Governor Walz, U.S. Ambassador Nathanson (to the Governor's right), Interim DEED Commissioner Kevin McKinnon (to the Governor's left), and Gabrielle Gerbaud (at the end of the table) meet with Masud Gharahkhani (speaking across from the Governor), President of the Storting (Norway's Parliament) and his team.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and I recently returned from Oslo, Norway, where the Minnesota Trade Office, part of the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), organized an investment promotion luncheon and panel discussion headlined by the Governor. Governor Walz spoke about the strategic priorities for Minnesota, how they align with the goals of Norwegian business leaders and the benefits Norwegian companies will find upon establishing operations in Minnesota.

The Governor spoke about Minnesota's leading position as a medtech hub and how Minnesota is strategically positioned to lead the nation in building cleantech solutions for the toughest carbon-reduction problems facing the U.S. and the world, particularly in the industrial and agricultural sectors.

Following the Governor's remarks, I was joined by the following leaders for an insightful panel discussion:

• Britt Ardakani, Norway House's Business Accelerator Resource Network (BARN), which leads Norway's efforts to establish business operations in the U.S.
• Michael Eimstad, Chief Executive Officer of EpiGuard, a Norwegian company that used BARN to launch in Minnesota
• Vidar Keyn, U.S. Commercial Service, U.S. Embassy, Oslo, Norway

Over 80 Norwegian business, industry and government leaders attended the luncheon and heard our discussion around best practices for establishing a U.S. presence, lessons learned by companies that BARN has supported, and the full suite of support available to foreign-owned enterprises operating in Minnesota. The audience included leading Norwegian companies in cleantech, manufacturing, medtech and finance.

Representatives from BARN and the MTO met with Norwegian medtech cluster leaders and company executives in advance of a delegation visit scheduled for May 2023.

The following DEED initiatives related to economic development and business attraction are some of Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan's key priorities in the One Minnesota budget:

Attracting Business with the Minnesota Forward Fund - $150 million

The Minnesota Forward Fund will re-shape how Minnesota competes for business retention and expansion on the national and international playing fields. It will refill our economic development toolkit to make grants, loans, and forgivable loans for infrastructure or large-scale economic development projects in existing, new, and emerging industries. Making Minnesota even more attractive to international companies wanting to establish or grow their U.S. operations is part of this important work.

Connecting Minnesota to the World through Border-to-Border Broadband - $276 million

The Border-to-Border Broadband Development Grant Program is helping connect every home and business in the Minnesota to high-speed broadband, allowing companies to compete globally wherever they're headquartered. Since 2014, the Border-to-Border Broadband Grant Program has provided nearly $230 million to connect 90,000 Minnesota homes and businesses to high-speed internet. $276 million in new funding will supercharge this vital program.