their own business and most of them still need to be absorbed by enterprises, in addition to micro credit extension, we should strengthen credit support to small and medium sized enterprises, in particular small labor - intensive enterprises which can absorb many laid - off workers. according to our investigation and feedbacks from relevant parties, the following problems exist in implementation of micro credit policy : first, lack of policy publicity and many local governments did not understand or misunderstood the policy ; second, in some places complicated credit approval procedures and high guarantee requirements hindered borrowing ; third, lack of proper projects and high credit management cost discouraged lending activity ; and fourth, in some places, lack of coordination among different departments resulted in low efficiency. on march 18th, given the emerged problems in reemployment efforts and experiences from different regions, the people ’ s bank of china, the ministry of finance and the ministry of labor and social security jointly issued the circular on promoting micro credit to unemployed laid - off workers ( bank document 2004 no. 51 ) to adjust and improve relevant policies. promoting the implementation of micro credit policy relies on the following five aspects : 1. improve risk - sharing and compensatory mechanism for micro credit ; effectively streamline loan guarantee and approval procedures. the core issue of enlarging micro credit extension is to ensure risk compensation. at the beginning, various guarantee funds were set up by local fiscal departments and managed by guarantee institutions to share micro credit risks. but in practices, many guarantee institutions require laid - off workers to provide counter guarantee. the purpose of guarantee fund is to disseminate micro credit risks and possible losses incurred by start - up businesses, with proper counter guarantee, a laid - off worker could borrow directly from a bank without resort to the guarantee fund. the reason they go to guarantee fund is just because of their high risk profile. in some places, counter guarantee requirements restrained substantially micro credit extension. no. 51 bank document clarifies risk - sharing principles. if some regions have already chosen guarantee institutions, counter guarantee cannot exceed 30 percent of the total credit extension ; furthermore, with strengthened credit management system, each region should abolish counter guarantee requirement gradually. for regions that have not chosen guarantee institutions, their fiscal departments can deposit guarantee funds into banks which can extend micro credits to the laid - off workers independently. in the event the extend loans went sour, 20 percent of the resulted losses should be borne by the issuing bank and the other 80 percent be absorbed by the guarantee funds,

. house prices have continued to rise. debt growth remains high. the economic upturn has continued this year. high petroleum investment, the international upturn and higher commodity prices have boosted output and earnings in the manufacturing sector. statistics norway ’ s business tendency survey indicates continued favourable prospects for norwegian manufacturing. activity is expected to increase in service industries and the construction sector in the near term. capacity utilisation in the norwegian economy now appears to be close to a normal level. in manufacturing, capacity utilisation is close to its historical average. according to norges bank ’ s regional network, about 40 per cent of companies will have some or considerable difficulty in increasing production. even though growth in the norwegian economy has been high for a long period, substantial pressures have not yet emerged in the labour market. the rise in the number of employed in the first half of the year was fairly modest in relation to output growth. this may be due to lagged effects of the sharp fall in sickness absence through 2004. in many companies, the large increase in available person - hours was probably not fully utilised immediately. a considerable share of output growth may be the result of improved utilisation of company workforces. according to the quarterly national accounts, employment rose by 0. 5 per cent from the first half of last year to the same period this year. measured by the labour force survey ( lfs ), the number of employed rose by 12, 000 from may to june and by a further 2, 000 from june to july. 1 / 7 the use of foreign labour has increased in the year that has passed since the enlargement of the eu. the scope is relatively moderate, but appears nonetheless to have reduced bottleneck tendencies in some industries where demand has increased sharply. traditionally, many workers from our neighbouring countries have contributed when the labour market in this country has been tight. in 2001, close to 30, 000 persons resident in sweden were employed in norway for all or part of the year. swedes who have registered as residents in norway come in addition. an increased supply of labour from new eu member states to norwegian enterprises may lead to a higher - than - normal increase in potential output for a period. many of the foreign workers work for a shorter period in norway without being employed in a norwegian enterprise. examples include foreign contractors and self - employed in the construction industry who carry out various building projects in norway, as well as others who carry out other types of projects. aker kvæ