Opinion: Aalborg is ready to host one of Denmark’s new industrial business parks

The sun rises over the eastern Limfjord, bathing containers, cranes, and wind turbine blades in golden morning light. The chimneys of the Northern Jutland power plant and Aalborg Portland can be seen on the horizon. People are on their way to work. In yellow vests, suits, and T-shirts. Welders, machinists, and engineers. They work closely together to succeed – in development, innovation, and production.

We are at the Port of Aalborg – a modern inland port and business park with an area of almost five million square metres and access to the motorway, port, and railway. In the hinterland, there is even more land – even more opportunities.

The government recently announced that it will designate five new industrial business parks around Denmark.

The business parks will contain large commercial areas where manufacturing companies can establish themselves and be certain that they have access to the necessary infrastructure. The companies in the business parks will have access to the government’s other new initiative – a one-stop-shop, which will ensure a faster and smoother regulatory process when establishing and expanding production facilities.

Aalborg Municipality and Port of Aalborg welcome the initiative. Industry is a crucial factor in Denmark’s continued growth and prosperity. And at the Port of Aalborg, we would very much like to house one of the industrial business parks.

Our current industrial area is large, and there is even more land in our catchment area. Here we can easily create access to the infrastructure that manufacturing companies demand – both in terms of electricity, water, and wastewater drainage as well as transport and logistics options. We therefore believe that it makes sense to designate the Port of Aalborg as one of the government’s industrial business parks. This will benefit the growth and development of companies, North Jutland, and Denmark.

More than 100 companies are already based in and around the port area, including many manufacturing companies. These include companies such as Siemens Gamesa, Sterke A/S, CS WIND Offshore, Blue World Technologies, and many more. They benefit from the access to commercial land, the various transport options, and Port of Aalborg’s service solutions. Not least, they emphasise collaboration with each other and Aalborg University as one of the best things about living at the port, just as they emphasise the targeted focus on green transition and innovation.

But they also experience challenges. The process for establishing or expanding production facilities is often long and opaque. This risks slowing companies’ development and sending investment, growth, and jobs abroad.

Access to the one-stop shop will make an invaluable difference. It will secure jobs, growth, and investment for North Jutland – a region that does not abound in either.

We invite Morten Bødskov, Minister for Trade and Industry, to visit Port of Aalborg and experience all that is going on here – and not least the many opportunities for even more companies to establish themselves and/or expand their production facilities.

The application to be designated as an industrial business park is on its way to the government. And in Aalborg Municipality and Port of Aalborg, we are ready to welcome even more manufacturing companies.

(The feature has also been published in the newspaper Nordjyske and on nordjyske.dk)