The land of the midnight sun offers vast opportunities for Indian businesses

For Indian businesses looking to invest further North in Europe, Norway offers a wealth of opportunities for business investment and expansion.

The land of the midnight sun is famed for many things besides the Northern lights. Norway ranks among the top ten countries in the world on the world happiness ranking, the world talent ranking, the world competitiveness ranking, the environmental performance index and the ease of doing business ranking. Although the country is not a member of the European Union it is fully integrated in the European single market through the EEA and Schengen Agreement. For the discerning investor, Norway also offers a highly skilled workforce, characterised by high competence, independence and efficiency, while a balanced three party cooperation between the government, labour unions and industry confederations ensures high industry competitiveness across sectors.

Some key sectors of interest:

Energy

Norway is leader in Green energy. Rich in natural resources 98 per cent of the country's electricity production is generated via renewables. Highly efficient hydropower plants are located in the fjords with access to deep water ports. Norway also excels in carbon capture and utilisation and storage (CCU), having a long history and knowledge on CCU through its oil and gas industry. Although Norway has focused primarily on CCS, the recycling or utilisation of carbon (CCU) is a new industrial opportunity the country is actively pursuing and as such looking for foreign companies and investors to set up CCU facilities, to do testing or demo or to invest in some of the ongoing projects in Norway.

Electric batteries

Norwegian industry produces substantial amounts of aluminium and silicon, in addition to refining nickel, cobalt, graphite and copper - all important materials in battery production. Because virtually all energy in the country comes from renewable sources, these processed materials made in Norway have some of the smallest environmental footprints in the world. With a world-leading process industry, there is great potential in the production of such precursor materials in Norway - that is, preparing the metals that need to be processed before they go into the batteries themselves

Health tech

Norway has a long-standing tradition in treatment of cancer. The Norwegian Radium Hospital, now part of Oslo University Hospital, is renowned for excellence in clinical practice as well as innovation. It is also a leader in vivo imaging, both for diagnosis and image-guided intervention, as well as the integration of image technologies in clinical practices. In particular the country has established and renowned R&D facilities and expertise, which are particularly relevant given the current pandemic crisis. What's more clinical trial units at hospitals and clinics are designed to perform complex and early phase trials under highly skilled and trained medical staff with an expertise in clinical research