NEWS

US Ambassador Samuel D. Heins generously hosted the annual AmCham ambassador’s reception at Villa Otium. The event focused on how Norway is promoting foreign direct investment.

In a room full of AmCham business leaders and decision makers, AmCham Chairman Pål Rokke, Ambassador Heins and State Secretary from the Ministry of Trade, Dilek Ayhan, addressed both challenges and opportunities ahead to ensure increased FDI development in Norway.

Jason Turflinger, Managing Director, AmCham; Pål Rokke, AmCham Chairman; State Secretary from the Ministry of Trade , Dilek Ayhan; and Ambassador Heins.

While Rokke highlighted the important work executed by the “Invest in Norway” team at Innovation Norway, he also expressed his concern on behalf of AmCham Norway and its members about the lack of support for innovation in today’s Norwegian procurement process.

“The trend is for winning tenders to be selected solely upon price. This is not in accordance with the Government’s white paper on innovation, where public procurement is highlighted as a key driver for innovation,” he said.

“The bottom line is that if we want more investment in R&D and production facilities in Norway by leading international companies, we have to make the job easier for their existing local leadership. If local leaders can make a good case inside their companies for investing here, in Norway, instead of other Nordic countries, we will have made great strides.

Pål Rokke addressing the crowd.

“Local leaders from Cargrill, Thermo Fisher, IBM, Abbvie, Tesla, Pharmaq, Google and many others can certainly attest to this,” the Country Head for Citigroup Norway, said, before asserting that AmCham is, and will continue to be, highly engaged in making the case for mutual business investments in Norway and the United States.

Important to attract investments on both sides

Keynote speaker of the evening, Dilek Ayhan (Høyre), addressed how the current Norwegian government is continuously working to ensure increased FDI in Norway, and how that is important for both the US and the Norwegian economies.

“When it comes to foreign direct investments, Norwegian FDI in the US accounts for $31, 7 billion, while the other way, US FDI in Norway accounts for $39, 5 billion. A comparable number, showing the importance of attracting investments on both sides,” Ayhan said.

Dilek Ayhan speaking at Villa Otium.

Ayhan went on to highlight how the government is working to strengthen the Norwegian economy’s competitiveness through stable and fair tax policies, increased research funding, strengthened infrastructure and via the “Invest in Norway” initiative.

“Summed up, our efforts are to provide the right terms and conditions for Norwegian and foreign-owned companies to grow and prosper in Norway and abroad.

“To achieve this in our relations with the US, I wish again to highlight the excellent cooperation we have with both the American Embassy and the American Chamber of Commerce in Norway,” Ayhan concluded.