The Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Oslo
Press Division

Norway Daily No. 135/00

DATE: 19 July 2000

SCEPTICISM REGARIDING US MISSILE DEFENCE (Aftenposten)

Most political parties in the Storting express are sceptical of the national missile defence system being developed in the US. Hans J. Røsjorde (Progress), chairman of the parliamentary defence committee, says he has little confidence in the US missile defence system. Foreign Minister Thorbjørn Jagland has previously expressed his misgivings regarding a system that could undermine existing disarmament pacts. But Conservative defence policy spokesman Ingvald Godal says a refusal to consider the possibility would be simply adopting a head-in-the-sand policy.

TELECOMS BLACKOUT CAUSES ALARM (NTB)

Telenor group CEO Tormod Hermansen got involved yesterday in the matter of the ruptured trunk line in Kristiansand which left a large part of southern Norway without any communications at all on Monday. He does not accept a situation in which damage to a single cable can have such a devastating impact, and he will focus Telenor’s attention on determining why the consequences were so far-reaching. The break, caused by an excavator rupturing a fibre-optic cable, took nearly six hours to repair. In the meantime, most telephone traffic in the two southernmost counties was cut off, including emergency services, and the regional airport at Kjevik also had to shut down.

DIRECTORATE DOWNPLAYS REGULAR OCCUPATIONAL CHECKUPS (Dagsavisen)

Annual medical checkups of workers are unnecessary, and represent a misdirected use of inadequate health care resources, in the view of the Directorate of Labour Inspection. "These checkups consume a huge amount of resources; in effect, doctors have to spend time doing blood tests on healthy patients instead of treating the sick," says Axel Wannag, chief medical officer for the Directorate of Labour Inspection.

NO MORE KVÆRNER SHARES FOR RØKKE (Aftenposten)

Kværner would still like to buy Aker Maritime from Kjell Inge Røkke, but Kværner group CEO Kjell Almskog wants to pay in cash, not in Kværner equity. He has no desire to let Mr. Røkke acquire even more power in Kværner. Having a competitor as a majority shareholder is not good for any corporation. "We still do not know how this will end up. It is a play that must run its course. I expect we will have resolved the situation within a few months," says Mr. Almskog.

BERGESEN WILL NOT PLAY SANTA CLAUSE (Dagens Næringsliv)

Kjell Inge Røkke will receive neither stock nor voting rights from the Bergersen shipping line until he has paid for the Kværner stock he has bought. This is scheduled to take place in October. Until then, though, interest accrues on the purchase price. "We are not running a charity," says Bergesen director Svein Erik Amundsen.

KVÆRNER WILL RESIST PARTITIONING (Dagsavisen)

Kværner will fight tooth and nail to prevent Kjell Inge Røkke from acquiring sufficient clout in Kværner to split off its Oil & Gas division and merge it with Aker Maritime. Kværner board chairman Christian Bjelland confirms that he stands shoulder to shoulder with employee representatives on a strategy which aims to keep Kværner in one piece.

CALL TO RENAME LABOUR PARTY (Dagbladet)

Labour Youth League president Anniken Huitfeldt proposes a new name for the Labour Party. "The party should change its name to the Labour Social Democrats. Voters vote increasingly on the basis of political ideology, not class identity," she says. She feels it is important to retain the historical name, however, because many people still view labour as the only party representing ordinary men and women.

WORTH NOTING

• The Directorate for Civil Defence and Emergency Planning was aware of the vulnerability of the telecommunications network, but it was still astonished at the scale of the impact. (Aftenposten)
• Finnish Martti Ahtisaari has turned down the job as UN High Commissioner for Refugees. An opening for former Minister of Foreign Affairs Knut Vollebæk could now materialize. (Aftenposten)
• Fish farming is one of the most dangerous occupations in Norway, with a risk of death around 12 times that of the rest of Norwegian industry. Seven people have been killed in fish farming accidents in the past two years. (Vårt Land)
• Many companies are too generous with the options and golden parachutes they give their executives, in the view of Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry (NHO) president Leif Frode Onarheim, who cautions companies that hefty options can cost them dearly. (Dagens Næringsliv)
• If summer continues as wet as it has been so far in Oslo, it will end up being the worst summer since 1954. There is one benefit to all this rain, however. Power rates are at a record low. (Dagbladet)

TODAY’S COMMENT from Aftenposten

Chief of Police Security Service Per Sefland is not the only one worrying about how the parting of a single cable could paralyze an entire region, as it did in southern Norway on Monday. A crisis could easily turn into a disaster if the telecommunications network should collapse at the wrong time, cutting off communication between police, medical and other public services and authorities. We can point to no event in recent years which has demonstrated the vulnerability of modern society as clearly as the incident in Kristiansand on Monday. The march of technology has reached such an accelerated pace that any claim that it brings unqualified improvement is preposterous. In our technological society, many essential functions can easily be brought down by war, terror, computer hackers, organized crime or, as in this case, purely by accident. The telecommunications industry will have to build up a level of redundancy that will provide the necessary assurances that society cannot be brought to its knees by the rupture of a single cable. Accidents like this have happened before and they will happen again. It is incumbent upon Telenor to take immediate steps to limit the scope of the potential impact to levels which can be dealt with.

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