ACCOUNT FOR AN EIGHTH OF JOBS

Online This Week

GDP thriving in 2022

THE ECONOMY flourished in 2022, according to Danmarks Statistik. Early indicators suggest the GDP grew by 3.4 percent over the year and by 1.1 percent in the final quarter. Despite downturns for trade, finance and insurance, the medicinal industry led the charge, with transport and culture & leisure not far behind. The EU saw zero growth over Q4.

Good for startups

DENMARK has ranked ninth overall on the Global Startup Index compiled by Business Name Generator. Denmark’s high position is partly down to business start-up procedures costing just 0.2 percent of gross national income per capita, along with the country’s high happiness score. High wages were the principal detractor, along with its cost of living.

SAS cyber-attacked

Heavy loss for Danske Bank

A 15 BILLION kroner settlement related to the closure of its Estonian branch, where at least 1.5 trillion was laundered, resulted in Danske Bank posting a loss of 5.1 billion kroner for 2022. However, a profit of 15-17 billion kroner is forecast for 2023. Meanwhile, following revelations the bank has invested 8.4 million kroner in oil companies, it will no longer lend to companies still involved in discovering new fossil fuel sources.

Joe’s been too juicy

DANISH cafe chain Joe & The Juice will pay almost 5 million kroner to settle a gender discrimination case brought by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The chain has a reputation for employing handsome men to fit in with its image, but this violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Nevertheless, women account for 53 percent of its servers – and 57 percent in the US.

Partitioning makes so much more sense given the number of foreigners we employ

Numbers look set to rise again following passing of new law

CHRISTIAN WENANDE

FOREIGNERS accounted for 12.2 percent of the Danish workforce in 2022, according to figures from the Agency for Labour Market and Recruitment (STAR) – up from 5.7 percent in 2008.

The increase is the equivalent of an additional 175,000 full-time foreign workers over the past 14 years.

“It means that foreign labour has really carried a lot of weight – in terms of labour market progres and economic growth,” Niklas Praefkem, an economist with leaders' union Lederne, told TV2.

“Without foreign labour, we wouldn’t be as well off in Denmark as we are now.”

Big dividends

ØRSTED and Novo Nordisk both decided to issue big dividends following the declaration of respective record profits of 32 and 55.5 billion kroner. While Ørsted will divvy up 5.7 billion kroner, Novo is going to hand out 14.8 billion – not bad for shareholders who shared 7.5 billion last August.

A survey from Lederne also revealed that 28 percent of members said they wouldn’t be able to run their companies without the help of foreign workers.

Sectors that enjoy a particularly high frequency of foreign workers are agriculture, forestry, fishing, hotels and restaurants.

New law on the way

A NEW GOVERNMENT bill should make it easier for Danish companies to recruit even more foreign labour once it becomes law on April 1.

Last June, the government obtained the necessary majority for an agreement to make it easier for companies to recruit foreign labour, but it did not become law due to the announcement of the general election.

Much of what was agreed on last year has been factored into the new bill – for example, the lowering of the man - datory annual salary needed by non-EU workers to obtain Danish residency, from 445,000 to 375,000 kroner – along with a number of new additions.

The new bill also proposes cutting a large proportion of the red tape, enabling companies to quickly recruit foreign labour in a more flexible way, while the lowering of the salary requirement will be permanent. Previously it was suggested it should be lowered for just three years.

And should the scheme end up attracting over 15,000 workers, it will be re-evaluated by the parties that approved it, as it is not the desire of the bill to flood Denmark with foreign labour.

The economy minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, rejected criticism from the FH trade union that "politicians are opening a loading gate for foreign labour at relatively low wage levels".

SHORTLY before posting a quarterly loss of 1.8 billion Danish kroner in late February, SAS advised customers to avoid using its app after it suffered a cyber attack from Anonymous Sudan – an apparent response to failed Danish-Swedish politician Rasmus Paludan burning Korans in the region. Several Copenhagen hospitals, including Rigshospitalet, were also targeted.

Prices to remain high

DON’T EXPECT retail prices to fall anytime soon, warns Danmarks Statistik. Its recent survey of retailers suggests that 46 percent of them will raise their prices even further over the next three months. Only between 6 and 8 percent expect to lower them.

More records for Maersk

SHIPPING giant Maersk has enjoyed another record-breaking annual result. Its 2022 profit of 203 billion kroner is the largest in Danish history, beating the 117.5 billion kroner it made in 2021. It attributed its success to increased demand in the wake of the Corona Crisis and supply chaos on congested global shipping lanes. Profits, it predicts, will more than halve in 2023.

More monkeys than

ever

Over-charging for energy

A STATSREVISORERNE report reveals that energy companies overcharged consumers 61.8 million kroner between 2018 and 2021 – and this might be the tip of the iceberg. Commissioned by Rigsrevisionen, the report only assessed 76 of the country’s 600 energy companies, discovering discrepancies with 34 of them. At least 22 are paying money back to consumers.

Rebuilding Ukraine

THE FOREIGN minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, was joined by 28 Danish companies and two financial institutions at the ReBuildUkraine conference in Warsaw in February – an event to foster partnerships to help the country recover. “We must bring Danish company solutions into play to help solve problems on the ground and generate growth and jobs in Ukraine,” said Rasmussen. Irma to close

Entrepreneurs in hiding

ACCORDING to Dansk Erhverv, 2022 was not a banner year for entrepreneurship.

Only 26,721 new companies were registered in Denmark – down by 20 percent compared to 2021 and the lowest number since 2014. The downward trend was blamed on insecurity caused by the War in Ukraine and inflation.

Carlsberg still in Russia

CARLSBERG derived almost 1.9 billion kroner in profits from Russia in 2022 –compared to a 284 million kroner loss in 2021 – despite promising to withdraw from the country following its invasion of Ukraine. Carlsberg promises it will fully withdraw by mid-2023.

DYRENES Beskyttelse, a leading animal rights group, has appealed to Novo Nordisk to stop testing drugs on monkeys following confirmation it used 700 last year – a quadrupling since 2019 – as well as 50,000 mice, 8,000 rats, 600 rabbits, 400 pigs, 100 guinea pigs, 150 dogs and 14,000 fish. Novo, which has a target to not test on monkeys, said it was unavoidable.

POPULAR supermarket Irma is closing down this year, its owner Coop has confirmed. While the iconic Irma lady will live on as a brand at other Coop outlets, 17 of its 65 stores will close altogether, starting from April 1. Nine will become ‘Coop’ stores – when Kvickly merges with SuperBrugsen – 28 will live on as Coop 365discounts, and 11 will become Brugsen outlets.

Ukrainians in work

OF THE almost 12,500 Ukrainian residents who municipalities consider work-ready, 7,218 have found jobs – in total 58 percent. Around 31,400 Ukrainians arrived in Denmark in 2022, but 4,600 have already emigrated.

S Ren Bregenholt The Valley Of Life

As the chairman of the Medicon Valley Alliance – the gold-labelled Danish-Swedish life science cluster organisation – Søren will address current trends and challenges in the sector.

THE DISTANCE from central Copenhagen to the Swedish life science hub and university city of Lund is 66.4 km.

Told in commuter numbers

THE DISTANCE from Lund to Copenhagen is obviously the same. I am quite sure as I travel the distance several times a week to fulfil my job as the CEO of Alligator Bioscience.

I am one of the many life science professionals commuting from the Copenhagen area over the Oresund Bridge – on my way I loop around Malmö, another busy biotech city – to my final destination, the Medicon Village Science Park just north of Lund.

We are about a hundred Danes travelling in that direction, whereas at least 800 people commute from Scania to work at life science companies in Zealand.

Bigger draw down south

WHY THIS difference in numbers?

A part of the explanation is the number of jobs – there are sim- ply a lot more jobs in the larger Danish-based life science companies than in the many somewhat smaller Scania -based companies.

DURING the pandemic people had to find alternatives for conferences and events.

All about the Yakety Yak! WEBINARS were not new but took on a new life as we needed to talk and share ideas with people. They soon became a standard part of our way of working, and we developed new rules and protocols. At the same time, we reduced our travel and saved on the time spent on it, doing our bit for the environment.

This combined with salary levels, exchange rates, and rates tax (often, but not always!) makes it more attractive to live in Scania (Skåne) and work in Denmark than the other way around.

Not surprisingly, Novo Nordisk is the Medicon Valley company with the largest number of border commuters. Some 200 people travel from Sweden across Øresund to their job at the company, but companies such as Ferring, Lundbeck, Fujifilm, AGC Biologics and Leo Pharma also employ a substantial number of people from Sweden.

Differing perceptions

ALTHOUGH the distance between the two cities is objectively the same, regardless of the direction of travel, it appears there is a difference in the perceived distance.

Whereas my colleagues and peers from Lund are all familiar with Copenhagen and consider a and discuss ideas, and discover something new? trip to the city no big deal, Lund is a bridge too far for many Danes.

Painted by Bot-ticelli CONNECTING by chatting has always been good for business, but ‘chat’ now has several newer meanings.

We ‘chat’ on social media often as a distraction from doing something more creative or productive.

Certainly, they’ve visited nearby Malmö but not explored Lund, despite everything it has to offer: to tourists and potentially your next life science job.

The status of Region Skåne, headed by Lund, as an innovative life science hot spot is demonstrated by the fact that about a third of all life science patent applications originate from the region.

Fall in love with Lund

BUT EVEN if you are not specifically into life science, the city of Lund – its university, Lund Cathedral, which was built in 1145, and its many other attractions – is well worth a visit.

After all, regional integration is not just about statistics, facts and figures – it’s also about culture, history and a sense of community. A visit to Lund is a good place to start.

GARETH GARVEY UK - DK TRADE

Gareth (gareth@bccd.dk), who has a passion for creativity and innovation in business, has been the CEO of the British Chamber of Commerce in Denmark since the start of 2017. Gareth has a background in management consultancy working for Price Waterhouse, PwC Consulting and IBM, and he also teaches at Copenhagen Business School.

But something was missing. We started to realise the real reason we attended events was rarely to hear the speaker and collect slide-packs that we would probably never open again. It was about chatting with people over coffee, in the bar or over dinner.

Yes, we were missing chatting – having informal conversations in a relaxed environment with no specific agenda. How else could we get to know people, make connections, generate

And we also now ‘chat’ with AI chatbots and are impressed when they give us a response that is nearly indistinguishable from a human response. They get better every day.

But remember they are following patterns and rules. They can write a good essay and produce an excellent picture of Marge Simpson in the style of Van Gogh; they are getting so good I fear we are falling in love with them. But where are the surprises? Where are the new ideas?

It’s good to chat!

WE HOLD many events during the year, and those who are seen to be successful by the participants are those who give people the opportunity to meet people and chat about things they have in common or find interesting.

This is where we make seren- dipitous contacts and generate or discover business ideas.

So let’s remember the original meaning of ‘chat’. Come to one of our events and meet some real and interesting people. It could be good for business.