By Stine Jacobsen
COPENHAGEN, May 13 (Reuters) – New focus on Greenland since Donald Trump declared his aim to seize it could help boost investment there, with Arctic tourism likely to pay off faster than ambitious future plans to mine for minerals, the head of Denmark’s export credit agency said.
The governments of Greenland and Denmark have rejected Trump’s repeated demands that the self-governing Danish territory become part of the United States. But since Trump’s designs thrust Greenland into the headlines, there has been a surge of interest in doing business there.
“I am actually convinced that it is different this time. There is a different sense of urgency,” said Peder Lundquist, chief executive of Danish export credit agency EIFO.
“We believe there is a faster path to local value creation in tourism than there is in raw materials,” said Lundquist. “Raw materials have a long-term and solid value creation, but it is over decades.”
Tourism in Greenland has been held back by limited capacity in the peak summer months. Among the projects EIFO is helping fund is a study of the potential to increase visits to the area around the town of Ilulissat on the island’s west coast, soon to receive an international airport.
Nearby Disko Bay is rich in the Arctic wildlife and dramatic scenery that draw cruise ships. The analysis will look into harbour capacity, feeder infrastructure and spreading visitors across the area.
Trump has said the United States needs Greenland for its strategic location and for the mineral wealth beneath its ice, including gold and precious rare earth materials used in tech products. But so far there has been little mining on the island, whose 57,000 residents tend to elect leaders that promise to preserve its natural environment.
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen, speaking to journalists in Copenhagen on Tuesday, said his government was open for business but would not compromise on environmental protection.
“We have high environmental standards and that’s just how it is in Greenland, because we live off the nature, we live off the sea and that will never change no matter how many critical rare earth minerals we have.”
The European Union has said it aims to double financial support to Greenland, and has picked the GreenRoc graphite project, a company EIFO has also backed, as critical to increase the bloc’s supplies.
Nevertheless, Lundquist said he did not expect major mining projects to materialise at scale just yet, both because of those environmental standards, and because large-scale extraction was not commercially viable without public-sector guarantees.
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