An exclusive interview with Cecilie Myrseth

Promoting a positive Norway

Marit Fosse
Geneva

She is a pleasant and likeable person, Cecilie Myrseth, the Norwegian minister of trade and industry. She came to Geneva to sign an amended and improved trade agreement with Chile, under the auspices of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), a regional trade organization comprising Iceland, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and Norway. She was accompanied by an major delegation of Norwegian parliamentarians to take part in the ongoing talks among the EFTA member states’ parliamentarians. After the signing ceremony, in which she gave a short speech in eloquent English, she kindly agreed to grant us an exclusive interview and respond to all our questions, despite her hectic schedule.

Before we leave the floor to Myrseth, let us briefly mention that she studied psychology at the University of Tromsø and has been a member of the Norwegian Parliament for the Labor Party since 2017. She was appointed minister of trade and industry in April this year, definitely not an easy job given the political turmoil that has marked the tenure of Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre’s government. Before that, Myrseth served as minister of fisheries between 2023 and 2024, a field close to her heart, as she grew up in the north of Norway, in Lavangen, where you find most of the country’s fishing boats and fisheries.

Now the floor is yours, Ms. Myrseth.

Marit Fosse: What’s it like to be a government minister in Norway these days when Norwegians seem mostly quite angry about taxes, whether it be on working capital or other things?

CM: As a whole, business is doing very well in Norway. The arrows that are supposed to be pointing upward are doing so, both in terms of exports and significant levels of investment. Not least, there are a lot of companies starting up in Norway in any given month.

As a result, we have record exports in many areas, and we are hiring and experiencing low unemployment. Therefore, I think the trade and industry picture is much more nuanced—and positive!—than the political scene might suggest. To be a minister in a country like Norway, where we enjoy so many resources, so many excellent companies with expertise that is important for not only Norway but the rest of the world—it’s a fantastic job.

MF: Put differently, do you enjoy your job?

CM: Absolutely, I do.

MF: You were previously minister of fisheries. What was it like to go from that position to taking over the business sector throughout Norway?

CM: I loved being minister of fisheries and ocean policy. Fish and the sea are some of the most beautiful things we have. One of the finest things we can offer the world is to provide so many meals with Norwegian seafood every single day—it’s 39 million every day. That’s absolutely marvelous. Whether it’s fisheries and seafood and the sea, or the industry itself, it’s all about the same thing: value creation. It’s about people, about local communities along the coast and inland, that’s what industrial policy is all about. Ultimately, it’s about people. We have a lot to offer in Norway, whether it’s on the fisheries side, or on everything else we have on the table here.

MF: Some of the richest people in Norway have moved to Switzerland. From what I’ve gathered, this has become more pronounced under this government than before, and people seem to be very annoyed.

CM: Yes, it was the case also under the previous government even before this one. It’s important to nuance this. There are those who are angry. The vast majority of people in Norway, however, are concerned that we have a fair tax system that both redistributes and minimizes differences in society. That’s important to us, and it’s also important to have predictability in terms of conditions and, not least, to maintain a dialogue with those who think otherwise.

We have done that in the past. My secretary of state was in Switzerland not so long ago, in Lucerne, and met several of those who have moved out. I have invited dialogue and welcome anyone who wants to return home to Norway. We all have to contribute to the community and have a fair tax system, and I really believe that we do.

MF: Nonetheless, many people are threatening to move away …

CM: Yes, but there are more who do not, who live in Norway and contribute to Norway being a fantastic country in which to operate and run a business, not least a startup. We’ll be presenting Norway’s very first white paper on startups this autumn, which will help to create a new policy for both startups and founders in the future.

I think we can achieve a lot by engaging in dialogue. We must remember that a lot of good things are happening in Norway, and we live with differing views on some of these things. When it comes to the expat tax, it’s not a new tax. It’s out for consultation now.

It’s important that the value created in Norway also contributes to the tax system in Norway. That’s what it’s all about—to ensure that we do that.

MF: You come from northern Norway and are very keen to attract more tourists to Norway and for them to stay longer. How are you going to achieve this?

CM: We’re going to be working a lot with the tourism industry in the future. It’s a fantastic industry for Norway that employs more than 180,000 people across the country. It’s Norway’s fifth largest export industry, and we break records year after year when it comes to tourism.

What characterizes Norway is the high quality of what we offer. We have a lot of different things to offer to visitors. What’s important now is that we, together with the industry, get the tourists who come to Norway to stay longer and to spend more money. We also need to ensure that it is sustainable and that we protect our vulnerable nature.

The summer season is just around the corner. If you look to Lofoten, in the north of Norway, we know that they will receive a lot of tourists over the next two months. We need to ensure that the local community there gets the support they need when they make their municipalities and beautiful areas available to so many tourists. We have to ensure that the local communities get something back. That’s why we work to establish what is known in many parts of the world as a visit contribution for Norway.

MF: Are you going to introduce a visitor’s allowance as found in the United States, for example?

CM: It’s something that exists in most places in Europe. We’re working on it now, but it’s not yet finalized. But I believe that we need to make it possible for municipalities to get something in return for the services they are rendering to the tourists.

MF: Norway is known for being very expensive. How are you going to change this image?

CM: Is it an image? There are more and more tourists coming to Norway, and now the Norwegian krone exchange rate has made it less expensive. We’re now seeing an increase in tourism, we’re getting more restaurants that are recognized around the world with Michelin stars, and we have chefs who are doing very well in the most important international arenas, so that’s another advantage.

The most important thing for Norway is not to get as many people as possible to come to our beautiful country, but that those tourists who do come get a high-quality product. Norway is a safe, stable country, and this year we’re having a beautiful summer—you can now wear shorts for several days in northern Norway.

Oslo has become a city like most big cities in Europe, where you can take part in many different activities. You can even swim right from the [city] center. Being in the capital in summer is nice. You don’t have to go far out in Europe when you can have a big city, swimming and midnight sun in Norway.

MF: You also signed a trade agreement with India not so long ago. What do you expect to come out of that agreement?

CM: I’m very happy that we have concluded the agreement with India. A lot of people worked on this, not least in the EFTA community. My predecessor, Jan Christian Vestre, personally contributed to getting this agreement in place. I’m very proud of that, and it’s something that Norwegian companies and the Norwegian business community will recognize in the future, not least when it comes to seafood products and the seafood industry.

That we have zero tariffs on seafood is absolutely fantastic, and it opens up a new big market for Norwegian industry. We’re now working to realize the opportunities that lie there. I look forward to trying Norwegian seafood with Indian spices. There are great things to come for Norway in India.

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Leaving Cecilia Myrseth to her other engagements, we wish her lots of success in her endeavors. She is promoting Norway in a very positive manner, and it’s reassuring to see that despite recent political turmoil there are clever and committed persons in the Støre government.

Visit Cecile Myseth’s official listing on the Norwegian governement website: https://www.regjeringen.no/en/dep/nfd/organisation/minister-of-trade-and-industry-cecilie-myrseth/id3035377/.

This article originally appeared in the September 2024 issue of  The Norwegian American.