Transformation necessary (Dagsavisen)

Yesterday Finance Minister Karl Eirik Schjøtt-Pedersen and a group of 41 senior business executives and representatives from various interest groups and educational establishments got together for an "advisory session on economic growth". Among the themes discussed was the need for an increasingly competent workforce if Norwegian business is to get through the major transformation process it is facing. But this process will be hard on unskilled workers. "We are facing a new era, and change is necessary to ensure both the survival of traditional industries and the creation of new businesses," said Mr Schjøtt-Pedersen. The new era is an age of knowledge. "We must strengthen our investment in research and development, both in the private and the public sector. Competence, education and innovation are going to transform both existing and new businesses," said Mr Schjøtt-Pedersen after the meeting.

Norwegian research criticized for lack of commercialization (Aftenposten)

The Norwegian research community has been strongly criticized in a recent international report, which concludes that Norway throws away opportunities for commercialization of its research results. The report should send shock waves throughout the entire research community, says Erik Boye, head of research at the Norwegian Cancer Hospital. The Research Council of Norway is largely in agreement with Mr Boye’s comments, but says he is being somewhat bombastic.

Government makes a mint out of cold weather (Dagbladet)

Ordinary Norwegians have turned up the heat full blast to ward off the freezing temperatures currently gripping the country, and the Finance Minister is rubbing his hands with glee. Following two budget deals between the centre alliance parties and the Government, the electricity tax has been almost doubled. Taxes now account for almost half of the price of electricity. This year Finance Minister Karl Eirik Schjøtt-Pedersen expected to raise NOK 6.5 billion from the electricity tax alone. But current record levels of electricity consumption will mean the Government’s finances will increase even further. And on top of your electricity bill comes 24 per cent VAT.

Unemployment at three per cent (Dagsavisen)

At the end of January 69,700 people were registered as being completely unemployed in Norway. This represents three per cent of the workforce. Compared to the same period last year, 600 more people are jobless, a rise of one per cent. Unemployment is lowest in Akershus county, where just 1.4 per cent are out of work. Finnmark has the highest rate of unemployment, at 5.7 per cent.

You will soon be able to drive at 100 km (Aftenposten)

The Storting is about to approve new speed limits. The Transport Ministry and the Directorate of Public Roads are proposing limits of 100 km per hour on the best roads, 80 km per hour on A-roads, and a reduction to 70 km per hour on stretches containing accident black spots. There are strong indications that the proposal will win the backing of a majority in the Storting. To merit a 100 km speed limit a road must be a four-lane dual carriageway with a central reservation, ensuring traffic is physically separated from oncoming vehicles.

Little interest in managing oil fund investment cash (Dagens Næringsliv)

Very few Norwegian companies have applied for management of the Norwegian Government Petroleum Fund’s various investment portfolios. By the end of the year management of over NOK 7.5 billion from the Fund will be outsourced. 170 companies have applied for the job, most of them foreign. "There has been more interest from Norwegian companies on previous occasions than we are seeing now. I have no idea why the situation is as it is," says Knut Kjær, deputy director general at the Central Bank of Norway.

More and more pills (Nationen)

Pharmaceutical sales rose by 9.7 per cent from 1999 to 2000, while sales rose by a whopping 13.5 per cent the year before. Last year we spent NOK 11.7 billion on pills, NOK 1 billion more than the year before. The huge rise in the consumption of pharmaceuticals can only partly be explained by the growing number of elderly and extremely elderly citizens. Nevertheless, consumption of medicines is still low compared to other countries.

Worth Noting

• A growing number of children fail to learn to read properly, and Conservative Party Chairman Jan Petersen has been quick to score political points on the issue. "It is an alarming situation, we cannot afford to allow more generations of children to be lost. Something must be done, demands Mr Petersen. (Dagbladet)
• "I no longer feel comfortable as a member of the Progress Party or its parliamentary group," says MP Fridtjof Frank Gundersen, who has now resigned from the party. (Dagbladet)
• Falling encyclopaedia sales and the development of a web-based encyclopaedia have cost the Kunnskapsforlaget publishing house dear. For the past four years the publishers have lost around NOK 150 million per year. (Dagens Næringsliv)
• The Italian super-trams which Oslo’s public transport company paid NOK 600 million for cannot stand the cold. They have to be kept indoors when the temperature falls below –10 >degrees Celsius. (Aftenposten)
• Permission was granted yesterday to shoot nine out of almost 20 wolves living in Østerdalen, near the Swedish border. It is therefore clear that the entire wolf population in the area is to be eradicated. The Directorate of Nature Management has also announced that the Koppang wolf pack will be shot at a later date. (Aftenposten)
• While the Swedish national media are busily attacking Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Norway’s decision to eradicate the wolves of Østerdalen, Environment Minister Siri Bjerke has received flowers and a petition of support from rural communities on the Swedish side of the border. (Nationen)

Today’s comment from Verdens Gang

It will have come as no surprise to most of us that the Progress Party’s current bout of in-fighting has led to a drop in the polls. The question is whether the party’s fall in popularity has now stabilized. There is much to indicate that this is not the case. The underlying figures show that the Progress Party’s attractiveness to voters has fallen dramatically. One in three Progress Party voters says they have less confidence in Carl I. Hagen & Co, and that it is less likely they will vote for the party at this autumn’s general elections. This should be of serious concern to the party chairman, even if he still has three per cent more support among the electorate than he had at the last general elections in 1997, which gave the party a record result. Though many voters are turning their backs on Carl I. Hagen and the Progress Party, only a few of them are switching allegiance to other parties. For the moment the majority are content to sit on the fence. The feuding within the Progress Party benefits no one, it has simply damaged the reputation of Norwegian politics as a whole.