Morning Briefing – Monday, November 18

The Copenhagen Post’s daily round-up of the front pages and other major Danish news stories

Nov 18, 2013

Manufacturing job growth predicted
After falling by more than half since the 1960s, the number of manufacturing jobs is forecast to begin growing again in the coming years. By 2020, as many as 25,000 new manufacturing jobs could be created as firms reach the end of a trend that has seen them outsource the simplest, lowest wage manufacturing jobs, according to a report by union Dansk Metal. Analysts confirmed that demand for the types of higher-quality products requiring skilled manufacturing was on the increase. Some 300,000 Danes work in manufacturing jobs. – Jyllands-Posten

Greenland leaders split over uranium
Lawmakers in Copenhagen should keep its hands off Greenland’s uranium, says that country’s premier, Aleqa Hammond. “I can understand that Denmark wants to get involved and call this a foreign policy and security issue, but Denmark needs to respect that the Self-Rule authority has the right to all natural resources in Greenland.” Hammond’s political opponents say the 2009 agreement between Nuuk and Copenhagen granting Greenland increased autonomy did not address the question of uranium. “We’re not ready to make that decision,” Kuupik Kleist, the former premier and opposition leader, said. – Information

Black is the new green
For the first time in seven years, exports of technology for extracting and burning fossil fuels have eclipsed sustainable energy technology exports, according to statistics from Dansk Energi, an energy industry lobby. Firms selling so-called black energy technologies, many of which also develop green technologies, predicted sales growth in both areas in the next decade, but said a stagnant economy and the continued growth of oil and gas exports in the US meant oil and gas technologies would outstrip exports of wind turbines and other forms of green technologies. During the first six months of this year, sales of green technologies fell 18 percent, while sales of fossil fuel technologies remained constant. – Børsen

From don to don’t
The man at the centre of one of the country’s biggest cases of insider trading will be stripped of his right to run a business, if investigators have their way. Flemming ‘Don Ø’ Østergaard is accused of manipulating the share price of FC Copenhagen while he was managing director of PSE, the company that owns the club. Østergard sits on the board of at least 10 companies in Denmark and abroad. Financial crimes investigators said they would ask prosecutors to seek to require that, if convicted, Østergaard and Jørgen Glistrup, also a former executive with PSE, would not be able to be involved with the operation of a commercially oriented business unless they were personally financially responsible for it. – Berlingske Business

Editorial Excerpt | There is hope for local government
Local politicians are just as unprofessional today as they were in past years. The difference is that nowadays they have much more to do and are much harder to get in touch with. On top of that, we see local councils increasingly eliminating the democratic voice residents have in the way schools and other public institutions are run. […] Lots of local councils are doing things to end the status quo, but it is true that local government is in trouble. The solution isn’t staying home on election day. The solution is a thorough reform that makes local government more customer-service oriented. – Børsen

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