Thank you chair.

Let me start by thanking the South African Presidency for your warm welcome and for your leadership.

Your focus on youth unemployment and inclusion is both timely and important.

We warmly welcome the introduction of the Nelson Mandela Bay G20 Youth Target as an expression for ambition, and dedication.

From a Norwegian perspective, setting an employment target gives a clear direction and ambition for the road ahead.

I’m therefore happy to announce that we have recently adopted the same approach nationally by establishing a concrete goal to increase employment.

In 2024, the employment rate for people aged 20–64 in Norway stood at 80 percent.

We have now set an ambition to raise this to 82 percent by 2030, and to 83 percent by 2035.

At the same time, we emphasise that our ambitions of high employment include all age groups.

A successful inclusion of young people into the labour market is essential to reach our employment goals, and for the sustainability of our economy.

The youth employment rate in Norway is relatively high in an international perspective.

One contributing factor is that many young people are combining education and work.

Most of them have a good transition to full time employment after their studies.

However, there are nevertheless a significant number of young people who struggle to find a foothold in the labour market.

The NEET rate in Norway stood at 6,8 per cent in the age group 15-29 years in 2024.

That number may sound low compared to some other countries, but these young people are often far from the labour market.

Young people who do not manage to get a foothold in the labour market are in risk of becoming permanently excluded.

Prolonged periods without employment not only represent a personal loss for the individual, but also a significant economic cost to society.

In Norway, young people who do not qualify for unemployment benefits often have few alternatives beyond health-related benefits.

For some, this can become a pathway to long-term inactivity and even permanent disability support.

At the same time, our wage structure, with relatively small wage differences and high entry-level wages, demands high productivity.

This implies high thresholds to enter the labour market for youth with reduced work capacity.

In a recent White Paper, we outlined a new, stronger focus on helping more people—especially young people—into work.

The use of active labour market measures will be scaled up for all age groups – but with a particular focus on youth.

We introduced a Youth Guarantee in 2023.

Each young jobseeker is assigned a dedicated contact person within the Labour and Welfare Administration, providing close and tailored support.

We are now stepping up these efforts even further to ensure that all young people outside the labour market are offered work experience, education, or other follow-up activities.

We are taking a broad set of measures to equip young people with the skills they need to enter the labour market, both through the education system as well as through active labour market measures.

A new work-oriented benefit scheme is being piloted, specifically targeting young people.

Instead of requiring a health condition to receive financial support, this new benefit will be tied to participation in work-related activities.

We are also developing a program with four-year wage subsidies, aimed at young people who are either already on disability benefits, or at risk of entering such schemes.

This long-term support is designed to give employers stronger incentives to hire and retain young workers with reduced work capacity.

To achieve these targets we are discussing today, it is important for me to emphasize the need for stability and peoples security in everyday life.

All violations of international law are unacceptable – always – and everywhere.

There are no room for double standards.

We strongly defend international law, whether it be in Africa, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, or regarding Russia’s illegal war of aggression in Ukraine.

Colleagues,

Investing in young people is not just the right thing to do—it’s the smart thing to do.

We need their ideas, energy, and skills to secure the future of our economies and societies.

That is why we are so pleased to see youth employment high on the agenda of this year’s G20.

I would therefore like to once again express my sincere gratitude to the Presidency for placing this issue at the forefront of our agenda.

Thank you!