Caspian Energy (CE): Ms. Nordal, how successful is this year going to be for Iceland’s transportation sector and telecommunications industry in the light of the severest challenges faced now by the world economy?
Ólöf Nordal, Minister of the Interior of Iceland: During the economic boom public expenditure on infrastructure was high as there were many feasible projects pending to connect municipalities in an otherwise sparsely populated country. Then after the economic crash in October 2008 we have been forced to retract from plans for some projects while others have been carried out such tunnels in the north and east Iceland and concentrate our efforts on service and maintenance as much as possible within our financial limits. On this year’s agenda are also 4 relatively large projects corresponding to fast increasing tourism. Due to the blooming tourism our main gateway to the world, Keflavik Airport is now self-sustaining and Cruise ships are increasingly generating income for some key harbours.
The telecommunications are market driven with only a few exceptions in the most sparsely populated areas where there is a market failure. Iceland is a world leader in internet access and smartphones are used by most, creating a healthy competitive market.
CE: In Iceland, the transportation sector as a whole and separate means of transport in particular, is well-developed. Which projects are given high priority now?
Ólöf Nordal: New challenges related to the fast growing tourism on projects that relate to tourism have had primary focus, while simultaneously concentrating on service and maintenance. We have also especially in the capital area focused on public transport and alternative transport. But there are important projects pending all over the country in all transport sectors. Attention is also drawn to the possibilities of joint financing, like PPP’s of larger projects.
CE: Which innovative technologies will be involved during their implementation?
Ólöf Nordal: We rely more and more on the use of ICT in our transport system and have for example installed web cameras and weather stations in key locations across the country to enable travellers to choose the best.
CE: Transportation systems are the major sources of GHG emissions. Which measures are taken in Iceland to address this urgent challenge of the modern world?
Ólöf Nordal: In Iceland approximately 20% of our greenhouse gas emissions are due to the transport sector. To reduce the emissions we have increasingly promoted the use of renewable energy such as electricity from hydroelectric power plants by making such vehicles excepted from taxes and tolls and by doing so in 2 years the number of electric, twin, hybrid and methane fuelled cars has risen at an escalating rate from vertically none to more than 6% of cars registered in so far this October.
Regarding ships we have supported a number of initiatives promoting the use of alternative fuels focusing on better energy efficiency, decreasing soot for cleaner emissions and even the development an electric driven propeller.
CE: The growing traffic on roads is the challenging matter of many countries. How does Iceland tackle the problem of traffic jams?
Ólöf Nordal: On a global scale Iceland does not have any real traffic jams, the delay counting in minutes in the early morning and afternoon rush hours in the capital. Never the less we have been supporting alternative travel modes by creating a safe, separate infrastructure for bicycling and walking and in recent years the national transport plan is supporting public transport in the capital area, both have resulted in a fast growing use of alternative transport.
CE: The International Telecommunications Union, ITU, published the ‘Measuring the Information Society Report 2014’, where Iceland is ranked as one of the leading countries in terms of the ICT Development Index. What did the country do to achieve such high figures? Which interesting projects, in your opinion, are now implemented in this sector to improve even more the achieved results?
Ólöf Nordal: There are few important facts that have helped to make Iceland one of the leading countries in terms of ICT Development Index. The society is small and transparent, we have rather stable economic and political environment. We must credit the people of Iceland for such success as already at the turn of the century most homes and work places had internet access and here the most important factor is probably the high educational level and what we could explain as “technology culture” meaning that citizens are interested and willing to spend both money and time on new technologies and IT for communication and accessing service daily.
The focus is now on open and easy access to non-personal information and files kept by the State or municipalities; improvements concerning sequrity of public informationm, websites and IT-systems; to exploit information technology to achieve greater automation and overall economy, higher quality in business and services and the pooling of useful information; to adopt transparent, efficient and open consultative procedures and portal for open consultation to ensure that both business enterprises and the general public can easily express their points of view during the policymaking phase and when regulations are issued and decisions are taken; and the last but not least: to develop sofisticated eServices so individuals and businesses shall be able to handle affairs related to State and municipal administration anytime, anywhere and without delay.
CE: Could you please tell about special features of the new National Cyber Security Strategy of Iceland for 2015-2018?
Ólöf Nordal: The new Icelandic National Cyber Security Strategy 2015 – 2026 provides both a long term vision on cyber security for Iceland and a plan of action for 2015 – 2018. The action plan focuses on strengthened legislation, tackling cybercrime, capacity building and increased resilience. The government has the prime responsibility concerning the first two factors. The legislation must meet international obligations such as those by the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime and it must be compatible with legislation in neighbouring countries. The police must be able to investigate cases of cybercrime and participate in international cooperation as needed. The last two factors, capacity building and increased resilience, require wide range cooperation and in order to achieve this a special Cyber Security Council has been established for coordinating governmental work in this field and a Cyber Security Forum, which is a collaborative venue for representatives of public bodies who sit on the Cyber Security Council and of private entities, e.g. responsible for the management of the society‘s critical infrastructures, health services, information technology and research.
Thank you for the interview
