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USD 1 = NOK 6.90 No. 01 - 12 January 1993
CONTENTS:
Oslo lawyer made polar history (1)
1993 starts with problems (2-3)
Prospects improving for exports in 1993 (4)
Brundtland calls on youth to fight racism (5)
Peak year on the continental shelf (6)
SAS halts transport of exotic birds (6)
Olympic medals of sandstone and gold (7)
Unemployment now at 8 per cent (8)
"Viking" Olympics stadium breaks all records (9)
Massive water injection on Ekofisk (10)
Heidrun assignments to Egersund and Grimstad (10)
norinform/1 12 January 1993
OSLO LAWYER MADE POLAR HISTORY
At 5.30 a.m. on Thursday 7 January Norwegian, Erling Kagge, reached the
South Pole, and in doing so made polar history, as the first man to go
alone and unsupported to the world's most southerly point. The 29
year-old Oslo lawyer took exactly 50 days to cover the 1,390 desolate,
back-breaking kilometres. But despite his achievement, there was no-one
to to receive him at the Pole. The reception committee was weather-bound in
Punta Arenas in Chile, a 14-hour flight away. But Kagge was well taken
care of - by Americans at the permanent Amundsen-Scott base close to the
Pole. Congratulations streamed in from all corners of the world,
among them one from Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, who
characterized his epic journey as one of the greatest achievements
in polar history.
Erling Kagge had originally estimated 60 days for the journey, which started
at Berkner Island in the Weddel Sea on 17 November. But his average speed of
26.2 kilometres brought him to the goal 10 days ahead of schedule. At the
start of his journey, Erling Kagge was pulling a loaded sledge weighing 125
kilos, but by the time he reached the Pole the load had been reduced to
60-70 kilos while Kagge himself had lost 15 kilos in weight.
Since boyhood Kagge has been described as a lively child, always on the
lookout for fresh challenges. But it was not until 1990 that he first
entered the ranks of the world's great adventurers when he skied to the
North Pole, together with Norwegian Boerge Ousland, unsupported by either
dogs, snow scooters or aircraft. His latest achievement makes him the only
man in the world to have reached both Poles entirely on his own steam.
(norinform)
norinform/2-3 12 January 1993
1993 STARTS WITH PROBLEMS
Norway has entered the New Year with a heavy load of problems. Unemployment,
now hovering close to 8 per cent, is at its highest level since the
1930s. The fiscal deficit is immense - USD 7.25 billion out of a total
budget of 46.66 billion. Business investments are minimal. Interest
rates are high and pessismism overshadows many business surveys. Drug
abuse is rising and there are signs of mounting racism. However, the
situation is not wholly bleak. Inflation is low and the trade balance is
healthy. Some spheres of business are getting along well. Norway has won back
a portion of its lost competitiveness, and some companies are widening
their shares of markets. Much of this progress has been made in the
commodities and advanced services sectors. Svein Longva, who heads
the Central Bureau of Statistics, recently stated that there is a basis
for economic growth in 1993.
As a result of the tumultuous state of the currency system, the Norwegian
krone (NOK) was unpegged from the European currency unit (ecu) in the
beginning of December. The krone fell by 5-6 per cent before confidence
was regained and at present it is fairly stable at 4 per cent below its fixed
ecu level. Minister of Finance Sigbjoern Johnsen says that the Government is
not trying to maintain any particular exchange rate, nor has it set a limit
regarding how long the krone will be permitted to float. But Norway's
Labour Government does plan to return to a fixed exchange rate system when
conditions are right.
Before the Storting recessed for Christmas it passed the Government's
"crisis package" for business and industry. The rescue included a 2.4
percentage point cut in payroll tax and business leader Karl Glad asserted
that this would result in new jobs by the end of the year. The package is
being financed by higher V.A.T. and income tax. Costing under USD 1
billion, its overall impact on the economy could be negligible, say
Conservatives.
The offshore sector is on-stream as never before, and the positive balance
of trade is due to oil and gas revenues. The country relies on this income
- a dependency which Norwegian officials have explicitly wished to avoid.
The new strength of the U.S. dollar, which rose from about NOK 6.50 to NOK
7.00 at year's end, heralds mounting offshore revenues and testified again
to the vital role of oil.
The heads of Norwegian business and industry are pinning some of their hopes
on the effects of the European Economic Area, which is delayed but
will be established this summer. Fisheries face new challenges. Resources in
the Barents Sea are growing and profits will swell. In a world where fish
are in short supply, a vast market can be expected. But Norwegian fishermen
are not satisfied with the terms negotiated in connection with the EEA
agreement. This is one of the problems which Norway will stress in its
forthcoming negotiations with the EC regarding Community membership.
Negotiations are expected to start in March so that the EC can negotiate
in parallel with the Nordic applicants - Norway, Sweden and Finland.
(norinform)
norinform/4 12 January 1993
PROSPECTS IMPROVING FOR EXPORTS IN 1993
Although 1992 was a turbulent and bearish year for Norwegian
exports - especially for sales of raw materials and semi-manufactured goods
- trade is expected to improve this year. A powerful stimulus will be the
establishment of the EC Single Market, the European Economic Area, and other
international trade agreements which will be implemented in 1993.
"These should help turn the international economic tide," says
Kjell-Martin Fredriksen, managing director at the Norwegian Trade Council. He
also points out that the recent lean years have primed essential areas of
Norwegian industry to make goal-oriented efforts at trimming costs and
increasing production.
Total Norwegian exports were valued at 307 billion NOK (USD 45.5 billion)
in 1992, a drop of 0.4 per cent from 1991. A volume increase of 3 per
cent for traditional exports was outweighed by lower prices, and their
value fell by USD 340 million to USD 16.9 billion. Crude oil and natural gas
exports were worth USD 14.5 billion, up 1. 6 per cent. Export of
services rose by 2 per cent to 12.7 billion dollars. Foreign tourists spent
about USD 1.9 billion in Norway. The shipping trade sank by about 15
per cent from 1991 to 1992 and its result was USD 6.4 billion last year.
Among traditional exports, fisheries achieved a 2.3 per cent rise in
sales and grossed USD 2.1 billion. The biggest gains were in exports of cod
and fresh salmon. (norinform)
norinform/5 12 January 1993
BRUNDTLAND CALLS ON YOUTH TO FIGHT RACISM
At the meeting of the Council of Europe in February, Norway's Prime
Minister, Gro Harlem Brundtland, will call for the launching of a joint
European youth campaign to combat racism and xenophobia. Prior to the
meeting, she will invite the youth organizations of all the Norwegian
political parties to meet to discuss ways of fighting the growing
tide of extreme nationalism and intolerance. At the same time Ms
Brundtland plans to recruit the active participation of the
grandparent generation in spreading information on the evils of nationalism
and racism. All the youth groups of the political parties reacted favourably
to Brundtland's suggestion. "It is a vital task to combat racist attitudes
among the young," says Trond Giske, leader of the Norwegian Labour League
of Youth. He singles out for comment the disquieting amount of support that
has been given to neo-nazi movements. "We have no guarantee that these
groups will not resort to violence in Norway too, just as they have in
Germany and Sweden," says Giske.
The Norwegian association of pensioners strongly commends the idea of
an information campaign. "We have long been uneasy over the surge of
reactionism that we are also experiencing in Norway. We therefore put our
organizational apparatus and our members' magazine at the disposal of
the campaign. Furthermore, we would welcome cooperation with youth
organizations in implementing the campaign. This would accord well with
our motto, which is "Unity and confidence between the generations," says
Einar Strand, leader of the pensionist organization.
(norinform)
norinform/6 12 January 1993
PEAK YEAR ON THE CONTINENTAL SHELF
In 1992, Norway produced more oil and gas than ever before. Preliminary
figures from the Petroleum Directorate show that oil production increased
12.5 per cent in relation to 1991, while gas extraction was 25.9
billion cubic metres. Norway now produces 50 per cent of Europe's oil and
is in fourth place among world oil exporters. By current estimates
this rate of production can be maintained for at least four to five years.
(norinform)
SAS HALTS TRANSPORT OF EXOTIC BIRDS
SAS, the Scandinavian Airlines System has imposed an immediate embargo on
the transport of exotic birds from Hongkong to Europe, following a report
from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB),in England, which
alleges that these are wild birds, not reared from eggs as stipulated
in international conventions.
Hongkong is one of the world's biggest markets for exotic birds,
exporting several hundred thousand to Europe every year. The RSPB has made
an exhaustive study of this traffic and exporters claim that SAS has been
the main exporting airline. SAS will suspend traffic while investigating the
charges. (norinform)
norinform/7 12 January
OLYMPIC MEDALS OF SANDSTONE AND GOLD
All that glitters is not gold, says an old proverb, and in the context of
the 1994 Winter Olympics, due to be held in Norway, this certainly holds
true. For the gold medals which will be awarded to the winners at these
games will be made of solid Norwegian stone - or to be precise arkose, or
coarse sandstone, hewn from the site of the newly constructed ski jump at
Lillehammer. But in all fairness, and in accordance with international
Olympics regulations, each medal will contain at least six grammes of pure
gold. The job of designing the medals has been given to 37-year-old
jewellery designer Ingjerd Hanevold who after her training in Norway
studied at New York State University and who has been head of the
Norwegian Arts and Crafts Association.
"The medals will be stamped with the special Lillehammer pictogrammes,
which have been widely acclaimed both at home and abroad.
Furthermore, the use of stone will symbolize what it
generally considered to be the embodiment of Norway, the mountains," says
Ingjerd Hanevold. "The stone will thus take on a symbolic meaning - as a
reminder that nature and the earth are our most precious possessions,
and that we wish to protect them, " says the designer.
Snow crystals executed in gold, silver and bronze will embellish the
medals, which will be the first in the history of the Olympics to be made of
stone and also the first to depict visually, through the pictogrammes,
the events in which they were won.
(norinform)
norinform/8 12 January 1993
UNEMPLOYMENT NOW AT 8 PER CENT
Unemployment in Norway has now reached 8 per cent. At the close of 1992
there were 170,400 persons registered as totally unemployed, while 52,900
were engaged in some form of government employment scheme. From 1991 to
1992 unemployment shot up by 14 per cent. At the same time, there were
more people engaged on labour market schemes than in the previous year. The
total number of unemployed has been rising steadily since last summer, states
the Labour Directorate, which does not hold out any prospects of improvements
in the near future.
But not everyone considers the outlook to be bleak. "There is no cause for
worry over the expected drop in the number of those employed in the
traditional industries," says professor Even Lange at the Norwegian School
of Economics and Business Administration. He is confident that jobs will
be created in new branches, which will replace the old ones. "This is a
parallel to developments in the 30s, These years too brought stagnation, a
steep rise in unemployment in traditional industries and widespread
pessimism. The consequent growth and creation of jobs in new industries
could not be registered immediately.
Karl Glad of the Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry also
advocates a more optimistic view. He believes that 100,000 new jobs can be
created by the year 2000. "These new jobs will be the fruits of the
readjustment process now being implemented in business and industry," says
Glad "But it is imperative that companies act in the right way, and that
the authorities create favourable conditions for this process," he adds.
(norinform)
norinform/9 12 January 1993
"VIKING" OLYMPICS STADIUM BREAKS ALL RECORDS
When Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland officially opened the Olympia
ice stadium at Hamar, in southeast Norway, on 19 December, it was a record
breaking event in more ways than one.
The hall,which will house the skating events at the 1994 Winter Olympics,
is built in the form of an overturned Viking ship. 250 metres long, 100
metres wide and covering an area of 26,000 square metres, it is the biggest
sports stadium in northern Europe. More than 12,000 spectators packed the new
arena to watch the Prime Minister perform the opening ceremony; the
biggest audience that has ever assembled for an indoors event in Norway. The
construction price was USD 36 million.
But the most remarkable feature of the new hall is not its size but its
unusual and graceful design - the creation of architect Niels Torp. Its
elegent, well- proportioned curves are beautifully set off against the
roilling landscape of its lakeside location. The Viking ship lines
provide associations with Norway's history, putting the building
into a wider context, says one of Norway's acknowledged architectural
experts Professor of architecture Thomas Thiis- Evensen.
The Olympia hall will restore Hamar as the centre of international
skating,said Gro Harlem Brundtland during her speech. The assembled skaters
seem to have taken this claim very seriously, as in the ensuing speed
skating races three Norwegian records were broken, two of them by Norway's
white-hot Olympics hope Johann Olav Koss who in the 5,000 metres
race not only broke the previous Norwegian record by ten seconds, but also
clocked the best time in the world in 1992.
(norinform)
norinform/10 12 January 1993
MASSIVE WATER INJECTION ON EKOFISK
Smedvig AS in Stavanger has signed a declaration of intent with
Phillips Petroleum covering the injection of water into the Ekofisk field of
the North Sea. Smedvig Drilling is to carry out the USD 125 million
assignment which is scheduled to take four years, with the possibility of a
further four. The water injection, which will counterbalance the
subsidence of the Ekofisk field and increase the rate of extraction, is to be
carried out by the large, deep-sea jack-up platform "West Omikron",
which will pump up to 320,000 barrels of seawater into the field every day.
One barrel equals almost 159 litres.
(norinform)
HEIDRUN ASSIGNMENTS TO EGERSUND AND GRIMSTAD
Kvaerner Egersund in south Norway has emerged victorious from tough
competition with a British engineering yard for the job of building the
drilling module for the Heidrun platform. During the construction
period the USD 60 million assignment will provide work for 300 employees who
were in danger of being laid off if the new contract had not been landed.
Another Norwegian company, Nymo A/S of Grimstad, will carry out construction
work worth USD 30 million on the drillrig. Oil company Conoco has thus
awarded all the contracts for the Heidrun field, whose total value amounts to
USD 1.8 billion. Norwegian firms have secured a 72 per cent share in
the project. (norinform)