The cooperation between companies and municipalities is getting better. But things are moving slowly according to the
Confederation of Swedish Enterprise´s measurement of the local entrepreneurial climate within Sweden’s 290 municipalities.
In addition to 36 000 workers, 9 000 politicians have also responded to the survey by the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise. The opinions are different in how they perceive the entrepreneurial climate. Less than 40 percent of entrepreneurs feel that the dialogue with the municipality is good, the corresponding figure among politicians is 70 percent.
According to Carina Centrén, responsible for "Local Entrepreneurial Climate", at the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, the contact between industry and the municipality remains weak.
- A continuous dialogue and a mutual commitment to the cooperation is the basis for improving the entrepreneurial climate. To share expertise and experience, to dare to try new approaches, learning from others and then have the courage to change is what brings the development forward, she says.
For the second consecutive year, Solna Municipality was ranked as the best business municipality in Sweden.
The capital, Stockholm was “only” on the 47th spot, which of course is not acceptable since the capital plays a significant role in Sweden's future development. A contributing factor is the "Municipal officials' attitudes towards entrepreneurship", where Stockholm ended at the 187th spot which is a failing grade.
On the other hand, Stockholm was ranked second when the start-ups were evaluated, which hopefully can influence the future positively.
The survey-responses showed that six out of ten politicians met or listened to an entrepreneur over the past year, only two out of ten have made company visits.
Among the entrepreneurs, barely three out of ten met or listened to politicians and less than two out of ten have been visited by a municipality representative.
The ranking for Sweden´s 290 municipalities in 2009 is available here-
Swedish Entrepreneurial climate Tony Harkén