Greenland Business Association CEO On 'Hostile Takeover' Fears

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00:00i think it's important to remember that this is something we've been living with for for quite

00:03some time now it's been it's been going on since 2019 basically so it's not new to us so what's

00:09happening these days doesn't hold the same news value to us as it does other places what i'm

00:14hearing and seeing is there's somewhat irritation now that they're still talking about takeovers

00:19annexation and so on because basically we have a good relationship with the us our government

00:24and our business community has has worked hard over the years to strengthen the ties to look

00:29for more opportunities for business and to attract more us investors to greenland

00:34and all the while we're doing that and all the frameworks are in place to do that on the side

00:38someone is still talking about taking over and annexation it just seems unnecessary to achieve

00:43more business is it actually going to make people more resistant to us investment in greenland given

00:51the commentary that we're hearing as you say and have been hearing for several years now

00:56well what we're hearing is you know if you if you're dealing with with something coming out

01:00of the us you probably stop uh an extra second and think wow am i now being part of a hostile takeover

01:06so it does definitely um break things uh at least for a while okay in terms of um specific kind of

01:17reaction in the business community have things changed if you say that it's an a long-running issue i mean

01:23the rhetoric has become um more stark in recent weeks with more uh trump administration officials

01:30talking about it far more clearly has there been a change in just the last couple of weeks with

01:36with greenland business people not necessarily no we were annoyed i think that's the best word

01:42we were irritated by by this going on in the background because it's something that that disturbs

01:46the business environment but for our everyday lives we go about our businesses and we're trying to deal with

01:51the you know close to home problems uh looking domestically to solve the things several you

01:57know that we need to deal with and the opportunities we have in country so this is not something that

02:02takes up a lot of attention for most of the the greener businesses do people view it as an opportunity

02:07though i mean we are reporting showing that there these officials are looking for ways to try and

02:11invest in green and could that actually help to perhaps solve some of the day-to-day issues if there

02:16is going to be an influx of money from the us yeah i think if you look at the bigger picture and

02:21what's been going on over several years if you look at the government the greener government's

02:24official strategy for uh for foreign um investments and companies i think definitely we've we've we've

02:31seen some attention and there has been some interest and this is also seen as a way of of attracting

02:36more investments from the from the us side definitely uh in terms of the idea of um the kind of response

02:46from denmark and from the eu there's meant to be this meeting in the next few days next week between

02:51the foreign ministers of denmark of greenland and of the united states what do you want to see from

02:56that what do you hope is going to be that the message and do you think it'll be received now

03:01speaking only as a business person what we like is stability we don't want all this up and down and

03:07all this in uncertainty and insecurity going on in the background so we'd like to see them create some

03:12sort of stability as to what's going on in that relationship between these um two or three

03:17parties depending on how you look at it can you talk us through from a practical point of view how

03:23the uncertainty is affecting businesses in terms of our investment decisions being delayed our orders

03:28being delayed what are the practical consequences well all of the above basically but having said that

03:35this is something that's going on right now again so so i think we're we're seeing we're seeing people

03:41look to green and look at the opportunities partly because of all the attention partly because of

03:45that strategy we've been we've been um working for many many years trying to attract more foreign

03:51investment but obviously uh you'll see people uh on standby for a while at least um i'm quite certain

03:58that's happening at the moment in terms of why you know there's not been more us investment into

04:06greenland there has been this idea and people understand that there are natural resources

04:12in greenland but the main export from greenland is fish about 97 percent for example so there's a kind of

04:20there's a there's a difference a gap maybe between the idea of what might be delivered and what's actually

04:26happening i mean you live and work in in greenland what's your view of why there's not been

04:31not been an ability to kind of build a better relationship or a bigger wider uh business

04:37relationship with the us so far different factors come into play first of all if you look at greenland

04:44as an import or export for the u.s import to greenland market you know it's a small country of 56 000

04:50people very few consumers overall so market wise market size not necessarily super interesting

04:57for for exporters looking the other way the exports from greenland to north america that's

05:02an annual value about 33 million u.s dollars and that's next to nothing and that's due to the fact

05:08that the yields the prices we're getting in the north american market are much lower than we can

05:12get in in other overseas markets so obviously we'll be looking elsewhere um for for takeoff of our products

05:19um when it comes to anything minerals you know it's it's it's not solely down to what's going on in

05:25greenland it's also uh down to what's going on in the global markets um chinese protectionism other

05:31things coming into to to play and finally uh if we talk tourism we have seen a growth from north america

05:38especially the us over recent years and with a new direct group between nuke our capital and new york

05:44city we are seeing more americans visit um agreement and that's something we're trying to grow

05:50uh alongside and then together with american travel agencies airlines and so on and and those

05:58that say are all positive signals i do appreciate and you have you have said it very clearly that

06:02this is something that people in greenland have been living with for many years now this rhetoric

06:07coming from the us but nonetheless the mention this week of not ruling out military action is that

06:13something that i mean how do people and businesses feel about that agreement

06:17that's what i said before it seems very very unnecessary it's a small country very few people

06:23um it's it's it's going to be an easy rollover or takeover if you roll in with the military i think

06:28a lot of people have been been making suggestions as to how that will go this will go down but

06:32obviously talking to a friend about a hostile takeover using the military just seems very much out of place

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