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Øystein,

I do not have a problem with trading with Belarus, even though it has a negative moral aspect since it helps the regime to stay in power. The point I was making is that such trade is often used for money laundering and I suspect that icelandic bussinessmen are doing this too.

I was being sarcastic about Norway trying to be friends with Israel and the arab states (and earningmoney from this) while many members of the norwegian government are openly anti semmitic.

“with Israel (a horrible state in norwegian public opinion) and with the arab world (where everything is wonderful and great as we all know)” – I doubt you will find many jews in Norway that agree with you in this.

Thank you for that details. Also the pictures to that Netherland them park in China. Very unusual.

>This story exactly shows what doing bussiness with a dictatorship is about:
>you can make huge profits when you are friends with the regime: labour
>costs are low and there are no trade unions forcing you to give decent
>treatment to workers.
>However, if you fall from grace you will be in big trouble.

This used to the case also when under Monarchy before they got the push back from nobles under parliametary democracy. And Icelander saw plenty of this under Danish trade monopoly.

Now when in the EU you are forced to raise common tariffs. There is no free trade outside the EU customs union if you are EU member, only within it ( the EEA ).

This is advantage for EFTA member — like Iceland Norway. They can still make as country free trade deal with who they like. You cant do that as member of EU.

It still amaze me that UK left EFTA at all. It did mean it lost ability for free trade for it commonwealth nations including Canada and Australia.

Thanks for bringing you usual balance to conversation.

I think every one with an eye to profit is looking wherever can given poor state of home country economys. Natural resource and agriculture are going to big in coming years.

“Thanks for the laugh Fisy! Transparency International is a joke, but it’s good to see them refusing to change their criteria.”

Obviously I did miss any irony. That is probably because it is well known Icelander have no sense of humor which is why we enjoy My Family on RUV with that Robert Lindsay. Or perhaps it because you were not being ironic.

BTW Øystein do you think you can explain why Norway dropped down so much according to Transaprency International ? Any idea?

http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2009/06/11/iceland-bank-collapse-investigation-family-ties-foreigners-and-funding/#comment-81434

http://www.transparency.org/news_room/in_focus/2008/cpi2008/cpi_2008_table

http://www.regjeringen.no/en/dep/ud/about_mfa/Other-political-staff/former-state-secretaries/State-Secretary-Raymond-Johansen/Speeches-and-articles/2008/israeli_seminar.html?id=534580

http://www.regjeringen.no/en/dep/ud/about_mfa/minister-of-foreign-affairs-jonas-gahr-s/Speeches-and-articles/2009/arab_summit.html?id=551903

What are “OPPURTUNITIES” ??

UK:

http://www.eventica.co.uk/events/bif/2008/

NL:

http://www.minsk.gov.by/news/26.11.2008/2/12625/eng

http://www.korea-dpr.com/business.htm

Quite frankly, Icesave was a better investment :-)
The north korean car does look nice though.

Here is info on bussiness trips
http://www.korea-dpr.com/kfa2009/kfa-delegation-oct-2009.pdf

As for Yang Bin, I heard about him and looked up some information. It is a story that is both impressive and tragic.
Yang Bin came to NL and was naturalized, apparently because he had taken part in anti government demonstration during the tragedy at Tien an Men square.
He built up an enormous bussiness empire and made huge profits in China. He started selling flowers there, built up greenhouses and even built a large attraction park in Shenyang where all kinds of dutch landmarks were recreated.

Here is an article with some pics.
http://www.geledraak.nl/html/showarticle.asp?id=206

His personal fortune was estimated at 1 billion dollar.

But his fortune reversed when he was nominated as governor of this north korean SAR. Apparently China was opposed to this as this would mean competition for the chinese area on the other side of the border.

So Yang Bin was arrested in 2002 and sentenced to 18 years in prison on some unclear charges.
Even though he is a dutch citizen , dutch authorities did nothing to support him, apparently in order not to damage relations with China.

He has been in prison since and his dutch companies have been declared bankrupt.

This story exactly shows what doing bussiness with a dictatorship is about: you can make huge profits when you are friends with the regime: labour costs are low and there are no trade unions forcing you to give decent treatment to workers.
However, if you fall from grace you will be in big trouble.

So you think that Transparency International methodology is worth something now ? Perhaps you like it when it suits you ?

Perhaps it’s a nuance that you might have missed, but I was being ironic. Still, even though their rating system is obviously flawed (well, obvious to most that is), the little that I know of Belarus would tend to confirm their low placement on any rating scale.

But I see you want to argue with that. Find someone else :) .