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| Director of Invest in Denmark,
Flemming Aggergaard |
| Courtesy Danish Foreign
Ministry |
Danes are selling knowledge and expertise in many
ways. They send experts into the Third World, and
they export their knowledge-based products all over
the world. They can also “sell” the very
knowledge and industriousness of the population
to bring companies to Denmark. In this way, everybody
wins, especially the company.
To sell a country, one has to factor things in
a holistic manner. Dublin has slightly lower labor
and office rental costs, but when a qualitative
analysis was made, factoring in things like labor
flexibility, regulatory framework, general business
environment, and a few others, Copenhagen came out
on top. Its only rival was London, which has almost
double the operating costs.
In 2001, a year of decline and decreased investment
flows, Invest in Denmark participated in 36 investment
projects and created 669 jobs. Some 89 percent were
in the Copenhagen area, from a Chinese fireworks
factory to British auto glass manufacturers.
Since it has been and still is a time of decline,
the buzzword now is consolidation. Invest in Denmark,
a part of the Foreign Ministry, is busily drawing
up business proposals to help.
"What we do is add value to an investor’s
future," says Flemming Aggergaard, director
of Invest in Denmark. "One of the reasons Invest
in Denmark was founded was to cut down on red tape."
He describes his job as “offering foreign
companies a strong business proposition to locate
companies in Denmark. Because we’re not involved
in any general promotion in Denmark, we like to
attract interested investors, but it has to be a
good thing for the company.
We have to be able to show them value to their
business. That’s what drives us.”
Invest in Denmark has a staff of 32, half of whom
live outside the country as overseas representatives.
They keep their ears to the ground, looking for
companies that they feel could be a good match for
Denmark’s infrastructure and workforce. The
major categories are food, life sciences and IT.
"Actually, we are part of the Danish Trade
Council, and we say that we want to be the company’s
preferred corporation partner," Aggergaard
says. "I like to look at myself as adding value
to an investor's future, so my job is not to get
people here who would not benefit from it, to concentrate
on those where we feel we can make a good match.
"In the strongholds we have, we feel that
we have competence to offer investors on a global
level. So we can say, Could we see the strategy
page on Denmark that you have? They say, ‘Sorry,
we don’t have a chapter.’ We ask, ‘Could
you allow us to write one?’ We feel that the
business you are in could strongly benefit from
looking at the Danish competencies.”
The other approach is to present Denmark as a location
from a cost-quality point of view. "What’s
happening at the moment with businesses is that
they are in a wave of consolidation -- to be more
efficient, they are looking at the European setup,
and saying, do we really need so many different
offices? We say that you can divide Europe into
areas -- for instance, north and south. We think,
of course, that the northern part should be dealt
with in Denmark. Then we can offer the company a
plan for that."
At the moment, life sciences have been the most
successful. Food is new and it is holding aback
a bit. Biogen decided to put its first manufacturing
plant outside the U.S. in Denmark. Northern Jutland
is getting clusters of wireless and telecom, and
there’s a lot of that in Copenhagen, too.
He explains that Denmark’s high personal taxes
are in no way a drawback. "The Social Security
contribution is zero in Denmark for the employee.
You need to look at the whole thing and understand
that the reason we have a high personal income tax
is because the companies pay a very low or zero
social contribution, whereas in Germany and Sweden
it’s very high.
"The angle there is that you get access to
a very flexible labor market, the most flexible
in Europe. You can hire and fire here. You will
not get into a situation where you have to keep
your organization the same size if the market demands
don’t dictate it. And that is financed through
the high personal income tax in Denmark. So with
this setup, it is an advantage."
To the question why should investors pick Denmark,
comes a quick answer: "It will improve your
profitability. It’s quite simple. It’s
a business proposition, by accessing the competencies
that we have in Denmark, by looking at their own
operation and making it more efficient, that’s
what we offer.We’ll find out what you need
and do a free proposal."
Denmark’s EU presidency won’t affect
investment much. "It affects us in the sense
that we have a higher visibility, and for a small
country, we have a visibility problem. We’re
a small country, but peaceful, so you never get
into the news.
“That’s good, because investors first
ask about the political and social stability of
a country, and Denmark is a beauty in that category.”
For further information please visit: www.investindk.com
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