Sweden has announced a new trade and investment strategy for Southeast Asia, as a way to deepen cooperation with partners such as Singapore.
Johan Forssell, Sweden’s Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade, explained the importance of this target at the Business Summit in Singapore on 5 December, 2023.
“We will be focusing even more on this part of the world, particularly when it comes to green transition and digitalization, so there is a perfect fit.”
Furthermore, at the Sweden Indo-Pacific Business Summit, Forssell led a delegation of 51 Swedish companies. Companies all wanting to expand their footprint in the region. Fashion giant H&M Group, tech firm Ericsson, carmaker Volvo and medical tech company Getinge were among the ones included.
Is this strategic?
When asked if the Southeast Asian focus is a response to the rivalry between the U.S and China, Forssell denied. He said that Sweden is simply ‘driven by the fact that this is where most things are happening nowadays.’
“We are just like you. Driven by doing a lot of trade. Believing in having more free trade agreements, more of a rules-based world order and doing business between like-minded nations,” he said about Singapore to The Straits Times,.
“So this is more testimony to the importance of the region and the economic potential that we see here.”
