Stoltenberg wants
to spend more on
road and rail
 Stoltenberg this week woos voters with promises of fewer asylum seekers and more spending on transport. PHOTO: ERLEND AAS / SCANPIX |
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This winter, the government will put forward its proposal for a new national transport plan for 2010 to 2019. At a meeting of the Labour Party National Committee, Stoltenberg underlined the importance of the plan and promised significant improvements in Norwegian infrastructure in the coming years.
This takes the Labour Party (AP) and the Government into an area where their ideological enemy, the Progress Party (FrP) has been active for a long time.
The Prime Minister is unwilling to admit that the Government has started its election campaign against FrP.
"Transport has always been important to AP. We need to place more emphasis on upgrading the railways and Norwegian roads," says Stoltenberg to news bureau NTB.
He would not comment on how much of the new investment would be included in next year’s national budget. Nor was he willing to say how the money would be divided between rail and road spending.
"The details will be made public in the National Transport Plan," he says.
"The economy, Norwegian jobs and the environment need significant improvements in transport infrastructure," says Roar Flåthen, head of the Norwegian trade union congress Lands Organisasjonen.
Stoltenberg said Thursday that three measures have to taken in order to achieve improved infrastructure: government spending has to be increased, projects have to be carried out more efficiently by ensuring continuity in funding and sufficiently large projects, also capacity and competition in the construction industry has to improve.
Centre Party Transport Minister, Liv Signe Navarsete, wants to take money from the Norway's sovereign global investment fund and turn foreign shares into physical assets in the form of transport infrastructure.
When asked what she specifically wants to use this oil revenue to build, she answers that she wants to build Kyststamveien, a system of roads to improve communications on the west coast, as well as railways around Oslo.
Sven Goll
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