CG Guangzhou Newsletter February 10

Dear all,

We intend to have a real Tiger year at the Consulate General in Guangzhou in 2010 - active and in pursuit of our goal of placing Norway firmly on the map in South China.

The EXPO in Shanghai will generate a lot of Norwegian interest and visits – and we will make sure that some of them deviate to the South. We will continue to reinforce our “Norway – powered by nature” message through co-organising a conference on offshore wind power in Shanghai in June, with the aim to market Norway as an attractive partner in this new and potentially very large market. The maritime industries we intend to highlight at the INMEX maritime conference in December.

Throughout the year we will work to enhance our footprint, including through cultural expressions and exchanges with Chinese opinion leaders and officials. We will continue to reach out to the young Chinese, i.a. by way of an essay competition at our blog at http://blog.sina.com.cn/norwegianlion

We are encouraged by the strong comeback of the Chinese economy – and see a lot of opportunities for Norway. These opportunities arise in the offshore and maritime sectors, and also in many other industries - lately we have been reminded of the potential in telecom and IT – through the contract awarded by Telenor to Huawei, and then by Huawei opting for Norwegian net browser Opera 10. A real Microsoft Explorer killer, by the way!

Norwegian seafood continue to show a phenomenal growth in China – hopefully it will become even more popular with NSECs new and innovative “I love salmon” campaign on renren.com – try send somebody a kiss below!

We will continue to offer consular services, meeting places and “coordinating energy” to the small, but growing group of Norwegian citizens in South China. We will also strive to maintain an efficient and welcoming visa service, which as of lately also is issuing visa to Sweden.

I hope to meet many of you in the year ahead – in the meantime I wish you a happy and productive new year!

Tormod C. Endresen

Consul General

Social Security – a Driver in a Competitive Economy?
	The introduction of a comprehensive social security system is a much debated question in China – and questions related to social security and equitable distribution of wealth is an area of co-operation between Chinese and Norwegian institutions. From January 6 to 8, Norwegian economist Jo Thori Lind held a series of lectures in Guangzhou on the Nordic Model of social security.Read more >

Statoil and Statkraft win offshore wind power contract for Dogger Bank
	January 8 the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced the winners of licence bidding Round 3 in the UK’s new gigantic programme for renewable energy. The bidding consortium Forewind won the licence for Dogger Bank Offshore Wind Farm. Read more >

Huawei Secures Large Telenor Contract in Norway
	November 5th 2009 Norway’s main telecom company Telenor chose the Chinese Huawei as technology provider for its upcoming complete overhaul of the Norwegian mobile network.Read more >

Huawei selects Opera as China enters 3G era
	On February 8, Opera Software announced that Huawei, the Chinese leading global telecommunications solutions provider, will preinstall the Norwegian made browser Opera Mobile 10 on a range of mobile handsets. Read more >

Norwegian Multimedia Art in Guangzhou
	March 18 to April 18 you can experience the multimedia art installation 'The Telling Orchestra' at Guangdong Museum of Art.Read more >

I Love Salmon Campaign
	The Norwegian Seafood Export Council (NSEC), launched a month-long online “I Love Salmon” Chinese New-Year and Valentines’ Day campaign in partnership with renren.com, China’s largest online social networking site which is similar to Facebook. Read more >