Thank you Mr Chairman,

Mr Chairman, your Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure for me to welcome you to the city of Bergen and to this very important meeting for CEPT. In a way this city is symbolic for this meeting, being a city with a long history of European relations and communication. European relations because Bergen was an important Hansa city with a large number of inhabitants from other European nations, in particular Germans. In fact, during the Medieval Ages, Bergen was the largest city in the Nordic countries. Even today Bergen is a city which enjoys strong relations to the rest of Europe. Last year Bergen had the honour of being the European City of Culture. Bergen has a long history of communication between people along the western and northern coasts of Norway and the rest of Europe through its trade of fish to the European markets.

You may know that Bergen is one of the cities in Europe with the most rain on a yearly basis, in fact 2250 millimetres rain falls per year in Bergen. The story has it that once a stranger asked a local boy whether it always rained in Bergen. The boy’s answer was: I do not know yet, I am only 7 years old.

Communication is, and has always been crucial for people living in Norway. To see this, it is sufficient to look at a map showing the geographic length of the country. In fact it is equal to the distance between Paris and Athens, or from Moscow to Ankara. Due to its extent, large sparsely populated areas, mountainous areas and fjords, Norway is an expensive country in which to build infrastructure for post and telecommunication. This makes cost effective post and telecommunication services particularly important for our national economy, industry, and social needs. This is further strengthened by the political goal of maintaining a viable economy and good living conditions throughout the country. The main goals of the Norwegian Government in the postal and telecommunications sectors is to secure high quality services to affordable prices to the population all over the country. As I mentioned these services must be cost effective and at the same time adjusted to the technological development and the customers and other users demand for high quality services and new services and products. On this background it is easy to see that there is a lot of challenges for the regulatory authorities as well as for the suppliers of services and products in the postal and telecommunications sectors in Norway. I firmly believe that the situation is the same in other CEPT member states.

One example of making postal services more effective and available is the restructuring of the postal net. The ambition is to improve customer availability by increasing the number of postal outlets and extend business hours. This means a reduction of the number of traditional post offices from aprox. 900 to 300 – 450, combined with and increase in outlets organised as post-in-shop from 400 branch outlets to-day to aprox. 1500. These are integrated solutions with food chains, petrol stations and kiosks. In addition there will be a number of public service offices and full service post offices with extended asortement. I believe that this change will be beneficial to customers and well suited to the rapid changes in the postal environment.

The Norwegian telecommunications regulatory regime is designed to fulfill the national needs for telecommunications. Our regime promotes a nationwide provision of basic telecommunications services at affordable terms, and efficient utilization of resources through effective competition. We also promote technical quality, and secure users rights and the protection of personal data and privacy.

In Norway we have an advanced marked for telecommunications services. We are among the front runners in Europe on mobile communications, ISDN, leased lines and Internet. In February Norway was ranked as the world’s second best information economy in connection with a global eGovernment survey. In light of the convergence, the developments in the market, the evolution and the changes in user demand, we fully acknowledge the importance of electronic communications. It is one of the most important soåurces to innovation, efficiency and restructuring both in the private and the public sector. To us it is a main goal to keep Norway among the leading nations in utilizing the possibilities following from the electronic communications technology. To achieve this goal we will adjust and modernise regulations on a continuous basis in order to remove obstacles and stimulate further development.

This brings me to the European scene of post and telecommunication.

As I have indicated the Norwegian government places strong emphasis on European cooperation. We wish to be an active partner in the development of a harmonized post and telecommunications in Europe. Along with our EFTA partners in the European Economic Area, we have chosen to be part of the same legislative regime as the European Union member states. This means that we are committed to the Directives developed by the European Union. In fact, I strongly believe that the developments towards stronger competition along with harmonized market conditions throughout Europe will bring benefits to all European countries and their citizens. This is why I believe it is so important to maintain and improve the pan‑European aspects that CEPT provides through its 44 members countries. The development of fair market conditions and facilitation of market entry are necessary for European industry and the European markets.

On this background it is important for me to use this opportunity to underline that active participation and contributions by all 44 Member countries of CEPT are important if we shall be able to obtain the necessary results in the postal and telecommunications sectors both nationally and internationally. Norway has through its CEPT presidency and the efforts invested in the CEPT reform process tried to contribute to modernisation and reform in the international arena. We are very thankful for the contribution and support from CEPT members in this reform. Norway intends to continue this line of work on the global scene by candidating to the ITU Council as part of a rotation arrangement amongst the Nordic countries.

Mr Chairman, in ending my address I take the opportunity to express my hopes and expectations that the Plenary Assembly of CEPT here in Bergen will take the necessary decisions in order to strengthen CEPT and make it a more effective organisation. With the proposed decisions CEPT will be better tailored to respond to the requirements of the rapid changing postal and telecommunication environment in Europe.

Thank you Mr Chairman.