ISBN Number:
 9789264038011

Publication date: 
  February 2008

Pages : 268

Norway has successfully developed a resource-based economy (hydroelectricity, petroleum, fisheries, agriculture) and is also competitive in specific sectors of the world market (light metals, automotive parts, maritime equipment and services).

While growth has primarily benefited the South, where most urban areas are located, demographic and economic patterns are more complex. Many rural areas all over the country experience population loss and offer limited job opportunities in spite of efforts to retain inhabitants.

Few other countries feature the combination of very low population densities and difficult topography that hinders communication, in addition to a variety of contrasting climates. But the “Nordic welfare model” strives, with a good degree of success, to offer equal living conditions to all citizens by providing proper access to quality public services across the country. This comes, however, at great cost.   

• Can such a model be sustainable in the long run, when population ageing and the reduction of petroleum reserves will reduce the leeway that the rapidly growing economy offers?
• Can competitiveness and innovation be further developed, given the high share of resource-based and traditional activities?
• Can urban policy be well integrated into regional policy so as to better harness the energy of regional growth engines in different areas of the country, including the northernmost parts?
• Lastly, can impending regional reform facilitate the necessary adaptations by transfering more power to regional councils?

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