On August 30, the EAST CCI of Norway organized with the kind support of the University of Oslo, its quarterly networking meeting at their historical and perfectly restored premises in the center of Oslo (Professorboligen). This time, the meeting was partly dedicated to Green Business Development in the Baltic Region.
The event was professionally moderated by Mr. Rune O. Methi, Project Director at the EAST CCI.
The meeting was opened by Director Ingrid Sogner from the Department of Research and Innovation Administration at the University of Oslo. She set the stage by welcoming the guests and introducing the role of the university in setting up Oslo Science City. She invited us all to make ourselves acquainted with what is going on and become engaged.
Norunn K. Torheim, Communications Adviser for Innovation, Industry Collaboration and Public Relations, PhD, the UiO Growth House held a presentation about their arenas for networking, namely the “innovation hangouts” and the Science Impact conference which focus on both life science and energy, to facilitate collaboration between academia and industry. A special focus to the healthcare industry was introduced. Again the members of the Chamber were invited to collaborate.
Next speaker was Senior Economist Maren Nygård Basso from Menon Economics. They had been commissioned by the Estonian Ministry of Trade to investigate the competitiveness of their maritime industry and Mrs. Basso presented their findings as published this spring, based on the five recognized building blocks of success developed together with DNV. The representative from the Estonian Embassy welcomed the presentation and invites the Chamber to take part in developing their maritime cluster.
Professor at the Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law (UiO) Alla Pozdnakova introduced some of the maritime and environmental challenges in and around the Baltic Sea, especially considering the present geopolitical situation.
Executive Vice President Gunnar Tinjar, East CCI – presented some intermediate results from the ongoing process of researching new business opportunities within the EAST CCI markets, and the work to establish a new business network program within the energy sector. The Chamber will for the time focus their efforts on Estonia, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Türkiye. We also expect to work more closely with Kazakhstan in the future, and recommend members interested in this to come forward.
Managing Director of EAST CCI of Norway Hans-Olav Rekdal summarized our plans and activities of the Chamber for 2023 highlighting the fact that we now reach out the members more frequently through mails and updates on our website. Mr. Rekdal also underlined the promising development whereas EAST CCI has been approach by various industrial clusters that wish closer cooperation to optimally utilize their resources and create synergies between networks in their efforts to increase exports. With EAST CCI – positioned in the forefront of EAST export markets and with excellent cooperation among others with Innovation Norway, much can be achieved. We keenly invite all those interested in participating in initiatives related to the Baltic Sea market – and other market of EAST CCI to please contact the administration for more info.
Mr. Rekdal then opened the second part of the program, namely networking and enjoying the gastronomical treats offered us by our kind host.
Again, we thank our member – University of Oslo – for facilitating and sponsoring this event.
Those of our members who wish to receive a copy of the various presentations, please let us know.
