On 22 April, Damen Shipyards Group hosted the annual DKF European Offset Conference at its headquarters in Gorinchem, the Netherlands. The conference brought together professionals, industry leaders, and government officials involved in defence procurement, industrial cooperation, and offset agreements to exchange views on policy, best practice, and evolving requirements.
Cooperating in a changing world
The theme of this year’s event, From Resilience to Growth: Industrial Cooperation in a Changing World, reflects the increasing strategic importance of industrial cooperation in light of geopolitical developments and the need for resilient, locally anchored supply chains.
Damen’s role as conference host reflects the company’s long-standing and well-established approach to industrial participation and local content. Its focus on industrial participation sees Damen form relationships with national governments, local industry, trade bodies, and knowledge institutes.
Damen’s approach to industrial cooperation is a long-term one, integrating procurement, engineering, design, construction, and lifecycle support.
Shared ambitions
Bram Langeveld, Chief Commercial Officer at Damen, said, “We are very pleased to have hosted this year’s DKF Conference and enjoyed engaging with stakeholders. The theme of the conference, with its focus firmly fixed on the future, closely aligns with our own ambition to become the most sustainable shipbuilder, combining minimum environmental impact with maximum socio-economic impact through our projects and partnerships.
“Industrial participation is at the heart of our way of working at Damen, and has been for many years. Through our offset programmes, and local construction projects undertaken under the Damen Technical Cooperation (DTC), we are proud to support the development of local industries and capabilities alongside our shipbuilding projects.”
Delivering lasting impact
To date, Damen has participated in over 1,500 projects featuring local industry and labour in over 60 countries around the world. Within projects such as these, Damen aims not only to deliver on its own industrial participation commitments, but also to assist third parties in fulfilling their obligations by developing sustainable industrial cooperation initiatives that generate lasting economic and industrial impact.