Lögberg-Heimskringla - 21.03.1997, Qupperneq 2

2 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • Fridayr 21 March 1997
Daily News from lceland
Compiled from The lceland Review website: http://www.centrum.is/icerev/
Bjork accepts Nordic Council
Music Award
Pop singer Bjork Gudmundsdóttir
was awarded the Nordic Council’s music
award at a ceremony in Oslo recently.
This is the fírst time the council’s music
award has been given to a pop musician.
When asked whether her music had a
particular message, Bjork replied that she
only wanted to emphasize that people
should remain true to their inner selves,
adding that otherwise, innovation is
impossible. After accepting the award
Bjork performed several songs with the
Brodsky String Quartet.
National bank announces almost
50% rise in profit
The National Bank of Iceland,
Landsbanki, has announced pre-tax
profits of around $3.75 million US for
last year’s accounts. The amount repre-
sents a hefty 48% hike in profít over the
previous year’s pre-tax profít figure of
$2.5 million.
Icelandic opera premieres in China
An opera titled The Moonlight
Island, by Icelandic composer Atli
Heimir Sveinsson, will be premiered in
Beijing, China this month as part of an
Icelandic culture festival, to be held there
from March 19-27. The Icelandic em-
bassy in China is sponsoring the event.
Sveinsson describes the opera as a story
of lovers that are driven from Ireland
and the Orkney Islands to Iceland before
the country’s settlement. There, after
decades of separation, they meet again
on the moonlight island. The opera will
be shown in Iceland later this spring. It
is Sveinsson’s third opera composed.
Govemmentannounces taxcutplan
Prime Minister David Oddsson met
with leaders of Iceland’s labour movement
yesterday to lay forth his plan for
a 4% income tax cut which would cut
Iceland’s tax rate ffom 41.98% to 37.98%
in stages up to the year 2000. The plan was
introduced as part of the govemment’s
efforts to contribute to peace on the labour
front. Among other points in the package
unveiled by the prime minister were
increases in pension and disability pay-
ments, in line with negotiated pay raises,
and changes in the payments made to
parents of young children.
Industry insider says software
exports outpace official figures
A Ieading figure in Iceland’s
burgeoning software sector has claimed
that Central Bank statistics seriously
underestimate the value of software
exported írom Iceland in 1996. Vilhjál-
mur Thorsteinsson, director of develop-
ment at Coda Iceland, says the value of
Iceland’s software exports last year was
probably around $22.6 million US, and
not the $11.3 million suggesled by the
Central Bank.
ICELANDIC NEWS
Continued from page 1
also weave into the fílm information from
settlers of other nationalites. Another
resource is a movie made during the
Centennial Celebration of the Icelandic
Settlement in Manitoba which has never
been shown,” Asthildur said.
Stephansson’s place
■ A bill has been
tabled at Alþing for
the opening of an
office to look after
matters pertaining to
Western-Icelanders,
Icelandic citizens and
other people of Ice-
landic descent living
abroad. Mörður Ár-
nason, an MLA for
the Social Democratic Party, brought the
matter up for discussion and suggested
naming the office after poet Stephan G.
Stephansson.
The report refers to an increased in-
terest in cooperation between Canadians
Stephan G.
Stephansson
of Icelandic descent and Icelanders living
in Iceland. Mr. Amason attritutes this to
a renewed interest among younger
Canadians of Icelandic descent who he
feels are full of curiosity and confídence
regarding the country of their forefathers.
This is, for example, expressed in the
abandoning of the term Western-
Icelanders and the acceptance of the
term Icelandic Canadians with the same
being tme in the USA.
One of the main projects for
Stephanson-Place would be the recording
of all Western-Icelanders, which has
already begun. It would also handle
information on Icelanders and people of
Icelandic descent the world over, such as
the Nordic Countries, other European
countries and island countries. It would
cooperate with various associations and
companies.
Stephan G. Stephansson was bom in
Iceland in 1853. He moved to the New
World in 1853. He was self educated and
was among the most productive poets of
Icelandic descent, as stated in Icelandic
Skáldatal. “He was usually referred to as
the Rockey Mountain Poet.” □
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and stories about Icelanders around the world?
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your friends and family to keep in touch with
news about Icelanders — all year long!

According to Thorsteinsson, the
Central Bank only counts “pure software”,
and not programs exported for use in
Iceland’s range of digital scales and físh and
food processing equipment. Neither does
the Bank consider software sales carried out
over the Intemet, he said. Thorsteinsson,
who was addressing a seminar on inno-
vation organized by the Icelandic Research
Council and the Trade Council of Iceland,
went on to say that he expected the software
sector to notch up another year of growing
export sales in 1997.
Airport departure area expansion
The departure area at the Leifur
Eiriksson Terminal at Keflavík Inter-
national Airport is undergoing expansion
to accommodate more passenges during
the next 10-15 years. The expansion will
include 20 check-in desks, compared to
the current 14. An explosive detection
device will be set up as well, in con-
formity with international aviation
authority directives that all intemational
airports be equipped with such devices
by the tum of the century.
Eimskip steams into securities
market
Eimskip, Iceland’s largest shipping
and transportation company, plowed $24
million US into shares of other com-
panies during 1996, a 207 percent
increase over the $7.8 million invested
by the company in stock holdings in
1995. The book value of stock held by
Eimskip in companies listed on the
Iceland Stock Exchange totaled $46.5
million by the end of 1996. Eimskip
estimates the market value of these
investments to be in the region of $92.6
million.
Capelin catch nears million-ton mark
The capelin catch around Iceland so
far this season is 912,000 tons, according
to the Union of Fish Processing Plants.
Vessels are fishing the area from south-
east Iceland all the way around the
south and the west of the country. The
total allowable catch for the season is
1,277,000 tons, and at the moment, the
seas are reportedly packed with schools
of the tiny físh.
Fisheries minister defends
transferable quotas
The Fisheries Minister launched a
spirited defense of Iceland’s individual
transferable catch quota system yester-
day, saying it was a prerequisite for
efficiency in the fishing industry.
Addressing a conference on fisheries
management, the minister claimed the
catch value in US dollars of every gross
register ton of the Icelandic fleet had
increased 60 per cent between 1990 and
1993. Iceland’s current quota system,
which was introduced in 1990, allows
individual catch allowances to be bought
and sold. The mi.nister also said he
doubted if the Icelandic economy in
recent years had experienced any
increases in productivity to rival that of
the físhing sector. □

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