The reason is that they have looked at the business potential of the area and found that there are great opportunities for Swedish goods and services, while trade figures are way too bad, says Bengt G Carlsson at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
The strategy is to appear and help Swedish companies through trips, visits, activities, etc. At the same time, they focus on expatriate Swedes who have roots in both their new country, Sweden, and in their country of origin. A good example is Iraq, which is one of several very difficult countries to get into, where immigrating Swedes often stay in touch with their contacts and can function just fine as a natural and knowledgeable link into the market.
This concept, our former Ambassador Bo Wilén already focused on a few years and now we move forward with this, says Bengt G Carlsson .
We also want to highlight Swedish innovations abroad and especially in the MENA region. Swedish companies often have a good reputation and high market value, where both quality and service, new or advanced technology and often even entirely new products is a priority. We must become better on exploiting these advantages, says Bengt G Carlsson. In Sweden, we have lots of good ideas and innovations.
However, when it comes to marketing, export and establishing on foreign markets it immediately becomes much more difficult. Swedish inventions often stay in Sweden. For exports, it is often about AdHoc phenomena without a long term strategy.
Eva Björling (the picture) also highlights that she wants to be called the Free Trade Minister and not only Minister of Commerce which she considers
important in a global world. Environmental business is an obvious priority in Swedish foreign ministry's strategy in which of course climate takes much space she says. Swedish environmental companies are considered to have great commercial potential in the MENA region.
Some Swedish companies had concluded in the Swedish delegation that came with Eva Björling's visit to Tunisia, some companies that participated were Ericsson, Siemens, Euroland, Oriflame, FTL and Inpot AB.
Siemens Swedish company Industrial Turbomachinery AB in Finnspång manufactures turbines represented by Lars R. Ekbom, Senior Sales Manager (Power Plants). Each turbine creates 25,000 working hours since we design the machines according to the job requestors wishes, he says. Lars R. Ekbom is responsible for Africa, Middle East, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan and believes that the area has great potential.
Furthermore, he believes that contacts are extremely important and that his task now is to build both public and private networks at all levels. He also talks about the importance of the work currently being undertaken by the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Eva Björling "it gives us channels into the market and makes it easier for us," he says. An example of how this network has operated is that Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery AB has been supplying gas power plants in Gaza.
Euro countries are very interested in the MENA said Lisa Marklund, Executive Vice President who just established a part of Euro countries in Dubai and travels around the region to create networks and channels for the listed companies. Euro countries provide investors with stock information that will lead to better investments.
The area is very attractive for investors and Tunisia has a very stable stock market with few slowdowns which is an advantage today. She also stresses that the financial crisis in whole has not affected Tunisia and other countries in North Africa very much.
Swedish FTL Futur Technology sells water recycling systems and is represented in Tunisia by the Italian Mario Fustinoni who also emphasizes the great interest in environmental products in the field with a focus on energy and water savings. There are also lots of other business opportunities in North Africa, he continues, but unfortunately Swedish companies are not present.
Per Arne Svensson, an entrepreneur who started up his company InPot in 2006 based on a business opportunity he took advantage of when he worked as a carrier of potatoes.
The potatoes in Sweden must have a certain size, he says, and all the potatoes that are too large or too small are thrown away. Here, he saw an opportunity to export to countries like Tunisia, a country that does not have good quality and needs more choices.
The company is a Born Global and now exports potatoes to farms in large areas of MENA. He also import potatoes which are used in restaurants in Sweden. The company currently has 3 employees and one has its origin in Tunisia, Ridha Chebil, and Per Arne Svensson believes that this was an important part of his success in these markets. The fact that our largest market today is Tunisia is proving the effectiveness of this approach.
Madeleine Eriksson
Currently in Tunisia