The Lithuanian-Danish business forum’s main aim is to create more partnerships between Danes and Lithuanians and not to only promote Danish exports, said the President of the Danish Chamber of Commerce in Lithuania Thomas Solupajev-Ronlev.
The Lithuanian-Danish business forum’s main aim is to create more partnerships between Danes and Lithuanians and not to only promote Danish exports, said the President of the Danish Chamber of Commerce in Lithuania Thomas Solupajev-Ronlev.
Today, a delegation of 22 Danish companies, headed to the Crown Prince of Denmark, is taking part in the Forum.
The main expectation from the visit of the Crown Prince to Lithuania is of a reciprocal nature – to promote Denmark in Lithuania and to promote Lithuania in Denmark.
“As the Chamber of Commerce, one of our main tasks is to put Lithuania on the map of Denmark and to put Denmark on the map of Lithuania in a positive way. This is why it is so important that the Crown Prince is leading the delegation, because he is a guarantee that we will get attention both in Denmark and in Lithuania,” Solupajev-Ronlev said to The Lithuania Tribune.
The Director of the Chamber is convinced that the Danish media needs more positive stories about Lithuania, which needs some positive image building in Denmark.
“In the Danish media there are two main topics were the Lithuanians are involved; it is robberies of summer houses and what they call ‘social dumping’, that is when the Lithuanians are taking jobs that the Danes would not like to take, and they take them at the lower payment rate,” Solupajev-Ronlev explained.
“These are, unfortunately, topics which are filling too much of the space in the Danish media. It is unfair, it is a fact, and we need to bring something positive stories, we cannot replace it but we could balance them against the negative stories,” he said.
Since the Crown Prince has been to Lithuania on private visits quite a few times before, he knows Lithuania rather well. So, he is not a stranger here. “He is coming to see of that has happened in Lithuania so far, what are the new ideas, what theLithuanians are thinking, and bring that message back to Denmark,” the president of the Danish Chamber of Commerce explained.
The important part of the visit is to bring the Lithuanian and Danish business closure together, Solupajev-Ronlev reiterated.
According to the President of the Chamber the Forum is to focus of a few issues: construction industry, energy efficiency of the renovated old Soviet blocks of flats, and how to do it in the right way.
“It is not about the cheapest solution here and now, but how to use the right technologies which will have a long lasting positive effect. The best ideas and concepts from Denmark are going to be presented in the forum,” he told The Lithuania Tribune.
“But another aspect is that it is not only about promotion and exports, it is also about creating partnerships. It is not only about the Danes coming and conquering the Lithuanian market, but this is about partnerships between Denmark and Lithuania,” Solupajev-Ronlev continued.
Such cooperation could open new markets in the former Eastern bloc, and that should benefit the Lithuanian and Danish businesses. “Lithuania is a small country in a big former Eastern bloc where the problems are basically the same. So, if we can achieve some substantial solutions in Lithuania, perhaps this could be exported to the rest of the region. There is a lot what Lithuanians and Danes could do together,” Solupajev-Ronlev expressed his hope.
What will you say to the Crown Prince if you will manage to have a tête-à-tête conversation with him, The Lithuania Tribune asked Thomas Solupajev-Ronlev . “I will thank him for giving us the opportunity for bringing those topics that are very important for as at the right level. I will express our gratitude about us being able to show that Lithuania and Denmark can cooperate successfully. (…) By working together we could also become a dynamic region which could deliver the world class solutions. This is what I would like to thank him for.”
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