Ávarp ferðamála-, iðnaðar- og nýsköpunarráðherra á netráðstefnunni „India Nordic Baltic Conclave“

5 nóvember 2020

Dear guests

First of all I would like to thank CII and the Indian Ministry of External affairs for inviting me to address this important event, the India-Nordic-Baltic-Conclave.

It is an honor for Iceland to belong to the league of Nordic-Baltic nations which rank at the top globally as some of the most innovative and sustainable economies in the world. It is exiting as well to be able to extend our network and connection to India, a country that shares our mission for progress in the field of technology and innovation.

We are a small nation, located on a geographically isolated island. Our economy is small, our currency is tiny and our language is one of the smallest in world. But we have a long-standing history of looking outwards towards the world and seeking benefits from both cultural and economic exchanges with other countries.

Our challenges as well as our opportunities consist of turning our special circumstances into strengths. Our record so far indicates that we have managed to do so in the past, and we are very much continuing on that path.

We know that we cannot compete with other countries when it comes to manufacturing based on high-volume manual labor. We are, on the other hand, relatively well educated, with good technical skills and secure social infrastructure and we are open to new technologies and development in collaboration with other countries.

We are blessed with rich natural resources, including sustainable geothermal energy and hydro-power. These valuable resources are beneficial to us as a nation and also enable us to play a part in the global battle against climate change.

We have developed new technologies for utilizing these resources for the purposes of heating and providing power to various industries. In recent years we have also seen exciting developments of technologies that aim to capture greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere and industrial installations.

For example, Carbfix has developed ways to turn carbon-dioxide into minerals in the ground, and Carbon Recycling has developed a method for turning it into methanol. These new processes have potential global applications and we will here some of them introduced here today.

The ocean around Iceland is a key resource for us, with its fertile fishing grounds. We have managed this limited resource in a sustainable manner, not only through responsible fishing but also by employing innovation to extract more value from the same resource. Today, our ocean resources not only provide us with food but also high-value advanced products such as supplements, medical products and clothing. This field has many success stories and some of them will be shared here today by the Ocean Cluster.

The innovation, research and development conducted in clusters such as the Ocean Cluster has the potential to grow into major commercial enterprises. An example of this is the company Marel, which was originally founded to develop new technologies for fish processing. Marel has become one of our most important high-tech company, with operations around the world in the field of advanced equipment for food-production. The firm has been a leader in the field of digital industrial technology and digital transformation, enabling faster, more flexible and more efficient processes to produce high-quality goods at reduced cost.

We recognize that we must strengthen our infrastructure with respect to digital transformation and artificial intelligence. To this end, we see valuable opportunities in co-operating with other countries, both with our neighbours in the Nordics and Baltics and with others who share our strong technological infrastructure and our positive and flexible culture with respect to developing and adopting new technologies. A great example of this is X-Road, a project that we are implementing in Iceland, modeling it on Estonian and Finnish projects regarding the secure transition of data between organizations.

We have already made notable progress in digital transformation for the benefit of society, within both the public and private sectors. But we know we must do more, and that view has of course been further strengthened by the Covid-pandemic. Key opportunities for further innovation in this field include healthcare and various public services.

New companies in the field of healthcare have made promising progress based on artificial intelligence and open data. These include Advania and Leviosa in the field of healthcare software development, and Controlant, with its software solutions to increase security and quality in the supply chain and logistics.

Finally, we should mention the tendency of knowledge to have positive impacts across sectors. For example, some of the important progress made in digital healthcare can partly be traced to knowledge originating from the gaming industry. CCP, an internationally established gaming developer, has made important contributions to the Icelandic innovation scene, with impacts beyond its own field of gaming. Knowledge developed at gaming companies such as CCP has contributed towards new solutions in preventive healthcare, solutions that focus on interactive digital communication with patients.

In closing, the many success stories we have already witnessed have inspired in us both optimism and a firm belief that innovation has the potential to become not only a significant pillar of our economy but a major one.

For its part, the government puts great emphasis on providing a competitive business environment for innovators. Several significant steps have been taken in that regard recently, and we are continuing on that path, based on the newly adopted Innovation Policy for Iceland.

International co-operation is a key enabler for success, and we value the opportunity very much to take part in events such as this.

We look forward to working with both our neighbors in the Nordics and Baltics, as well as strengthening our relationship with our friends in India.

I repeat my thanks to our hosts and organizers and the Indian ambassador to Iceland, Mr. Changsan, for facilitating our participation here today, and I look forward to our cooperation, sharing more ideas and experiences, and learning from my colleagues participating here today. – Thank you.