Norway Daily No. 202/99

The Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Oslo Press Division

Norway Daily No. 202/99

DATE: 20 October 1999

GET IT IN WRITING!

(Dagsavisen)

A written agreement is necessary in order for group president Tormod Hermansen and board chairman Jan-Åke Kark to be able to work together. Their confidence in each other is so strained that Mr. Hermansen is not prepared to conclude the merger with only verbal assurances from the Swedes that he will be the real chief executive . The merger agreement between the Norwegian and the Swedish owners empowers board members from both countries to block decisions. All decisions of strategic significance to the company must have at least one vote from each owner in addition to an ordinary majority.

BOATING FATALITIES REDUCED BY HALF

(Aftenposten)

Boating accidents resulted in only half the number of fatalities this past summer as took place the year before. With 50 deaths recorded the previous summer making it the worst season in six years, the Ministry of Justice reduced the maximum legal blood alcohol content at sea from 1.5 to 0.8 per thousand. There have been 24 fatalities so far this year, but the authorities are drawing no firm conclusions as to the cause of this drop.

PRE-NUPTIAL QUESTIONING PROCEDURE PROPOSED

(Dagbladet)

Four prominent Labour women will submit a proposal to the Storting today to the effect that any Norwegian citizen who intends to marry a foreign national must appear for questioning. The object of the proposal is to put a stop to forced marriages. "We have no intention of discriminating between ethnic groups," says Marit Nybakk, one of the sponsors of the bill. The proposal does not suggest who should do the questioning or how it should take place.

5000 PROSPECTIVE NURSES TURNED AWAY

(Dagens Næringsliv)

5000 qualified applicants to nursing colleges have been turned down in the past three years due to a lack of capacity at the training institutions. Even applicants who indicated nursing as their first choice were turned away. There is a shortage of 3,700 nurses in Norway at present; the capacity of the nursing colleges has increased only slightly since 1996.

TEENAGERS STILL BUY CIGARETTES DESPITE LAW

(Dagsavisen)

Teenagers under the age of 18 smoke 98 million cigarettes every year. Illegal, but simple: a recent survey shows that 70 per cent of teenage smokers buy cigarettes without being asked about their age. The 18-year age requirement introduced in 1996 for purchasing tobacco has thus had little impact on teenage smoking.

MERITA NORDBANKEN HOPES FOR NORWEGIAN OWNERS

(Dagens Næringsliv)

The Labour Party takes the view that the state should consider acquiring shareholdings in MeritaNordbanken if it sells its Kreditkassen shares, and this dovetails with MeritaNordbanken's own position. "We would like a Norwegian presence among our owners. The bank would benefit commercially because it would give us greater credibility in Norway", said board chairman Jacob Palmstierna yesterday in a meeting between senior MeritaNordbanken executives and Labour Party representatives.

MOTORCYCLE GANGS HAVE BECOME COMPETENT MONEY LAUNDERERS

(Aftenposten)

Over 20 corporations are owned, operated or controlled by persons associated with the Bandidos or Hell's Angels motorcycle gangs. "Their legal businesses enable them to launder the profits of their illegal activities and spend heavily. We see many people in these groups acquiring an increasingly stronger position," says National Bureau of Crime Investigation (Kripos) chief Arne Huuse. Minister of Justice Odd Einar Dørum is also concerned.

WORTH NOTING

• Einar Gerhardsen, Norway's leading political figure following the Second World War, attempted to come to terms with the German occupation power in 1940. This new information is forthcoming in a new biography released this year. "It is difficult to imagine him becoming Prime Minister in 1945 if this had been known," says author and historian Finn Olstad. (Dagsavisen)
• Sheep farmers in Østfold County were refused permission to shoot wolves. They now anticipate that "someone" will take matters into their own hands. (Aftenposten)
• Minister of Health Dagfinn Høybråten gives shopowners and store managers one year to bring illegal sales of tobacco to minors to a halt. He now threatens fines "that will hurt" if they do not stop selling cigarettes to teenagers. (Vårt Land)
• Tax reforms and the State Direct Financial Interest (SDFI) in the oil industry must be considered in a single context, says Labour deputy chairman Jens Stoltenberg. (Aftenposten)
• After a period of growth, spreading down mountainsides and threatening farmland and communications, glaciers in the mountains of western Norway are now beginning to recede. Winters with little snowfall in recent years are the cause. (Nationen)

TODAY'S COMMENT

As early as the autumn of 1814, members of the Storting had started demanding separate consulates for Norway, and their demands grew in strength and intensity until the union with Sweden was dissolved in 1905. Today, the five Nordic countries are opening a joint embassy complex in the centre of the old capital of the newly-united Germany - a timely symbol of stubborn nationalism giving way to practical, natural cooperation. To be sure, our times cannot be compared to the situation leading up to 1905, nor will Norway be relinquishing any of its independence by sharing a reception desk with Sweden or Iceland. But the embassy and the ongoing merger of Norway's and Sweden's leading telecom operators both illustrate how far we have really come. All five countries of Scandinavia have been joined in various types of union with each other at one time or another, but since establishing our individual independence, the bonds between us are much stronger now than when we were bound together in unions. The event takes on added significance in taking place in a newly-united Berlin. But while some build, others want to tear down: the Norwegian Directorate of Public Construction and Property found Norway's part of the project too expensive and tried to reduce the building by one story in order to cut costs. Some things never change! (Vårt Land)