Paper Province initiates cooperation with Norwegian Oil Industry
The objective is to establish leading business activities within the expanding area based on industrially applied bioeconomics in the interface between the forestry and petrochemical industries.
“Paper Province is set to become a leading global player in forestry based bioeconomics and this is a natural step for us to take”, says Maria Hollander, CEO of Paper Province.
A significant part of the evolution towards a bioeconomic society is strongly linked to the replacement of the primary oil products in today’s products with biobased primary products. Through cooperation with Norway, Maria Hollander is hoping that the combination of experiences and knowledge will stimulate new ideas. Ultimately it’s about facilitating the conversion process to a fossil-free society by encouraging the establishment of completely new types of companies.
“We need to speed up the restructuring to a biobased society. We are bringing people together from the Norwegian oil industry with Swedes who are knowledgeable about the forestry industry, and I’m convinced we will find new product areas and business opportunities”, says Maria Hollander.
Dalarna is also actively participating in the project. As a region Dalarna is a crossroads between the forestry and engineering industries, and with their collaboration Paper Province hopes to create a strong innovative hub for the forestry industry. Paper Province expects to employ one person on a part time basis to quickly work towards initiating cooperation with the Norwegian oil industry.
Hard facts about the Bioeconomy Region
The Bioeconomy Region is an interregional project between Sweden and Norway and is part-financed with EU funding. It is jointly run by Region Värmland, Region Dalarna, Akershus County Council, Hedmark County Council, Oppland County Council and Østfold County Council, together with Säffle Municipality and the cluster organisation Paper Province. The project owner is Region Värmland. The project has an overall budget of € 3.8 million. The Swedish budget is € 2.5 million, of which intraregional funding is € 1.25 million.
