CERCLE DIPLOMATIQUE - issue 02/2019

LE MONDE SWEDEN
INFO
Right: At a VOLVO
construction site.
Below: The Öresund
Bridge is almost 8 km
long and is linking
Sweden with Denmark.
Left: Top chef Magnus Nilsson,
using moss and weaves in his
dishes, is going to close his
acclaimed restaurant Fäviken
Magasinet.
Innovation & Research
Sweden’s long-term focus on education and
research has also had a major impact on
the capacity for innovation and became a
vital component in Sweden’s journey from
poor agricultural nation to prosperous
innovation leader. Today, about one-third of
the population has post-secondary
education.
When it comes to research and development
(R&D), Sweden proves its commitment
by investing, as a rule, more than
3 per cent of the country’s GDP in R&D.
Green technology and life sciences are two
fields in which Swedish researchers and
companies excel. The government has
created an office of life sciences dedicated
to developing a national strategy for the life
sciences to further promote the field.
From top: Graphene research in
Gothenburg; The Kista Science
City and a bus running on
methane.
Sweden is one of the world’s northernmost countries
and sparsely populated, characterised by its
long coastline, extensive forests and numerous lakes.
With its variety of landscapes, Sweden has everything
from bears and wolves in the north to deer
and wild boar in the south. The country also has a
wealth of flora and aquatic life, which contribute to
its biological diversity and one experiences extreme
contrasts between its long summer days and equally
long winter nights.
Sweden borders Norway to the west and north
and Finland to the east, and is connected to Denmark
in the southwest by a bridge-tunnel across the
Öresund, a strait at the Swedish-Danish border. At
450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the largest
country in Northern Europe and the third-largest
country in the European Union. Sweden’s borders
have been unchanged since 1905 and the country has
not been at war since 1814 and has not been actively
involved in World War II.
Sweden has a long history of migration. But
nothing has left a bigger mark on Sweden’s cultural
landscape than the huge emigration of Swedes to the
Americas and Australia from 1850 up until the
1930s. As many as 1.5 million native Swedes left the
country to escape poverty and religious persecution.
On the other hand, e.g. in 1992, more than 84,000
people, many of them fleeing the former Yugoslavia,
requested asylum in Sweden. Also in recent years,
the Swedish population grew. In 2014, this was the
result of record high immigration (127,000; with the
largest groups being Syrians and Eritreans) as well as
more births than deaths. Changes in Swedish migration
laws in 2015 are responsible now that asylum
applications declined.
Sweden is also preserving indigenous culture in
the Arctic. The semi-nomadic Sami have been recognised
by the United Nations as an indigenous
people, giving them the right to preserve their crafts,
language, education, reindeer husbandry, traditions
and identity. Their population is estimated at around
100,000 people, spread over Sweden, Norway, Finland
and Russia.
Sweden’s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita
is among the highest in the EU, it has low inflation
and a healthy banking system. But this has not always
been the case. Historically, the Swedish economy
suffered from low growth and high inflation, and
the Swedish krona was repeatedly devalued. Sweden
was also hit by a severe financial crisis in the early
1990s. Banks became unstable and two were nationalised,
unemployment rose sharply and government
spending soared, as did national debt. The path
back to stability and success was not easy for Sweden.
Since the crisis of the 1990s, successive Swedish
governments have succeeded in maintaining control
PHOTOS: ADOBESTOCK, APELÖGÄ
over public spending, and continued to do so even in
the wake of the 2007–2008 global financial crisis by
reinventing its economic governance with a series of
innovative regulations. First, in 1996, a ceiling for
public spending was introduced. This was accompanied
by the addition of the ‘surplus goal’ for the
government budget – measures that remain largely
intact. These reforms were met with broad support
from across the political spectrum in Sweden, where
political consensus is often the norm. These measures
help prevent the accumulation of debt, and ensure
that the national debt is under surveillance.
Today, Sweden has a diverse and highly competitive
and successful economy. The World Economic
Forum ranks Sweden among the top ten most competitive
countries in the world. And Sweden is a land
of world-renowned business icons. Ikea, for example,
was already founded in 1943 in Sweden by then
17-year-old Ingvar Kamprad and is a phenomenon
that has changed the entire world's view of home furnishing.
Nowadays the company’s seat is based in the
Netherlands. The Swedish fashion chain H&M is
also a huge global player. Much of its success is attributed
to its wide selection of affordable fashion and
ability to quickly pick up the latest trends.
As iconic as Swedish meatballs, Volvo is the largest
company in Sweden based on its annual turnover.
The Chinese automotive manufacturing company
Geely Holding Group bought a large share of AB
Volvo – the part of the brand that mainly produces
trucks, buses and construction equipment – in 2018
and has owned Volvo Cars since 2010. First founded
in 1927, the company is still headquartered in the
Swedish city of Gothenburg. It is also putting strong
emphasis on the innovative topics of automation and
electromobility. Volvo Group has over 100,000 employees
with production facilities in 18 countries
worldwide and around 38,000 employees at Volvo
Cars.
Gender equality and the possibility of paternal
leaves are an important issue in Sweden (see also the
interview with Ambassador Mikaela Kumlin Granit,
page 32). Yet, the business sector, on the other hand,
is a heavily male-dominated field. In 2015, on the
average board of a Swedish stock market company,
almost one in three were women – a great increase
compared with a few years earlier. In fact, if this development
continues at the same pace, the boards of
listed companies in Sweden will be gender-equal
within ten years.
From top:
Colourful view of the old
town in Stockholm;
The city of Malmö with
the Turning Torso Tower;
Cool and stylish
apartment buildings in
Gothenburg.
Living closely with
nature: Staying at the
Nyrups Naturhotell.
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