Danish Maritime Forum, or as some have

named it: ”The maritime worlds equivalent

of the Davos Meeting”, is the �agship on Danish

Maritime Days - 5 days in October, which is meant

to place Denmark in the centre of the maritime

world map for good. A melting pot �lled with

maritime arrangements all over the country,

and a showcase exhibition for Denmark’s in-

novative maritime solutions, technologies and

competence.

The former ship owner in A. P. Møller-Maersk

and CEO of Neptune Orient Lines, Flemming

R. Jacobs, is the man, who is to put the great

ambitions into practice. As executive secretary,

he will lead and coordinate the �ood of arran-

gements that add up to Danish Maritime Days.

- It is a most challenging and fascinating task.

I am both proud and honoured that the board

has chosen me to be part of the job to position

Denmark as a maritime pioneering country,

Fleming Jacobs says.

What is the most important aim of

Danish Maritime Days?

- That is to clearly demonstrate that Denmark

will deliver the technologies, the solutions, and

business models, all with a view to the future,

which are needed in response to the global

maritime challenges we are facing now and

in the future. And it is to market the Danish

maritime sector and Denmark as a pioneer in

which international maritime companies can

�nd it pro�table to place their activities and

their investments, Flemming Jacobs states.

What arrangements are already in

the melting pot?

- Clearly it is too early to specify which arran-

gements we work with. There are so many and

so di!erent projects in the melting pot, that

telling about them now would only make the

picture indistinct.

What would make foreign visitors go to Denmark

to participate in Danish Maritime Days?

- Participants in Danish Maritime Days will expe-

rience a unique international scale that invites

and inspires to think innovatively. At the same

time Danish Maritime days is a global platform

that gives new possibilities for cooperation across

the sector and with our key interested parties.

In this way, Danish Maritime Days o!er a unique

possibility to discuss strategic challenges in an

DANISH MARITIME FORUM

SETS THE COURSE

BY MARTIN UHLENFELDT

All sails are set when the leaing

executives from the maritime

world, politicians, experts,

and other decision-makers and

opinion-formers meet at Danish

Maritime Forum in Copenhagen

8-9 October. �e aim is to create

a unique framework for the best

brains to co-operate on new ideas

and solutions to the challenges

and possibilities that the global

maritime sector is facing now

and in the near future.

Danish Maritime Days offer a unique

possibility to discuss strategic

challenges in an innovative context

‘‘

Danish Maritime Days offer a unique Danish Maritime Days offer a unique

to discuss strategic to discuss strategic

DANISH MARITIME MAGAZINE / PAGE 4 DAILY NEWS ON WWW.MARITIMEDANMARK.DK

innovative context. Elements that we consider

most relevant for the international maritime

sector, Flemming Jacobs says.

- Soon our new homepage - www.danishmari-

timedays.com - will be in the air. Here you can

currently seek information about the updated

programme. An intelligent search function

makes it possible to tailor the programme

to di!erent interests according to di!erent

criterions so as to secure the optimal bene�t of

the days in Denmark, Flemming Jacobs adds.

Several countries work towards the same goal as

Denmark, to become the new maritime centre

of Europe. How realistic is it that Denmark will

come out best?

- I have never been against competition.

As a matter of fact this is what makes you

rise earlier in the morning, I think. The fact

that there are others who can and who are

willing makes it more exciting, Flemming

Jacobs replies.

- The global maritime industry is the backbone

of the globalisation and the international

trade. It contributes to the development in

the whole world, and is bene�cial to the

population. So that there are many com-

petitors is a good thing because they make

the ball roll faster to the bene�t of the whole

world. There is still a big potential to increase

the positive contribution from the maritime

sector, says Jacobs.

IMPRESSING CAREER

Success is something that Fleming Jacobs

has had plenty of. Not many leaders in the

maritime sector, including leaders far away

from the Danish shores, are able to hold a

candle to the career that he has had.

However, his career started at home. As

a young man Flemming Jacobs started in

1960 as an apprentice in A. P. Møller-Maersk.

From here, he accomplished many tasks at

home and abroad for the expanding ship-

ping company. He was even participating

in the planning of Maersk Lines transition

to container transportation in the mid

seventies.

In 1990 he moved to Great Britain as CEO of

Maersk Company London, and in 1995 he

moved on to Singapore where he became

CEO of A. P. Møller-Maersk in Singapore.

The real big acknowledgement was by

the end of 1996 when he was appointed

CEO of Maersk Tankers and shipowner and

partner in the A. P. Møller-Maersk Group.

This is about as high as one can get.

This, however, did not make Flemming

Jacobs rest on his laurels.

In April 1999 he, left his o"ce at the Espla-

nade to become CEO of Neptune Orient Lines

in Singapore, a post that he possessed until

2003. Since then he has primarily worked as

a top consultant and a professional member

of the board of a wide range of companies

all over the world.

Denmark will deliver the technologies, the solutions,

and business models, all with a view to the future,

which are needed in response to the global maritime

challenges we are facing.

‘‘

Denmark will deliver the technologies, the solutions, Denmark will deliver the technologies, the solutions,

DAILY NEWS ON WWW.MARITIMEDANMARK.DK PAGE 5 / DANISH MARITIME MAGAZINE

The Danish Maritime Forum

is the flagship arrangement

under Danish Maritime Days.

What can you tell about Danish Maritime Forum?

- Danish Maritime Forum is the �agship arran-

gement under Danish Maritime Days. Here top

leaders of the maritime world, top politicians,

NGO’s, and other in�uential opinion formers

and decision-makers meet with the purpose

of reaching a mutual goal: To speed up the

maritime sector’s full potential through an ef-

fective, competitive business environment to

the bene�t of people, countries, and societies

all over the world, Flemming Jacobs tells.

FOR INVITED PARTICIPANTS ONLY

Participation in Danish Maritime Forum is ”by in-

vitation only”. In return the about 2000 expected

participants represent a broadly selected group.

- We work in a unique scale, which will di!er

from other maritime conferences. A scale which

are built on elements characteristic of Denmark:

To involve the participants and to make them

engage themselves in the topics, and to make

it a creative and informal set-up. And we expect

a concrete output from the arrangement, an

output that we can work with afterwards in

the respective fora. – And that we can return

to in the coming years, Flemming Jacobs says.

- We have of course some ideas about possible

results of the arrangement, but Danish Maritime

Forum will also di!er in the way that we tailor

the programme to the participants. We have

not sat down and arranged in advance that

”This is why you should come”.

We say: ”Come to our place and we will in good

time and together create topics that will be of

relevance to you”.

Are we also going to see people like Bono from

U2 and Richard Branson turn up in Copenhagen

North Port to participate in Danish Maritime

Forum?

- That I cannot tell, but the list of participants

will be broadly selected. It must be broad,

everybody must be listened to, and there must

be room for everybody at the table. It is only

by a dialogue of this type that we can deal with

the challenges that we face today and in the

future. There are many challenges of di!erent

kind, Flemming Jacobs says.

THE ASSOCIATION DANISH MARITIME DAYS

Behind Danish Maritime Days and Danish Ma-

ritime Forum stands the association Danish

Maritime Days, a public – private partnership

between the Danish Shipowners’ association,

Danish Maritime, and Danish Maritime Authority.

The project will at a minimum run the next

three years, but the ambition is to make Danish

Maritime Days an annual event for many years

to come.

The initiative is �nancially supported by the

Danish Maritime Fund, the Torm Foundation,

one of the A. P. Møller foundations (Den A. P.

Møllerske Støttefund), D/S Orients Fond, and the

Ministry of Business And Growth in Denmark.

‘‘

We work in a unique scale, which will differ

from other maritime conferences.

DANISH MARITIME MAGAZINE / PAGE 6 DAILY NEWS ON WWW.MARITIMEDANMARK.DK