Lunch September 24 Bendt Bendtsen

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By C.W. Griffith  -The Copenhagen Post

Conservative MEP Bendt Bendtsen speaks out about the challenges brought by globalisation - the sequel

The MEP Bendt Bendtsen is also a farmer. To illustrate his perspective on the globalised world, Bendt Bendtsen told a story of how one day, a few years back, he was working in his fields when his daughter called him. She was somewhere on the east coast of Australia.

Their conversation had not lasted long when Bendtsen started to say goodbye, as he didn’t want her to be charged. ‘Don’t worry, Dad,’ his daughter reassured him. She was using a calling card.

Bendtsen’s own calling card has not changed much since serving as chairman of the Danish Conservative Party. He spoke with members of the British Chamber of Commerce in Denmark and other local businessmen on Friday last week. He spoke of the crisis in Europe, and he didn’t pull his punches.

As Bendtsen sees it, ‘the major problem is that there is no awareness of the crisis anywhere.’ To illustrate this, he spoke of the transition from what he calls ‘Globalisation 1.0’ - in which industry was outsourced, and local workers saw their jobs delivered to countries where industry is less regulated such as Vietnam - to ‘Globalisation 2.0,’ in which China has evovled from being the world’s factory, to running the show. ‘China is educating 70,000 designers per year, he said. ‘It has changed from “Made in China” to “Created in China”.’

He told the story of the Chinese prime minister visiting New York City, and on Fifth Avenue seeing a pair of Nike shoes in a display window for $200. ‘He almost had a heart attack because he knew how much it cost to manufacture them in his home municipality.’

This led to a question: Why should China pay for a brand? ‘Chinese Olympians can win gold wearing Chinese brands.’

Bendtsen made no secret of his ideas for meeting the crisis. ‘There is only one way forward - improving Europe’s competitiveness, and putting an end to public debt,’ he said.

Because countries like China are producing quality goods at low wages, Denmark and the EU need to reevaluate their position, according to Bendtsen. State aid in Denmark has fallen from 5 percent of the budget in 1992 to 2.2 percent of the budget in 2007-08. In the EU, 40 percent of the budget is allocated for state aid. Bendtsen sees this as ‘crazy’.

‘What’s the medicine? In my point of view we need to reduce our public debt and use more money for companies and research,’ said Bendtsen. ‘Welfare money should instead be spent on education, research and innovation because the discussion is moving to how our children and grandchildren can find work.’

In Bendtsen’s vision of the future, there needs to be longer working hours, less tax on work, better tax options for companies and more responsible wage bargaining, and this will only help the EU meet its challenge to level the playing field.

After his speech, as the room was pondering both ideas for improving Denmark’s competitiveness and lunch, artist Gordon Fazakerley leaned over and whispered: ‘Bureaucracy is the consumer product in Denmark.’

If that’s the case, maybe the outlook isn’t as bleak as Bendtsen thought.

^{BCCD president Mariano A Davies (left) presenting gift to Bendt Bendtsen.}