Full speed ahead for Norwegian economy (Dagsavisen)

Finance Minister Karl Eirik Schjøtt-Pedersen certainly has reason to smile. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), last year Norway had the biggest trade surplus of any industrial country since 1970! The IMF thinks the Norwegian economy is in a healthy condition, although certain preventive measures are still needed. The IMF is indirectly critical of the Finance Minister’s recent advisory meetings with leading economists and business executives on increased domestic use of Norway’s oil wealth.

Finance Minister may tighten budget in May (Dagens Næringsliv)

Finance Minister Karl Eirik Schjøtt-Pedersen must be prepared to tighten the Government’s revised national budget to be presented in May. Experts from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) say a budget squeeze will be necessary if it looks as though the current shortages in the workforce are getting worse. But the IMF is satisfied with the way the Norwegian Central Bank has done its job, and has indicated its approval of last year’s use of interest rate rises to prevent inflation.

Minister may bow to pressure over defence cuts (Verdens Gang)

When Defence Minister Bjørn Tore Godal meets Labour Party MPs today he will be bombarded with alternative suggestions for cutting the defence budget and appeals not to close specific military installations, particularly if they play an important role in their local economies. Informed sources within the Labour Party have told VG that Mr Godal may be prepared to make changes to the draft version of the white paper on the long-term future of the Norwegian Armed Forces, which targets 67 specific military installations.

Norwegian gas under pressure (Aftenposten)

This week senior Norwegian oil executives gathering at Sanderstølen are in for a real cold shower when Sergej Dubinen, deputy chairman of Gazprom, explains how the giant Russian gas producer plans to dominate the European gas market. Norway is now included in the EU’s free market for gas, which has put an end to long-term, fixed-price contracts for Norway’s gas producers. However, Russia is not subject to the EU’s gas directive, and can force EU member states to buy gas on long-term contracts.

Frontline to invest NOK 3 billion on new ships (Aftenposten)

Yesterday Frontline, the shipping line owned by Norwegian shipping magnate John Fredriksen, announced that it had placed orders to build five large oil tankers at a cost of NOK 2.9 billion each. Following the announcement, Mr Fredriksen’s tanker empire is now worth an estimated NOK 32 billion. Frontline’s fleet, which consists of 66 ships, is so large that it could easily transport Norway’s entire annual oil output, or around five per cent of the world’s oil production. And with a total tonnage of 14.5 million dwt, Frontline is larger than Sweden’s whole merchant fleet.

Discovery of Nazi invasion plans kept secret (Dagbladet)

For 18 months the police and the Norwegian Defence Museum have kept secret the discovery of Nazi Germany’s plans for the invasion and occupation of Norway, "Operation Weserübung". Norwegian and European historians have been searching for documents detailing the invasion plan since the war, but without success. The complete plan was seized at the home of a deep-sea diver in Narvik in June 1999. The plan, signed by Lieutenant General Nicolaus von Falkenhorst, has now been sent to the National Archives’ defence section for conservation.

Worth Noting

• The Norwegian Industrial and Regional Development Fund (SND) has contributed to the creation or preservation of between 20,000 and 25,000 jobs, says professor Arild Hervik, who has studied the SND’s activities over the period 1994-1996. (Dagsavisen)

• The individuals who recently resigned from the Progress Party aim to present their own list of candidates at this autumn’s general election. A final decision is expected by the end of the week. (Aftenposten)

• After five years of open competition, no one has managed to challenge the Norwegian dairy cooperative, Tine, when it comes to milk. Both the Government and the Conservative Party are now planning to investigate if the competition Tine has been faced with really is open. (Dagbladet)

• Petrol prices are again approaching NOK 10 per litre. Today Esso, Shell and Statoil will all raise their recommended prices to a level which means that the Government’s new year’s cut in petrol tax has been completely eaten away. (Dagens Næringsliv)

• In the past two months Telenor has banked NOK 45 billion in cash from the proceeds of its stock market listing and the sale of various subsidiaries. (Verdens Gang)

• When Kjetil André Aamodt won the World Championship combined title yesterday, he secured his 14th World Cup and Olympic gold medal. This makes him the "best alpine skier of all time".

Today’s comment from Aftenposten

After several false starts it now seems as though we may finally see a wide ranging debate on the current status and future prospects for scientific research in Norway. And high time too. Today more than ever we need to move on from the fine words which are always spoken about the need to invest in scientific research, and start putting our hand in our pocket. We need to develop practical solutions which will transform the after dinner speeches into scientific and technical reality which can be fully commercialized. Because it is the commercialization of new products and services which will provide the country’s economic platform when the oil revenues finally dry up. And at the moment oil revenues are what we have at our disposal to lay the foundations for this new economic platform. The Government seems to have recognized that more needs to be done, which provides at least a glimmer of hope. But in the long term we probably need a change in the spiritual climate so that more people, both those in charge of allocating the financial resources and those working in the laboratories, acknowledge and accept the need for the basic research which is at the heart of large parts of the higher education system, and which often produces unforeseen, innovative and sometimes revolutionary results. It will not be long before this is what we shall be making our living from.