Denmark has got its first female-led
government, with Helle Thorning-Schmidt as new Prime Minister. The new
government comprises the Social Democrats, the Social-Liberal Party and
the Socialist People’s Party (SF), and promises more people will work
more, increased productivity and a freeze in salaries. These are
central elements to the Danish centre-left government’s labour market
policies, writes our Copenhagen correspondent. The government’s aim is
to get 135,000 more people in jobs by 2020.
Work is important too for people with impaired work ability. So it
is worth taking note when the Norwegian government commits new millions
for new measures to get more young people with impaired work ability
into jobs. That happened when the Minister for Labour Hanne Bjurstrøm
presented ‘Job strategy for people with impaired work ability’. But
there are inherit dangers when the minister refuses to stipulate goals
or measures of success.
Greenland’s labour market is red hot. Nordic Labour Journal has just
been there with Sweden’s Minister for Nordic Cooperation Ewa Björling
to see how the mining industry is really finding its legs. But there is
enthusiasm elsewhere too. Many signs indicate we are facing a ‘Nordic
mining industry boom’ as we write in this issue’s Theme. When foreign
ministers met in the Barents Euro-Arctic Council on 12 October the
venue was KLAB’s mine in Kiruna. Norway’s and Sweden’s foreign
ministers traveled there on the ore railway from Narvik to Kiruna.
”Countries with far smaller resources build railways through the
African jungle,” says Damian Hicks, chairman for the Australian mining
company which is investing in the Nordic region and which would like to
use Narvik’s harbour. But it is Finland which comes out top in the
world as the best place to do mining, according to the annual World
Risk Survey. Finnish Tekes, which channels state money for research and
development, has just launched a new programme to stimulate growth
among businesses which can produce sustainable mining equipment.
Klondike conditions, boom and new jobs. Sweden wants to put Nordic
mining cooperation on the agenda when it takes over the
presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers in 2013. In Portrait the
minister for cooperation Ewa Björling says there is no such cooperation
today. So she wants to make this happen from 2013. ”To me the most
important thing is that companies keep as close a focus as possible on
environmental issues,” says Ewa Björling to Nordic Labour
Journal.
