Speech by the Prime Minister at the naming ceremony for "Höegh Borealis" in China

The speech is checked against delivery

Good morning all of you,

It is such a great honour to be here,

Excellencies, Mayor of Nantong City, Madame Zhang, Deputy General Manager of China Merchant Group, Chairman of Höegh Autoliners, Leif Höegh, dear friends – and, let me say, dear all of you, working at this tremendous shipyard and having contributed to this impressive event,

Coming from Norway, a shipping nation with a long coast – Norway has the world's second largest coastline – so, we are used to see ships being built – but coming here now is an impressive experience.

Sea and ship building is really a key to what is bringing Norway and China together. And that is why some of the first Norwegians who traveled to China, they came by ships and with the purpose of doing shipping activities. We are both proud maritime nations.

It is therefore a great honor for me to be here today to take part in the naming ceremony for “Höegh Borealis”. It is a really great event and a privilege.

We have just learned that this is the second of 12 commissioned auto-carriers by Höegh Autoliners to the China Merchant Heavy Industry here in this very dynamic province. And these ships are impressive in scale, carrying over 9 000 cars. By the way, that is about 8 % of the number of cars sold in Norway every year. So, 10 trips with these ships and you have all the cars in my country.

As Prime Minister of Norway, I am also pleased that many of the sub-contractors putting technology and purpose and equipment into these ships are Norwegian, coming out of Norwegian industry, Norwegian ingenuity. You are world-leading in your respectable fields of expertise and I commend you for your achievements.

So, this is another example of how Norwegian industries coming together with Chinese partners, taking the best of both sides and making extraordinary results in a joint project.

Then, I would like to say that this ship is certified as so-called “Ammonia Ready and Methanol Ready”. So, it is really pointing to the future of modern shipping. These ships represent the future of an industry that the world would need. – The green shift as we call it, of the energy transition, which is now taking place gradually on land and at sea.

Developing green corporation is also one of the main purposes of my visit to China. And in my conversations with President Xi and with Prime Minister Li Qiang yesterday, and with the Minister of Trade, this has been the issue. – How can Norway and China cooperate on the green transition, be complementary, and also have support politically from both governments. We now support these developments. We have made a joint statement where we agree to strengthen our cooperation on the green transition.

So, this agreement in itself invites you, the industry, to move forward based on common initiatives to do climate and environmentally friendly industrial progress and innovation. And in all of this, green shipping is key.

Both Norway and China are working systematically to reduce emissions from our maritime industries. And let me compliment Höegh and say that with this ship you will be leading and you will be plowing the seas in a way where others will follow.

We have valuable experience and knowledge to share between ourselves and with other countries. This may be a new level playing field of how modern industry at sea will operate. The green transition needs concerted efforts and all efforts.

So, dear friends, I will conclude my visit to China by meeting with the Party Secretary of Shanghai, Mr. Chen Jining, later today, being able to confirm and follow-up on this ambition to strengthen our cooperation on industry, the green transition, and what I would call a new age of complementarity.

I want to congratulate all of you on this immense project. I want to pass greetings to every man and woman who has contributed to this ship being building and for what comes next. I look forward to taking a closer look at the ship now. And today, I would simply like to say thank you and heartfelt congratulations!