Long historic tradition saves ties for the renewable future
Nov 10 2009 by Alastair Gilmour, The Journal
A new route between the North East and Bergen is set to open up new business opportunities, Alastair Gilmour reports.
IT’S a fairly obvious observation that life is easier when we get on with our neighbours. Firm and long-standing relationships can develop from an initial friendly wave or offer of help.
It’s the same in the commercial world, but until recently, the North East was in danger of losing out on what the folks next door have to offer. The welcome mat was brushed, we could smell the coffee, but we just got on with our own thing.
Last month, however, the first step in a new relationship with Bergen in South West Norway was secured by Eastern Airways’ opening of a weekday, direct route from Newcastle.
Our neighbours in Norway’s second city are sitting on a rich core of oil, gas and energy industries, shipping and a world-leading fishing industry. They have developed centres for research and development into renewable energy, driven by the likes of the Norwegian Centre for Offshore Wind Energy which is already working in areas where complete technological solutions don’t yet exist.
Bergeners are highly cultured and rank among Europe's best-educated people; they like us, are easy with our language and would welcome a rewarding relationship. However, the knock on the door eased open by the new air service – a 95-minute flight from here – has to come from North East businesses. That’s the message sent from the Bergen Chamber of Commerce, Business Region Bergen (the equivalent of regional development agency One North East) and individual companies, many of them at the cutting-edge of technology.
And, interestingly, it seems the Bergen region would rather do business with the North East than their own capital Oslo. Their slightly uneasy relationship is in direct parallel with London and the North – put simply, they’re a remote lot who talk a bit funny and as they regard themselves an almost separate nation, let’s not bother too much with investment.
Hans Martin Moxnes, director of Bergen Chamber of Commerce which has 1,400 corporate and 2,800 individual members, is particularly pleased that the Eastern Airways service has taken off. He calls it “an opportunity to draw the regions together, to get a feel for what can be done”, but is adamant that the ball is in the North East’s court and we haven’t quite mastered the approach shot.
He says: “Our organisation is what you might call a ‘trade information depot’. We have very similar industries to the North East of England with a long historic tradition between the two. We really get along with each other and we want to work with markets where the cultural difference is not so big.
“There are lots of reasons why North East companies should do business with Norway, but they’ve got to get off their backsides. We have oil and gas expertise; the future is in renewables and there’s a lot of synergy there. But we don’t even hear so much about the tourist attractions in the North East – we seem to have to find out for ourselves. Tourism is big business.
“Norwegians are not really fond of travelling abroad on business, but they’d go to the North East of England with their families – it’s close, the journey is short and people feel at home. They don’t feel at home in Japan, say.
A similar sentiment emerges from this side of the North Sea. Mike Pedersen of the Norwegian Collaboration Centre (NCC), based at Silverlink, North Tyneside, says: “Much of Bergen’s industry maps well into the North East with marine, offshore, subsea, digital, medical and healthcare as well as emerging sectors such as wind power.
“But the strong message from a recent trip to Bergen was that while they were open for business, we had to come and get it. In some ways the global trading activities of South West Norway have overlooked the North-East of England, and it is up to us to highlight the huge potential of collaborating.”
The NCC organises regional visits in conjunction with One North East for sector-specific industries to encourage Norwegian technology companies to enter the UK market via the North East and in doing so minimise the business risk.
“The UK is Norway’s largest trading partner with a two-way trade of more than NOK130bn,” says Pedersen.
“There are around 25 thriving Norwegians companies in the North East, including Aker Kvaerner, Norsk Hydro, Kavli and Nutec Rubb Industri, which have capitalised on our stable, skilled motivated and mobile workforce.
“At the same time there are supply chain issues in Norway which arise because many of the indigenous engineering companies are serving the Norwegian oil and gas industry.
However, there are significant opportunities with wind power both in the shared North Sea and in the Norwegian Sea: “Soon Norway will be developing oil and gas fields in the north of the country and towards the Russian border.”
The signals are loud, clear and understood – business opportunities are waiting. And it’s not all high-tech industry in Bergen – as Hans Martin Moxnes says, there are times to relax. A local saying goes: “It’s like the people here are always on their way to, or from, a party.”
It seems our next-door neighbours’ door is ajar and the kettle is switched on. It’s really up to us to pass the biscuits.
