Minister to open COWI's office in China 

Executive Vice President, COO Denmark, Lars-Peter Søbye, is a member of the trade delegation that is currently accompanying Mr Bendt Bendtsen on the Danish trade drive within the energy and construction sectors in China. 28 June 2005 they held a joint opening ceremony of the offices of COWI’s subsidiary in Beijing
Bendt Bendtsen, Danish Minister of Finance, Trade and Industry, 28 June 2005 conducted the official opening of the office of COWI’s subsidiary in Beijing, in a ceremony attended by guests including clients and staff from several embassies.

In addition to its campaign within the Chinese energy sector, COWI plans to break into other areas such as the environment and waste management and to continue to increase its share of the large bridges market. COWI is working on a wide range of road and bridge-building projects such as Sutong Bridge, to name but one, which will span the River Yangtze.

COWI is also helping Danish companies to establish production in China, providing specialist consultancy services within construction and industry and giving assistance to other Danish organisations. Amongst other projects, COWI is providing assistance to Hydro Aluminium in respect of designing, planning and building a new hydro-electric plant in Suzhou.


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First big step

In his opening speech, Lars-Peter Søbye said how much he had been looking forward to “the big day”, the culmination of six months’ work to register the office and put the many administrative procedures in place:

"This is the first big step in our strategy to become a major consultancy firm in China with the ability to provide services in all significant areas. In order to achieve this vision, our new office will initially focus on the energy sector: a sector in which China faces major challenges and a market in which COWI is highly experienced and is already well established."

The day-to-day running of the office in Beijing is in the hands of Managing Director Henrik Dalsgård, who came to Beijing in May. His remit is to establish the firm on the Chinese market and to build up a staff of mainly Chinese engineers.

By Christina Tækker, cht@cowi.dk  

Published 30 June 2005