Port of Hanstholm Presents ambitious Development Plan

Creation date: 30 June 2009

More than 150 from The North Denmark Region, The Municipality of Thisted, the trade and the area in general participated yesterday 6^thJune, when the General Manager and the Board of Directors of Port of Hanstholm, presented an ambitious development plan with investments of a size of 1 billion DKK.

Chairman of the Board, Mr. Poul Arne Jensen made the welcome at the meeting and expressed both pride and gratitude for the great work that has been made during the past 9 months, when 50 business people, politicians, consultants and public servants have worked with great commitment and participation to make the plan. Hanstholm is now placed on the European map, said Poul Arne Jensen and continued We are good at Fishing and we plan on continuing this development. In the plan that has been made Fishing will also in the future be "the core business" but in order for us to 2-3-double our turnover, which is the goal, we must have legs to stand on and here we have chosen 2 other areas: Goods & Ferries and Climate & Energy.

Poul Arne Jensen encouraged politicians and others to support the plan so that the required financing will succeed and so that the plan can come into effect within 5-10 years.

A plan with more stages and 3 main visions.

After this, General Manager of The Port, Ms. Birgitte Juhl took over and went through the ambitious plan in details. The plan may be seen here:

Birgitte Juhl explained that the plan can and will be carried out in more stages and that the choices will depend upon the potentials acknowledged within the 3 main areas, which have been selected:

• Fishing
• Goods & Ferries
• Climate & Energy

The visions have been formulated as follows:

• Port of Hanstholm is to be developed from being the leading fishing port in Denmark to become the leading fishing port in entire Europe with a continuous focus on food safety
• Port of Hanstholm must exploit its location to develop the potential of the port to become transit port for goods and traffic and service centre for shipping between Europe, Scandinavia and The Gulf of Bothnia
• Port of Hanstholm is to be ferry port with connection to The Faroes, Iceland, Norway and Scotland
• Port of Hanstholm is to be centre for wave energy

Furthermore she presented an itinerary for the work, which will be adjusted continuously according to the possibilities turning up in the future, at the same time as the work in detail is being carried out in the different areas: We will grab the chances turning up on the way she said and carried on - but we will also work short term and long term, so that we already in August can start up "Immediate projects" in the existing port, especially looking at the needs of fishing in 1^st round. We have to continue backing up Hanstholm as the no. 1 consumer fishing port in Denmark - and for that reason also no. 1 in Europe.

But also the Wave Energy Centre has already been started up and we are now in continuous dialogue with ferry companies regarding their wishes and needs, both short and long term, so we do not sit on our hands until 2011 before we undertake further, we will be busy with all the jobs to do, also in the future, said Birgitte Juhl.

She finished thanking the assembly for the fine participation and support looking forward to the future work and she and the board of directors of the port received well deserved applause.

For further information:

General Manager of the Port

Ms. Birgitte Juhl, mail bj@portofhanstholm.dk