New | China should get Nobel Peace Prize for poverty relief success: Norway's richest man

China deserved a Nobel Peace Prize for successfully lifting nearly one fifth of the world population out of poverty, Norway’s richest man told a local newspaper, amid the recent controversy triggered by the Norwegian government’s decision to snub the Dalai Lama when he visited the country to commemorate his winning of the prize 25 years ago.

Stein Erik Hagen, chairman of Norwegian conglomerate Orkla ASA, on Wednesday told VG, the country’s second largest print newspaper, that China is “bringing hundreds of millions of people out of poverty”, an achievement “that qualifies for the Nobel Peace Prize”.

“China is constantly evolving and is about to become the world’s economic superpower,” he was quoted by the paper as saying of the country that halted negotiations on the China-Norway Free Trade Agreement (FTA) after the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded its Peace Prize to jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo in 2010.

On the same day, the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner, the Dalai Lama, received no greeting from the Norwegian government when he arrived in the country on a three-day visit to mark the 25th anniversary of his Nobel recognition, the paper reported.

In a survey conducted by VG last month, half of the respondents said it was cowardly of the Norwegian government not to meet the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.