The spring bill lacks an IT policy footprint

IT policy has not been reflected to any great extent in the Government's Spring Bill. This is perhaps understandable, as work on the government's Digital Agenda is ongoing, as is the work of the Broadband Forum and the e-Delegation. It will be very exciting to see the concrete results of these various efforts in future budget bills.

The new spring bill only states in general terms that, for example, electronic - and physical - communications are a prerequisite for people to be able to live and work in all parts of the country. And that a well-developed digital infrastructure is fundamental to a competitive business community throughout Sweden. The need for a long-term sustainable energy policy is emphasized, as is the need to improve the efficiency of energy use. Good - here are many concrete proposals from our industry we can show!

Among the long-term challenges, it also talks about the need to strengthen competitiveness to face globalization, and notes that unnecessary trade barriers to business establishment must be removed. This should definitely include removing barriers to digital services, for example. Perhaps the government can study what they are doing in the Netherlands - there they are trying to develop a comprehensive package of measures to strengthen and adapt copyright in the digital world and at the same time remove old rules such as the private copying levy on storage media. I am not familiar with the individual proposals and can therefore say neither good nor bad about them, but such an overall initiative is very commendable.

Another area where the government notes challenges is the education system. Above all, it emphasizes the need to improve teachers' skills in terms of both pedagogy and expertise in each subject area. I agree with this and would have liked to have seen an investment in using IT as an educational tool in schools to a much greater extent. The Technology Delegation's report presented a large number of proposals to strengthen the skills of both teachers and students in technology, math and science. The supply of skills is a problem for both our sector and large parts of industry, and I really hope that the government can read that report again and include some of these proposals in the upcoming budget bill.