Don't forget IT issues, Löfven!

The voters have had their say and we will have a new government, probably with you Stefan Löfven as Prime Minister. Your focus must now be on creating long-term political stability - an important prerequisite for businesses to dare to invest and hire. Your new government has a major task ahead of it; to seriously address the future challenges we face.

The challenges that the Future Commission, among others, describes in detail in its final report from last spring and which are linked to, among other things, sustainable growth, demographic development, democracy, gender equality and social cohesion, and where the opportunities of digitization are an obvious piece of the puzzle in this context. Which has so far been more or less overlooked.

Because, unfortunately, we can see that the issue of digitization - again - was not an election winner. The total absence of these issues from the debate is worrying to say the least. On both Socialdemokraterna.se and Miljöpartiet.se, digitization issues are completely absent. Where (S) and (MP) describe their various policy areas, there is not a word about the digitization revolution that we are currently in the midst of. Not a word about how digitization can help solve the future challenges that await us. In their Contract for the Future, adopted at the party congress in April last year, the Social Democrats promise "a policy to create more jobs", which requires "investments in schools and education [...] a policy that develops a really good welfare. And not least, it requires that we push the transition to meet the climate challenge." All this can be achieved through a progressive and well thought-out digitalization of Sweden.

Therefore, I now address this call directly to you Stefan Löfvén, who will most likely lead our country in the next term of office; make sure to follow up on the good initiatives that the Alliance government, with the Center Party at the forefront, has actually taken during its eight years in power. I'm thinking of the Digital Agenda for Sweden and the task of ensuring that the government's ambitions in this area are fulfilled that the Digitalization Commission was given. I also think of the Broadband Forum, where companies, authorities and organizations have worked together to identify obstacles and find solutions that increase people's access to broadband throughout the country.

Now make sure that these initiatives are given a mandate to continue their work! Because the work is far from finished. It has only just begun. And the continuation will require new thinking and reforms, in several policy areas. Because digitization is not a separate policy area. It runs (or should run) like a red thread through all ministries, all committees, through municipal and county council policy. This requires coordination and governance. To manage this, we would like to see a centrally located minister with a clear mission and mandate to drive all ministries and all policy areas in the digitization work. A person with the power to develop and implement national plans for the digitization of schools, for health and social care and for a sustainable Sweden. Of course, we in the industry are more than happy to contribute to the goal of Sweden becoming the best in the world at using the opportunities of digitization. Because that is a goal that the new government should also strive towards. Because it is a goal that is best for all of Sweden.

Ellinor Bjennbacke, Head of Industrial Policy IT&Telecom within Almega