marintekillustrasjon_kreditere-marintek Press release: 31.01.2016 Government
Illustration: Marintek
– Our ocean areas are six times larger than our land area. There are opportunities here that we have not yet exploited. The government will contribute to developing a strong Norwegian ocean cluster, says Minister of Trade and Industry Monica Mæland (H).
In the spring of 2015, the government presented the maritime strategy "Maritime opportunities – blue growth for a green future". In the strategy, the government commits, among other things, to arranging a joint conference for the ocean-related industries. To create more blue growth, the government is therefore inviting key players to a national ocean conference in Bergen in May.
– Norway has a long tradition of harvesting from the sea. And we will create growth and value from the fisheries and aquaculture industry into the indefinite future. In the years to come, the development of new ocean-based industries will also be able to contribute to value creation – but then we must focus on this work, says Fisheries Minister Per Sandberg (FrP).
– The petroleum industry and the aquaculture industry are our two most important industries and often face the same challenges; such as fluctuations in the krone exchange rate and prices. But they not only share challenges, the industries have shared experience and exchanged expertise for many decades. For example, the aquaculture industry is looking at how they can use offshore technology for fish farming out at sea, and the fishing fleet can be a very useful contribution to oil spill preparedness, says Minister of Petroleum and Energy Tord Lien.
The Ocean Conference will be a meeting place where stakeholders from business, organizations, academia and government meet to share experiences and discuss the opportunities for increased utilization and value creation from the ocean in the future. The conference will present opportunities, challenges and current examples from the industry.
The ministries have had a close dialogue with the blue industries – including GCE Subsea, NCE Maritime Clean Tech, GCE Node, GCE Blue Maritime, The NCE Seafood and Maritimt Forum Bergensregionen – in preparations for the conference.
