an end to the US-China trade war.

2) China has actively supported Chinese growth and currency through tax cuts, among other things. 

3) Global index provider MSCI has decided to quadruple the weight of China’s A shares in its benchmarks, potentially adding several hundreds of billions of kroner to China’s A shares.

Not everything is looking quite so rosy, however. A number of traditional industries in China are suffering, and the political turmoil and tech battle between the US and China are here to stay.

Contact: Glen Mikkelsen, glmi@di.dk

- DI, Shanghai, China

EU

Standardisation under pressure

The European Commission is working on comprehensive changes to the European standardisation system following a ruling by the EU Court of Justice. Among of things, this will mean restrictive requirements for the content and structure of harmonised standards.

This limits the use-value of the standards for the companies that provide technical expertise for the work carried out and will result in a significant administrative burden.

At DI we’re therefore highly critical of the changes being made and question whether they are at all necessary. Together with European industry organisations, we’re working to call attention to these issues. Europe’s competitiveness is dependent on a swift and efficient standardisation system. It is crucial that the necessity and consequences of these changes be carefully examined before they are implemented.

Contact: Anders Ladefoged, al@di.dk

- DI in the EU, Brussels, Belgium

Germany

Major potential in German energy

The German energy transition, the so-called “Energiewende”, means that Germany expects investments and compensation of up to €90 billion in order to become greener. There is much to be gained for Danish energy companies by looking into opportunities in southern Germany in particular and take part in these investments.

Players in the German energy market are outphasing nuclear power, while there is also mounting pressure from the country’s energy commission and the citizens of Bavaria to start phasing out coal in 2022.

This has led to a surge in investments, and especially green energy from wind turbines, geothermal heat pumps and energy efficiency in buildings are in focus. Munich City Utilities, SWM, has an ambitious target of being 100 per cent green by 2025 and is therefore expanding and investing in new technologies, including better district heating pipes. On the innovation side, Big Data is gaining ground to optimise energy distribution.

Contact:

Robert P. Perz, hawi@di.dk

- DI, Munich, Germany