Business Engagement Session: From Infrastructure to Innovation – Norway’s Digital Journey

Summary

This discussion focused on Norway’s digital transformation journey from infrastructure development to innovation, examining the country’s successes and challenges in digitalization. The panel, moderated by Harald Wium Lie from Analysis Mason, included representatives from government agencies, municipalities, banking infrastructure, and technology organizations.

David Norheim from Brønøysund Registry Center opened with a keynote highlighting Norway’s digital success stories, particularly the Altinn platform that emerged from collaboration between three public agencies in the early 2000s. He emphasized how trust-based public-private partnerships, exemplified by the DSOP initiative with the financial sector, have created significant value – generating 2.5 billion euros in benefits from automated tax and salary processes alone. The discussion revealed that Norway’s digital infrastructure relies heavily on trust between institutions and individuals, enabling streamlined services like instant company registration through banks.

However, panelists acknowledged significant challenges. Øystein Søraide from Abelia noted that while Norway excels in public sector digitization, it lags in economic transformation, remaining overly dependent on unsustainable exports like oil and gas. Kristin Weidemann from KS highlighted the problem of over-regulation, with municipalities only able to comply with 80% of applicable laws due to contradictory requirements and resource constraints.

The banking sector’s collaborative approach was praised by Eivind Gjemdal from BITS, who described how financial institutions work together on non-commercial infrastructure while competing in commercial services. Paul Wien Espen from ICT Norway emphasized the need for cross-sector thinking and warned that some early digital systems now require modernization.

Key themes included the importance of innovative procurement practices, the challenge of scaling trust-based solutions internationally, and the need for better cross-sector data sharing, particularly in healthcare where GDPR regulations create barriers. The discussion concluded that Norway’s success stems from collaborative leadership, high-quality data registries, and willingness to engage directly with private sector partners, though continued innovation requires addressing regulatory barriers and competence gaps.

Keypoints

## Major Discussion Points:

– **Public-Private Partnership and Trust as Foundation for Digital Success**: The discussion emphasized how Norway’s digital transformation has been built on collaborative relationships between government agencies, private sector companies, and civil society organizations, with trust being the cornerstone that enables these partnerships to function effectively without heavy contractual frameworks.

– **Norway’s Digital Infrastructure Journey and International Expansion**: Panelists discussed Norway’s evolution from early digital infrastructure development (like the Altinn platform starting in the early 2000s) to current efforts to expand Norwegian digital trust infrastructure to the European Union through EIDAS 2.0 and digital wallets.

– **Balancing Public and Private Sector Roles**: A significant portion of the discussion focused on defining appropriate boundaries between what the public sector should handle versus what should be left to private companies, with particular attention to avoiding over-regulation while maintaining effective governance and innovation.

– **Challenges with Regulatory Fragmentation and Over-regulation**: Multiple speakers highlighted how excessive and contradictory regulations across different government sectors create inefficiencies, with municipalities only able to comply with about 80% of applicable laws, and how this hinders innovation and cross-sector collaboration.

– **Scaling Digital Solutions and Addressing Competence Gaps**: The conversation addressed Norway’s challenge in moving from being good at digital adoption to becoming truly innovative, including the need for better education, international talent attraction, and more effective use of public procurement to drive innovation.

## Overall Purpose:

The discussion aimed to examine Norway’s digital transformation journey from infrastructure development to innovation, analyzing the country’s successes, current challenges, and future opportunities. The panel sought to identify lessons learned from Norway’s public-private collaborative approach that could be applicable to other countries and contexts.

## Overall Tone:

The discussion maintained a constructive and analytical tone throughout, with speakers being both proud of Norway’s digital achievements while remaining critically aware of areas needing improvement. The tone was collaborative rather than confrontational, with panelists building on each other’s points and acknowledging both successes and shortcomings. There was a consistent emphasis on practical solutions and real-world examples, maintaining an optimistic but realistic perspective on the challenges ahead for Norway’s continued digital development.

Speakers

– **Harald Wium Lie**: Partner with consulting company Analysis Mason in Oslo office, has spent 30 years deploying digital infrastructure in the Nordic countries

– **David Norheim**: Computer scientist by training, specialist in semantic web, IT consultant, founded IT companies, Director of Business Development at Brønøysund Registerne (Registry Center) for the last 10 years

– **Oystein E. Soreide**: Former career in sales and marketing, worked for the Conservative Party for many years, former vice mayor of health and social services for the city of Oslo, has headed Abelia (organizes 2800 technology and knowledge companies in Norway) for the last six years

– **Kristin Weidemann**: Engineer by training, helped organize Olympic Winter Games at Lillehammer, held technology and management roles at mobile operators, banks, publishing houses, hospitals, and municipalities, heads research, development, innovation, and digitalization at KS (organization for Norway’s 357 municipalities and 15 regions)

– **Eivind Gjemdal**: Spent 16 years as consultant manager and partner at Accenture, CIO at Savings Bank Sparebank 1 for almost 14 years, has been managing BITS (Norwegian bank’s infrastructure company) for the last nine years

– **Pal Wien Espen**: Spent more than 20 years at Telenor, former Telenor’s global chief legal counsel, former head of Norwegian Communications Regulator where he initiated Fiber Wholesale Services, currently director with IKT Norge (ICT Norway)

– **Francis De Silva**: Works for the same agency as David Norheim (Brønøysund Registerne)

– **Audience**: Multiple unidentified audience members who asked questions

**Additional speakers:**

– **Vanessa Lemus**: Citizen representative, has been supporting an Interreg European Union’s Interregional Cooperation project, lived in the Nordics for 20 years (18 years in Sweden, 2 years in Norway), former social worker

# Norway’s Digital Transformation: From Infrastructure Success to Innovation Challenges

## Executive Summary

This comprehensive discussion examined Norway’s digital transformation journey, bringing together leading experts from government agencies, municipalities, banking infrastructure, and technology organisations. Moderated by Harald Wium Lie from Analysis Mason, the panel explored how Norway evolved from early digital infrastructure development to its current position in public sector digitalisation, whilst confronting challenges in economic transformation and innovation competitiveness.

The discussion revealed Norwegian digital success built on trust-based collaboration, high-quality data registries, and innovative public-private partnerships, exemplified by platforms like Altinn and the DSOP initiative. However, panellists acknowledged critical vulnerabilities, including economic dependence on oil and gas exports, regulatory fragmentation, and gaps between digital reputation and actual innovation performance.

## Key Participants and Perspectives

The panel comprised diverse expertise spanning public and private sectors:

– **David Norheim**, Director of Business Development at Brønøysund Registry Centre, provided the keynote on Norway’s digital success stories, emphasising trust infrastructure and cross-border expansion

– **Øystein E. Soreide** from Abelia offered critical economic analysis, highlighting Norway’s export challenges and innovation gaps

– **Kristin Weidemann** from KS represented municipal perspectives on regulatory burden and cross-sector collaboration

– **Eivind Gjemdal** from BITS contributed banking sector insights on infrastructure development and data sharing barriers

– **Pal Wien Espen** from ICT Norway focused on modernisation needs and political will requirements

## Norway’s Digital Foundation: Trust and Collaboration

### The Trust Infrastructure Advantage

Trust emerged as Norway’s fundamental competitive advantage in digital transformation. David Norheim emphasised that trust infrastructure, including electronic identification systems, provides the foundation for knowing “who you’re communicating with” in digital interactions. This trust extends beyond technical systems to relationships between government agencies, private sector companies, and citizens.

Øystein E. Soreide reinforced this, noting that high trust between government, businesses, and citizens creates an “excellent foundation for digital transition.” This enables informal cooperation without heavy contractual frameworks, allowing rapid response during crises and streamlined collaboration.

Kristin Weidemann added that “collaboration happens between people, not just organisations,” making personal trust relationships essential for effective digital transformation.

### Successful Public-Private Partnership Models

Norway’s digital infrastructure success stems from innovative public-private partnerships. David Norheim highlighted the Altinn platform, which emerged from collaboration between three public agencies in the early 2000s, and the DSOP (Public Private Digital Collaboration) initiative with the financial sector. One DSOP service alone – automatic tax and salary information processing – has generated 2.5 billion euros in benefits.

These partnerships operate on what Norheim described as “portfolio-based cooperation,” where agencies create mutual value through balanced project exchanges rather than traditional buyer-seller relationships. A recent example is the death notification service launched just two weeks before this discussion.

Eivind Gjemdal explained how financial institutions collaborate on non-commercial infrastructure whilst competing in commercial services, emphasising the importance of maintaining “clear distinction between infrastructure and commercial services.”

## Critical Challenges and Vulnerabilities

### Economic Sustainability and Innovation Gaps

Despite digital achievements, Øystein E. Soreide revealed deep concerns about Norway’s economic sustainability, describing the country as having “the least sustainable export structure in the OECD” at “zero percent sustainable.” He characterised it as a “sardine can economy because it consists of fish and oil and metal.”

Soreide also challenged Norway’s digital reputation, noting that “Norway ranks middle among OECD countries in technology adoption and innovation despite digital reputation.” This creates challenges for Norwegian technology companies seeking international markets, who “will often be asked, well, have you sold your product in Norway?”

### Regulatory Fragmentation and Over-regulation

A significant challenge is excessive regulation undermining effective governance. Kristin Weidemann revealed that local authorities “are only able to abide around 80 percent of the laws and regulations that they’re actually bound by” due to contradictory requirements and resource constraints.

This manifests as “sectorised government creates competition for resources and prevents cross-sector collaboration,” with departments protecting information rather than recognising “it belongs to citizens.” Soreide noted that detailed regulations create “a problem for innovation” affecting both public and private sectors.

### Healthcare Data Sharing Barriers

Despite advanced digital infrastructure, healthcare data sharing faces significant challenges. Eivind Gjemdal identified GDPR regulations as creating “barriers to sharing essential health information across entities,” noting “it’s not a technical problem, it’s a law problem.”

Kristin Weidemann offered some optimism, mentioning that “new legislation may improve health information sharing by defaulting to sharing unless special protection needed,” though this is still under parliamentary discussion.

## Strategic Opportunities and Solutions

### Leveraging Public Procurement Power

The discussion identified public procurement as underutilised for innovation. Soreide revealed that “Norway has an annual procurement of more than 700 billion NOK” and argued this “has to be used much stronger to actually build a home market” for Norwegian technology companies.

Kristin Weidemann highlighted innovative procurement programs established 14 years ago between KS and the Norwegian Confederation of Enterprises, advocating for describing needs rather than prescribing solutions to drive market innovation.

### European Integration and Cross-Border Solutions

David Norheim outlined Norway’s expansion of trust infrastructure to Europe through EIDAS 2.0 and digital wallets, describing participation in the WeBuild Consortium. However, he noted challenges with EEA membership in fully participating in European digital initiatives.

This European integration represents both opportunity for exporting Norwegian digital expertise and challenges in maintaining existing well-functioning systems whilst adapting to new European requirements.

### Improving Cross-Sector Collaboration

Norheim described the “life events approach” with seven identified life events that “forces agencies to collaborate on complex citizen services” by organising around citizen needs rather than administrative convenience.

Kristin Weidemann advocated for “reducing detailed state regulations while maintaining oversight, giving more trust and autonomy to local authorities” to address regulatory fragmentation whilst preserving governance standards.

## Key Challenges Moving Forward

The discussion highlighted several unresolved challenges:

**Legacy System Modernisation**: Pal Wien Espen noted that “legacy systems from being a first-mover are becoming costly to maintain and need modernisation,” creating tension between maintaining service continuity and adopting superior technologies.

**Competence Gaps**: Soreide emphasised the need to “address significant competence gaps” through better education, upskilling, and international talent attraction.

**Scaling Trust Models**: Questions remain about how to scale Norway’s trust-based collaboration models to larger international markets with different cultural and institutional frameworks.

## Conclusion

Norway’s digital transformation represents both remarkable success and ongoing challenges. The country’s trust-based digital infrastructure and innovative public-private partnerships have created genuine competitive advantages and substantial economic value.

However, continued success requires addressing fundamental challenges: economic diversification, regulatory reform to reduce bureaucratic burden, competence development, and governance evolution to enable cross-sector collaboration. The discussion revealed that Norway’s digital future depends not just on technical capabilities but on political will, regulatory wisdom, and continued commitment to trust-based collaboration.

As David Norheim concluded, Norway’s challenge is maintaining its collaborative strengths whilst adapting to larger, more competitive international markets – scaling distinctly Norwegian advantages while preserving the social and institutional foundations that make them possible.

Harald Wium Lie: อยوتิโอน டוס�ד dinner at home Florence Hill, L lamb Atlantis, I-UP Colgate, I-UP Arlington, I-UP New York, I-UP New York City, I-UP Manhattan, I-UP Columbus City, I-UP Knightsburg, I-UP Boston City, I-UP New York, I-UP Burlington, I-UP Tamil Nadadcture, I-UP Welcome to Norway. Welcome to Oslo, and welcome to the full house of this session. My name is Haraldi. I am a partner with consulting company Analysis Mason in our Oslo office. I have spent the last 30 years deploying digital infrastructure in the Nordic countries, and today we have a select group of panel participants who will discuss and describe Norway’s digital journey from infrastructure to innovation. We’ll start out with a keynote speech and a few introductory remarks. Then I will work very hard to ensure that we have time for questions from you all, and towards the end we will let the panel conclude. Our keynote speaker is Daniel Nordheim, a computer scientist by training and a specialist in the semantic web. David has worked as an IT consultant. He has founded IT companies, and for the last 10 years he has worked at Brønøysund Registerne, where he now heads their business development group. Welcome, David. The floor is yours.

David Norheim: Thank you, Harald. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is David Nordheim, and like Harald said, I’m the director of business development. at our Registry Center here in Norway. We are also one of the founding fathers for several of our digital success stories in Norway, which we have the pleasure to share with you today. And before the debate, in a few minutes, I will take you through a few of those. Today, we have a Norwegian digital ministry. We have a digital strategy, brand new. We have a digitization agency. But our story starts long ago, 20 years ago, when we started with three visionary men heading three agencies. Today, Altinn is one of Norway’s most important digital platforms for interaction between businesses, government, and citizens. But the story began in the early 2000s, where these three men decided that we should report to government once and use that information in all services. This vision sparked a unique collaboration between three public agencies, the Tax Administration, Statistics Norway, and Brøndesund Registry Center. But they didn’t do it alone. And this is a key to this private-public partnership. We collaborated very closely with the accountants and the public accountants, the associations, to make sure that the businesses used their systems rather than just reporting to the government. These organizations represented the users and professionals that use the system every day. For businesses, this evolved into a place where you today can register a company directly from the systems. You can report annual accounts and beneficial owners. Basically from the business systems they have, so in practically reducing the burden to zero for these services. So together we not only build a technical solution but we build an ecosystem of actors to the benefit of all and to the benefit of innovation. And this collaboration still sparks new ways of collaboration and innovation. Years later, some five, six years ago, another unique collaboration started between the public sector and the finance industry. DSOP, Public Private Digital Collaboration, is a Norwegian initiative where public sector agencies collaborate directly with the financial sector to digitize and streamline key social processes. What’s unique about this is that it’s again a collaboration between leaders and not necessarily top-down collaboration. It’s brave leaders that decide to sit together and trust each other and there’s no external funding. They carry their own costs. It’s based on a portfolio approach where if you create a service that benefits someone else, the other party creates a service that benefits you. It’s an initiative based on trust, common infrastructure and achieving common goals. This collaboration has resulted in large simplification for businesses and citizens. The high bar you see there is just one of the services where you automatically get information directly from the bank about taxation and salaries. And from there you can automate processes in the bank through consent. And this service alone has created 2.5 billion euro in benefits so far. We also have services where we push our user interface into the banks. When you start a business in Norway today, you don’t go to us. You go to your bank and all the services you need is there. We just lie in the back and verify all the information and you have a registered company in seconds. The centerpiece of all this is trust. There’s trust between people. There’s trust infrastructure. In this trust we need an EID system. It’s central to know who you’re talking to. You need a platform and you need trustful national infrastructure. Norwegian trust infrastructure has helped us to deal with crises like the corona crisis, combat cyber and other threats and fraud. These days fraud is a very important collaboration. We work together in this collaboration we talked about here to fight the threats together because the criminals are better to work without borders than we are. Norway, we considered us to be an important player also in the national defense. Our role in the economic infrastructure is crucial today in keeping our country up and running during peacetime and war. Countries in Eastern Europe have seen this in a way that digital data and infrastructure need to be in place also when you’re at a situation at war. We usually say without Brønnesund Register Center Norway stops. Our salmon export for instance is depending on this. The next step in our journey is to take our infrastructure out in the European Union. infrastructure or the international infrastructure. And this means that the strong foundation we have today with public-private partnerships and the next generation private collaboration, we need a cross-border solution. With ADAS 2.0 and digital wallets, we are now expanding our trust infrastructure to the rest of Europe. This is key to opening up our digital services to and trust across border and between businesses and government and businesses in population in general. The requirements for companies risk management and green transition entails increased burdens and international trust infrastructure and reliable verifiable data sources along with willingness to try out new solutions as we do with this private-public partnerships is key to help to maintain also the competitiveness that is drawn up in the Drage report for instance. So lastly, I will just thank you for your attention and say that for us, trust is not only about the infrastructure, it’s about the people that work together. In Norway, this has been a very important step that we don’t have this very heavy contracts to work together. We know each other, we can pick up the phone in crisis and have managed to create a good solution based on these collaborations.

Harald Wium Lie: Thank you. Thank you very much, David. That was quite interesting. I am confident that many of our panelists will have some thoughts in relation to your speech. Let me start out with you, Oystein. You had a promising career in sales and marketing before politics got the better of you. Oystein has worked for the Conservative Party for many years and also for the city of Oslo as vice mayor of health and social services. For the last six years, Oystein has headed up Abelia, which organizes some 2800 technology and knowledge companies in Norway. So, Oystein, what can you tell us about Norway’s digital journey?

Oystein E. Soreide: Yes, thank you. That’s a small task in a couple of minutes, but let me just start to reflect a little bit and I’m sure we will dive into some various important and interesting aspects of this debate. I think I would actually like to start with saying that much is good in Norway. And if you look at the digitization of the public sector, for instance, and was also described in this presentation, we just saw that we have actually come quite far when it comes to to making public services available for the population, for the public digitally. We are very advanced there. On the other hand, we often say that, well, Norway is the most digitized country in the world. And what we normally mean is that or the reason we say this is that everybody has an iPhone. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re able to make new businesses and to really transform the economy and society based on technology for that reason. In Abelia, we have been working a lot with the question of the green and digital transition, and we have compared Norway with basically all the OECD countries over 10 years. And we see that we are not necessarily best in everything, as we sometimes believe in this country, both when it comes to adaptation of technology, when it comes to human capital, when it comes to entrepreneurship and innovation. We are actually more or less stuck in the middle in many of these areas. And why is this a big problem? It’s a problem because we have the least sustainable export structure, actually, in the OECD. I mean, it’s It’s zero percent sustainable. We are depending on oil and gas, fish, metals. We often call it the sardine can economy because it consists of fish and oil and metal. And it serves us well and we make a lot of money, but it’s not really sustainable for the future. And the world needs to make the green transition. And as the world does so, the demand for our key products and services are actually fading away. So that was a bit grim introduction, but I think there’s something I would like to follow up on there. But on the other hand, a key word in the introductory remarks was trust. And I think we have a very good foundation in going through this transition when it comes to trust. We have very high trust between the government, the companies, the business sector, and also the employees. And we often talk about the Norwegian or Nordic model, the three-part system, which I think it’s an excellent foundation for doing this transition together. So I think I’ll stop there and maybe we can return to some of the more technical aspects also. But that would be my introduction.

Harald Wium Lie: Thank you, Oystein. Next one out is Kristin Weideman, an engineer by training. Kristin helped organize the Olympic Winter Games at Lillehammer before she took a number of technology and management roles at mobile operators, banks, publishing houses, hospitals, and municipalities. Today, Kristin heads up research, development, innovation, and digitalization at KS, the organization for Norway’s 357 municipalities and 15 regions. Welcome Kristin, and please let us know what you think.

Kristin Weidemann: Thank you. I would start by saying that collaboration to develop a new digital future happens actually not between organizations as much as between people. Oystein emphasized the importance of trust. I think that’s maybe the most unique driver that we have in Norway to reach our common goals to develop efficient digital services. It’s not only between the state and the municipalities and regions. It’s also between the public businesses or whatever enterprises and the private. More than, I think now it’s 14 years ago, KS, the organization of the municipalities and regions, actually established a program for innovative procurement joint with the Norwegian Confederation of Norwegian Enterprises. And the idea was that if you, before you buy something with public means, you have a very innovative and dialogue and what’s called based way to organize your procurement, so that you don’t ask what you think you need, but you ask, this is my needs, what solutions can you provide for us? And this has actually, I would say, been one of the major drivers for innovation in the public sector. It’s been a big success, both in the digital and the green transition. And it’s an example of this collaborative approach and trustworthy way of kind of achieving new solutions. KS is also the formal partner with the Norwegian government for the digitalization of the public sector in Norway. And it’s very important, because in Norway, municipalities and regions, they have a large responsibility compared to many other countries. Basically, they’re responsible for schools, both primary and secondary, their responsibility for the primary healthcare, they’re responsible for regional development, local development, and of course, of the democratic processes that we have locally and regionally. Huge importance in Norway, and they have actually, according to law, independence totally from the government, they’re only ruled by laws. And the laws are maybe today the most challenging part. We are so detailed, regulated, that it’s a problem for innovation. And I think we share this challenge with the private sector.

Harald Wium Lie: Kristine, thank you. Nobody can accuse our next panelist of being a disloyal employee. He spent 16 years as a consultant manager and partner at Accenture. He then moved to the Savings Bank Sparebank 1, where he was the CIO for almost 14 years. And for the last nine years, he has been working manage BITS, which is the Norwegian bank’s infrastructure company. Its primary task is to secure and strengthen efficient payment services and payment infrastructure in Norway. So tell us, Eivind Gjemdal, what is on your mind?

Eivind Gjemdal: It’s extremely interesting times, like David presented. We are in a phase now that we are actually digitalizing the whole society together. We have been through phases where we digitalized individual tasks in the companies. We digitalized the processes in the companies. In my industry, the finance industry, we have spent quite a lot of time on making it optimal between the different banks. And now we move one step up to the fourth level, that we are actually participating from the banking industry, in what David presented as the DSOP program, that we try to digitalize all the necessary processes to stay alive in Norway. That we digitalize between the banks, insurance companies and other financial industries, and a variety of public sector companies. And I think we are achieving some quite significant successes in that way. We are working together based upon trust and our ability to develop solutions, but also to maintain them over years. So the day you need a register, it’s not only made, it’s maintained and contains high quality data that can be used for a lot of purposes.

Harald Wium Lie: Eivind, thank you very much. Before I introduce our last panelist, I would like to mention, we will open the floor for questions. There is a microphone over there. Feel free to stand up and go over to that microphone, so that I know we will have a question. For those of you following us on Zoom, I am also watching the chat part of our meeting, so I can take questions from there. But before that, it is a great pleasure to welcome our last panelist. Pal Wien Espen spent more than 20 years at Telenor, and was Telenor’s global chief legal counsel for a very long time. He has also headed the Norwegian Communications Regulator, where he initiated the Fiber Wholesale Services, which is possibly the most important regulatory change we’ve seen in telecoms since the 1990s. Today, Paul is a director with IKT Norge, ICT Norway, which is an independent member organization for technology companies. Welcome, Paul.

Pal Wien Espen: Thank you. I assume that you would like me to comment on the main task here of Norway’s journey from infrastructure to the more first mover on content. I think Norway has a great history of being first movers digitally, being quite innovative, also in the public sector, by taking, I would say, bold moves and decisions in particularly some agencies, like Gronlandsund Registerne, in developing systems to the benefit of the public. And that has been the basis for the success, also like the banks have done, by joining forces rather than fighting each other in making systems that are available for the public. But as Esten says, we are maybe good at innovation, but a bit poor on the output. And as time has passed, I think that we have to be a bit more open-minded about what we are doing. And I think that we have to be a bit more open-minded I think we can now see that we are lagging a bit behind on being as innovative as we was. So based on that we are a small country, we have scarce resources and we need to come together, that is why this public-private cooperation is absolutely key for the success. And let’s come back to that, but I also think it’s a good occasion to talk about how we can improve that further. Because some of the systems, they are also a bit old and they need to be replaced, that’s the cost of being a first mover, that some technical changes has passed over the years and it’s a new way of dealing and just maintaining those systems are quite costly compared to changing them and using modern digitization thinking. So I think it’s been a great success, Norway has been able to use our resources by a public that’s very keen adopters of a new technology as well and in that sense being able also to export some of our solutions to others, but now what’s ahead?

Harald Wium Lie: Very good. Thank you, Paul. And I think I will start with you actually, Paul. You have seen digital journeys in a number of countries on a number of different continents. In, Telenor has been active in Eastern Europe, across Asia, across the Nordic countries, in big markets, in small markets. Can you compare and contrast Norway’s digital journey with the other countries and the other markets that you have experience with?

Pal Wien Espen: Well, I can certainly contrast. I think that’s the most appealing rather than comparing because for Telenor, I think the whole business idea was to bring our quite advanced technology to countries that were not that developed technologically like Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Myanmar for instance. And using our way of doing business in those environments and actually being part of transformational of the society there. And I think the way we then did this was something that made us one of the 10 biggest mobile operators in the world by using local knowledge and local insight, combining that with our technological insight and knowledge. So, I think the story behind that was that the local authorities, they really invited and were very positive, had a strong message to us that we were asked to do this in a decent way and transparent way and helped us along as well as building out the national network is quite complex issue with many controversials coming along as well. But to be part of such a journey and noticing the transformational effect that had on the countries is amazing. So, I think we then were able to use the best of our knowledge, combine the local insights to achieve after that.

Harald Wium Lie: Exactly. Kristin, oh yeah, Oystein, go ahead.

Oystein E. Soreide: No, sorry for jumping in, but I just wanted to expand a little bit on the perspective when it comes again to the roles of the private and the public sector in developing the digital infrastructure and so on. I think we have seen in Norway that actually it’s possible to have the private players literally play an important role in building the infrastructure, securing broadband and internet to the most remote areas, actually, even though we still have some few percentages left. I think we have been very successful in that. And actually, the government hasn’t had to spend that much money on that. It’s actually been taken to a large extent, Carol, by the market. And then, of course, the government has come in with some subsidies and some support where needed. I think this is one example of how we can actually work well together. On the other hand, I think it’s fair to say that in a country where GDP is 60% public sector, we have a large public sector, and maybe the public domain spreads a little bit too wide sometimes. And so as part of this discussion, I think we need to look at how can we best define the roles of the government and the public sector, and what are the roles of the private sector?

Harald Wium Lie: I think you’re making an important point. And in connection with that, you know, Christine, I believe it was the old president of the United States, Ronald Reagan, he said the nine most terrifying words in the English language is, I’m from the government, and I’m here to help. And as Norwegians, I think we don’t always get the joke. In a sense, most Norwegians, we like the government. They teach our kids to read and write. They help us out. when we’re sick. But let me ask you, Kristin, what, if anything, do you think that the government should stop doing or that the government should do less of?

Kristin Weidemann: Oh, where should I start? I could say something I would like less of and some things I would like more of. It’s a dance, a dance of balances. I think one of the challenges in Norway is that the state governance is very sectorized. And we are in a situation today where you’re actually competing for resources for people and for money. And the way when you govern a sector like the educational sector or the health sector to secure that the resources go to your goals is to regulate, enforce kind of laws that kind of bind the municipal sector to spend the resources exactly in this domain. And the result is that we are over-regulated and that the local authorities, regional authorities, are only able to abide around 80 percent of the laws and regulations that they’re actually bound by. It’s simply not enough people and quite often these laws are contradictory. So then you sit there, which law is more important in this case? You will get someone coming and checking you if you did your job anyways. So I would like more trust from the state to the local authorities so they are actually able to see these are my citizens, what do I think is most important in this case and use the resources accordingly. So that’s the one thing. I would like less regulations and more trust. Secondly, I would like the state to work more together across these sectors because we see that by making solutions digitally that are actually relevant for this sector only, you complicate the world. The complexity is increased and many solutions that are quite equal, they are solved many times instead of once. So that’s one more important thing I would like more. I would like more cooperation through these state sectors. And this is, I think it’s an awareness, it’s a common knowledge but it’s very hard to transform the traditional way of governing. Yes, also less of thinking you can sit in an office centrally in Norway and design a solution that’s going to work all over the country, all over locally. It doesn’t work that way. You need to be close enough to where things actually happen and be aware of the real problems. And so we are very happy for the collaboration we actually have with the state and the national authorities through our organization because this helps bringing us closer together so we can bring real world people into how to make solutions that actually work.

Harald Wium Lie: Thank you very much. I would like to let Katarina know that we have received your question over Zoom. We will get to it in a few minutes. Also, if you have questions, please feel free to go up to the microphone and I will give you the word. But before that, Eivind, your turn.

Eivind Gjemdal: I think we’re having a quite interesting discussion between what public sectors should do on infrastructure versus private sector. And in the industry I’m representing, we have a very clear distinguishing between being the commercial arena player or being a provider of infrastructure. I’m leading a company called Bits and nobody has probably heard of that company outside our industry, but we are providing the Norwegian payment infrastructure and we are a non-commercial company, which means that we are not making a big profit on having a monopoly of our infrastructure. So the ability to compete in Norway as a bank is based up on that you get a permission from the FSA to operate in Norway and then you can participate in the infrastructure and it’s non-commercial. And I think that’s a key for a nation to be very clear on what is competitive arena, what is infrastructure arena, and whoever is actually running the infrastructure, it must be done in a decent way so that you don’t get a huge economic loss or deficit on a huge profit on the infrastructure part of the digital highway.

Harald Wium Lie: Thank you, Eivind. David, we have received a question over our Zoom channel. It’s from

Audience: Katarina, I’m not going to try to pronounce her last name, but a legal consultant working on the Unidroid project. She would like to address a question to Mr. David Norheim. Given the advanced level of digitalization in Norway and the importance of trust that you highlighted, could you please elaborate more on your journey with AIDAS 2.0 and the European business wallet? What have been the main challenges in implementing these solutions and what are the best practices that you can share by now?

David Norheim: Yes, quite a detailed question. First of all, Norway was very early on recognizing this infrastructure of AIDAS 2.0 with wallets and we participated in a EU large-scale pilot project called EVC, European Wallet Consortium, where together with our Nordic partners and others in Europe, we started working on a few scenarios, a few pilots, including creating a branch across countries. So, we already have, over a couple of years now, experience with piloting. And then we also, within Norway, we’ve been having quite a few use cases over the sector problem mentioned here that we aren’t able to solve fully because of the need for changes in regulation. So, we also identified quite a few national projects where we have a large potential using this technology. So, where we also work with municipalities, Oslo Municipal Commune. And we’ve seen, through these pilots, we already got a lot of experience. And now we’re also entering the WeBuild Consortium, which is a and even larger consortium, including also Digitization Agency Norway and others, which allows us to see these things together. Our challenge is partly that we already have a well-functioning E-ID infrastructure today, so we need to figure out how to do that in the future. So we need a process for that, which is going on. But we also have challenges with seeing wallets, the two wallets, the personal ID and the business ID together, and making sure that this hangs together in the regulation that comes from Europe. And being an EAA member, we also have a challenge with maybe lagging a little bit behind the rest of Europe, which may make Norway fall behind in competition as well. So there’s a few challenges that we are very much aware of, and talking with several ministries about these issues.

Harald Wium Lie: Thank you, David. I have a follow-up question for you as well. But first, Paul.

Pal Wien Espen: Thank you. Let me also dive a bit into not exactly that question, but the challenge here, how to take this further. Because I think when you’re building a system across the state for the inhabitants, it’s important that you think of having a system that can work across different sectors, and transport data and information across sectors. This is also a first-mover disadvantage we have in Norway, that we haven’t been able to build such a system. Because of different sectors, they have built their own systems. So it’s a very vital point, I think, for those who are now considering how to do this, that they take into account how to make something that works across. Because as Kirsten says, it’s vital that the different sectors cooperate in order to make it efficient for the inhabitants. The second point I would like to address while I have the word is a bit like what Øystein said. In Norway, we are very lucky. We have a wealthy state, which also means that we have a big public sector. As you said, 60% of the mainland economy, or GDP, is in the public sector, and a third of all employees in Norway work in the public sector. That means that we need to find a good balance on having the private sector work. working together with the public sector in these issues. While there’s a huge amount of resources in the public, they also need to then address the innovation and use the force of the private sector to the best extent. I think we, nowadays, we are working a little bit of struggling a little bit with the balance on that to take it further. So we’re not lagging behind on the innovation as you said.

Harald Wium Lie: Thank you. David, you and several other panelists have underlined the importance of trust when going on a digital journey. And I can kind of see, you know, Norway is a small country, you know, most of the time, you know, your grandfather ran a farm in the same valley as my grandfather, or, you know, there is intuitively some often there is a connection. My question to you, maybe to Eivind as well, and to the rest, can you scale trust? How can you do this in larger markets?

David Norheim: It’s a very interesting one. I’ll try to answer as a politician saying what I want to say rather than answer your own question, in a way, but what to learn from us? I think it’s not about copying our solutions, it’s to copying or try to copy the approach. We have, I think one of the unfair advantages is that we have a trust and braveness of some leaders. I think that’s very important. Some of the leaders of the agencies here are brave enough. The other thing is that we have trustful sources, data sources, we have a registry tradition, a central registry here in Norway, which with processes that make them high quality, both in the public sector and in the private sector. And there’s a Norwegian word called that Aushet, which is hard to translate, but we have a trust giving each other leeway so that you don’t necessarily end up with a solution here and there, but you know that the other person is going to work on trying to solve that problem. You will face challenges, but if you give them enough leeway, you will overcome them as well as we’ve seen in our collaboration with the finance industry. The other one is you need to not be too afraid of touching the private sector. I think that’s something that we see different from country to country, that some are very reluctant in talking directly to the private sector, the actual system providers, but talking through associations, pinning them out, and then talk directly to them has been a great success for us. The last I want to say is knowing your own limitations. There was talk about competencies here. I will say resources and innovation. My agency got the fifth place or fourth, I don’t remember right now, the place in the Norwegian innovation scale last year. We know our limitations. We need to create services that others can innovate on top of, because we will not be fast enough to create the next good services, and that’s a limitation you have to accept and then find a way to give data and services to others. So, that’s a few points.

Harald Wium Lie: Thank you, David. Krissi, go ahead.

Kristin Weidemann: I think one thing that we have a tradition for and that we have developed even more of the later years is arenas, establishing arenas for collaboration and dialogue, meeting places, both between different state-owned organizations and the municipalities, but also between us as public entities and the private sector. Our organization has established a company that’s kind of mutually run by all Norwegian municipalities and regions for common digital solutions. And one of the governance main points is that this company actually should strive for to drive innovation also in the private sector. So, always kind of balance, think what can actually the private companies do for us, the vendors, and what do we need? Is there anything here we need to do ourselves, or how can we use the market? This is kind of something we work with all the time, and we have arenas for dialogue. How can we solve this? I mentioned previously this national program for innovative procurement as an example. So, all these arenas where we talk together instead of how to solve this for the common good in Norway, instead of talking about each other and behind the backs and criticizing. So, I think this is very important, and it’s kind of I think it’s something other countries can learn from. And this procurement program has actually been copied by Denmark, because they saw this worked. We need this. We need to do the same thing. And I think more countries can learn from this.

Oystein E. Soreide: Yes, I just want to In order to actually applaud what Kristin is just saying, it’s very important that the public sector understands the power it has when it comes to actually being an innovation muscle in using the power of procurement to actually look for new solutions, not only buying or ordering the old things, the same red bus, but actually describing a need for transportation and how can it be solved. Norway has, the Norwegian public sector has an annual procurement of more than 700 billion NOK. It’s amazing. And this has to be used much stronger to actually build a home market. And again, with a small economy, a small country, a very small market actually, all the tech companies who are trying to go abroad and to find new markets, they will often be asked, well, have you sold your product in Norway? And if the answer is no, the Norwegian health services did their own thing, they don’t want our product, then you have a problem. So I think this is also a very important point.

Harald Wium Lie: Thank you, Oystein. And ladies and gentlemen, we have a brave member of the audience, Francis, who has a question. Welcome to us, Francis, and please state who you are and what your question is.

Francis De Silva: So my name is Francis De Silva and I work for the same agency. David is my manager. It’s a complicated question, so I’m not expecting an immediate answer, but I think you touched on it in the last point, that we should understand the nature of the public sector, because the public sector is both governance, or what we call foreboding, at different levels, and there are government-owned institutions. Government-owned institutions, like hospitals, schools, and there are private schools as well. And this complicates the picture. And then you have private sector, which is for-profit, there’s non-profit, and there’s voluntary sectors as well. So my question is, how do we tackle the value-creating logic? How do we find, how is value created, seems to be the trick. To distinguish, and that’s where I’ve seen from participating in these projects that we’ve done in the public sector, that it is going after value, that you can get this collaboration to work. So the question is, how do you communicate this in this complex situation in an easy way? Any thoughts?

Harald Wium Lie: Thank you, Francis. I win. Oh, everybody. I win first, then Oystein E. Soreide, then Paul.

Eivind Gjemdal: Hello, Francis. In the DESA program that David presented, we have done quite a lot of work on identifying the value. And it’s actually quite simple, because it’s sitting down with a stopwatch and seeing the processes we are trying to digitalize and try to find where are we saving time, where are we increasing quality, where are we reducing fraud and scam, and try to calculate as precise as we can the value. The clue, then, is how do we split the value in a cooperation between David’s department and my industry? And then getting back to something that David said, that we tried in this program to create a portfolio, so that to say, if you, Christine, can do this project, which is giving value to me, I can do a project that gives value to David, and David can find a project that gives value to Christine. And if you can balance this in a fair way and try to be, David, you used the word revset in Norwegian, to try to be large to each other, then we can actually try to create projects with less lawyer work and more value creation. At least that’s how we have done it in the DESA program, and it’s worth looking into.

Harald Wium Lie: Very good. Oystein E. Soreide?

Oystein E. Soreide: Yes, as you said, it’s a big and complicated question, and I sort of just wanted to jump in a little bit from my sort of political experience, saying that, obviously, where to find the balance between the public and private players and sectors is obviously also a political question, so there will be different emphasis, and I think it’s a very important question. different opinions on how much should be, I mean, because you very correctly distinguish between the regulatory role of the government and then the service provision and providing services. And of course, in the latter area, it’s a political question how much should be produced by the government agencies and or local agencies and vice versa on how much should be done by the private sector. But I think it’s very important to have this debate and to have this also focus on, okay, but what does, in any case, what should the government do when it comes to providing a platform, a basis for building services and solutions that can be built by public agencies, but also by the private sector and preferably, understandably from my perspective, I think more should be done also by the private sector. I don’t see any reason why public companies should develop solutions for infrastructure like in transportation or whatever that can be very easily be done by the market. But I mean, this is a debate and I think it’s important to keep that alive.

Harald Wium Lie: Thank you, Oystein. I’ll let Paul comment before we take another question.

Pal Wien Espen: Briefly, I think it’s a very important and an interesting question because it’s, you talk about the value creation and to me, it’s then important to address the different values we’re talking about. To me, for the public services, it’s about producing services for the public which are efficient and they’re easy to use and they cater for the needs. That’s the core role of the public sector. And to me then, it’s not having a big IT department as part of that, but it’s to see too that these services are as good as they should be for the public. And it’s very, very hard for each sector or each agency to maintain a staff of IT personnel that can keep up with the development in the markets. So, to me, it says itself that it’s not efficient and the best way of spending the public money that you have development in each sector of their systems and so on. So, that’s where the public-private partnership comes into play and can really be the best solution.

Harald Wium Lie: Paul, thank you very much. We have another brave member of the audience who would like to ask us a question. Please go up to the microphone, tell us who you are and your question.

Audience: Well, good afternoon. Thank you for all your insights and presentations. My name is Vanessa Lemus, and I’m here representing them as a citizen. But as well, I’ve been supporting a project that is Interreg, the European Union’s Interregional Cooperation. And it’s a project in between Greater Copenhagen going up to the West Coast. And actually, it can extend to Vikenregionen, that is around Oslo. I’ve been living in the Nordics for 20 years. I’ve been living for 18 years in Sweden, so I know the digital journey from the Swedish perspective. And since two years ago in Norway. So, I’ve been like a newcomer, learning to know what Digidir is, and Skatteetaten, the taxes administration. And I showed an example of how it works. My question is related to one aspect that is interoperability. In the interoperability framework, it has four layers, and could be one that is a cultural one. The technical, the semantical, the legal, and the organizational. And one of the most challenges that are in interoperability is the organizational layer. How to communicate in between the silos in the administration, among others, municipalities. And my first question will be, what could the private sector help? aiding to have a tailoring with business processes helping the same citizen, the same individual or the same business across the sectors. So is that perhaps like more than a question just that how could the private sector help the public sector ensuring that they are doing all the processes for the same person? That’s the first question. The second one if there’s any example and what is the state of art in the healthcare sector to have data portability across the country in Norway or for the welfare of children. As a former social worker I have really my heart into the well-being of families and children. Is it any example of or state of art that the same person can be traveling across the country and having its data? Thank you.

Harald Wium Lie: Thank you Vanessa. I think Kristin you’ve done some heavy lifting within electronic health. Could you help us out a little bit maybe describing the status for those type of services?

Kristin Weidemann: I have a bit of problem of actually getting the key a sense of the question. I can talk a lot about healthcare and how you cooperate between the private and public sector there. I would say also regarding healthcare it’s a development towards a more active use of private companies if this was kind of the key of your question. You use technology actively and you also have actually support also from the state that when one municipality develop and try out a solution it is is spread to other municipalities for the same thing. But if you have something that was really important to get answered, I had a bit of a problem with the sound, so I couldn’t hear.

Harald Wium Lie: That’s fine. Thank you, Kristin. I’ll tell you what, we have four minutes left. That means one minute for each of you. I suggest we start with David.

David Norheim: I’ll spend those on trying to answer a little bit of a question, and I would like to follow up with you later as well. Kristin mentioned this about the arenas. I think that’s important. We have both private and public arenas, and we have public arenas where we talk together between agencies and also between the municipalities level and the state level, and that’s one start. This interoperability framework also talks a lot about what we call services that hang together, life events. In Norway, we identified seven of these that we tried to solve, which means that you need to sit together to solve the problem. You cannot do it yourself. The ministries have kind of delegated those responsibilities down to one or more state organizations, and then we were forced to sit together to think of how to solve that problem. It would be great to have seen a video of this, but one great service that was announced here two weeks ago was how to, when a person in your family dies, how is all that paperwork handled? And that service was put into motion now, and that spans everyone here. I think that you can identify these very complex solutions and find ways of working together. I think that’s key. Thank you.

Harald Wium Lie: Eivind?

Eivind Gjemdal: I would like to spend one last minute on Vanessa’s question. Norway has had a painful journey on sharing health information. We have reached have reached a small portal with some helpful information and the big problem is GDPR because it’s extremely hard to share that kind of personal information between different legal entities, unfortunately. It’s not a technical problem, it’s a law problem.

Kristin Weidemann: And I would like to spend my last minute commenting that and then maybe answering your question better because it’s, yes, it’s a regulatory problem. It’s about information that you give, you give your information to maybe to a doctor but the doctor doesn’t share it on when you need to have assistance from others in the value chain of public health. And it’s also, it’s regulatory but it’s also a result of this fragmentation of government where you think that I have my responsibility and I know we need to kind of protect the information that I have instead of thinking, no, this data, this information belongs to the citizen. And this is a big challenge, actually only last week the health government, they came with a new law that will be discussed in parliament in the fall than in the new parliament. And that opens up and actually says that you have to share the information with others unless it’s very special reasons that you need to protect it. I think this can be a very important first step to make health services better and that we can use data and share health information in the proper way.

Harald Wium Lie: Thank you, Christine. Estein, very briefly, Paul, very briefly.

Oystein E. Soreide: Three quick rather separate points but point number one, it’s often said that the US innovates and Europe regulates. I’m glad there is a focus on this now and it also goes for Norway. We need to cut some of the regulation that hinders innovation. Another point, also from our transition barometer, we need, the digitization needs people. And especially in Norway, we have a very big competence gap. So we need to educate more in this area, we need to upskill more in our businesses and organizations, we need to include better, and we also need to welcome international talent to Norway. I think this is very important. My last point is trust, trust for innovation. I think we have an advantage if we have a trust between the public and private sector, and also between the employers and the employees. If the employee doesn’t believe that as soon as I use AI, I will lose my job, and I will be obsolete, then there is a basis for the digitization going forward. Thank you.

Harald Wium Lie: Thank you. Paul.

Pal Wien Espen: Thank you. I also think I’ll stick to three points. The first being for success, I think it’s imperative that you think across sectors and hold holistic on the systems you implement. The second is to have a clear political agenda and a clear political will to do so, because it requires a decisive move to move ahead to really raise the status. And thirdly, then a switch comes as part of it, I think it’s important that the private and public sector work together in a way that allows the private sector to make money and the public to focus on their core businesses, but they need to do it in a way that creates a sustainable solution overall.

Harald Wium Lie: Thank you very much. Thank you all. Thank you for very good questions. We are two minutes above time. I think it was well worth it. Let’s give ourselves a hand. And none of us is human, but we are all humans. Yeah. And… We are all humans. And we are all humans. And we are all humans. Yeah. And we are all humans.

Agreement points

Trust is fundamental to Norway’s digital success

Speakers

– David Norheim
– Oystein E. Soreide
– Kristin Weidemann

Arguments

Trust-based collaboration between public agencies and private sector has been key to Norway’s digital success

High trust between government, businesses, and citizens provides excellent foundation for digital transition

Collaboration happens between people, not just organizations, making personal trust crucial

Summary

All three speakers emphasize that trust – whether between institutions, sectors, or individuals – is the cornerstone of Norway’s digital transformation success and provides a unique competitive advantage

Topics

Sociocultural | Legal and regulatory | Infrastructure

Public-private collaboration is essential for digital innovation

Speakers

– David Norheim
– Kristin Weidemann
– Eivind Gjemdal
– Pal Wien Espen

Arguments

Public-private partnerships like Altinn and DSOP have created significant value through portfolio-based cooperation

Innovative procurement programs between public and private sectors drive innovation and create home markets

Clear distinction between infrastructure and commercial services is essential for fair competition

Private sector should focus on IT development while public sector focuses on core service delivery

Summary

Speakers agree that successful digital transformation requires strategic collaboration between public and private sectors, with clear role definitions and mutual benefit creation

Topics

Economic | Infrastructure | Legal and regulatory

Over-regulation hinders innovation and efficiency

Speakers

– Kristin Weidemann
– Oystein E. Soreide

Arguments

Over-regulation and contradictory laws prevent municipalities from effectively serving citizens

Need to cut regulations that hinder innovation and address significant competence gaps

Summary

Both speakers identify excessive and contradictory regulations as major barriers to innovation and effective service delivery in Norway

Topics

Legal and regulatory | Development

Cross-sector collaboration is necessary but challenging

Speakers

– David Norheim
– Kristin Weidemann
– Pal Wien Espen

Arguments

Life events approach forces agencies to collaborate on complex citizen services

Sectorized government creates competition for resources and prevents cross-sector collaboration

Building systems that work across sectors and borders is vital for future efficiency

Summary

Speakers agree that breaking down sectoral silos is essential for effective digital services, though they acknowledge the structural challenges in achieving this

Topics

Infrastructure | Legal and regulatory

Similar viewpoints

Both speakers advocate for clearer role definition between public and private sectors, with concerns about the oversized public sector limiting innovation potential

Speakers

– Oystein E. Soreide
– Pal Wien Espen

Arguments

Need better balance between large public sector (60% of GDP) and private sector innovation

Private sector should focus on IT development while public sector focuses on core service delivery

Topics

Economic | Legal and regulatory

Both speakers emphasize the importance of structured, value-creating partnerships between public and private sectors with clear operational frameworks

Speakers

– David Norheim
– Eivind Gjemdal

Arguments

Public-private partnerships like Altinn and DSOP have created significant value through portfolio-based cooperation

Clear distinction between infrastructure and commercial services is essential for fair competition

Topics

Economic | Infrastructure

Both speakers identify regulatory barriers as the primary obstacle to effective health information sharing, though they have different perspectives on solutions

Speakers

– Kristin Weidemann
– Eivind Gjemdal

Arguments

New legislation may improve health information sharing by defaulting to sharing unless special protection needed

GDPR regulations create barriers to sharing essential health information across entities

Topics

Human rights | Legal and regulatory | Infrastructure

Unexpected consensus

Norway’s digital reputation vs. reality gap

Speakers

– Oystein E. Soreide
– Pal Wien Espen

Arguments

Norway ranks middle among OECD countries in technology adoption and innovation despite digital reputation

Legacy systems from being a first-mover are becoming costly to maintain and need modernization

Explanation

Unexpectedly, both speakers challenge the common narrative of Norway as a digital leader, acknowledging significant gaps between perception and reality in innovation capabilities

Topics

Economic | Development | Infrastructure

Economic sustainability concerns despite digital success

Speakers

– Oystein E. Soreide
– David Norheim

Arguments

Norway’s economy is unsustainably dependent on oil, gas, and traditional exports despite digital advances

Cross-border digital solutions are necessary for maintaining competitiveness in green transition

Explanation

Despite celebrating digital achievements, both speakers express concern about Norway’s long-term economic sustainability, recognizing that digital progress alone isn’t sufficient

Topics

Economic | Development

Legal frameworks as primary barriers rather than technical challenges

Speakers

– Eivind Gjemdal
– Kristin Weidemann
– Oystein E. Soreide

Arguments

GDPR regulations create barriers to sharing essential health information across entities

Over-regulation and contradictory laws prevent municipalities from effectively serving citizens

Need to cut regulations that hinder innovation and address significant competence gaps

Explanation

Consensus emerged that legal and regulatory frameworks, rather than technical limitations, are the primary obstacles to further digital advancement – an unexpected focus given the technical nature of the topic

Topics

Legal and regulatory | Human rights | Development

Overall assessment

Summary

Strong consensus exists on trust as Norway’s key digital advantage, the necessity of public-private collaboration, and regulatory reform needs. Speakers also agree on the importance of cross-sector cooperation and the challenges of scaling successful models.

Consensus level

High level of consensus with constructive acknowledgment of challenges. The agreement spans fundamental principles (trust, collaboration) and practical concerns (regulation, competitiveness), suggesting a mature understanding of both achievements and limitations. This consensus provides a solid foundation for continued digital development while honestly addressing systemic challenges.

Different viewpoints

Role and size of public sector in digital transformation

Speakers

– Oystein E. Soreide
– Kristin Weidemann

Arguments

Need better balance between large public sector (60% of GDP) and private sector innovation

Government should reduce detailed regulations and trust local authorities more

Summary

Oystein argues that Norway’s exceptionally large public sector (60% of GDP) creates challenges for innovation and needs better balance with private sector, while Kristin focuses on reducing central government control over local authorities rather than reducing overall public sector size

Topics

Economic | Legal and regulatory

Primary barriers to health information sharing

Speakers

– Eivind Gjemdal
– Kristin Weidemann

Arguments

GDPR regulations create barriers to sharing essential health information across entities

Sectorized government creates competition for resources and prevents cross-sector collaboration

Summary

Eivind identifies GDPR as the main legal barrier preventing health information sharing, while Kristin sees the problem as structural government fragmentation where sectors protect their information rather than thinking it belongs to citizens

Topics

Human rights | Legal and regulatory | Infrastructure

Focus on innovation versus regulation challenges

Speakers

– Oystein E. Soreide
– Pal Wien Espen

Arguments

Need to cut regulations that hinder innovation and address significant competence gaps

Political will and decisive action are required to maintain Norway’s digital leadership

Summary

Oystein emphasizes the need to reduce regulations that hinder innovation and address skills gaps, while Pal focuses more on the need for political commitment and decisive action to modernize existing systems

Topics

Legal and regulatory | Economic | Development

Unexpected differences

Assessment of Norway’s digital performance

Speakers

– David Norheim
– Oystein E. Soreide

Arguments

Trust-based collaboration between public agencies and private sector has been key to Norway’s digital success

Norway ranks middle among OECD countries in technology adoption and innovation despite digital reputation

Explanation

Unexpected because both speakers work in digital transformation but have fundamentally different assessments of Norway’s success. David presents Norway as a digital success story with innovative solutions, while Oystein argues Norway is actually performing average among OECD countries and has an unsustainable economic foundation

Topics

Economic | Development | Infrastructure

Approach to regulatory challenges

Speakers

– Kristin Weidemann
– Oystein E. Soreide

Arguments

Over-regulation and contradictory laws prevent municipalities from effectively serving citizens

Need to cut regulations that hinder innovation and address significant competence gaps

Explanation

Unexpected because both identify over-regulation as a problem but from different perspectives. Kristin sees it as central government micromanaging local authorities, while Oystein sees it as general regulatory burden hindering innovation. Their solutions differ significantly in scope and approach

Topics

Legal and regulatory | Development

Overall assessment

Summary

The discussion reveals moderate disagreements primarily around the appropriate role and size of government in digital transformation, regulatory approaches, and assessment of Norway’s current digital performance. While speakers generally agree on the importance of public-private collaboration and trust, they differ on implementation strategies and problem prioritization.

Disagreement level

Moderate disagreement with significant implications for policy direction. The disagreements suggest different visions for Norway’s digital future – whether to focus on reducing government involvement, improving government coordination, or maintaining current collaborative approaches while addressing specific barriers. These differences could lead to conflicting policy recommendations and implementation strategies.

Partial agreements

Similar viewpoints

Both speakers advocate for clearer role definition between public and private sectors, with concerns about the oversized public sector limiting innovation potential

Speakers

– Oystein E. Soreide
– Pal Wien Espen

Arguments

Need better balance between large public sector (60% of GDP) and private sector innovation

Private sector should focus on IT development while public sector focuses on core service delivery

Topics

Economic | Legal and regulatory

Both speakers emphasize the importance of structured, value-creating partnerships between public and private sectors with clear operational frameworks

Speakers

– David Norheim
– Eivind Gjemdal

Arguments

Public-private partnerships like Altinn and DSOP have created significant value through portfolio-based cooperation

Clear distinction between infrastructure and commercial services is essential for fair competition

Topics

Economic | Infrastructure

Both speakers identify regulatory barriers as the primary obstacle to effective health information sharing, though they have different perspectives on solutions

Speakers

– Kristin Weidemann
– Eivind Gjemdal

Arguments

New legislation may improve health information sharing by defaulting to sharing unless special protection needed

GDPR regulations create barriers to sharing essential health information across entities

Topics

Human rights | Legal and regulatory | Infrastructure

Key takeaways

Trust-based collaboration between public and private sectors has been fundamental to Norway’s digital success, exemplified by platforms like Altinn and DSOP that have created billions in economic value

Norway’s digital infrastructure success stems from brave leadership, high-quality data registries, direct public-private cooperation, and understanding organizational limitations

Despite digital advances, Norway faces sustainability challenges with an economy 60% dependent on oil/gas exports and ranking middle among OECD countries in innovation metrics

Over-regulation and sectorized government create barriers to innovation, with municipalities only able to comply with 80% of contradictory laws and regulations

Clear distinction between infrastructure (non-commercial) and competitive services is essential for fair market competition and efficient resource allocation

Public procurement power (700+ billion NOK annually) should be leveraged more strategically for innovation and creating home markets for Norwegian tech companies

Interoperability challenges are primarily organizational rather than technical, requiring cross-sector collaboration and life events approaches to citizen services

Health data sharing faces regulatory barriers from GDPR and fragmented governance rather than technical limitations

Norway’s expansion to European digital infrastructure through EIDAS 2.0 and digital wallets is crucial for maintaining competitiveness in the green transition

Resolutions and action items

New health information sharing legislation will be discussed in parliament in fall, defaulting to data sharing unless special protection is needed

Continued participation in EU digital wallet consortiums (WeBuild Consortium) to develop cross-border solutions

Ongoing work on seven identified life events services that require cross-agency collaboration

Portfolio-based cooperation model in DSOP program where agencies create mutual value through balanced project exchanges

Unresolved issues

How to scale trust-based collaboration models to larger international markets beyond Nordic countries

Balancing Norway’s well-functioning existing eID infrastructure with new European digital wallet requirements

Addressing the fundamental tension between Norway’s large public sector (60% of GDP) and need for private sector innovation

Resolving contradictory regulations that prevent municipalities from effectively serving citizens

Managing the transition from legacy first-mover systems to modern digital infrastructure

Bridging significant competence gaps in digitization skills across organizations

Determining optimal value creation and sharing models across complex public-private organizational landscapes

Achieving true cross-sector government collaboration despite entrenched sectorized governance structures

Suggested compromises

Portfolio approach where public and private entities create balanced value exchanges rather than traditional contractual relationships

Reducing detailed state regulations while maintaining oversight, giving more trust and autonomy to local authorities

Public sector focusing on core service delivery and governance while private sector handles IT development and innovation

Using innovative procurement methods that describe needs rather than prescribing solutions, allowing market innovation

Creating collaborative arenas and meeting places between sectors rather than working in isolation

Balancing data protection requirements with practical needs for information sharing across health and social services

Norway, we considered us to be an important player also in the national defense. Our role in the economic infrastructure is crucial today in keeping our country up and running during peacetime and war. Countries in Eastern Europe have seen this in a way that digital data and infrastructure need to be in place also when you’re at a situation at war.

Speaker

David Norheim

Reason

This comment elevated the discussion from technical digitalization to national security and resilience, introducing a geopolitical dimension that wasn’t previously considered. It reframes digital infrastructure as a matter of national survival rather than just efficiency.

Impact

This shifted the conversation’s scope significantly, moving beyond business processes and citizen services to existential national concerns. It provided context for why digital sovereignty and robust infrastructure matter beyond convenience, influencing later discussions about cross-border solutions and European integration.

We have the least sustainable export structure, actually, in the OECD. I mean, it’s zero percent sustainable. We are depending on oil and gas, fish, metals. We often call it the sardine can economy because it consists of fish and oil and metal.

Speaker

Oystein E. Soreide

Reason

This brutally honest assessment challenged the prevailing narrative of Norwegian success, introducing economic vulnerability as a core driver for digital transformation. The ‘sardine can economy’ metaphor was particularly striking and memorable.

Impact

This comment fundamentally reframed the entire discussion from celebrating achievements to acknowledging urgent necessity. It created tension between Norway’s digital success stories and its underlying economic fragility, making digitalization not just an opportunity but an existential economic imperative.

I think we have a very clear distinguishing between being the commercial arena player or being a provider of infrastructure… whoever is actually running the infrastructure, it must be done in a decent way so that you don’t get a huge economic loss or deficit on a huge profit on the infrastructure part of the digital highway.

Speaker

Eivind Gjemdal

Reason

This comment introduced a crucial conceptual framework for understanding public-private partnerships by clearly delineating infrastructure from commercial services. It provided a practical model for how to structure digital ecosystems fairly.

Impact

This distinction became a recurring theme that helped other panelists articulate their views on the proper roles of public and private sectors. It provided intellectual scaffolding for subsequent discussions about procurement, innovation, and value creation.

We are so detailed, regulated, that it’s a problem for innovation. And I think we share this challenge with the private sector… the local authorities, regional authorities, are only able to abide around 80 percent of the laws and regulations that they’re actually bound by.

Speaker

Kristin Weidemann

Reason

This comment revealed a paradox at the heart of Norwegian governance – that excessive regulation, intended to ensure quality, actually undermines effectiveness and innovation. The 80% compliance statistic was particularly striking.

Impact

This observation sparked a sustained discussion about regulatory burden that continued throughout the panel. It connected abstract discussions about innovation to concrete operational challenges, and influenced later comments about the need to reduce regulation and increase trust.

Norway has an annual procurement of more than 700 billion NOK. It’s amazing. And this has to be used much stronger to actually build a home market… all the tech companies who are trying to go abroad and to find new markets, they will often be asked, well, have you sold your product in Norway?

Speaker

Oystein E. Soreide

Reason

This comment revealed the massive scale of public procurement and its potential as an innovation driver, while also highlighting how domestic market validation affects international competitiveness. It connected local policy to global market dynamics.

Impact

This insight reframed public procurement from a cost center to a strategic innovation tool. It influenced the discussion toward viewing government spending as an investment in national competitiveness rather than just service delivery.

The big problem is GDPR because it’s extremely hard to share that kind of personal information between different legal entities, unfortunately. It’s not a technical problem, it’s a law problem.

Speaker

Eivind Gjemdal

Reason

This comment cut through technical complexity to identify regulation as the primary barrier to healthcare data sharing, challenging assumptions that technology is the main obstacle to digital transformation.

Impact

This observation shifted the discussion from technical solutions to regulatory reform, highlighting how well-intentioned privacy laws can inadvertently harm citizens by preventing beneficial data sharing. It reinforced earlier themes about over-regulation hindering innovation.

Overall assessment

These key comments transformed what could have been a celebratory discussion of Norwegian digital success into a nuanced examination of challenges, contradictions, and strategic imperatives. The most impactful comments introduced tension between success and vulnerability (the ‘sardine can economy’), revealed systemic problems (regulatory burden, GDPR barriers), and provided frameworks for understanding complex relationships (infrastructure vs. commercial services). Together, they elevated the conversation from technical implementation details to strategic national concerns, creating a more honest and actionable dialogue about Norway’s digital future. The comments built upon each other to reveal that Norway’s digital journey, while successful in many ways, faces fundamental challenges that require rethinking the balance between regulation and innovation, public and private roles, and domestic success versus international competitiveness.

How can Norway maintain competitiveness while transitioning away from its unsustainable export structure (oil, gas, fish, metals)?

Speaker

Oystein E. Soreide

Explanation

Norway has the least sustainable export structure in the OECD at zero percent sustainable, creating urgency for economic transformation as global green transition reduces demand for traditional Norwegian exports

How can the balance between public and private sector roles be better defined in digital infrastructure development?

Speaker

Oystein E. Soreide and Paul Wien Espen

Explanation

With 60% of GDP in the public sector and one-third of employees working publicly, finding the optimal balance is crucial for innovation and efficiency

How can trust be scaled to larger markets beyond Norway’s small, interconnected society?

Speaker

Harald Wium Lie

Explanation

Understanding whether Norway’s trust-based approach to digital collaboration can be replicated in larger, more diverse markets is critical for international expansion

How can cross-sector collaboration be improved to reduce regulatory fragmentation and contradictory laws?

Speaker

Kristin Weidemann

Explanation

Local authorities can only comply with 80% of laws due to over-regulation and contradictory requirements, hindering effective service delivery

How can legacy systems be modernized cost-effectively while maintaining service continuity?

Speaker

Paul Wien Espen

Explanation

Being a first-mover has disadvantages as older systems become costly to maintain compared to modern alternatives, requiring strategic replacement decisions

How can the private sector help ensure seamless business processes for citizens across different public sector silos?

Speaker

Vanessa Lemus (audience member)

Explanation

Organizational interoperability remains challenging, requiring solutions for citizens to access services across different administrative sectors

What is the current state of healthcare data portability across Norway, particularly for children’s welfare services?

Speaker

Vanessa Lemus (audience member)

Explanation

Understanding data sharing capabilities in healthcare and social services is crucial for service continuity and citizen welfare

How can GDPR regulations be balanced with the need for effective health information sharing?

Speaker

Eivind Gjemdal and Kristin Weidemann

Explanation

Legal barriers prevent necessary health information sharing between entities, requiring regulatory solutions to improve healthcare delivery

How can Norway address its significant digital competence gap?

Speaker

Oystein E. Soreide

Explanation

The digitization process requires more skilled people, necessitating better education, upskilling, inclusion, and international talent attraction

How can Norway avoid lagging behind in innovation while maintaining its digital leadership position?

Speaker

Paul Wien Espen and Oystein E. Soreide

Explanation

Despite early success, Norway risks falling behind in innovation compared to other countries, requiring strategic adjustments