First of all, I want to thank the Labrador North and Baffin Regional Chambers of Commerce, for the invitation.

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1 Namminiilivinnermut, Nunanut Allanut Nunalerinermullu Naalakkersuisoqarfik Departementet for Selvstændighed, Udenrigsanliggender og Landbrug Naalakkersuisoqs tale til 2018 Northern Lights festival under session V Greenland Opportunities: Forging New Partnerships, den 1. februar kl. 08:45 10:00 i Shaw Center, Ottowa, Ontario, Canada. Distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen First of all, I want to thank the Labrador North and Baffin Regional Chambers of Commerce, for the invitation. We are in Greenland as you are all over the Canadian Arctic and Alaska - experiencing the growing global attention on the Arctic over the last decade. This means that leading nations worldwide are starting to develop strategies and establish partnerships regarding the Arctic. At the forefront of those discussions should be the Arctic peoples. I am honored to be here today on behalf of the Government of Greenland to show our engagement to be active players in the dialogue to try and see how the increasing attention the Arctic is attracting internationally, can be transformed into real economic development for our peoples. Greenland is in many ways fortunate. We are a part of North America. We are so geographically, but we are also North American through our indigenous culture and language, which we share with Inuit across Arctic Canada and Alaska. However, despite Arctic Canada, Alaska and Greenland s geographical closeness, our shared Inuit heritage and the close cooperation between our respective capitals, cooperation and economic exchange between Greenland and the rest of North America could be much more evident. We are currently taking steps from our side to restore our physical connection with you, our North American neighbors. I will highlight some of these as well as the general areas where international partnerships are forming in a Greenland context. 1

2 Similar to the Canadian Arctic and Alaska, Greenland is characterized by our huge territory and landmass, small and remote communities, low population density and environmental conditions, which can differ extremely from region to region. Due to these special conditions, infrastructural improvements are vital. Therefore the Government of Greenland plans to build new and improved airports at several locations in Greenland with the aim of ensuring improved transport connections to our neighboring countries in the Arctic region, to North America and to Europe. More direct flight connections will be possible, and we expect improved accessibility and connection to the surrounding world the goal is simple but important: reduced travel time and lower prices on flights. Last year the construction of the new harbour in Nuuk was concluded and we have built a new and modern container terminal with harbour cranes, warehouses and workshops. The national shipping company Royal Arctic Line, concluded a very ambitious joint venture agreement with Iceland s Eimskip. Combined with our new container terminal in Nuuk, this will enable Greenland s shipping to go more often to Iceland, via new routes to the main ports in Europe, as well as to Canada and the United States. Once fully implemented, Greenland will be linked through Iceland for shipping directly to and from Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada and Boston and Portland in the United States. It is our hope that the efforts we put into infrastructural improvements will spur new partnerships with our neighbors in in a range of areas. 2

3 We are in Greenland in a broad government coalition. The new coalition brings together mandates of 87% of the electorate. The central theme which brings together this very broad coalition is a shared desire to substantially speed up Greenland s work towards achieving the economic foundations necessary for Greenland to achieve its independence from Denmark. Since 2009, when Greenland successfully negotiated the terms of its future independence from Denmark, with the Danish State, we have been working towards the goal of Greenland s independence. This is why Greenland has assumed full legislative and executive powers regarding areas as minerals and oil and gas resources in Greenland. The Greenland government has established a commission that will develop a constitution. One day Greenland will be an independent state. It is inevitable. It is agreed between Denmark and Greenland through an Act adopted by almost unanimous parliaments in both Greenland and Denmark. To achieve a viable economic future for our country, Greenland must be effectively integrated into the existing North American economy. Fishing continues to be the lifeline and primary industry of the Greenlandic economy, with a high degree of specialization. Today we have one of the most modern fleets of fishing vessels in the world and a large industry exporting high quality seafood products to the global markets. However, it remains important for the Greenlandic economy to diversify and find alternative sources of income. The 3

4 Greenlandic government is dedidated to diversiftying the economy and securing Greenland for future generations. In this regard, attracting foreign investments for other industries is crucial. Efforts are put into developing the sectors of energy and mineral resources and expand the tourism sector. We know from more than 200 years of collecting and study of minerals in Greenland that the country has a potential of being a great mining nation. The first ruby and sapphire mine is now coming on-stream. We will probably also see the first loads of the industrial product anorthosite shipped to customers this year, in a project where the European Investment Bank is co-financing. Other mining projects are also near handing in applications for the extraction of minerals. We have a lot of potential to exploit our resources and export our products. But we need to think smart and sustainably. I have in other occasions mentioned that innovation and technological development are key here. How can innovation and technology contribute for scattered and small communities to develop their local economies in a sustainable manner? Greenland has an abundance of clean fresh drinking water, ice and biological resources, and we now have legislation in place, which will form a good framework for initiatives to export clean fresh water, ice and biological resources. The potential for exporting drinking water and extending hydropower in Greenland is huge. Already today more than 70% of the power produced by our national utility company is powered from hydro. Our inland ice cap contains a staggering 4

5 10 % of the total fresh water resources in the world, and hydropower in Greenland could in the future be utilized in energy intensive activities such as in the production of aluminium, steel, copper as well as in the IT sector with our fiber optic cable capabilities. We already have successful examples of partnerships that have led to shared value or have the potential of bringing shared value.but we need more success stories. The population in Greenland - besides from our traditional close relationship with Denmark and increasingly so with Iceland - really does look west. We look west to our friends and neighbors in Canada and the United States. But if nobody in the United States and Canada are looking east to Greenland, Greenland will in trade, mining, fishing, transport and tourism work increasingly with partners from further afield as further afield as several Asian countries. It is already a fact, that for our fisheries exports and Greenland is the world s largest cold-water prawn exporter markets in Japan and China are becoming central, in our mining sector, some of our biggest mining projects are coming onstream with Chinese investments, and for the rare-earth elements projects, the processing will no doubt also be Chinese if other countries are not willing to develop their own capabilities. In economic terms this is how the world works. Investors work where they see opportunities and markets will get the products they demand. The way I see it, in order to achieve a viable economic future for our country, Greenland has to be effectively integrated into the existing North American economy, in addition to our 5

6 present close links with Europe. Without such integration, our economy will not be able to develop in a healthy balanced manner. For the past three hundred years, all shipping, transport and later air links from Greenland have gone to Europe through Denmark and now Iceland. None have gone to our neighbors - Canada or the U.S. - to the West. We are changing this now. But creating links is also about more than physical infrastructure. We need to talk more together. This is why in 2014, Greenland opened its diplomatic Representation to the United States in Washington D.C. In 2015 our Representative also became accredited to Canada. In 2013, Iceland opened its consulate in Nuuk, Greenland. This was a very significant development for us, since Iceland s Consul-General is the first permanent diplomatic presence posted in Greenland since the end of World War II. In Greenland we are open for business. And why not envisage having a Canadian or an American permanent diplomatic presence in Nuuk to help develop the potentials for more trade? I fully support Alaska s US Senator, Lisa Murkowski s suggestion to open a US Consulate in Nuuk. In Sum: In the coming years, there will be a number of major infrastructure investments taking place in Greenland, our tourism sector is under very rapid development, we have a number of important mineral projects being developed right now and we are planning to extend our hydropower sector even further. In all areas we are open to partners from abroad especially to our neighbors to the north with whom we share continent and culture. 6

7 With these words, I wish you a useful debate. QUJANAQ - THANK YOU 7