NHO-NM municipality: Northern Norwegian municipalities at the bottom – NRK

NHO is launching today its so-called Municipal NM, a survey that is being carried out in the 356 municipalities of the country.

See how your municipality does it below in the case

The Municipal NM will show how municipalities do it, ranked according to local growth power and attractiveness based on a number of parameters. Among other things, business, job market, demographics, and skills.

At the top of the podium are Sola, Bærum and Oslo.

It is the northern Norwegian municipalities that fare worst: only Bodø and Alta are in the top 50.

Seven municipalities in Nordland are in the list of the 20 with the lowest position.

Next at the bottom of the list is Vevelstad in Sør-Helgeland in Nordland, while Kvæfjord in Troms and Finnmark are in second place.

Vevelstad Mayor Torhild Haugan says there is of course no nice reading material NHO has sent out, but they are not taken that seriously in her municipality.

Point out what you think are weaknesses in the underlying material.

– I understand that NHO only seeks this perspective for the business community, but I think it will be too narrow and too black and white.

– So you don’t take it so seriously?

– No, I do not do that. I think stocks are ultimately what people see and rely on when making a decision, not an NHO analysis. Although we have come a long way on this list, we provide very good services.

Has too low a variance

However, the mayor is not afraid of the signal effect of finishing so low on the list.

– I hope people evaluate us in completely different terms than in this analysis.

Among the factors that Haugan believes are wrong for the agricultural municipality is commercial variance.

Your municipality has too low variance in the industry, the NHO review says. The mayor thinks it will be too easy.

– Vevelstad has some natural resources with a long coastal strip and a large and good area for agriculture. So it goes without saying that it is aquaculture and agriculture that will be great in our municipality.

Close the gap

At the bottom of the county overview is Nordland. Right across the street are Troms and Finnmark.

– Northern Norway and Nordland have been in jumbo space for several years. Unfortunately, we do this with quite a few statistics, regional director Daniel Bjarmann-Simonsen tells NRK.

However, NHO sees several bright spots.

– It is very positive to read this. We are closing the gap and reaching out to the rest of the country, especially in the area of ​​knowledge and competence, which is an important prerequisite for being able to make people work.

The challenge is that you don’t get large enough professional environments in northern municipalities to do good spatial and community planning, Bjarmann-Simonsen believes.

– This is something we have worked on the most in the last year, how can we ensure that municipalities can cooperate better, so that you have the knowledge and know what is needed to facilitate it.

– Everyone can act, but you need to have the competence to do good planning and facilitation, and be willing to do so. The will itself is absolutely central here.