Arctic Business Network from Kingdom of Denmark joins AEC
Arctic Business Network (ABN), a network of Greenlandic and Danish companies operating in the Arctic, has signed up to become a member of the Arctic Economic Council (AEC). This is a part of the efforts from ABN to strengthen their members’ competencies by uniting with a pan-Arctic business organization like the AEC.
“We join the AEC to expand our international network and thereby share the latest knowledge and be inspired from new business relationships in the Arctic,” says Jens K. Lyberth, board member of ABN.
For many years, visions of cooperation across the countries in the Arctic have been a part of the agenda in various contexts. Cooperation through the AEC is also fully in line with the political visions expressed by the recent signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Greenlandic government and the Government of Nunavut on cooperation in the areas of culture, education, and infrastructure like green energy and fisheries.
“The responsibility for realizing the visions of stronger collaborations between the companies in the many sectors mentioned in the MOU still rests with the companies’ management,” as Jens K. Lyberth points out.
In Greenland, we usually talk about international collaboration within fishing, mineral extraction, and tourism. We have and will increasingly face challenges regarding infrastructure facilities primarily due to climate change and changes in settlement patterns.
Over the years, Greenland and Nunavut have gathered experience with cross-border collaborations, not least in connection with fishing and at times direct flight connections. Arctic Business Network hopes that with the construction of new runways in Greenland it will be easier to facilitate opportunities to meet and together develop cooperation opportunities built on trust and insight into the needs of the local citizens despite the very different framework conditions.
“Let’s work to ensure that political and corporate visions turn into tangible collaborative projects that can pave the way for even more projects to benefit the communities in which we operate,” concludes Jens K. Lyberth.
Arctic Economic Council is the only pan-Arctic independent business membership organization and has members from 11 different countries. The members are both individual entrepreneurs as well as large business organizations with more than 20.000 members.
Photo credit: Mads Qvist Frederiksen
