Richest country in the world ?

South Pacific Familyadventure 2008
Claes Brodin
Sat 20 Jul 2019 16:53
Swedes and Norwegians come from the same roots sharing a similar culture from the times of the vikings (Norwegians going west and Swedes going east).We used to call each other "brotherpeople"( an expression not used after WW-II though). Sweden though became industrialized earlier and developed some very successful multinational companies (Ericson,Volvo,Saab,Scania,Asea,Skanska etc) while the Norwegians remained farmers and fishermen to a larger extent also into modern times (partly perhaps because of difficulties to build up an infrastructure in this country of fiords and mountains).
In the seventies large amounts of oil was discovered in the seabed of Norwegian waters and today the offshore industry is the main income provider in Norway.
Being one of the worlds main oil producers and still with a large amount of clean fish (a rarity nowadays in some parts of the world) the net income for Norway has provided a positive balance for decades making Norway one of few countries on the positive side of the curve in "External depth diagrams".
Moreover the governments of Norway have invested large sums of money in solid multinational companies giving independence. The livingstandard in Norway is today very high (and so are prices). As mentioned before though, the governments of Norway have been clever to sustain rural parts of the country and so is farming and fishing still an important part of life in this country highlighted by the pictures from a farm on the island of Vega and a modern Norwegian fishing trawler.

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