Participants were:

Morten Høglund, Deputy Minister Foreign Affairs Norway;  

Eirik Sivertsen, MP, Arctic Delegation leader Parliament of Norway;

Arne Smedal CEO Cefront Technologies

Achim Steiner UN Undersecretary General and Executive director of the UN Environment Programme;

Sara Olsvig, MP, Chair of the Standing committee of Arctic Parliamentarians (www.arcticparl.org) and MP of Denmark as well as Greenland

Participants at the meeting had different entrances to what was important in the economic development of the north:

The leader of the Arctic Parliamentary Committee Sara Olsvig from Greenland, stressed the need for economic development and new jobs in Greenland. Fisheries and shrimp dominates today in the Greenland economy, and should for the future in addition focus on areas such as tourism and production country other natural resources.

The delegation leader and host of the meeting, Eirik Sivertsen (A), held forth that the population living in the north must see tangible benefits in their everyday life if you start a new business in the North related to resource extraction. One must not continue the situation where you come from the south, extract resources and send them back south.

Arne Smedal, director of Cefront Technologies, represented businesses in the panel. Smedal reminded of how Norway has used the knowledge and experience of the shipping industry to build new industry in the maritime industries. He believed that the local knowledge of the people in the north on how to travel on the sea in the north, will be valuable experience to take with them in the development of new maritime industry in the north.

Achim Steiner Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Assistant Secretary General of the UN would not take a position on how each country manages its natural resources. He pointed out, however, that the world must develop a greener economy that we are to limit global warming.

Deputy minister of Foreign Affairs Morten Høglund emphasized in his speech the importance of international cooperation in the north, and the important role of the Arctic Council in this context. In the Arctic Council meet the eight Arctic countries regularly to solve common challenges in close cooperation with representatives of the indigenous people of the Arctic. In addition, several key European and Asian countries as observers.