Denmark: Minister for Business and Growth Presents Maritime Award

On Friday 10 February 2012, the Danish Design Centre provided the setting for a happy maritime event. Here, Minister for Business and Growth Ole Sohn presented the Maritime Award 2011 to Copenhagen Business School for the master’s programme MBA in Shipping & Logistics – better known as the Blue MBA.

On behalf of the school, a proud President, Mr. Per Holten-Andersen, received the award, symbolised by a sculpture made by the artist Hans Pauli Olsen.

The first speaker on this occasion was the Deputy Director-General for Logistics, Maritime and Land Transport of the EU Commission Fotis Karamitsos, who spoke on the future of European shipping. He praised Denmark for being in the lead within quality shipping and for setting high standards in Europe and the rest of the world and spoke about the necessity of global guidelines for competition and safety, not least in relation to the problem of piracy. At the same time, he stressed the importance of the EU Environment Directorate-General promoting energy efficiency and, all in all, encouraging innovative and global solutions in the climate field.

Green growth with the Blue Denmark

Minister for Business and Growth Ole Sohn also took up the green thread in his speech on the visions for the Blue Denmark, which according to the Minister may help create growth and employment, not least by means of environmentally friendly initiatives. As an example, he mentioned equipment for cleaning ballast water which can meet the new regulations in the environmental area.

In order to promote growth, the government has established a ministerial committee in which also the maritime industry plays an important role and which is included through dialogue meetings and so-called growth teams. Mr. Ole Sohn also emphasized that the government will strive to make it easier to be a company and seaman – much paper work and comprehensive control are to be simplified, and the systems are to be made more flexible.

An innovative award recipient

Then, Mr. Ole Sohn let the Chairman of the jury, Mr. Knud Pontoppidan, have the floor to motivate the choice of Copenhagen Business School as the winner of the Maritime Award 2011. He stressed that, with the Blue MBA, the school has increased the level of knowledge and the capacity for innovation through a holistic approach to shipping. With this master’s programme, we have got a blue network to the benefit of everyone.

At the same time, we should be pleased that the Blue MBA has created an international environment in that more than 15 different nationalities have been represented in each of the three classes. Thus, Copenhagen Business School has placed Denmark on the map of the world as one of the places where efforts are made professionally to further develop shipping.

In his speech of thanks, President Per Holten-Andersen looked outward to the world. In order to characterise the initiative for the winning master’s programme, he first quoted the Greek poet Sophocles: “Seek and ye shall find”. And towards the end of his speech, he drew a parallel to the English Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who during World War II, admonished his commanders that it was more important to look at the results than the beautiful strategy: ”However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”

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Source: DMA, February 15, 2012