Seminar: Global OUTsourcing - Nordic INsourcing
10-11 May 2005 / Hotel D´Angleterre / Copenhagen / Denmark
The conference is organized by the Nordic Council of Ministers, the Nordic Council and the Nordic Innovation Centre. The overall purpose of the conference is to examine how industry and governments of the Nordic countries can benefit the most from outsourcing. In these terms, outsourcing is conceived as a two-stringed phenomenon.
In the classic sense, i.e. from the Nordic high-salary environment to primarily Asian low-cost area, this process has already taken place for a number of years and has become a predominant feature in the search for a competitive edge for the European/US industry. On the other hand, examples of insourcing (i.e. from Asia/USA to the Nordic area) have illustrated that the Nordic countries have the capacity and capability to attract foreign capital and industry. But are we exploiting our potential as an insourcing-region enough to get through this process of fundamental global change in production patterns, not only surviving, but also being strengthened?
To find out, one needs to clarify the industrial preconditions for outsourcing, thus accommodating a discussion of what can be done industrially and politically to make Nordic industry succeed – home and abroad. Needless to say, market mechanisms, industrial leaders and owners of capital are the principal stakeholders in this process – but can we stimulate certain trends in the Nordic area? Thus, the ultimate goal of the conference becomes the search for political recommendations that can be initiated in order to stimulate further global outsourcing and increase insourcing to the Nordic countries.