Editor's note: While some countries make war, Norway is setting an international moral example of how both to utilize natural resources to benefit all its citizens and to assist other countries in doing the same.
"Norway, which began producing oil in 1971, has been remarkably successful at harnessing profits to help build one of the world's wealthiest and most equitable societies."
"We want to support these democratic revolutions [in Latin America] because we believe they will enhance development and bring marginalised power structures into government."
(IPS) - Norway is using its oil expertise to help similarly oil-rich, yet often poor and corrupt states that want to pass on more of their vast revenues to their citizens.
In theory petroleum-based economies are well placed to support higher standards of living than those countries with less lucrative resources. The reality is quite different. Most such economies instead serve to enrich small elites while engendering widespread corruption, poverty and conflict.
Oil-rich countries such as Nigeria, Chad and Angola have lower rankings on the United Nation's Human Development Index, analyzing some indicators of development and life quality, than do countries with virtually no natural resources such as South Korea, Japan and, with its large population, China.
Chad received large development loans from the World Bank on condition that oil revenues would be used to combat poverty. Last autumn Chad announced that it would spend the money on defence and weapons instead, prompting the World Bank to temporarily cease payments in January 2006.
In contrast Norway, which began producing oil in 1971, has been remarkably successful at harnessing profits to help build one of the world's wealthiest and most equitable societies.
"We have possibly the most successful petroleum sector in the world," Norway's Development Minister Erik Solheim told IPS.
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