Breakfast Seminar with Dr. Ewa Björling

Despite the early hour, a lot of people were eager to hear the Swedish Minister of Trade, Dr. Ewa Björling, speak to the members of the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in China (SCCC) on Friday September 14th, 2012. The event was held at the Radisson Blu in downtown Shanghai. Almost 45 listeners from just above 35 different companies turned up to hear a presentation by Dr. Ewa Björling on the Swedish-Chinese trade talks and for a chance to air their own concerns to the Trade Minister at the Q&A session ending the seminar.

Dr. Ewa Björling said she would offer input on opportunities for strengthening free trade, decreasing protectionism, and dealing with issues that does not stimulate a free market economy. She continued by stating that a lot of western nations believe that China is a threat, but for Sweden – China is an opportunity. Sweden will continue its proud tradition of voting “no” on any petitions to limit free trade in the European Union, and fight against protectionism.

On a question regarding the increased importance of the service sector in the Swedish export, Dr. Björling said that the service sector establishing in China will play a big part in Sweden’s goal to double Swedish exports in the coming decade. The increase in Swedish export will focus on new sectors and markets, therefore a greater focus will be on small- and medium-sized companies in such service sectors as creative- communication and marketing, as well as the fashion and gaming sectors. The gaming sector has seen extraordinary growth recently, performing well even during the economic crisis of 2008.
Dr. Björling also mentioned the huge interest from China in Swedish cleantech and green technology.

To promote Swedish export there has been a focus on a different industry each month for 2012. The focus in September is fashion, and a Swedish fashion show was held in Shanghai on the 14th of September. A new promotional calendar for 2013 will be released next week.
Also to be presented next week is the details of the future merging of Invest Sweden and the Swedish Trade Council. The merger will be finished by the 1st of January 2013, and will combine the different expertises of export and import, specialists and generalists.

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