NORWEGIAN business leaders visited the region yesterday to look at strengthening commercial links between the North-East and Scandinavia.
Jostein Soland, chief executive of the Stavanger Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Bjorn Stangeland, head of the Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry, met inward investment experts from regional development agency One NorthEast and representatives the North-East Chamber of Commerce, NewcastleGateshead Initiative and Northern Offshore Federation.
The day-long tour was designed to showcase the North-East as a potential business partner for Norwegian companies, particularly from the technology sector.
It was organised by Mike Pedersen, recently-appointed by One NorthEast to sell the region as the Nordic gateway into Europe.
Mr Pedersen said: "Links between the North-East and Norway have traditionally been strong but have tended to drift in recent years.
"This visit is designed to update Norwegian business leaders with the latest developments in the North-East, such as One NorthEast's £200m Strategy for Success aimed at commercialising the best research and development from the region's universities.
"The Norwegian government is keen to develop hi-tech companies and also to globalise. We see the North-East as the ideal first staging post in this plan."
Twenty-four Norwegian companies operate in the region and the UK is Norway's single most important export market outside Scandinavia.
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