Giving foreign employees a warm welcome and a social network is seen as the best way to keep them in Denmark for the long-term.

A 4.5 million kroner initiative aimed at retaining foreign professionals living in Denmark was unveiled by the Business and Economy Ministry today. The network, the first publicly funded organisation of its kind in Denmark, will be operated by a consortium that consists of The Copenhagen Post, the Danish Chamber of Commerce and the Danish Bankers Association.

The network, known as the National Network for Foreign Employees, is part of a wider multi-million kroner national strategy to increase awareness of the country internationally and will aid foreign professionals and their companies navigate the relocation and integration process.

According to Business and Economy Minister Lene Espersen, doing this will lead to more foreign professionals staying in Denmark for longer periods of time by helping them and their spouses to deal with practical issues associated with living here.

‘A lot of companies have problems retaining foreign professionals because Denmark isn’t really geared to attracting people from abroad,’ Espersen said. ‘Denmark has a lot to offer, but we need to be better at showing that to foreigners and helping them so they feel like staying.’

The Copenhagen Post was chosen to be a part of the consortium that was granted the tender to operate the network given its role as a source of information for and about the expatriate community.

‘It’s great that public officials are finally recognising that we need something like this,’ said Jesper Nymark, chief executive of The Copenhagen Post. ‘We’re glad to be a part of it, but really it’s just important that it gets done, otherwise people will find some place else where it is easier to live.’

The centrepiece of the network will be the website expatindenmark.com, which has been offering advice and news for expats since last year. Over the next two years, the Expat in Denmark network will add a number of new activities that will include an on-line helpline, regional and local networks and programmes to help spouses find work.

In addition, the network will also organise professional and social events and serve as a clearing house of information for companies and public officials seeking to hire and retain foreign professionals.

Despite continuing job losses in 2009 and into 2010, Espersen described the network as a way of ‘thinking ahead’ in order to head off a situation that could see as many as 40,000 unfilled highly skilled jobs by 2015.

‘We need smart, qualified people from abroad, but more than that we need them to stay here,’ she said.

http://www.cphpost.dk/business/119-business/45104-home-sweet-home.html