Svein Tore Holsether på NHOs årskonferanse 2026

Your Royal Highness, Prime Minister, dear everyone. I am proud of the job NH does in bringing together the business community and putting important topics on the agenda. Because change begins with us talking together, discussing, and that conversation has to start somewhere. The ambition is that it starts here. But for the conversation to have value, we must speak directly. And as was said in the film, it is not enough to go with the flow if we want to excel. And I am afraid that we float too much and excel too little. Because there are truly too few areas where we really excel where we do not have natural advantages to do so. We do not excel when it comes to school results, research and development. We do not excel when it comes to innovation. If we look aside from oil, energy, and seafood, we do not excel when it comes to access to private risk capital. And we do not have the productivity growth that we should have, or power development. The Norwegian problem is not that we do directly poorly, but that with our abundance of resources we do not do significantly better.

And it is not set up for us to do that either. A good and safe country is created by people and businesses that contribute to value creation, settlement, and income. Then we need private owners who have capital and the willingness to risk losing it. But any losses on investments should be because the investments are risky for the capital, not because the tax system is. Norway should aim higher. We will perform better if we prioritize harder. And in theory, everyone agrees that we must prioritize. In practice, almost no one is willing to do it. And I think it comes down to two things. First, because real prioritization has a short-term cost in that you risk becoming unpopular. Second, because it is difficult to prioritize when there is abundance. And Norway has both resources in abundance and resources we lack. We will run out of people long before we run out of savings. And unfortunately, the solution seems to be that we spend more money where we lack people. That is a bad solution in the short term and a terrible solution in the long term. Norway needs to aim higher. What is certain is that Norway does not have enough resources to be self-sufficient, no matter what some may think. And let me take an example that I know well. This is a fertilizer prill. It makes it possible to produce enough food to feed the world's population. Yara imports gas, potassium, phosphate, and ammonia from three continents and a number of countries to produce these in Glomfjord and Porsgrunn. Yara is by no means unique. There is not a single company in this room today that can manage without resources from abroad. Whether it is money, raw materials, equipment, or software. We must import to produce what we export. Norway cannot manage alone in everyday life, and certainly not in war and crisis. It was the EU that secured us vaccines during Covid. It is NATO that is our most important protection against external threats. Yet some believe that because we have some resources in abundance, the world needs us more than we need them. They could not be more wrong. Norway needs the world every day.

The seeds of international companies can be sown in Norway, but if they are to grow and become truly large, the Norwegian patch is too small. It is in the world that the opportunities for growth lie. And some countries we are more dependent on than others. The EU is our overwhelmingly most important trading partner. It is about geographical, political, value-based, and security proximity, and about half a million jobs in Norway. In today's world, we strengthen both growth and security through cooperation with countries that share our values. Personally, I would therefore have preferred that we were members of the EU. But I had also made peace with the EEA agreement, which has served us well for over 30 years. Now I am not so sure anymore. The whole matter of 12 on iron alloys has created a new uncertainty from the EU. And here at home, there are several who create uncertainty around the EU. That uncertainty cannot the business community live with in the long run. We must fight for the EU agreement. Norway must aim higher.

The stewardship responsibility has always been strong in Norway and in our thinking. We manage our resources on behalf of future generations, and we must leave them a country that is as strong or stronger than the one we had on loan. Then we must prioritize harder. Then we must ensure access to competence and capital. And we must stop explaining away mediocre results. We must strengthen innovation and a competitive business community. And here there has been dereliction from several governments over time. And therefore it was disappointing that while the EU commissioned a report on its competitiveness, such a commission never came from Norway. It ended with NH creating the Draget report in Norwegian itself. A report with clear solutions that Ole Erik will talk more about later today. And I must say that it was surprising that even after the Draget report, we got a state budget before Christmas that distributes a lot but creates little. And I take self-criticism for the fact that measures to strengthen Norway's competitiveness do not have more support politically and in the population. I must become better at explaining that business and society are on the same team. We must make each other good. The role of business in building and securing society must not be underestimated. For 2026 is not shaping up to be less dramatic or unpredictable than the years we have behind us. And in a troubled world, predictability at home is fundamental for a small country like Norway. Predictability around our most important international agreements. Predictability in the framework conditions that we ourselves decide on in this parliamentary term, with perhaps the most fragmented Storting we have had, it may seem more difficult than ever, but it is also more important than ever. Therefore, we must take care of what creates trust. The tripartite cooperation is the foundation of stability in the Norwegian model. And it can tolerate, as I said here last year, that we disagree. LO and NH find common ground even when we disagree. And equally important are broad political settlements. And now I hope all politicians nationally and locally listen to us. For Norway must aim higher. Welcome to NH's annual conference. Yes.