Chinese investor Huang Nubo has abandoned all intentions of investing in Iceland. The news comes in reaction to the Minister of the Interior’s response to a land purchase in Grímsstaðir á Fjöllum in northeast Iceland.

Labels: Economy, Foreign affairs

The Keflavík Airport Development Company has said it thinks time has come to reconsider construction of a train line between the airport and the capital. Kjartan Þór Eiríksson, head of the company, feels that developments in manufacturing of lighter and faster trains, and an increase in the amount of tourists coming to Iceland, create a new rationale for such a project.

The possibility of building a railway line between Iceland’s largest international airport and the capital area has long been discussed. Reykjavík Energy commissioned a report to examine the possibility a few years ago, and provisions for a railway have been included in the master plan for local authorities in the Suðurnes area.

Employees of the Keflavík Airport Development Company have been doing the preliminary work for calculating the economics of building the line. Kjartan thinks it has yielded a firm basis for further examination.

In a discussion with Morgnblaðið, it was revealed that Kjartan has already raised the topic in Suðurnes and expects to speak to the ministry of the interior and the local authorities on the matter in the near future. He states that improved transport for the capital area is of significant interest for developing employment at Keflavík Airport. However, the company has stated that it does not intend to finance the necessary work.

Update: This post has been updated to correct the fact that Keflavík is not Iceland’s only international airport, but rather its largest. Thanks to reader Lorraine Helen Gage!

Source: mbl.is
Image: Flickr

Labels: Transport

Apple’s iPhone is amongst those devices with poor support for Icelandic

A computerised English-speaking voice could be heard whilst the Alþingi was in session today, the Day of the Icelandic Tongue. MP Helgi Hjörvar, member of Samfylkingin, took his mobile phone up to the speakers’ stand and and demonstrated the voice before parliament, to highlight the fact that it only speaks English.

Helgi said that Iceland has been slow to develop voice technology and the latest devices do not support the Icelandic language. He also said that new voice control technologies for Icelandic have not been developed, and that such technologies will not be developed without the appropriate funding.

“If the devices and the technology demand that we speak English to them and they speak English back to the younger generations, then it will of course recoil on our warm beloved language,” Helgi said, and urged the matter to be prioritised.

Every year the Day of the Icelandic Tongue is celebrated on the 16th November. Amongst events that took place today were the introduction of new computer voices for Icelandic (perhaps unbeknownst to Helgi), and the launch of ISLEX (Icelandic), a new Icelandic-Scandinavian online dictionary. The new voices can be heard in a video on Morgunblaðið’s website and have been produced by Polish company Ivona.

Source: mbl.is
Image: Apple

The bank’s new discussion site

Iceland’s largest bank, Landsbankinn, has launched a new discussion area on its website, bearing the name Umræðan (simply “the Discussion”). The bank revealed in a press release that it wants to create a platform for feedback and professional discussion of economic and financial issues.

Interestingly, former British prime minister Gordon Brown will be amongst the contributors. Brown’s government enacted anti-terrorist legislation against Iceland during the height of the 2008 bank crisis, in order to freeze the country’s UK assets. Thousands of British and Dutch savers had money invested in Landsbankinn, which operated in those countries as an Internet savings bank under the name Icesave.

Earlier this year, Iceland president Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, that he thinks Brown should apologise to Icelanders for the way he handled the collapse of the Landsbankinn in October 2008.

The bank’s press release stated that its representatives hope that through open and factual debate the foundations for regaining trust in the financial system can be laid. The aim is to create a live platform for discussion and make the site an important destination for those who want to stay up-to-date on the economic debate.

Source: mbl.is
Image: Landsbankinn

A typical Lindex store

Swedish fast-fashion label and rival to H&M, Lindex, enjoyed the company’s biggest ever opening in its history when it opened the doors to its newest branch, and first in Iceland, in the Kópavogur-based shopping centre Smáralind. The store was forced to close its doors shortly after opening because its stock was completely sold out.

The company revealed in a press release that the store’s reception in Iceland was much better than expected, and marked the biggest opening in the 60-year history of the chain. The store sold three week’s worth of stock in as many days, and most lines have sold out completely. Approximately 10,000 people attended the store’s grand opening, at an average rate of about five people a minute.

Lindex has thanked all of those who came to the store over these three days, and says that real-time sales were five times greater than expected. The company is desperately trying to get hold of more stock but has warned that it might not suffice for the thousands of customers who are visiting the store each day. The store will therefore be closed for the rest of the week and reopen on Saturday 19th November.

Source: mbl.is
Image: Lindex

Labels: Economy, Fashion, Retail

Happiness, gratefulness and pride were on the mind of Reykjavík mayor Jón Gnarr today when he introduced the new city budget at a press conference. “I’m very happy that we’re announcing this here today, I’m hugely grateful for all the work that has gone into this budget and I’m mighty proud and am feeling good.”

Jón said that current climate is unlike that which the city faced last year: “Back then I stood here in exactly the same shoes except I had a knot in my stomach and one could say full up with terror. We naturally came into this full of good promises, and we intended to do something nice and constructive for the city and we ended up going straight into an extensive and difficult budget plan.”

There was also the difficult financial position of Orkaveita Reykjavíkur, the energy company that supplies the city with its electricity, and it was also the third year in a row that cutbacks had to be made to the city budget. “The budget plan last year tested me so much that I more or less began crying in public. I haven’t started crying at work for this budget plan.”

“If you take a look at this budget and read over it well then you can read from it that Reykjavík has got through the storm, calm has come and we have got to calm waters and bright times and opportunities lie ahead.”

Source and image: mbl.is

Amal Tamimi, Iceland’s first foreign-born MP and member of political party Samfyklingin, said that the current provision for teaching immigrants the Icelandic language is not adequate and has been cut back since the economic crisis began.

Amal began a specific discussion on immigrant issues in the Alþingi today and said that if Icelanders want to avoid those problems other countries have landed in then they need to focus teaching immigrants the Icelandic language, as well as their mother tongues.

The fledging MP then went on to say that in addition, there is a need for interpretation services for immigrants. Icelandic law states that it is obligatory to offer interpretation services in doctor’s offices and courtrooms for those who don’t have Icelandic as a mother tongue.

Source: mbl.is
Image: Alþingi

Labels: Immigration, Politics

Gunnarshús, headquarters of the Writer’s Union of Iceland

Members of the Writer’s Union of Iceland this evening green-lighted the country’s first e-book publishing agreement. The agreement is between authors and the Icelandic Publishers Association, and guarantees 25-30% of the wholesale price of each book sold.

The corresponding commission for printed books currently stands at 23% of wholesale price. Aðalsteinn Ásberg Sigurðsson, chairman of the committee who oversaw the composition of the agreement, said that up until now, people thought that authors could get a higher percentage of the proceeds from e-book sales, but it has now become clear that the cost to the publisher of copyright protection is quite significant.

Such protection is intended to ensure that it is not possible to copy the books and distribute them illegally. Aðalsteinn reckons that two or three e-books will be published before Christmas, and that publishing of e-books will begin in earnest early next year.

The website Lestu.is currently has a very limited selection of e-books in Icelandic available for purchase online, and also offers a print-on-demand service. The selection mainly consists of out-of-copyright books.  The only other e-book offering is from the bookseller Eymundsson, which currently operates an online e-bookstore selling exclusively foreign books, mostly in English.

Source: RÚV
Image: Writer’s Union of Iceland

Labels: Culture, Literature, Technology

Nova’s flat of the future

Icelandic mobile phone network Nova has recently installed a “4G flat” in its store in Lagmúli, designed to give its customers a special opportunity to familiarise themselves with how the 4G network will be used in the home of the future. The apartment features computers, televisions and other mobile devices on display.

4G refers to the fourth generation of mobile phone network technology, and Nova has been slowly building up its coverage of the service in the capital area under a permit from the Post and Telecoms Administration.

Nova said in an announcement that the apartment represents part of its exploration into the service opportunities of the new system, which enables computers, mobile phones and other net devices to connect to high-speed Internet. The hope with 4G is to treble the speed of today’s fastest broadband connections, and initial tests have yielded speeds of 70-80 Mb/s under the best conditions.

Iceland has been somewhat of a pioneer in terms of Internet communications, with a dense fibre-optic broadband network currently being laid in the capital area. Iceland’s first data centre is currently under construction, and will take advantage of Iceland’s climate and fast Internet connection to facilitate is cooling and serve up data at high speed.

Source: mbl.is
Image: Nova

Labels: Communications, Computing

A plane over Logan International Airport

Boston police on Sunday arrested an American citizen returning home from a holiday in Iceland, on suspicion of having stolen money from an air stewardess’ bag. The man, who was flying with Icelandair, is suspected of attempting to steal the US$300 (£189, €220) which was in the bag, along with a small amount of money in another currency.

The man is from Gloucester, Massachusetts, is said to have committed the crime whilst the plane was cruising at altitude over Greenland. After the plane’s crew accused the man of stealing the bag, he returned the money, but then locked himself in the toilet and flushed down some of the foreign currency he had stolen.

Staff at Logan International Airport in Boston are purportedly attempting to recover the money from the aircraft’s storage tank. The man was released after interrogation and was due to appear before a judge in Boston today.

Source: mbl.is
Image: Flickr

Labels: Crime, Transport, USA

A Swedish tourist has been found dead on the Sólheimajökull glacier, the police were able to confirm, after a multi-day search for him drew to a conclusion this afternoon. The confirmation was released in a statement ICE-SAR, the Icelandic search and rescue service.

Daniel Markus Hoij lay dead when the search and rescue team discovered him on the glacier at 11:55 today, at an altitude of 600m. More than 300 search and rescue workers were taking part in the search at any one time, 80 of which were on the glacier itself. Over the past few days, the search has been particularly intensive and over 500 people from ICE-SAR have participated since it began on Wednesday evening.

Hoij had contacted the search and rescue team on his mobile phone whilst on the glacier, which ran out of battery during in the phone call. The conversation lasted for 3 minutes 58 seconds, and emergency services were unable to get through to the phone again. Hoij was said to be particularly shaken during the call, and was unable to give any exact information on his location.

Residents and companies in the area have been supporting the search and rescue team. The women’s institutes Fjallkonan, Eygló and Freyja opened a rest and food centre for the workers in a schoolhouse in Skógar which was open around the clock.

The institutes opened the centre as a way of showing gratitude for the help ICE-SAR has provided during recent volcanic eruptions. Hotels and guesthouses have also opened their doors for the workers, companies have donated food and the Red Cross in Hvolsvöllur oversaw logistics in the search area.

ICE-SAR would like to register their gratitude to all of those who came to help in the operation. The Hvolsvöllur police force would also like to register its gratitude to the ICE-SAR team, Icelandic Coastguard workers and all those who have worked around the clock over the past few days. Conditions during the search were particularly bad and required specialist knowledge of those who participated.

Source and image: mbl.is (1), mbl.is (2)

Labels: Accidents, Tourism

The new national hospital in Reykjavík, construction of which is due to start shortly, could reduce running costs by up to 3 billion Icelandic krónur a year, if it is built according to the current plans and all operations are moved onto one site on Hringbraut.

This is the result of the revised feasibility study carried out by the Norwegian consultancy firm Hospitalitet. Björn Zoëga, the chairman of the hospital, writes a Friday blog column on the hospital’s website, which this week announces that specialists claim that it is significantly more uneconomical to continue running the hospital as it is than to unify operations on one site.

The national hospital, or Landspítali in Icelandic, is currently sprawled across several sites in Reykjavík, with main buildings on the main road Hringbraut and in the Fossvogur area, on the other side of Perlan. A large empty lot currently stands opposite the Hringbraut site, where the hospital plans to build new facilities.

Zoëga said, “It is reassuring that these calculations tally up with what we’ve said many times over; it’s more expensive to do nothing, and that unified on one site, we could streamline the hospital’s operations even further and therefore recoup the building costs.”

Source and image: mbl.is

Labels: Construction, Health

Iceland GeoSurvey’s well logging vehicle en route to Dominica

Icelandic energy research companies Iceland GeoSurvey and Iceland Drilling are about to undertake research into the exploitation of geothermal resources in Dominica, one of the Caribbean island nations. The venture is comparable to the geothermal utilisation projects in Iceland, according to an Iceland GeoSurvey geologist. Diesel oil is currently used in Dominica for electricity production.

The island of Dominica is among the world’s smallest island nations and is home to a population of 60,000. The companies came to an agreement with the country’s government on the drilling of three 1200 metre deep wells, environmental and geological surveying and associated work. The drilling machine Sleipnir, accompanied by a well logging vehicle and portable research facility, was sent to the island by ship last weekend. Drilling is set to commence at the end of the month.

“This will enable Dominica to save a considerable amount of money, since all of its electricity is currently produced with diesel oil, and it is therefore that we have been speaking about the fact that this project is so comparable to geothermal utilisation projects in Iceland,” said Daði Þorbjörnsson, a geologist at Iceland GeoSurvey. He is part of the team working on the project which is commencing today.

In terms of a timescale Daði said: “We hope that drilling will be completed in three to four months but the environmental surveying is expected to last up to a year.” Asked when we could expect the facility to become useable for electricity production, Daði was optimistic, “After drilling has been completed, we obviously need to test the boreholes for a period of time, but that will hopefully become clearer in the next six to eight months.”

Daði considers it likely that there are exploitable geothermal resources in the country: “There is considerable geothermal activity visible on the surface and we hope that this can be used for electricity production.”

Source: RÚV
Image: Iceland GeoSurvey

Labels: Energy, Geology

Icelandic airline WOW Air is due to start operations in May next year, but those plans will not go smoothly if EasyJet has anything to do with it. The British bright-orange low-budget airline has just announced that it intends to start flights between London Luton airport and Keflavík airport in March 2012, pipping WOW Air to the post by two months.

This is a landmark in Icelandic aviation history and the first time a serious low-budget contender has entered the market. Iceland Express, Iceland’s domestic “budget” airline, often has its fares at a similar if not higher price than Icelandair, the nation’s flag carrier. Iceland Express has come under much criticism in the Icelandic press lately due to its reputation for delays and cancellations.

EasyJet plans to change the game on a grand scale: its lowest single-way airfare will be £32.99 (€39, $52) and returns will start from £58.81 (€69, $93). This is by far the cheapest airfare available between these two destinations with any airline. When WOW Air commences operations in May, there will be four airlines in total operating commercial services between Iceland and the rest of Europe.

The effective doubling of available options should be good news for competition in the Icelandic airline industry, which has been fairly stagnant for a number of years whilst passenger numbers have been soaring. This year Icelandair reported record numbers of passengers, seeing 60,000 more in the first ten months of 2011 compare to last year.

The favourable exchange rate of the Icelandic króna and improving tourist infrastructure are amongst the reasons for the explosion in tourism in Iceland, as well as heavy marketing campaigns from Icelandair and Inspired by Iceland.

The launch marks the first time EasyJet has offered flights to Iceland. Potential passengers will be able to book flights through the company’s website starting tomorrow, the first flight being on 27th February 2012. EasyJet has yet to launch a local version of its website for Icelandic customers.

Source: EasyJet
Image: EasyJet PR

Labels: Tourism, Transport

From the start of July to the end of September this year, 605 members of the Icelandic state church left the congregation. Conversely, membership of the three free churches in Iceland rose by 149 collectively in the same time period.

The same stretch of time also saw an increase of 21 people prescribing to other religions and 435 people with no religion whatsoever. This information was released on the website of Statistics Iceland today. Iceland’s state church is Lutheran, like in other Nordic countries.

All Icelanders are automatically members of the state church unless they opt out. Many Icelanders still hold baptisms and confirmation ceremonies are commonplace, even if they are only an excuse for a party and presents for most Icelandic teenagers.

Source: Morgunblaðið
Image: Flickr

Labels: Church, Religion, Statistics

The goat stands proudly outside Iceland’s sole IKEA branch

The Icelandic branch of IKEA in Garðabær has just installed its Gävle goat, which is under the watchful eye of surveillance cameras after last year’s goat was burnt down. The goat was subject to the same fate as its brothers around the world, which seem to be traditionally set on fire.

“We have 24-hour surveillance and video cameras directed at the goat. We also have people on stand-by with fire extinguishers in case something happens,” said Þórarinn Ævarsson, head of IKEA in Iceland, who seems determined for the worst not to happen this year. “But of course we hope that it will get the chance to stay standing.”

Þórarinn boasts that the goat is considerably larger than the one erected outside the store last year, which was 4.5 metres tall compared with this year’s 6.2 m. The goat weighs just over two tonnes, and was made in Iceland from Icelandic straw. Þórarinn is confident the goat can withstand Icelandic weather conditions and other harsh treatment.

Avid fans of the goat are able to follow its fate on its Facebook page (Icelandic).

Source: Morgunblaðið
Image: IKEA

Labels: Christmas, Garðabær, IKEA

A whale peppersteak

Icelandic whale meat which was on sale at the international airport in Keflavík has been withdrawn from sale following a UK government warning that those caught importing the meat to the country could face a fine or imprisonment. The decision was apparently taken within hours of the meat going on sale at the airport, according to The Guardian.

40% of minke whale meat consumed in Iceland is served to foreign tourists. As previously reported, whalers have been offering tours to see a day in the life of a whaler, which have been highly controversial with whale-watching companies.

Source: Morgunblaðið
Image: Flickr

Labels: Food, Tourism, Whaling

Össur Skarphéðinsson (middle) signs the agreement

Foreign secretary Össur Skarphéðinsson today signed an agreement between Iceland and the United Nations University’s Geothermal Training Programme, along with energy minister Guðni A. Jóhannesson and Dr. Konrad Osterwalder, the rector of the university. It is an extension of an existing agreement and is valid until 2014.

The UN General Assembly founded the UN University in 1973 with a view to securing the execution of the objectives and basic principles of the UN through research, education and dissemination of knowledge. An international network of 17 education and research institutions around the world comprise the university, with its central operations based out of its head office in Tokyo.

The UN University’s Geothermal Training Programme was launched on 1st March 1979 and was the first educational institution in Iceland to be a part of the UN University network. The first programme was joined by the Fisheries Training Programme and Soil Reclamation Programme in 1998 and 2010 respectively, meaning that three of the university’s institutions are based in Iceland. According to Iceland’s international development cooperation plan for 2012-14, the UN University is one of the four main organisations will be specially supported.

“The Geothermal Training Programme plays an important role, and the school provides specialists from developing countries specialised training in the research and utilisation of geothermal resources. The school’s operation consists of six-month study programmes in Iceland as well as supporting specialists in doctor’s and master’s-level study here in Iceland. Regular workshops in developing countries are also held under the auspices of the university. Since the start, 450 students have studied at the school, and since workshops started to be offered in developing countries, over 500 specialists have participated in them.”

Source and image: Morgunblaðið

A whale skeleton on display at the whale museum in Húsavík, Northern Iceland

The Guardian reports that the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) has warned Brits that whale meat brought in from Iceland is not welcome in the UK. Import of such meat breaches international laws on the protection of endangered species; the offence attracts a fine of up to £5,000 and violates CITES (the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species).

The sudden warning from the FCO comes after the authority was alerted to the fact that whale meat has gone on sale in Keflavík airport, the main international airport in Iceland and the country’s gateway to the rest of Europe and the US. The government reports that so far no meat has been seized and no such meat has been found on sale in the UK.

Whaling remains a contentious issue in Iceland and Icelanders have varying opinions on the subject. The issue has been a source of tension between Iceland and its neighbouring countries, as has Iceland’s treatment of other marine species such as mackerel. The British government recently said it would not refrain from resorting to sanctions against Iceland and the Faroe Islands if the two nations continued to fish mackerel in such high volume.

Earlier this year The Guardian reported that Icelandic whalers were resorting to “cultural tourism” to try and persuade foreigners around to their position on whaling. Amongst the experiences on offer were whale-watching, a chance to see harpoons being fired and the opportunity to sample some whale meat. Tourists would not actually see a whale being killed on such a tour.

Source: The Guardian

Labels: Whaling

WOW’s uniform

The newest Icelandic airline WOW Air has yet to start operations, yet it is already kicking up a fuss. According to Viðskiptablaðið, there has been a lot of interest in positions with the company and over 600 people have applied for jobs there. The airline started advertising last weekend, amongst others for four management positions and an unspecified number of summer jobs for air staff. The majority of the applications have been for the latter. More permanent positions with the company are expected to be advertised shortly.

Labels: Tourism, Transport