The Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise, NHO, and The Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities, KS, have appointed Mo i Rana as this year's host municipality for business development in the category municipality with more than 15,000 inhabitants! This gives a strong signal to companies, home and abroad, that want to establish themselves!
NHO and KS nominated a total of six municipalities in two categories in the award for Host Municipality of the Year for business development. Rana was nominated in the category municipalities with more than 15,000 inhabitants, and on Tuesday it became clear that the municipality ran away with first place.
Many companies signed up Rana as a candidate, and so did the regional NHO Nordland. Mo i Rana has been described as offensive for several years, and the establishment of Freyr Battery is described as an example. When Freyr wanted to set up in Rana, the municipality made mede the necessary arrangements for this and gave the company the maternity care it needed. It is this type of offensiveness that municipalities in Norway need and therefore it is appropriate that Rana was named the winner, NHO believes.
- This is an award that will be noticed and I think new companies will come to Rana, and Helgeland because of this. It's brilliant that Rana ran away with the victory and now it's just a matter of keeping the pressure up. This further strengthens the Rana brand, says the NHO director Bjarmann Simonsen as a comment on the award.
NHO and KS based the following assessment on the nomination of Rana municipality:
In Mo i Rana there is good cooperation between the municipality and business, both administratively and politically. Through this collaboration, a solid and comprehensive plan has been developed - from the community section, business plan to budget - which has put them in a position to be an attractive host municipality for new establishments. The municipality has a vision "Norway's green industrial capital - The future is renewable". This has been followed up with concrete and prioritized plans. Seven strategically important projects were brought forward, including an airport, a deep-water quay and a battery factory, and the development of an industrial park in the neighboring municipality.