Norway may become ‘cashless country’ by 2020

One of #Norway’s leading financial confederations has said the country should be cashless by 2020. Currently, cash is used in only five percent of Norwegian transactions. However, critics say people should be able to buy things without a ‘trace’.

Finans Norge – which represents 200 financial institutions and financial groups active in the country – has advocated the complete elimination of cash-based transactions in Norway, stating that a no-cash policy could prevent problems with financial crime, robberies and ‘black money’.

“Cash now represents such a small proportion of payments in the society, that we could well do without it,” said a statement published on the Finans Norge website on Monday.

AFP Photo / Jessica Gow

The confederation pointed out that there was an 8.6 percent growth in card use in the first half of this year, that Norwegians have been taking out increasingly less cash from ATMs and shops, and that “it costs society a lot to handle cash.”

Finans Norge additionally points out that cash is used in only five percent of transactions in Norway with only Sweden and the UK having a lower level of cash usage than Norway.

However, critics and privacy advocates stated that the total elimination of cash could have disturbing implications for individuals’ privacy. “It must be possible to be able to pay for goods and services without registering,” Guri Melby of the Liberal (Venstre) party told Norway’s ‘News in English’ website.

“We also think it is naive to believe that crime disappears by removing cash,” said Melby. “We already see today that crime is moving to new areas. There is just as much fraud of bank cards and electronic payment methods, and we also see new payment methods, like for example Bitcoin, pop up.”

“The opportunity for crime and fraud does not depend on what type of payment methods we have in society.”

The Norwegian Data Protection Authority – Datatilsynet – has also spoken out, saying that it is important that people can make purchases without an electronic trace being left behind them.  Reuters

Norway celebrates 200 yr constitution amid hypocrisy spat

People gather in the main street of Oslo, on May 17, 2014, as part of the traditional celebration of..

#Norway celebrated the 200th anniversary of its constitution on Saturday shortly after a controversy on whether the country betrayed its democratic principles by snubbing the Dalai Lama to please #China.

The religious leader -- in Oslo between May 7 and 9 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of his Nobel Peace Prize -- was not received by any member of Erna Solberg's right-wing government, or the parliament's president.

"The president should have met the Dalai Lama, given that the parliament has the ultimate responsibility for the Peace Prize," Frank Aarebrot, a political science professor at Bergen University, told AFP. The five members of the Nobel committee are appointed by the Norwegian assembly.
Others accused the government of "cowardice" and highlighted the contradiction of hailing the anniversary of their constitution -- the second oldest in the world after the US -- with grandiose words while bending to China out of economic interest.

"The contrast is embarrassingly large to all the fat words that the president of the parliament and others use now in the grand year of the jubilee of the constitution. Words about democracy and independence, freedom of speech and human rights," the political editor of newspaper Aftenposten wrote in the paper.

Norway's constitution was penned in 1814 in an effort to free the country from the foreign domination of Danes and Swedes, but the country only obtained its independence from Sweden in 1905.
Paradoxically, the Dalai Lama is a symbol for the autonomy of the Chinese-dominated region of Tibet and considered a "separatist" by Beijing.

Since Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, considered a criminal by his country, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010, Beijing has stopped all high level diplomatic contact with Norway.

Prime Minister Erna Solberg said the Dalai Lama's visit had put her in a complicated situation.
"I made the difficult choice. It would have been easier to play the hero," she told Norwegian daily Dagbladet.
The spiritual leader was received in parliament by several members of the cross-parliamentary committee for Tibet, which includes the governing right-wing parties.

The meeting was held in a screening room, rather than an official reception room.
As the tradition marks, Norwegians celebrated the anniversary of their constitution with a children's parade in front of the royal palace in Oslo.
Source: Yahoo News