Tag Archives: Norway

Video2: The Second Belt and Road Forum in Stockholm Attracts more People

By Xuefei Chen Axelsson

STOCKHOLM, May 28(Greenpost International) — The Second Belt and Road Forum in Stockholm was held in Stockholm Chinese Cultural Center on May 22.

Nearly 100 participants including 32 diplomats from various embassies and international organisations attended the forum organized by BRIX.

Lars Aspling says China plays an important role in African development

Lars Aspling, member of BRIX said China has experienced the largest migration in the world. China’s high speed trains connect more than 80 percent of the population.

Hussein Askary Board member of BRIX speaks about China and Africa

Lars Aspling talks about European countries and BRI.

Norwegian Former Parliament Member Thore Vestby talks about his view on China and BRI.

Norway Ranks first in the Regional Potential Index

By Xuefei Chen Axelsson

STOCKHOLM, Feb. 16(Greenpost)–Norway ranks the first of the top ten cities in nordic region in the Regional Potential Index, according to a new report published on Tuesday.

“Norway has succeeded in keeping these regions’ economy boosting with very high GRP/capita. It is accompanied by important immigration flows, especially in Oslo and Akershus, and low demographic dependency rate”, the report said.

Norway’s most successful regions in the top five are there mostly due to their very high scores in economic potential. Oslo and Akershus have very high scores in demographic potential, whereas the three other Norwegian regions perform pretty well in labour market potential. Demographic potential consist of important immigration flows, high population density, low demographic dependency.

 

 

2015 rank

(2010 rank)

Region Territorial potential (total points) Demographic potential Labour market potential Economic potential
1 (3) Oslo (NO) 758 278 190 290
2 (1) Hovedstaden (DK) 756 286 170 300
3 (4) Stockholm (SE) 753 263 190 300
4 (2) Akershus (NO) 748 248 260 240
5 (5) Helsinki-Uusimaa (FI) 738 278 180 280
6 (6) Rogaland (NO) 728 188 270 270
7 (10) Sør-Trøndelag (NO) 703 173 260 270
8 (7) Hordaland (NO) 685 165 240 280
9 (9) Uppsala (SE) 618 218 180 220
10 (8) Höfuðborgarsvæðið (IS) 598 248 220 130

 

 

Norway’s strengths and weaknesses

The largest population increases for the period 2005-2015 were in the municipalities of Stockholm (+147.000 inhabitants), Oslo (+118.000) and Copenhagen (+78.000). Norway is one of the Nordic countries among Sweden and Denmark where migration has accounted for the majority of population growth over the past twenty-five years. Migration movement between Nordic countries (intra-Nordic migration) in 2014 shows, that Denmark and Norway have net Nordic immigration, whereas Finland, Iceland and Sweden have net emigration. The largest flows are between Norway and Sweden (about 7,5% of the total intra-Nordic migration, in each direction). Norway is the only country with net immigration from all the four other Nordic countries.

 

Norway has the highest share (36%) of international PhD graduates followed by Denmark (33%), Sweden (29%) and Iceland (26%). Surprisingly Norway also stands out together with Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland in the early school leaver rates, above 15%.

 

Nordkapp in Northern Norway received the most passengers in 2014 in the Nordic Arctic. Norrkapp received 122 000 passengers from 109 ports of call. In Northern Norway, cruise ship tourism is centred on a few ports, the largest, in terms of passenger numbers, also include Tromsø (112 000 passengers), followed by Leknes (60 000 passengers).  In Norway a clear trend is that a large share of the international tourists are from other European countries. However, the largest numbers of overnight stays are comprised by visitors from Sweden and Denmark.

 

Since 2011, the increase in air passengers has been highest in Norway and Iceland. The air passenger development is expected to slow down to annual growth by year 2020 for Norway and Finland, with only 1-2%.

 

In all of the Nordic countries Housing price indexes have increased more than the EU average. As an example the housing prices in Norway have increased with 400 percent in the period 1992-2014. During the same period prices overall have increase with only 55%.

 

In sharp contrast with falling emissions in Finland, Denmark and Sweden, Norway’s emissions have actually increased since 1990. After decades of support at levels below its neighbours, Norway has emerged as the largest funder of low-carbon RD&D in recent years due especially to two very large demonstration projects in CCS and aluminium smelting.

 

Nordregio’s State of the Nordic Region 2016 is a unique collection of comparative data and maps on economy, migration, employment, education, energy and accessibility in the Nordic countries – at regional level. The report includes a new Regional Potential Index, highlighting climbers and slow movers among the 74 regions of the Nordic countries. State of the Nordic Region is released biannually by Nordregio – Nordic Centre for Spatial Development.

 

 

Xinhua Insight: Recycle tech leads charge on green investments

   BEIJING, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) — Open an app, locate the nearest recycling machine, throw the bottles inside and get an instant reward on your metro card.

This is how more than 18 million plastic bottles were recycled in Beijing in the past few years using 2,200 reverse vending machines (RVM) offered by Incom recycle.

Backed by one of the world’s largest asset managers, Franklin Templeton Investments, and recently partnered with Norwegian recycling firm Tomra, Incom is one of many Chinese firms in the green industry that are attracting global investors’ attention.

As China heads toward a green economy, the country’s green sector including waste recycling, sewage disposal, energy conservation are growing at a rapid pace and are hungry for investment — from both home and abroad.

According to official estimation, China will need at least 2 trillion yuan (313 billion U.S. dollars) every year to fund its green sector, 85 percent of which needs to come from capital other than fiscal fund.

The waste recycling market alone is huge and hardly tapped: an estimated 500 billion beverage containers need to be recycled every year, making China the single biggest market for global recycling companies seeking expansion.

The development of the green industry in China is still at the preliminary level, said Haakon Volldal, vice president of Tomra, the world’s biggest RVM maker that just established two joint ventures with Incom in China this month.

“In this five-year period, China can take big steps towards having a professional green industry,” Volldal said.

GREEN MEANS BUSINESS

The biggest obstacle for green companies to get the funding they need is always their own profitability.

Traditionally, green companies operate much more like non-profits with low returns or even live solely on government support, deterring typical investors looking for high returns.

But companies like Incom are changing the traditional mindset by incorporating Internet technology into its business model to prove one fact: green companies can make money, too.

For the first time since its founding in 2008, Incom recycle has turned a profit this year through selling equipment and advertising for beverage brands on the machines, according to the company’s general manager Chang Tao.

Future income streams may also be generated from data on consumption patterns collected by its machines — do people in Beijing actually drink Coca-Cola more than Pepsi? Which flavor sports drinks do males in Chongqing prefer?

Besides making profits through advertisement and big data, Incom also launched “the Uber for recycling.” Their new service allows people to make an appointment on their phone and the nearest collector will come retrieve used books, magazines, electronic devices, or plastic bottles.

“To some extent, the returns on green projects are not as high compared with other programs, but the cash flows are relatively stable and the market risk is actually lower,” said Lan Hong, vice director of the ecological research center of the central bank at a conference.

According to the interim report of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the country’s biggest lender, only 0.05 percent of its loans to the environmental protection and water conservation industry went bad in the first half of this year, while the average bad loan rate of the bank reached 1.4 percent.

Safe cash flows prompted the bank to invest more in the green industry. By the end of September, loans outstanding in ecological protection, clean energy use, and energy conservation amounted to nearly 700 billion yuan, accounting for more than 10 percent of total loans from the bank.

GREEN FINANCE COMMITMENT

In addition to stable returns, a much more favorable policy environment also makes bets on the green industry more attractive to investors.

China’s 13th Five-Year Plan, which outlines development strategies for the country from 2016 to 2020, is expected to put green growth at the center of the agenda.

To realize the commitment, a “green financial system” is to be established, with a mechanism to lower the lending cost of green companies through “green loans,” “green bonds” and even a “green bank” designed specifically to offer low-cost funding, according to Ma Jun, central bank economist and also the head of a Green Finance Committee launched this year to address funding issues for the industry.

Officials are already setting rules on the bond market, which will give companies an alternative to finance longer-term green projects as most banks are restricted with short-term loans.

“The policies we’re trying to push make no difference to domestic and foreign capital. Foreign firms can also take advantage of the green bond market,” Ma said.

The upcoming climate change conference in Paris, which Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend, may further highlight the role of China in the world’s effort on environmental protection and bring green companies in China into the sight of global investors.

“Foreign capital and firms are even more optimistic about the development of the green economy in China than domestic ones,” said Chang Tao, general manager of Incom, “the market in China is so enormous that they can’t afford to miss out.”  Enditem