How do we attract investments in Greenland?

Greenland competes with other countries for the attraction of lasting jobs. The Government of Greenland is preparing a discussion of the framework conditions regulating large scale projects like the aluminum project.

Can and should we offer special conditions for large scale projects? Does it make sense, and why is there a difference between large scale projects and the normal projects that we are familiar with. These are some of the issues discussed in the “Whitepaper on framework conditions for large scale business projects in Greenland”.

 Investing in projects such as the aluminum project are big decisions – for the host country and the investor. Therefore both parties have to ensure the creation of the best framework enabling both society and investor to benefit from the investment. The Government of Greenland presents on the Parliament spring session of 2012 a whitepaper on conditions for large scale projects. The aim is to be able to make a decision on the Autumn Session of 2012, which will make Greenland an attractive country to invest in while at the same time ensuring the benefits that we wish for our society in the long term.

The investments will not  happen by themselves. We are in competition with other countries, so we have to decide on how we can offer competitive conditions, that can attract foreign investment and at the same time benefit Greenlandic interests – especially ensure that Greenlandic companies and workers to the greatest extent possible gain from these new business opportunities.

Among the subjects for discussion is the question on temporary foreign labor in the construction phase. For this type of very special projects the question is whether we can establish the option of using special wage conditions for this temporary workforce. This will have to be done in a way that does not negatively affect the general Greenlandic labor market and ensure that Greenland does not violate international conventions and regulations. The whitepaper initiates a debate regarding this based on factual conditions.

Based on this debate the Government of Greenland expects to present a decision on framework conditions this coming autumn. This will create the foundation for the aluminum project to move closer towards realization and hence the possibility of the creation of many new lasting jobs in Greenland.

The whitepaper including public responses can be found on the Government public hearing portal here (Danish)