Easier to get away with drugs offences (Aftenposten)

In the past two years the police have reduced by 40 per cent the number of drugs tests taken of motorists and people suspected of assault. The police will therefore catch 3,000 fewer drugs offenders. Drug-related crime is reckoned to be one of the most serious problems facing Norwegian society today, and both the Government and the Storting have underlined that it is one of the police’s most important areas of focus. Now new figures Aftenposten has gained access to show that the police have substantially reduced the number of drugs tests being carried out.

Reinås slams Finance Minister’s interference in Storebrand bid (Verdens Gang)

"Executive of the year", Norske Skog’s chief executive Jan Reinås, has slammed Finance Minister Karl Eirik Schjøtt-Pedersen for not following the rules of the business game. Mr Reinås is also critical of fellow businessmen who do not have the courage to take a gamble. Mr Reinås is not particularly impressed with some of what has been happening lately at home in Norway. He does not like the fact that we have a Finance Minister who attempts to run roughshod over the professional judgement of Storebrand’s management when they recommend the takeover bid from Sampo, the Finnish financial services company. He is also critical of Norwegian politicians’ lack of focus on research and development as a contribution to improving the business framework in which Norwegian companies operate.

Widespread privatization of Norway Ltd (Dagsavisen/Saturday)

No previous Prime Minister has been responsible for such a widespread sell-off of state assets as that currently being carried out by Jens Stoltenberg. Including its plans for a further sale of Telenor shares, the Government has sold shares in Norwegian companies to the tune of more than NOK 60 billion in three years. On Thursday the Government decided that the Norwegian state should own only 34 per cent of Telenor’s shares. This sell-off alone will bring in over NOK 30 billion. A parliamentary majority supports the Government’s proposal to reduce its stake in Telenor. When Statoil’s shares are floated in two weeks’ time, the Government will rake in another NOK 18 billion. During the entire period 1980 to the end of 1998, the state’s revenues from the sale of shares amounted to under NOK 1 billion.

Voters want coalition with Conservative participation (Nationen)

If the voters could put together their own government, the most popular coalition party would be the Conservatives, according to an opinion poll carried out by Sentio/Norsk statistikk. The pollsters have created a completely new kind of poll which, uniquely, allows participants to put together their own favourite government. In contrast, other polls ask participants to choose between a number of specific alternatives. According to the new poll, 34.4 per cent of voters want a coalition government which includes the Conservatives after the election. 30.4 per cent want a government including the Labour party, while 25.5 per cent of voters want the Christian Democrats to be part of a government coalition. The most popular one-party alternative is a purely Labour government, which is the first choice of 15.6 per cent of voters. A purely Conservative government, which came in second place, was way behind with the support of just 9.3 per cent of the electorate. Only 6.2 per cent of those questioned want the return of a centre alliance government.

Telenor seeks partner (Aftenposten/Saturday)

Telenor chief executive Tormod Hermansen can now turn his beady eye on any of the players in the Nordic telecoms market, with the exception of arch-rival Telia. They are too big. Or Mr Hermansen can issue shares equivalent to NOK 90 billion which he can use to take over other companies. The Government has decided to reduce its stake in Telenor, and the company has cleared the decks at Telenordia in Sweden. This gives Mr Hermansen a number of options, but the man himself is playing it cool despite recent acquisition rumours, a supposed "Telenor boycott" and industry participants’ current scramble to merge with each other. Telenor’s main priority is to establish bridgeheads in both the Swedish and Finnish mobile phone market. These companies have mobile phone licenses and are therefore potential alliance partners or acquisition candidates for Telenor.

Worth Noting

• A new era in the sale of Norwegian gas has just started. Norwegian gas worth tens of billions of kroner each year will now be sold on the open market by each individual production company. The controversial Norwegian Gas Negotiation Committee (GFU) has been consigned to history. Last week the Government was forced to bow to EU demands that Norway abolish the scheme coordinating the sale of Norwegian gas. (Dagens Næringsliv)
• The National Rail Administration’s own accident investigation team has again blamed one of the train drivers for the Åsta train crash, despite the fact that the public inquiry would not rule out the possibility of a fault in the railway signalling system. The Norwegian Train Drivers’ Union has accused the Rail Administration’s report of bias. (Aftenposten/Saturday)
• A majority of MPs support the Government’s proposed reduction in the state’s shareholding in Telenor to 34 per cent. The Government made its proposal almost simultaneously with the Telenor’s announcement that it was acquiring 100 per cent of the Swedish company, Telenordia. (Nationen/Saturday)
• Political parties stretching from the centre to the right have designated the Labour Party as their main opponent in this autumn’s election campaign, according to a straw poll of party leaders carried out by Vårt Land 100 days before election day. (Vårt Land/Saturday)
• The shipping company Bergesen d.y. is selling oil tankers worth NOK 3 billion to John Fredriksen and his partners in the shipping pool, Tankers International. But Bergesen’s chief executive says that the deal should not be interpreted as a signal that the shipping company is getting out of the tanker business for good. (Dagens Næringsliv/Saturday)
• Foreign Minister Thorbjørn Jagland is not ready to propose to the WTO new rules on gene patenting which would strengthen the position of developing countries, or put his foot down over negotiations on animal and plant patents. (Nationen/Saturday)
• In 1999 the richest ten per cent of the population controlled 66.8 per cent of all the financial assets in Norway, according to figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics which were published yesterday. By comparison the richest 10 per cent controlled 50.6 per cent of the country’s financial assets in 1986. (Klassekampen/Saturday)
• The Agriculture Minister has pulled out of a planned series of television adverts to promote the new VAT rules for food. But he still says he won’t shop at the Rimi supermarket chain any more. According to legal experts, calls for a public boycott may be illegal. (Aftenposten)
• A majority in the Storting supports the Government’s proposal to strengthen NSB’s equity by NOK 2.1 billion. The parliamentary majority also supports the proposal to hive off NSB’s freight transport division as a separate limited company. (Dagens Næringsliv)
• Former Transport Ministers Kjell Opseth (Labour) and Lars Gunnar Lie (Christian Democrat) will not be impeached in connection with the decision to build Oslo’s new Gardermoen Airport. Only the Progress Party will call for impeachment when the Storting today closes its investigation into the affair. (Dagsavisen)
• A recent opinion poll carried out by MMI for Dagbladet shows that the popularity of the constitutional monarchy is falling steadily. Under half of Oslo’s inhabitants support the monarchy. Only 49 per cent of the capital’s residents want to keep this form of government, while 34 per cent want a republic. 17 per cent have no opinion. (Dagbladet/Saturday)

Today’s comment from Dagens Næringsliv

According to all the recent opinion polls, the Conservative Party is racing ahead, while the Progress Party’s slide seems to have stopped. If the election result this September is anywhere close to the polls, the Storting will be a deeper blue than at any time since the first decade of the last century. The last time Norway experienced a right-wing upturn, at the end of the 1970s, it coincided with a corresponding movement in many Western countries. The voters saw right-wing policies as a tempting cure for stagflation and mass unemployment. The USA got Ronald Reagan, the UK got Margaret Thatcher, Germany got Helmut Kohl and Norway got Kåre Willoch. Today the situation is less clear. In Norway the Labour Party has not managed to adjust its policies to keep up with changes in voters’ attitudes, and is in danger of losing its historical status as a party in a class of its own. Less than six months ago it seemed as though the Progress Party would benefit most from the Labour Party downturn. Today it is the Conservative Party which is gaining ground. If this trend keeps going until the election it will relax many a tense political shoulder. Although the Progress Party has sympathetically liberal attitudes on many important issues, it also has a number of less well thought out, populist policies – on immigration, for example. If the party’s recipe of letting Norway’s oil revenues flood into the economy were implemented, the damage could be enormous. A potential Conservative/Christian Democrat government would probably implement fewer and less effective liberal reforms than Norway needs. But on the other hand, it would reduce the danger of things going completely wrong. That in itself is comforting.