Sino-Norwegian ICT Working Group - Identifying Increased Commercial Cooperation

Opening statement by Mr. Ansgar Gabrielsen, Minister of Trade and Industry

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Let me begin by expressing my great pleasure in being here today. This meeting of the Sino-Norwegian ICT Working Group indicates that we are entering a new phase in the partnership between the Chinese and Norwegian ICT industries and authorities.

• The world economy today is characterised by rapidtechnological developments, often triggered by developments within ICT. Another trend is that barriers to trade are falling globally, a tendency boldly supported by China’s entry last month in the WTO. I join the international community in welcoming warmly this long awaited development.

Norway’s merchant fleet sailed between all continents, including regular calls at Chinese ports, already long before our independence in 1905. The Norwegian economy has ever since those early days been based on a combination of our human and natural resources. Our skills as seafarers were the foundation for our maritime industry. Natural resources like fish, hydropower and later petroleum created a basis not only for thriving industries but also for the development of world class engineering skills.

• Norwegian businesses have in recent years put a strong emphasis on developing and making use of modern ICT. This makes us, together with Finland and Sweden, the most modern and innovative IT-market in Europe. We are in the front group when it comes to penetration of PC’s, Internet and Mobile phones. More than 67 per cent of the population has access to the Internet, and 34 per cent are on the Net daily. Almost half of Norway’s bank account holders now use netbanking.
• Norway is one of the pioneers in mobile telephony. Norwegians were central in developing both the GPS standard for satellite navigation and the GSM standard for mobile telephony. Today, 72 per cent of the Norwegian population carry a cellular phone.
• New industries, related to software, multimedia and Internet production, belong to what is increasingly known as the electronic content industry. The Norwegian software industry is growing at an annual growth rate of 38 %. The development of electronic content is particularly important for the creation of a demand for broadband.

China faces a tremendous challenge in developing electronic content in the Chinese language and adapted to the needs of the Chinese population. The Internet was developed with a strong reliance on the Latin alphabet and dominance of the English language. It is already being predicted that Chinese will become the dominant language on the Internet in a few years time. This will be quite an achievement.

• The knowledge economy is global. ICT companies have to get international experience from an early stage. In order to assist this endeavour, the Norwegian Government recently launched its export and internationalisation strategy for the ICT industry for 2002 and 2003.

The strategy aims in particular at:

• Strengthening Norwegian research & development
• Ensuring a competitive regulatory framework for value creation
• Developing a home market with demanding public-sector customers, who require solutions with an international potential
• Ensuring good access to personnel with ICT skills and training
• Ensuring favourable conditions for the localisation of international ICT enterprises in Norway
• Building up ICT-company environments with an international character
• Profiling Norwegian ICT in important overseas markets.

The strategy has also identified certain areas as particularly promising. These are:

• Mobile communications / wireless communications
• Telecommunications / electronic infrastructure
• Electronic business management
• Maritime IT / energy IT
• Electronic content
• Software applications
• Instrumentation and micro-system applications

Many of these areas are particularly appropriate for co-operation with China. Chinese and Norwegian companies are in a good position for developing fruitful business relations.

I am now looking forward to the further proceedings of this important meeting of the Sino-Norwegian ICT Working Group.

Thank you for your attention!