The Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Oslo Press Division

Norway Daily No. 110/00

Date: 14 June 2000

BAZAN CANCELS CONTRACT WITH UMOE (NTB)

The Spanish shipyard Bazan has cancelled its agreement with its largest Norwegian partner, Umoe Sterkoder, and has contacted other possible Norwegian suppliers with regard to frigate construction. On 6 October last year, Bazan and Umoe entered into an agreement worth NOK two billion. During the past two to three months the parties have been discussing the details of the agreement. Mjellem & Karlsen Verft AS in Bergen will take over the frigate commissions that Umoe has lost after its break with Bazan. "We are now just about back in the position we held when the agreement with Bazan was concluded, and we will cooperate with Bazan in coordinating the entire Norwegian portion of the project," says managing director Paal Martens at Mjellem & Karlsen Verft AS. He says that Mjellem & Karlsen will not carry out all the additional work alone, but will pull in other Norwegian shipyards that can take over some of the jobs.

PAYING FOR PROBLEMS (Dagens Næringsliv)

Telenor Group CEO Tormod Hermansen is paying through the nose to secure 900 000 Danish cellular phone subscribers. Mr. Hermansen is investing almost NOK 15 billion to obtain the controlling interest in the Danish company Sonofon, which is currently suffering from too little innovation and weak management. Yesterday the Telenor CEO presented his largest investment ever. He is doing this because the proposed merger with Telia, which collapsed last year, set Telenor back a year in its Nordic efforts. With Sonofon on its team, Telenor will have three million cellular phone subscribers, making it second in size only to Telia.

JAGLAND MUST EXPLAIN HIMSELF (Nationen)

Johan J. Jakobsen (Centre Party) and Einar Steensnæs (Christian Democratic Party) demand that Foreign Minister Thorbjørn Jagland explain himself in the Storting. This explanation will probably be made during the meeting of the Storting’s EEA committee on Tuesday. The comments on patent legislation that Mr. Jagland made in yesterday’s edition of Nationen attracted attention in the former coalition parties and the Socialist Left Party. "Mr. Jagland cannot really mean what he said. He cannot approve the patent legislation and at the same time say that he is perfectly aware that it is in violation of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity," says Johan J. Jakobsen.

NORTH SEA RIG EVACUATED (Aftenposten)

Last night the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate maintained a full alert after the drilling rig "Bideford Dolphin" was torn loose in the North Sea yesterday during a storm. Fifty-one workers on the rig were evacuated. Twenty-six people remained on the platform last night, to try to stabilize it. The rig has a total of eight anchors, and experts believe that six of them gave way yesterday.

MARKET DOES NOT BELIEVE GJEDREM WILL REACH GOAL (Dagens Næringsliv)

According to a survey carried out by the major Swedish bank SEB among its biggest clients in the interest market in Norway, the market does not believe that Central Bank Governor Svein Gjedrem will reach his goal of reducing inflation to two per cent. The survey reveals that these market players expect, on average, that inflation will reach 2.6 per cent within one year. In May 2002 they expect an inflation rate of 2.4 per cent, and in 2002 they expect 2.25 per cent. At 14:00 today, Norges Bank will inform the public as to whether it will be increasing interest rates. Bank experts all agree that interest rates will go up.

WORTH NOTING

• After having invested a total of over NOK 20 billion in the past month, of which NOK 14.5 billion was for Sonofon alone, and merging the installation company Bravida with the Swedish BPA, Mr. Hermansen has now done almost all he needs to do before Telenor goes public at the end of September. ( Aftenposten)
• During a symposium at the newly established Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) yesterday, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg announced that Norway will contribute to better vaccination schemes. As early as next year, he is proposing a NOK 200 million allocation to GAVI, and plans to give the alliance NOK one billion in the course of the next five years. ( Dagsavisen)
• Despite Telenor’s foreign investments of over NOK 20 billion, the company will soon be too small. This is the view of Telenor’s Nordic competition, TeleDanmark. ( Aftenposten)
• Investor Christen Sveaas has bought up more of the Orkla concern, and now controls around seven per cent of the shares, or about NOK 2.4 billion worth. The conflict about whether Mr. Sveaas should be elected to Orkla’s board will be decided at today’s corporate assembly. Orkla president Jens P. Heyerdahl does not want Mr. Sveaas to be a member of the board. ( Dagens Næringliv)
• The sale of state-owned K-bank shares should be carried out in the course of the summer, according to Chairman of the Board Harald Arnkværn. He does not believe that the struggle for control of Kreditkassen will involve more than five bidders. ( Dagens Næringsliv)
• World Wildlife Fund Norway is warning its international network that Norway’s Foreign Minister is planning to violate the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. ( Nationen)
• A newspaper strike will begin on Tuesday 20 June if the Norwegian Union of Journalists (NJ) and the Federation of Norwegian Newspapers (NAL) cannot reach agreement. The number of people taken out on strike will be announced on Wednesday, but NJ leader Olav Njaastad says that they are considering taking all members out. ( NTB)
• Oddvar Bull Tuhus, head of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation’s (NRK) drama department, proposes that Norsk Film and NRK Drama share premises at Jar, outside of Oslo. This would result in a better use of resources for both parties, in his view. Several agencies have also suggested discontinuing Norsk Film as a state-run production company. ( Aftenposten)

TODAY'S COMMENT from Nationen:

Minister of Foreign Affairs Thorbjørn Jagland is an enthusiastic supporter of Norwegian membership of the EU, and he has a right to his opinion. But he has gone too far in his treatment of the EU’s controversial directive on a patent on living organisms. Here the Foreign Minister is tampering with national interests in order to promote his own EU plans. The anti-EU Bondevik government was heavily criticized for loyally honouring agreements already signed, and for going along with the Storting majority. The result was, in any case, that a kind of national consensus was maintained on the controversial EU issue. This is now being botched by Mr. Jagland as he is, with astonishing speed, turning Norwegian EU policy around using the methods he employed as party chairman: by charging ahead leaving both friends and foes confused. He is only making things worse by constantly describing the Norwegian right to veto EEA decisions as castles in the air. One thing is that he thereby disproves what was once claimed as "proof" that the EEA agreement could be approved without a referendum in Norway. What is more important is this: how can the threat to veto be used at all by Norwegian negotiators when the Foreign Minister himself is now politically undermining the veto right? What kind of safeguarding of Norwegian interests is this?