OIL REVENUES CAN BE USED NOW (Aftenposten)

The Ministry of Finance has no sound reason for restricting the use of Norway’s oil wealth in the budget, says Norwegian School of Management professor Erling Steigum. He says that the ministry is using new and questionable definitions of wealth which, on the surface, demonstrate the need for even more public sector spending cuts. He believes there is room to a greater use of Norway’s oil revenues, without increasing the tax burden on future generations. Professor Steigum also believes that the Government should reduce tax levels in the budget for next year, so that the majority of people could feel the benefit of the increase in the country’s oil revenues.

PROGRESS PARTY SWEEPS WOMEN OUT OF THE STORTING (Vårt Land)

If the Progress Party holds on to its supporters at next year’s general elections, the number of women in the Storting will be the lowest for 20 years. Today, 60 of the 165 representatives in the country’s highest elected institution are women. That equals 36.4 per cent. At the general elections seven years ago the proportion was almost 40 per cent. We are now facing a further decline. At next autumn’s general elections the Progress Party may come sweeping into the Storting with twice as many representatives as today. That means many more men, who will be pushing out women representatives.

GO-AHEAD TO IMPORT HEALTHCARE WORKERS (Dagsavisen)

While Swedish nurses are returning home to Sweden, in other countries there is great interest in working in Norway. Australian and German nurses have already signed contracts with Norwegian hospitals, and additional hospitals are considering recruiting from abroad. Up to now, healthcare personnel from outside the EEA, apart from doctors, have had to pass a tough language test before they could take a job. From this autumn the different professions within the health sector will be subject to the same rules.

HEAVILY CRITICIZED FOR PALACE BUDGET OVERRUN (Dagens Næringsliv)

According to the Office of the Auditor General, the Ministry of Finance must shoulder a large part of the blame for the fact that the renovation work on the royal palace in Oslo could end up being 200 per cent more expensive than first anticipated. Following its investigations, the Office of the Auditor General estimates the total budget overrun to be NOK 341 million, and aims heavy criticism at the Ministry of Finance during the period 1995 and 1996 under the leadership of Sigbjørn Johnsen. At the end of 1996, current prime minister Jens Stoltenberg took over responsibility for the ministry.

HOUSE PRICES NOSE-DIVE (Dagbladet)

The interest rate shock applied by Svein Gjedrem, governor of the Norwegian Central Bank, is beginning to work. After the latest rise in interest rates on 20 September, house prices have plunged by over seven per cent. Oslo has been worst hit, with prices falling by over 10 per cent. It is now a buyer’s market.

FOUR CONDITIONS FOR A DnB MERGER (Dagens Næringsliv)

Jan Willy Hopland, chief executive of the Government Bank Investment Fund, has said that a merger between Storebrand and Den norske Bank must fulfil the following four conditions. The Government must own at least a third of the company. DnB’s management and board must recommend the deal, and it must be good for the bank. The merger must be based on sound commercial principles and it must be good for shareholders. There must be reasonable grounds to believe that the deal will gain the approval of the relevant authorities.

MAY LOSE ITS LICENSE TO TRADE (Dagens Næringsliv)

Jan Petter Collier and stockbrokers Sundal Collier & Co. are currently under investigation by the Banking, Insurance and Securities Commission for their role in the stock option scandal surrounding former Storebrand boss Åge Korsvold. If the Commission concludes that the company has broken the law governing good business practice, the firm may lose its license to trade.

WORTH NOTING

1. According to both former prime minister Per Borten and President of the Storting Kirsti Kolle Grøndahl, it is not up to Crown Prince Haakon alone to decide who he wishes to marry. (Dagbladet)
2. The country’s most expensive servicemen, the F-16 pilots, have been hit by efforts to cut fuel costs. Many of them have been grounded for the rest of the year. At the Bodø airbase, half of the fighter pilots have applied to resign their commissions and receive the compensation promised by the Armed Forces as an incentive to reduce manning levels. (Aftenposten)
3. There will be no ban on mosques’ use of loudspeakers to broadcast calls to prayer, as was proposed by Carl I. Hagen. The other parties have rejected the proposal. (Dagsavisen)
4. Chief Economist Knut Anton Mork from Handelsbanken Norge says that politicians should take opinion polls into account when they set tax levels. He believes that politicians should listen to the voice of the people as expressed in letters to newspaper editors, public debates and opinion polls. (Aftenposten)
5. The final bill for last winter’s hunt for four cross-bred wolves in Østfold county came to over NOK 2.5 million. (Nationen)
6. This year, summer came late but was worth waiting for. We could be looking at record temperatures for the whole of the north of Norway. The region’s highest average temperature for October was recorded in 1987. (Dagsavisen)

TODAY’S COMMENT FROM AFTENPOSTEN

Local Government Minister Sylvia Brustad (Labour) deserves praise for one thing – she has already decided that Kosovo Albanian families with small children will not be sent back to Kosovo this autumn. In so doing she has demonstrated that she is taking the report from the UN’s temporary administration in Kosovo (UNMIK) seriously. The report says what the minister herself should have seen during this summer’s visit to Kosovo – a large number of houses are in ruins. The term "without a roof over your head" has a particularly tangible meaning in the province. It would be strange indeed for a country that wishes to be a "humanitarian super-power" to push through a comprehensive mass deportation – even if the letter of the law has been followed exactly. If we could afford to carry out an emergency airlift of Kosovo Albanians to Norway, we can also afford to organize their return home in a humanitarian and orderly manner.

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