[Picture] Since 2009, Ove Karl Berthelsen been Minister for Enterprise and raw materials. He has courageously and boldly taken on the task of explaining both the critical issues and the gaping public deficit that shows Greenland needs to lift the moratorium on uranium. Photo: Marie Hald
Boom…...
Minister for Natural Resources and Industry Ove Karl Berthelsen leads the struggle for the first Greenlandic uranium mine. The minister plays a key role in Greenland's new explosive industrial policy.
By Bent Sorensen Højgaard
Ove Karl Berthelsen Born: 3 November 1954 in Sisimiut. Is the minister for industry and raw materials for the party Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA).Career: 1974-79: Bank Assistant in Greenland Bank.1979-81: Deputy Head of Co-operatives Sipineq. 1981-83: Fisker. 1983-2002: administration manager and department manager in various private companies and public administration. 2002-09: Self-employment. Political career:2001-08: Member of the Municipal Council in Nuuk for the party IA. 2009: Government of Food and raw materials. Personal: Married to Meg Kramer Berthelsen, the couple has three children.
19th October 2012 10:35
Ove Karl Berthelsen. It is the name of one of Greenland's most ambitious and international politicians. He is a man who, those in Denmark should pay close attention to in the coming years, the 57-year-old minister of industry and resources from Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA) believes that Greenland after two decades of no to uranium mining will take a discussion on abandoning the decades long zero-tolerance policy before the turn of the year and will then start to process the request for the opening of a mine with rare metals and uranium in Greenland by Australian Company Greenland Minerals and Energy Ltd.
Ove Karl Berthelsen was born in the thriving fishing town of Sisimiut north of Nuuk. A town which through the ages has been known for nurturing ambitious and self-conscious politicians and business people. Both as a private man and politician all call the energetic little round mining minister a friendly and pleasant man. Ove Karl Berthelsen cherish his family with his wife Meg Kramer Berthelsen, the couple's three children and two grandchildren. It makes personal points in small communities in Greenland, where children play a central role. During the 1970s, '80s and 1990s, there were festive and happy days in his party, the Inuit Ataqatigiit, Siumut and other Greenlandic parties. There was plenty of beer, wine and hard liquor on the tables. Ove Karl Berthelsen chose to be one of the first of partiers to stop drinking. He prioritised his family and career over booze. For a while he was also a member of the parish council in Nuuk for IA, which at the time was quite unusual for the non-religious party comrades.
In the struggle for uranium
Since 2009, Ove Karl Berthelsen has been the Minister for Enterprise and raw materials. During this time he has taken on the task of explaining both the critical issues associated with mining whilst highlighting the gaping public deficit that shows Greenland needs now to lift the moratorium on uranium. It must end the zero-tolerance policy he says. Ove Karl Berthelsen's proposal is that the IA and the four other political parties will make a decision on the uranium issue at the parliamentary level in this sitting of parliament, scheduled to end 15th November. In IA party organization, many once strongly opposed giving up one of the party's zero tolerance policy. This may no longer be the case.
Ove Karl Berthelsen has a diverse professional and political experience. He was for many years senior positions in companies and in the public sector in Greenland before he in 2009 became minister. He has for many years been one of the grassroots Inuit Ataqatigiit, which was founded in 1978 as a Marxist-Communist wing party. Greenland self-government agreement with Denmark is just three years old. With its disposal Greenland over its subsoil, while Denmark has responsibility for foreign affairs, defence and security. It ends up that the government approves the Australian Greenland Minerals application for production of uranium in a mine with rare metals as main product, the Self-Government Act be put to a severe test. Ove Karl Berthelsen is a pragmatic politician with both feet firmly on the ground. When in 25 years to be written history of Greenland probable mining boom and industrial adventure, he will get a staring mention.
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