READY TO FIGHT FOR STOREBRAND (Dagens Næringsliv)

Today the battle between Jens P. Heyerdahl and Stein Erik Hagen will begin in Storebrand’s elections committee. Mr. Heyerdahl wants his people to be given positions in Storebrand’s management, while Mr. Hagen’s candidates are Norsk Hydro’s Leiv Nergaard and Kreditkassen boss Tom Ruud. According to Dagens Næringsliv’s sources, Mr. Heyerdahl and Mr. Hagen are completely at odds. Mr. Heyerdahl’s goal is to ensure that his people control Storebrand. Mr. Hagen will be facing him from the other side of the table this afternoon at the meeting of the election committee. His ally is tobacco heir Johan H. Andresen Jr., and he is also said to have the support of the National Insurance Scheme Fund.

STOREBRAND IS CHECKING ITS REPUTATION (Aftenposten)

Storebrand has hired a PR consultancy firm, Woldsdal & Partners, to find out how much the Korsvold scandal has harmed its standing. A number of politicians, journalists, clients and financial analysts will be interviewed. According to Storebrand’s chief information officer Egil Thompson, "a double-digit number" of people within each of these groups will be queried.

KEPT QUIET ON GAS INFORMATION (Dagbladet)

Minister of the Environment Siri Bjerke was only telling a fraction of the truth on 6 October when she publicized the reasons behind the decision to allow gas-fired power stations to be built without regard for CO2 emissions. She did not even mention the most probable alternative according to calculations made by Statistics Norway (SSB), which was that these plants would play a part in increasing emissions in Europe. "When a report has been drawn up dealing with complex problems and analyses, I think it would be reasonable to present the entire conclusion, not just part of it. All three of the alternatives that have been proposed could be relevant, given the proper circumstances," says Torstein Bye, chief research officer at SSB.

SCHENGEN NECESSITATES NORDIC PASSPORT REQUIREMENTS (Klassekampen)

The terms of the Schengen Agreement make it necessary for all establishments providing overnight accommodation to register their guests by nationality. For Norwegians, this will mean having to produce a passport. This could be the end of the Nordic cooperation making passports unnecessary. The Swedish authorities take the view that the Schengen Agreement will make it necessary for Norwegians to show their passports at Swedish hotels.

EARLY RETIREMENT IS STEALING TEACHERS (Nationen)

Only seven per cent of the teachers who retired last year had reached the usual retirement age of 67. The rest of them took early retirement. At the same time, the shortage of teachers is increasing. Teachers, as well as people in most other professions, retire as soon as they are given the chance. The numbers speak for themselves: in 1999, 57 per cent of all teachers who left their positions did so with disability pensions. Thirty-six per cent left under the terms of the government-sponsored early retirement scheme (AFP) up to five years before the age of 67. This means that "ordinary" pensioners accounted for only seven per cent of retiring teachers.

VAT IS THREATENING PRIVATISATION (Dagens Næringsliv)

The value-added tax reform could put an end to the privatisation of municipal services. It could also make it less profitable for the financial sector to purchase legal services and computer-related services from outside sources instead of hiring people to work on the inside. The reason for this development is that providers of public services are not required to pay VAT. This means that the municipalities cannot deduct VAT from goods and services they buy from the outside. This, in turn, would make it more expensive to purchase these services from private sources than it would be to have them available within the municipalities themselves.

WORTH NOTING

• Today the EU will probably give Norway a six-month time limit for approving the baby food and food additive directives. This is putting strain on the entire EEA Agreement. (Aftenposten)
• Statistics are now available on how we are doing in relation to our Nordic brothers and sisters in several areas of public welfare. Among other things, Norwegian pensioners are provided with the poorest services and have the least money in their pockets of all Nordic pensioners. (Aftenposten)
• Telenor CEO Tormod Hermansen is putting a heavily indebted company onto the stock market. Since 1997 the company’s interest-bearing debt has increased by over 760 per cent to a total of NOK 54.5 billion. But this debt does not seem to bother the management. (Dagens Næringsliv)
• At the next general election voters may, for the first time, be able to cast their ballots at several hundred Shell petrol stations and grocery stores, according to Norske Shell’s Svein Berland. (Nationen)

TODAY'S COMMENT from Dagbladet:

The Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry, NHO, will phase out its support of political parties during the next five years. The only party that will be seriously affected by this decision is the Conservatives. They will receive NOK 4.2 million from the NHO this year, while the Christian Democrats will get NOK 750,000. It was about time that the NHO made this decision. But we find it difficult to understand why it should take five years to phase out an arrangement that has been outdated for years. This type of mingling of interest groups and political parties has no role to play in the twenty-first century. Political parties should not be dependent on this type of financial support. This is why they currently receive a large amount of support from the public treasury. But the NHO decision should also make the Confederation of Norwegian Trade Unions (LO) reconsider its support for the Labour Party. Recently the future leaders of the LO have indicated that the organization’s relationship with Labour should not be as close as it has been. This must also have an effect on financial contributions. The relationship between Labour and the LO is currently a problem for both.

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