Scan Magazine | Business Profile | Trekantområdet
With its many beautiful towns, large green areas and cultural attractions, the Triangle Region is an attractive place not just for companies to settle but also for their employees and their families. Photo: Mikkel-Frost-Cebra
‘Our industry is a strength, not a burden’ As the oldest business region in Denmark, the Triangle Region (‘Trekantområdet’) has been working to create a fertile environment for businesses for decades. The result is a thriving industry that attracts and employs a diverse workforce from all over Europe. During the last three years alone, 3,000 new jobs were created. By Signe Hansen | Press photos
Encompassing seven municipalities in central Jutland and on the island of Funen, the Triangle Region is one of great diversity but also great unity. Since the official creation of the business region in 1994, its board – which consists of the mayors of the seven municipalities – and directorship have created and executed an extensive joint strategy for business development based on the region’s many shared strengths, such as its extensive industry, central location in Denmark, and affordable quality of life.
Going against the trend By educating and re-training the workforce, promoting circular economy, and 94 | Issue 99 | April 2017
creating a streamlined administrative sector, the Triangle Region has succeeded in boosting its manufacturing sector significantly in recent years. This stands in stark contrast to the general trend in Denmark and the rest of western Europe, which has seen many manufacturing sites and jobs move abroad. “It’s interesting because in Denmark, and the rest of the world in general, eight to ten years ago we began seeing the industry as something we should get rid of so that we could focus on knowledge and innovation,” says Morten Rettig, director of the Triangle Region. “But I think we’ve realised that the world just doesn’t
work like that; knowledge and production are interlinked, and that’s why it’s not impossible for us to compete with lowincome areas. We’ve always had a strong industry, and instead of seeing that as a burden we’ve seen it as a potential and, through that approach, have managed to create 3,000 new jobs in the last three years.”
Creating new jobs and new employees With an eight per cent increase in manufacturing jobs over the last three years, the Triangle Region is the area with the greatest industrial growth in Denmark. To ensure that the industry can continue to grow and develop, the region has a joint strategy on a range of areas including workforce mobility, education and training, and innovation and culture. “The greatest challenge, when things are going as well as they are in our region, is ensuring that our companies can recruit the employees they need. We work to se-