The MIKON flagship program in the Fram Centre is using both social and environmental sciences to examine how High North industrial development will affect the natural world, regional societies like the Sami and economic activity.
Governor Yuri Yevdokimov during this weeks Sankt Petersburg Economic Forum signed an agreement with the Komi Republic, which makes Murmansk Oblast a part of the Belkomur railway project.
Salaries among officials working in the Murmansk regional administration are now the second best in all of Northwest Russia. The Murmansk civil servants make more than their colleagues in Sankt Petersburg. Only in the oil-rich Nenets Autonomous Okrug the regional officials are better paid.
The ongoing construction of the world’s first floating nuclear power plant at Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk will be moved to Baltiysky shipyard in St. Petersburg.
The almost three year long dispute between Norwegian fish export companies and Russian veterinary authorities might have come to an end, after Norwegian minister of Fisheries and Costal Affaires met with the Russian authorities this week.
Scandinavia’s main airline company SAS is in deep financial trouble, and will have to cut 500 million EUR in its budget. Many predict that SAS will be sold to a larger European airline company in near future.
Norwegian telecom major Telenor’s conflict with Russia’s Alfa Group over control in the VimpelCom company is a test for Russian foreign investment credibility, analysts say.
Murmansk Fishery Port seems to cope with the increased amounts of fish deliveries. The port has doubled turnover since the introduction of the law demanding that all fish caught in Russian economic zone shall be delivered in Russian ports.
Major Chinese demands have lifted prices on platinum to last October level. That is good news for Norilsk Nickel’s mining subsidiary in Murmansk Oblast.
Unemployment is dropping and business leaders are the most optimistic in all of Scandinavia. The international economic downturn has not yet much affected northern Norway, regional analysts say.
Russian timber sales companies have piled up to 10 million cubic meters of timber along the border to Finland awaiting sales to the Finnish wood processing industry.
