The Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Oslo Press Division

Norway Daily No. 96/00

Date: 22 May 2000

LABOUR MPs REBEL - MORE MUNICIPAL FUNDING (Aftenposten-Saturday)

Labour’s parliamentary group, more or less rebelling against its own Government, has hammered through an extra billion kroner in municipal funding. The strength of the MPs’ protest, as well as the fact that it was unanimous, obviously took the Government by surprise. The centrist parties and the Socialist Left are both highly critical of the municipal funding proposition, and the Progress Party demands full financial coverage for the wage settlement. The final allocation is thus likely to be higher than the Government’s proposal.

STORM AGAINST GOVERNMENT (Dagsavisen-Saturday)

Assisted suicide is one of the terms used to describe the Government’s municipal funding bill. The Labour Government, yielding to pressure from its own MPs, has now upped its offer to NOK 4 billion in additional funding next year, but this is still less than half what the municipal sector has requested.

CENTRISTS PRESSING GOVERNMENT FOR BANK PLANS (Dagens Næringsliv-Saturday)

The political centre is putting pressure on Labour over the bank issue. At an informal meeting Thursday night, the centrist parties called on the Government to declare what it has in mind for Norway’s banks. The reason for this offensive is that while in opposition, Labour pointedly accused Finance Minister Gudmund Restad (Centre) of inaction regarding the banks. There are indications that the centrist parties will go in for a solution in which the state sells off its Kreditkassen holdings.

TELENOR TO RECEIVE ONLY HALF (Aftenposten-Saturday)

Telenor will receive only half, at best, of the NOK 50 billion in new equity capital Telenor chief Tormod Hermansen and his board of directors are hoping for when Telenor goes public in September. Telenor’s owner, the Ministry of Transport and Communications, anxious to avoid an overcapitalization, is not inclined grant Mr. Hermansen any more. Ministry advisers do not feel Telenor has adequately documented its capital requirements.

CHANGES AT THE TOP IN TELENOR (Aftenposten-Sunday)

The Ministry of Transport and Communications has neglected to give Telenor a NOK 30 billion guarantee. And according to Aftenposten’s sources, the Ministry is also contemplating the replacement of board chairman Arnfinn Hofstad. Vice-chairman Eivind Reiten is a likely candidate to replace Mr. Hofstad when the Ministry of Transport and Communications holds its statutory shareholders’ meeting at the end of this month, according to central Ministry sources. And according to correspondence that has taken place since February, a hard tug-of-war between Telenor and the state had been going on behind the scenes for several months before the plans to take Telenor public in a partial privatization were announced on Friday.

FEWER TEACHERS MEAN HIGHER PAY (Aftenposten-Sunday)

If teachers are willing to spend more time teaching, it may be possible to raise their pay, says Minister of Education Trond Giske. But he says he is only theorizing. Mr. Giske suggests agreeing on new working hours and opens up for greater pay differentiation. These statements have surprised Anders Folkestad, president of the Norwegian Teachers' Union, who now expects Mr. Giske to promptly take the initiative in calling the head of the Norwegian Union of Teachers and myself in for a meeting on Monday. The teachers’s unions are astonished at Mr. Giske’s statements.

EU STOPS RUSSIAN FISH TO NORWAY (Aftenposten-Saturday)

The fishing industry in northern Norway will have to make do without fish from the Russian fishing fleet. EU quality regulations prohibit the landing of Russian fish. Norway has accepted the decree from the EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA). It is primarily Russian supplies of frozen fish that will be affected. This will not reduce fishing activity in the Barents Sea, but it will cause major problems for the Norwegian fishing industry, says purchasing agent Hagbard Nilsen of Båtsfjord. Mr. Nilsen expects the Russians will now deliver their catches to Iceland and other countries not subject to EU directives.

HOSPITAL COMPLAINTS RISING STEADILY (Aftenposten)

A growing number of patients are reporting medical error and injuries sustained during hospitalization to the patient compensation board (NPE). The NPE received 221 complaints in 1998, but in 1999 the number of complaints was up to 2050. According to NPE’s statistics, it takes one year on the average to decide the issue of liability and another year to fix the amount of compensation to be paid. According to Aftenposten’s information, some people have had to wait up to ten years before receiving compensation.

NOK 800 BILLION IN STATE BUSINESS OWNERSHIP (Aftenposten)

According to estimates in a recent report by the Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry (NHO), state ownership in listed companies was around NOK 100 billion and around NOK 7 billion in unlisted enterprises in 1999. The NHO calls for a reduction in state ownership and better conditions for private ownership.

WORTH NOTING

• Allocations to the municipal sector have not kept pace with the rest of the economy, despite a political consensus for funding health, education and the elderly. Municipal funding is a smaller component of the national economy now than it was ten years ago. (Dagens Næringsliv-Saturday)
• It is still not certain that the controversial gas-fired power plants will ever be built in western Norway. Minister of the Environment Siri Bjerke wants Naturkraft to send in a new emissions application, but she will not promise to give the power company what it wants. (Dagsavisen-Saturday)
• Thomas Angell, former president of the Federation of Norwegian Commercial and Service Enterprises (HSH), suggests getting the EU involved in the war on cross-border trade instead of demanding tax cuts from the politicians. Mr. Angell believes the growing tendency of Norwegians to shop in Sweden violates EU regulations. (Dagens Næringsliv-Saturday)
• The proposals regarding the partial privatization of Statoil will not reach the Storting until 9 June. It is thus fully possible that the bill may not be adopted before Labour holds its national convention in the beginning of November, in which case it could turn out to be a hot issue at the Labour Party national convention after all. (Dagens Næringsliv)
• Labour’s 19 county organizations are evenly divided on the issue of partially privatizing Statoil. The party’s executive committee will soon decide whether to put this controversial issue on the convention’s agenda. (Dagsavisen)
• Finance Minister Karl Eirik Schjøtt-Pedersen strongly advises against further reductions in taxes on stock options. The centrist parties are still considering a proposal which would reduce this tax as well as the surtax on high incomes. (Dagens Næringsliv)
• The drink-drive limit will probably be reduced to 0.2% BAC after Labour’s parliamentary group decided to back the bill submitted by the Bondevik Government last autumn. The bill will be voted on in the Storting before summer. (Dagbladet-Saturday)
• The small-craft registry created a couple of years ago has proved to be a huge drain on public funds. It has cost over NOK 60 million so far to register half of Norway’s pleasure craft. Conservative finance policy spokesman Per-Kristian Foss is clear in his view: drop this registry. Spend the money on boosting safety at sea instead. (Dagsavisen-Sunday)

TODAY’S COMMENT from Vårt Land/Dagsavisen

Minister of Education Trond Giske has been in office for only a month, but he is already theorizing about teachers’ overall working conditions. His suggestion is that if teachers would teach three additional hours per week, they could go up 15 per cent in pay. Most agree that teachers’ salaries are inadequate, and this is probably a contributing factor to the low recruitment to this occupation. There are also signs that teaching is increasingly viewed as a low-status job, and the alarm is out that those seeking teacher training often come from among the lowest achievers. (Vart Land)

There is no doubt that teachers enjoy widespread sympathy for their demands for higher pay. Poor recruitment, heavy migration to other occupations, and general discontent are clear signs that this vocation needs upgrading. Higher pay is the best remedy, but the problem for the teachers is that many other occupational groups are also making legitimate claims in this year’s wage settlement. It is not surprising that the first reactions from the teachers’ unions are negative. But so far, the heads of these unions have done little aside from issuing utopian wage demands instead of constructive proposals which could be translated into real politics. We have long insisted that teachers must do their bit by putting in more teaching hours if society is to give priority to their wage demands. Mr. Giske is thinking in the right direction. We hope the teachers’ unions will follow up so that teachers will once more be able to earn a decent wage. (Dagsavisen)