Danish pension funds are to help devise ways to finance DKK40bn (€5.38bn) of investment needed in the country’s warships over the next quarter century, according to a new plan launched by the Nordic nation’s Ministry of Defence yesterday.
Morten Bødskov, Minister of Defence, said: “With Russia’s attack on Ukraine and the new European security situation, it is more important than ever that Denmark is able to defend itself.”
He said security of supply played a decisive role, and it was crucial that Denmark’s armed forces could obtain the material which was key to ensuring a strong Danish defence.
“This applies not least at sea, where Denmark is one of the world’s largest maritime nations,” Bødskov said.
The ministry said the armed forces were faced with having to replace a large number of ships, which would mean acquisitions of around DKK40bn over the next 20 to 25 years.
Alongside the Ministry of Defence and other government departments and agencies, the partnership - which was launched at the Royal Danish Navy station in Korsør - includes industry associations Danish Industry, Danish Metal, Danish Maritime and Insurance & Pension Denmark (IPD).
It is being tasked with preparing an analysis resulting in concrete recommendations on how it can can best support the Danish armed forces’ long-term needs for ship procurement, according to the Ministry of Defence.
Meanwhile, Kent Damsgaard, chief executive officer of lobby group IPD, said: “In the pension industry, we would like to contribute to finding new collaboration opportunities and ideas to solve the task,” adding that this also applied to the financing conditions.
The Danish pension companies belonging to IPD manage around DKK4trn.
Damsgaard said part of the partnership’s task was to see how climate technology could contribute to giving the armed forces a greener profile, and that the pension industry could play a role there too.
“The pension companies have gradually built up considerable experience with green investments and green transformation, which can be used in the development of maritime defence,” he said.
“This applies to wind turbines, solar cells, sustainable construction and several new technologies within renewable energy in both Denmark and the rest of the world,” the IPD CEO said.
In early April, around a month in to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, IPD came out with proposals for pension assets be used to help bolster national security, for example by investing in army buildings, calling for a ”completely new PPP [public-private partnership] collaboration”.
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