About Greenland Business Association
Greenland Business Association (GBA) has been representing the interests of Greenlandic businesses since 1966, and now counts around 350 companies with approximately 7,000 employees among its members, drawn from all business sectors in the country – from small and medium-sized companies to large firms that operate on the international markets.
We are thus Greenland’s largest business organisation, as we represent both the vast majority of companies in the country and approximately 80% of Greenland’s overall business turnover. As a result, GBA occupies a central position in the labour market, as well as in relation to the country’s political leadership and public authorities.
GBA has all of Greenland as its workplace, with the clear goal of creating the best possible framework for the business community. This means that membership of GBA is the key to influencing business development, and provides direct access to a community of colleagues, which gives strength.
Meanwhile, GBA also acts as a knowledge centre with regards to the possibilities and conditions applying to the business community. The GBA secretariat is at your service with advice all year round – whether your questions concern small, practical issues, or problems of a more demanding legal or financial nature.
In other words, GBA is a modern organisation with member service, lobbying activities and consultancy as its central activities. But business development is also very much on our agenda. Business development, seen from a social perspective. For this reason, we organise a rising number of courses, conferences, information activities, study groups and delegations abroad.
The four pillars of GBA
Interest organisation
As an interest organisation, GBA functions by influencing the political system to create the best environment for the private sector. This is done on the basis of GBA’s industrial policy action plan, in close dialogue with the public authorities. GBA is for example currently represented on approximately twenty committees and boards under the government of Greenland, and we are a consulted party in the government’s work of preparing legislation.
Service organisation As a service organisation, GBA provides legal and financial advice to its member companies, and we compile sector-oriented statistical information and guidance material for relevant legislation, as required.
Employers’ organisation
As an employers’ organisation, GBA works to secure orderly relations in the labour market. This is done via a collective agreement and four subsidiary agreements with the trade union SIK. These agreements cover construction craftsmen, the commercial and office sector, the manufacturing sector, and the transport and service industries. Similarly, GBA has a collective agreement with the Financial Services Union in Denmark covering the banking sector in Greenland.
Active business development in new industrial areas
GBA has a duty to play an active role in relation to business development within both existing and new industries, including the mining and oil/gas industry and the production of Greenlandic foodstuffs. GBA therefore works to collect and consolidate knowledge, and to establish networks and international contacts with experienced professionals and businesses. This is done in an effort to give Greenlandic companies the best possible preparation to meet future requirements.