Visit to Stockholm
5th-8th April 2009
A small group of World Traders recently visited Stockholm as a prelude to a visit by the Lord Mayor and in particular to gain some insight into Swedish priorities as they assume the EU Presidency in July of this year.
The visit exceeded all expectations as we were warmly welcomed by representatives of both Government and commercial organisations who generously gave of their time to explain the current thinking on the priorities for the Presidency. Their particular concerns are about the current economic climate and in particular a flight to protectionism that would be particularly damaging for Sweden which relies heavily on its foreign trade.
On Monday, 6th April, the visit began with a meeting with Investor AB, the investment company founded by the Wallenburg family in 1856 which is now the largest industrial holding company in Northern Europe. The Wallenburg Foundation still has a significant holding in Investor and distributes around 90 million euros per annum for education, children and research.
The rest of Monday was taken up with meetings with and presentations by various Government departments including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Communications and the National Board of Trade.
A constant theme throughout these meetings and presentations was the need to ensure that the EC supports free trade and does not permit protectionism to return as countries seek to protect their own industries in these difficult economic times.
The second day of the visit began with a visit to Ericsson, one of Sweden's largest companies and certainly one at the forefront of the development of modern communications. The figures presented were certainly impressive. The Company has a worldwide turnover of some $27bn and 96% of its sales are outside Sweden. Even in 1900 some 95% of its sales were outside Sweden. In the UK it has over 4,000 employees and operates mobile telephone communications for both Vodafone and T.Mobile.
Again the presentation focussed on the need for free trade and the need for zero duty on IT and telecommunications to encourage trade.
This was followed by a visit to the Swedish Space Corporation which was founded in 1961 and has a well developed organisation around the world for launching and monitoring satellites. The organisation is seeking to transform itself from a government funded body into a commercial organisation and is taking impressive steps along this road. It hopes to launch two new satellites in November of this year. In addition a Swedish astronaut will, for the second time, be part of the team visiting the Space Station in August.
The second day concluded with a visit to the Swedish Chamber of Commerce and a firm of Advocates - Flood. At the Chamber of Commerce they gave us a detailed introduction to a paper that had been presented earlier that day to the Swedish Prime Minister setting out what the Chamber considered should be the priorities for the Swedish Presidency of the EU.
The visit to Flood provided an insight into the workings of the legal system in Sweden as well as highlighting some of the difficulties currently being faced by Swedish businesses. The busiest part of the firm was dealing with corporate restructurings and bankruptcies.
Whilst all this sounds very hard work there were some lighter moments to enjoy the excellent cuisine as well as some outstanding hospitality from a number of friends of fellow World Traders who live in Stockholm. The visit was made even more enjoyable by the excellent weather.
No comments on the visit would be complete without expressing thanks to Norman Rose and Val Hiscock who lead as 'project managers' and arranged many of the visits referred to above. Special mention and thanks also to Lars Welinder who arranged the visits to Ericsson and the Swedish Space Corporation and acted as our local guide.
Mark Hardy
Court Assistant
20th April 2009
