Strengthen Length of Residence and Business Friendliness

In September, Longyearbyen's first self-developed public business plan was adopted by the local council. It sets the direction and framework for local business development efforts during the period 2026–2030.

The plan is based on the local council's role as a local community developer and follows up national guidelines for community and business development as described in the Svalbard white paper (2023–2024).

“This is not a plan intended to take Longyearbyen's business community to new heights, but to create stability and predictability at a special time in Svalbard. At the same time, the plan contains some openings that provide scope for local businesses,” Lennarth Kvernmo, Head of Business Development at Longyearbyen Local Council, tells High North News.

“As outlined in the Svalbard white paper, Longyearbyen is not to grow in terms of population, but the town's business community may well grow in terms of profitability and quality. In other words, quality is to be prioritised over volume,” he continues.

Three key objectives

The plan sets out three main objectives. The first is to increase the median length of residence for Norwegian residents from 3.5 to 4.6 years by 2036. This is intended to contribute to a more robust and stable business community and society.

"The second main objective is for Longyearbyen Local Council to take steps to become more business-friendly. This involves developing an administrative culture characterised by good service, efficient and predictable case processing, as well as proactive guidance," says Kvernmo, elaborating:

"More specifically, satisfaction with the local council as a partner for businesses is to increase from 2.45, as measured in 2023, to 4 by 2030, on a scale from one to six."

The plan’s third main objective is to strengthen local businesses on the path towards the Longyearbyen of the future. 

"We will facilitate local businesses and research being given both influence and assignments in the local transition projects in the years ahead," the head of business development maintains, continuing:

"Over the next 20 to 30 years, Longyearbyen will undergo a major transformation, with both buildings and critical infrastructure to be upgraded. This applies to everything from housing and commercial buildings to infrastructure for energy, water and sewage. All these projects will trigger major investments, probably running into billions. There is an obvious opportunity here for local businesses to take part and contribute."

Establishing a cooperation forum

Furthermore, the Longyearbyen cooperation forum is being established as a permanent meeting place for key stakeholders in the town, Kvernmo says.

This is in addition to the already established business forum for dialogue and interaction between the business community and the local council.

The new forum will serve as an arena where stakeholders can share information on current matters, plans and development trends, gain a better understanding of each other's roles – and view matters in context and coordinate across authorities, business, knowledge communities and voluntary organisations.

“As Local Council Chair Terje Aunevik has pointed out, it is important that Longyearbyen Local Council assumes a coordinating role in relation to the major transformation that is to take place. Contributing to coordination will be the cooperation forum's primary task,” he says, adding that a constitutive meeting of the forum will be held as early as Wednesday.

Making the plan more concrete

The local council is also now working on preparing the action part of the business plan, which will specify priority measures, responsibilities, resource requirements and financing. It is to be presented for political consideration by the end of 2026.

“The action part will consist of very specific measures that support the strategic objectives and make it possible to achieve them. Both the business plan and the action part are tools that will enable political prioritisation between measures in the future. We are well underway with this work,” says Kvernmo.

As in the drafting of the business plan itself, the business community will be involved in preparing this action plan.

"The business community has been involved in the planning process through surveys and workshops. The Svalbard Business Association has also been part of the steering group for the development of the business plan. All in all, the business community has participated throughout the entire process, and with this new business plan, I believe we are helping to make work on innovation, business development and value creation in Longyearbyen more stable and predictable," he maintains.