Ewa Björling widened the view of Sweden in New York
Minister for Trade Ewa Björling was a guest on US radio and widened the view of Sweden. Photo: Monica Ohlsson
ABBA, Pippi Longstocking and Swedish meatballs are what many Americans associate with Sweden, but our country is, of course, much more than that for the USA. According to the Swedish Institute for Growth Policy Studies/Growth Analysis, in 2007 almost 200 000 Americans worked for various Swedish-owned companies, including H&M, Securitas and IKEA. Sweden has far more assets in the US than in any other country, and trade is therefore of great importance to the US. Exports to the US in 2008 totalled SEK 78.6 billion, which was 6.6 per cent of Sweden's total exports.
Promoting Sweden is an important part of Minister for Trade Ewa Björlings work to instigate cooperation with different countries, open investors' eyes to Sweden and highlight the innovative investment country at the top of Europe, as well as promoting Sweden's image from a tourism perspective.
Dr Björling has been in New York for two days during the ongoing UNGA week. She spoke at the Global Investment Symposium as the special guest of the Harvard Club. At the symposium she highlighted both the priorities of the Swedish Presidency and Sweden's unique aspects as an investment country.
To further broaden the US view of Sweden, the Minister for Trade also took the opportunity to participate in two different radio programmes on Sirius Satellite Radio, which has over 19 million paying listeners. The first programme focused on music and the Minister presented both new and old Swedish songs, including some of her personal favourites. The second programme followed a more political agenda, highlighting issues such as Swedish policy during the Presidency, various free trade agreements currently being negotiated, barriers to trade that we want to counter, and our view of the Doha Round of multinational trade negotiations.
Dr Björling also took the opportunity to meet Swedish NHL ice hockey players. Among others she talked to members of the Detroit Red Wings, a team noted for having around ten Swedish players, and with Henrik Lundqvist, New York Rangers star goaltender. They mentioned the excellent help they had received from the embassy with all the details that a move to the US entails, such as visa applications.
During her stay in New York, Dr Björling was also invited by the UN Alliance of Civilisations to give a speech on doing business in a multicultural environment. She also highlighted a new project, Kosmopolit, and how Sweden has been able to use immigration to the benefit of foreign trade. There was great interest in how we work to achieve good cooperation between Swedish companies and Swedish entrepreneurs from foreign backgrounds to take trade to new markets. The project is partly based on a recent Ministry for Foreign Affairs study that showed that immigration has a positive impact on trade. It states, for example, that an increase of 12 000 immigrants leads to an increase in Swedish exports worth SEK 7 billion. Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was among the other speakers at the event.
It is important to continue to promote relations between the US and Sweden, not just with regard to the large volumes of trade on both sides of the Atlantic but also bearing in mind the large numbers of tourists that cross it. Dr Björling met with Swedish agencies and organisations such as the Swedish Trade Council, the Invest in Sweden Agency, SACC and the Swedish consulate and embassy, which are extremely important in marketing Sweden in the US and do a great deal of work arranging many different events, seminars, meetings with companies, concerts, etc. throughout the US.
Earlier this year, Dr Björling met her US counterpart, Ron Kirk, and held a dialogue on the deepening cooperation between the two countries and between the EU and the US, and the importance of concluding the Doha Round.
Broader cooperation with fewer barriers to trade is something from which we can all benefit, particularly during these times of economic crisis. The value of exports is over 50 per cent of our gross domestic product (GDP), and it is therefore of vital importance that together we try to find solutions to work our way out of the crisis.
