Distinguished participants,

Ladies and Gentlemen.

It is a great pleasure for me to welcome you all to Ålesund, and to InnoTown Design and Innovation Festival. I am impressed and glad to see so many participants from a number of countries. Ålesund is the commercial and industrial capital of this region, a region known for its furniture industry and fishing exports. Also, Ålesund is considered one of the most attractive cities in Norway, much due to the style of which it is built. After a devastating fire in 1904, the town was rebuilt in the prevalent style, Art Noveau. So, I think both the importance of form to this city and the industrial importance of the region forms the perfect context for an event like InnoTown.

On behalf of the Norwegian government, I would like to say that we consider InnoTown an exciting fresh gain of stimulation to professional activity and networking within a field that is developing rapidly. We especially appreciate InnoTown’s international scope, and look forward to follow the planned annual recurrence of the arrangement.

1. Introduction

The internationalisation of business and economic life represents challenges and opportunities to all actors. In a context where competitiveness, innovation and market adjustment is the order of the day, knowledge and skills related to the integration of design in product- development and market-communication is increasingly important.

This is essentially the basis of the Norwegian government’s engagement related to design in the field of trade- and industry. Let me present a few general observations, before returning to the governments views and efforts in the field of design and innovation.

2. Design in a Global Market Context

In today’s global market context, products and services have to reflect higher degrees of knowledge and higher degrees of refinement in order to succeed. The adoption of design expertise has emerged as one way to raise these standards of production. Professional designers have the insights of humanities and aesthetics. These insights represent important input to traditional product development.

Moreover, today’s consumption is characterised by a stronger focus on individuality and the distinctiveness of the product. Consumers want more than the mere physical and functional: Products should also appeal to our emotions and values. They have to tell a good story. Especially in those segments of the market where technical solutions becomes increasingly uniform, first class design can, and often do, play a crucial role in determining the consumers choice.

By and large, the new standards of production and consumption, the need to involve knowledge and expertise in product-development add up to a potential for high quality design to make a difference. We should also note that increased efforts to utilise design in processes of production actually have been shown to be profitable to many producers.

3. Industrial Policy

Based on these observations, I would like to outline the major concerns of the Norwegian government in the field of industrial design.

First of all, the government appreciates the commercial importance of design. Certainly, we have seen Norwegian business actors at the leading edge within commercial design, but there is a need to increase efforts to promote both the availability and the adoption of high quality design in Norwegian business and production. At present, only about 25 percent of Norwegian companies say that they are using design in the development of new products and processes of production. It should be more.

Furthermore, the expected decrease in activity within the petroleum-related industry in Norway implies that stronger emphasis should be put on design within our industrial policy. The Ministry of Trade and Industry already provides financial grants to the Norwegian Design Council, whose primary task is to serve as an advisory capacity towards Norwegian firms. The Design Council co-operates with the Norwegian Regional and Industrial Development Fund. And because the Fund is represented in all regions of Norway, this joint ambition has increased the scope of the Norwegian design policy on behalf of Norwegian firms.

With regards to our future industrial policy, I would like to address three specific areas where the government sees important challenges and incentives.

First, information technology is almost an unavoidable subject these days. And there are reasons to raise this issue here as well. The actual design of user interfaces on computers and on the World Wide Web is increasingly important to firms with regards to trade and marketing. Also, in the field of product development virtual production is emerging as an important tool in the design process. This way, one or several stages of production are managed through the computer, representing new opportunities to innovative product development. To the firm, virtual production may also contribute to reduce costs.

My second point concerns design and the so-called new economy. The way I see it, the new economy is not exclusively about advanced technology or IT; the new economy is also about new sources of competitiveness, of innovation. In this context design represents a factor input to innovation. Also, design is a source of innovation that does not necessarily involve research, making it an accessible input factor to innovation for small- and medium sized firms with limited resources.

We should note, however, that the new economy requires creativity, flexibility and interdisciplinary knowledge. I therefore believe that more attention should be paid to the integration of design into research and development projects. Design fits in here as one amongst several key variables that may contribute to successful strategies aimed at commercial success for new products.

The application of virtual or computer-based methods of production has in fact positive effects on the third specific area in which I see an increasing relevance of industrial design, namely the environment. An exciting approach in this field is to integrate environmental thinking and analyses of product life cycles into the process of product development. The approach requires additional knowledge with the designers regarding ecology, optimisation of resources and so forth. It is my impression that designers in general are enthusiastic about this approach.

One Norwegian firm has actually managed to turn recycling of screw caps in the production of chairs into a commercial asset. The Norwegian Government wishes to contribute to this kind of creative thinking, and has initiated a project about sustainable product design. The aim of the program is to promote awareness both of environmental issues in product design and development, and how firms can turn green thinking into commercial advantages.

4. International co-operation and movement of ideas

To conclude, I would like to point out that international networks and assemblies are vital to all actors of economic life. Producers and industrial developers rely on a wide scope of information and contacts in order to be up to date. This is of no less importance to the field we address here in Ålesund today. Design is a truly international field, because both producers and consumers are increasingly crossing national boundaries.

I think InnoTown is a well-suited occasion for Norwegian and foreign actors to absorb and develop new ideas and professional networks. I hope InnoTown will contribute and communicate in this regard. I am honoured to declare the first InnoTown for opened.