The city of Stockholm has been awarded the Top Seven Intelligent Communities of 2009, including the town's e-services and investment in the deployment of broadband. In October last year, the city and 20 other cities were awarded The Smart 21 Communities.

Out of these cities Stockholm and six other cities have received the award Top Seven Intelligent Communities of the Year.
The winner will be appointed at a conference in New York in May.

The other cities that are nominated are Bristol (USA), Eindhoven (Netherlands), Fredericton (Canada), Issy-les-Moulineaux (France), Moncton (Canada) and Tallinn (Estonia).

In Stockholm, they have focused deliberately on the IT infrastructure, the prospects of entrepreneurship, collaboration and marketing for a long period of time and this is an investment that has proved to be successful. Positive news is that there are a lot of jobs within IT and there are constantly new opportunities. In other words, there are business opportunities for foreign companies in Stockholm.

Another country that is growing stronger within IT and Telecom is Spain.
The economy is relatively strong and there is a great demand for IT-based services. Spain is also a country with a favorable investment climate and has recently greatly simplified the regulatory framework for new business start-ups, ultimately generating new skilled jobs.

To have high technological readiness and innovation are key factors for growth and are needed in order to be strong in the global competition that exists today and is growing even stronger.

                                                                                      Cecilia Helland