Campaigns to win export contracts
Innovation Norway and the whole of Team Norway are helping Norwegian companies win major international commercial contracts and work in, for example, tunnel technology in Chile, or offshore wind in Japan.
“We do this via collective, targeted, long-term work by Team Norway. Our efforts are steered by the market’s needs and opportunities for business and companies. In them, business and the public business support system, such as ambassadors, business clusters, and stakeholders such as Innovation Norway set common goals and produce joint action plans. It is clear that this type of public-private partnership produces results within exports,” says the head of strategic export initiatives and the HPO programme in Innovation Norway, Eli Wærum Rognerud.
Eight HPO projects commenced in 2022 linked to opportunities within offshore wind in Europe, the US, and Japan, hydrogen for the maritime sector in Germany, the circular economy in Singapore and Southeast Asia, green maritime exports in China, tunnels in Chile, and defence technology in the US. New projects are constantly being added.
What is an HPO project?
In simple terms, an HPO project is a campaign in which Team Norway, through multi-year efforts, helps groups position themselves in international markets. Such a campaign can last for up to six years and has to trigger a contract value of at least NOK 500 million for the participating companies.
“Companies and business players, other business support agencies, and Innovation Norway’s offices can all propose new HPO projects. While the projects are administered by Innovation Norway, the project managers are often brought in from the business sector. Furthermore, the activities in a project could be numerous and complex, and can include producing market studies, delegations and visiting markets, dialogue with local authorities, Norwegian participation at trade fairs, and marketing to potential buyers of Norwegian goods and services. Companies also receive bespoke advice and assistance from our international offices,” says Rognerud.
National team
The participating companies have to do a lot of the work themselves and are billed for services (joint activities and individual advice) based on the same principles as those applied to companies outside HPO, in line with the state aid regulations. In most projects, the co-funding from business is well above 50 per cent.
“With these initiatives we are building ‘a national team’ that can position Norway internationally, and it is clear that this is working. Quite simply, we gain a better foothold and stronger market position when we join together,” says Rognerud.
The embassies and Export Finance Norway are involved in most HPO projects and NORWEP is a partner in all energy-related projects. Each of the projects also has two to three so-called ‘industry partners’, in other words suppliers from business itself. This ensures that the projects respond to the needs of business and increase the expertise and networks in the projects.
Satisfied companies
Some 19 Norwegian companies have received assistance with networks, contacts, and positioning in the market through the offshore wind initiative in France, and in an evaluation from 2022 all of the companies were positive about the services they have received from Innovation Norway and Team Norway.
The evaluation, conducted by Oxford Research, also pointed out that the services delivered by Team Norway produced better results than they would have had they been delivered individually or by private players. The results measured in terms of export contracts are also positive: in 2022 alone, companies that received assistance through HPO projects reported more than NOK 1.8 billion in new contracts.