Page 44 - Danish Offshore Industry 2015

Mayor Johnny Søtrup is pleased to see major, future projects in Esbjerg Harbour. ties for both industries. In 2013 some 25-26 new companies settled down here to serve the energy industry, and even if some challenges are showing on the horizon, we expect this trend to continue. RELATED CHALLENGES While the potential for continuous development is present offshore, the town of Esbjerg is challenged by ensuring that the infrastructure is available on the shore. Here Johnny Søtrup admits that a number of aspects – only indirectly related to offshore – are still to be addressrd. “We have to meet some other more or less related chal- lenges. Our geographic position with our back to the sea requires that we are able to provide suffcient accommoda- tion for students. We simply must have a certain number of rooms or fats for young people. It is simply to our own beneft, as it is easier to make youngsters stay in the area when they have fnished their studies than to attract similar persons having completed their studies in other parts of the country,” states the Mayor, who wants, too, to increase the educational level at the local institutions. “If we are to persuade the best of the students to stay in our region – which is our ambition – it is of paramount importance, that we can provide the best possible teachers, so we must be better at fnancing the grants for taking a doctor’s degree. We need to create an attractive environ- ment at our institutions in order to avoid potential students to consider other towns for their studies. We need more and better research at our local universities in order to provide a larger pool of students for later recruitment,” states Johnny Søtrup, who is not afraid of proposing a fgure for his aim. “The municipality of Esbjerg is strictly focused on our policy from now on and to the year of 2020, where we aim at having grown to 120,000 inhabitants. During the same period our number of students should grow from the pre- sent 6,600 to more than 10,000. If our present curve contin- ues we can easily meet that number and thereby maintain the desired development and an increase in the tax revenue of our town,” claims Johnny Søtrup who is determined to WE HAVE BEEN continue the positive tale of Esbjerg, the Energy Metropolis. “The brand is still a quite new, but it is getting known JUDGED OUT SEVERAL around, so we have to follow up by creating even more attractive environments in our town if the growing number TIMES, BUT of jobs is to be refected in an increase of the population. FORTUNATELY WE In that respect we have been lucky to attract a number of national infrastructure projects as there is a growing under- HAVE SHOWN ABLE TO standing of the national perspective of the contribution of the offshore industry,” states an optimistic Johnny Søtrup. ADJUST “All this provides for an increasingly international atmos- phere supported by attractive projects like the large, new domiciles of Esbjerg Strand as well as the future offshore windfarm, Horns Rev 3, expected to call for 8,000 jobs dur- ing the construction phase, so we shall be careful not to aim too low.” ■ 44 / ESBJERG TO DOUBLE THE AMOUNT OF OFFSHORE JOBS