A Mayor In Norway's Arctic Looks To China To Reinvent His Frontier Town
Melting ice means ships are plowing along polar lanes, so Rune Rafaelsen wants Chinese investors to help turn the small town of Kirkenes into a major logistics hub. But doubters abound.
Looking out across a foggy harbor toward a peninsula jutting off the Norwegian coast, Rune Rafaelsen has a bold plan that could raise the profile of his remote Arctic town — with a little help, he hopes, from China.
He is the mayor of Sor-Varanger, a municipality in the far northeast corner of Norway, close to the Russian border. His office is in the small town Kirkenes — population a little over 3,500 — which overlooks the icy gray Barents Sea.
Rafaelsen loves the view: "It's a very nice view, especially in the summer when you have the midnight sun is not going down in the horizon. You can see the sun all
