Investment Potentials 2 Welcome to Odense
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ODENSE INVESTMENT POTENTIALS 2 WELCOME TO ODENSE Odense is becoming a vibrant, modern city. It’s cultural diversity, active local community and green oases nestled between new and historic buildings bring the city centre to life. New buildings are emerging in the city centre, on the waterfront and on the university’s campus where a new university hospital will soon take shape. In a few years, a new light rail will open and make it easier for people to move around in the city. As the population continues to grow, realtors and real estate investment funds alike are finding their way to Denmark’s 3rd largest city. The City of Odense is indeed in the middle of a gearshift; 6 billion Euros are being invested in the strategic transformation of the city. Investments in the tune of 1.6 million Euros are being made per day in real estate and infrastructure over the next 5 to 10 years. New exciting urban development areas are emerging now and we will see more in the years to come. In Odense, we provide strong public support to new investors and to enterprises that relocate to the city. Combined with the current rate of development, this makes Odense your best strategic choice. We welcome you to take part in the transformation of Odense! ........................................................................... Peter Rahbæk Juel .......................................................................................................... Mayor, City of Odense 3 DENMARK AS A MARKET With its strong public sector, low unemployment rate and positive macroeconomic outlook, Denmark is considered a safe haven for most of the world’s investors. The country is currently 1 of only 9 remaining countries in the world to hold an AAA/stable rating given by all three major rating agencies, and has achie- ved third place in the 2017 “Ease of Doing Business” ranking published by the World Bank. Denmark is ideal for property investment especially with the unique mortgage system that has made Denmark the European country with the lowest borrowing costs for the first 60% of the property value. Increasingly positive GDP Expectations GDP grew a significant 0.7% q/q in Q2 2017 and the 2016 GDP growth was recently revised up to 2.0%. Subsequently, Analysts have positively revised their GDP expectations for the coming years. Strong growth in employment, a steady rise in disposable income and low interest rates have positively affected private consumption; which is also expected to be the primary driver over the forecast horizon. Steady economic growth Total employment in Denmark has continuously risen, resul- ting in a current unemployment rate of 4.3%. The positive development is primarily attributed to the improved economic ODENSE situation in Denmark along with structural reforms imposed by the government. Despite this, due to an increased number of individuals on immigration benefits counted as ready to work we have seen the unemployment rate rise in recent months. 4 IN THE HEART OF DENMARK A MODERN FAIRYTALE STRENGTHEN BY TRANSPORT With a history dating back more than 1,000 years, Odense Odense’s public transportation system will be supplemen- is one of the oldest cities in Denmark. A legacy from the ted by a light rails that will connect the city’s development Vikings, all the way to today’s transformation into a modern areas by 2020. Once the light rail system has been fully city. built, it will be available to 52,000 residents, 45,000 employees at various workplaces and more than 25,000 The famous poet Hans Christian Andersen was born in students at educational institutions. Odense in 1805, and the Hans Christian Andersen Museum welcomes many foreign guests every year. TRANSFORMATION OF THE CITY Odense was primarily known as an industrial town, howe- CONVENIENTLY LOCATED ver, this reputation is changing as the more service indu- Odense is the third-largest city in Denmark, and it is conve- stry and knowledge intensive firms establish themselves. niently located at the very centre of Denmark, on the island of Funen. Odense has an excellent infrastructure The city of Odense has initiated several development pro- system by road, rail and sea. Due to Odense’s central loca- jects in recent years that will transform the city physically. tion, commuting around the nation is quick and simple. The The development of the city centre area around Thomas B. two largest cities in Denmark, Copenhagen and Aarhus, are Thriges Gade is expected to create a cohesive city centre, an approximate 90-minute drive or train ride away, and it and the construction of light rail will make new districts takes only 30 minutes to reach the Triangle Region more accessible and attractive. GROW OF POPULATION A LOT OF EVENTS Odense already has over 200,000 inhabitants and overthe Odense is the proud host of a lot of exciting events – bu- next two decades, Odense is expected to grow by over siness as well as pleasure. The business events include 20,500 people, equivalent to 10.2 %, with the majority of Thinkers 50 European Business Forum, WHINN – Week the growth expected to happen in the coming decade. A of Health and INNovation and Odense Investor Summit. growth rate that even is expected to be considerably higher Residents and tourists enjoy events like Tinderbox Festival, due to urbanization. Hans Christian Andersen Festivals, Odense International Film Festival, SPIS! Odense Food Festival and ESL Pro League. 5 ODENSE THE HOME OF ROBOTS AND INDUSTRI OF TOMOROW While transforming the city, Odense has also set a course for transforming the business of manufacturing to industry 5.0. Odense has become the European hot spot for robotics with a clear vision of becoming the primary global leader of the industrial revolution. A global industrial transformation is taking place and some strial robots in order to compete with low-cost shipyards key elements are being defined in Odense. The City of from Asia. That was the beginning of the robotic focus in Odense is the heart of Collaborative Industries. Odense. Quoting Esben Østergaard, founder and CTO of Universal Today, Odense Steel Shipyard no longer exists. But the Robots: “While there is a movement globally to create robotic focus is even more present. Now there are more smart factories and make things communicate digitally, a than 120 companies within robotics and industrial automa- new trend is appearing on the horizon aiming to bring back tion with around 3,200 employees. All companies that at the human touch in production. The trend is dubbed “Indu- present are experiencing massive growth with double-digit stry 5.0” or collaborative industries.” annual growth rates. This human touch to industrial production will boost crea- Leaning on the success of the robotics industry in Odense, tivity as well as productivity. On a cluster level it makes the city has also set out to become an international hub for Odense a perfect example of how a Triple Helix becomes a drones. At Odense’s airport you will find the Danish drone Quadruple Helix (companies, university, government and centre, UAS Denmark – International Test Centre and Clu- citizens). ster. The dedicated drone research centre at The University of Southern Denmark (SDU) aims to position Odense as a It didn’t happen out of the blue. Odense was a traditional leader for drone technologies in Europe. industrial city with a lot of factories. The traditional indu- strial city has over the years evolved into a modern Industry Odense also holds a strong position in Health Technologies. 5.0 City. And Facebook is building its new hyper scale data centre in Odense, affirming the excellent digital infrastructure Back in the 1980’s Odense Steel Shipyard was the pride of and creating additional opportunities for the datacentre the city and the biggest company with more than 6,000 market. employees. The biggest containerships in the world were built in Odense. Visionary people started looking at indu- 6 KUBO KUBO Robotics started as a master’s project at the University of Southern Denmark in 2015. While schools and governments around the world focus on teaching kids language, math, and science, very few acknowledge the importance of teaching a generation of digital natives how to communicate with and understand technology. This is the problem KUBO set out to solve. KUBO grew from a master’s project into a promising startup in the Odense Robotics StartUp Hub. KUBO won the Nordic Startup Awards in the category “Best Newcomer”, 2017 and was listed in Forbes Top 10 European Growth Businesses to Watch in 2017. UNIVERSAL ROBOTS The idea of Universal Robots started in 2003 when the company’s three founders met at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense - with the goal of making ro- bot technology accessible to small and medium-sized enterprises. And they did so with great success. The company was acquired by US company Teradyne for 285M USD in 2015. Today Universal Robots is the global leader in collaborative robots. FACEBOOK Facebook is establishing a 55,000 square metre data centre in Odense. The con- struction phase of the data centre will generate more than 1,000 jobs, with 150 permanent jobs created once the facility becomes operational in 2020. Why did Fa- cebook choose Odense as the place for their third data centre outside US? According to Niall McEntegart, Director of Data Centre Operations EMEA & APAC at Facebook, it’s not only about the cool climate and access to renewable energy. “Odense is not just a great site for a data centre. It’s also a great city that we look forward to living in. The on going efforts to modernize the city are very exciting indeed.” 7 ODENSE REAL ESTATE In the transformation of Odense, new buildings are being erected in the centre, at the harbour and on campus.