According to the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Norwegian economy faces three major challenges: globalization, expansion within the EU and a growing need to conceive and promote new concepts and methods to generate new value as oil and gas production decreases. The Ministry's most crucial strategic challenge is to draw up an industry policy to resolve these specific development issues.

The Ministry is involved in the drafting of a parliamentary document on Creative and cultural industries which will be presented in spring 2005 and has also commissioned a research report on the topic, one of the first in its kind in Norway. The work on cultural/creative industries is carried out in collaboration with Innovation Norway, a state owned company responsible to the Ministry.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry is also responsible for the governmental agency Norwegian Design Council.