subject: Use the services of international couriers to find the right way of getting all your parcels to Norway [print this page] Use the services of international couriers to find the right way of getting all your parcels to Norway
The 67th largest country in the world, Norway nevertheless punches well above its weight when it comes to its economic performance. Thanks to its wealth of oil and gas reserves of which it is the world's fifth and sixth largest producer respectively its economy is one of the world's 25 biggest.
The country's exports are worth about 77billion annually, as of 2009, and its imports just a little more than half of that figure. Its output, as measured by gross domestic product, is the second highest in the world, and the vast majority of the industries which bring in this wealth are owned by the state including large proportions of its petrol, hydro-electric energy and aluminium production facilities.
According to one study, Norway is the world's best-functioning and most stable country.
Much of the income from the oil industry goes into a sovereign wealth fund, which has grown to become the largest pension fund in Europe, and the second biggest of its kind in the world, behind that of Abu Dhabi. Its investments are largely determined on ethical grounds. Their scale also means that the country is well insulated from the worse effects of any global economic turmoil, but the downturn of 2009 onwards has seen the rate of unemployment nearly triple, to about 3.5 per cent.
Norway has invested heavily in developing its infrastructure, but the long, narrow shape of the country hampers efforts to extend this substantially.
The main gateway into Norway is Oslo-Gardermoen Airport. This is situated just over 30 miles north of the capital, and is the hub for the country's two principal airlines, SAS and Norwegian Air Shuttle.
Because the country's large number of fjords makes it difficult and costly to build roads and railways linking them, many remote communities are served by car ferries, so transporting goods overland can be difficult. But as nearly one third of the 4.9million population lives in the greater urban area of the capital, Oslo, many parcel and freight services concentrate on meeting the needs of this region.
Nevertheless, the massive resources of the world's leading international parcel delivery companies enable them to offer services to every corner of the country, which extends to nearly 150,000 square miles making it more than half as large again as the United Kingdom.
The true measure of excellence in parcel delivery is how a company operates in such large and sparsely-populated countries, and the leading international couriers dedicate themselves to offering the same level of service in the most challenging environments as to the best-connected.
Wherever in the country it needs to go, the leading courier companies make it their job to send a parcel to Norway easily and cost-effectively. Details of their services and prices can be found and compared online.
