Even an IT minister has resigned

On Monday, Sr. Mehmet Kaplan (MP) resigned, best known as Minister of Housing. Considerably less known in his role as IT Minister. This has become clear in recent days. There is, of course, no doubt whatsoever that the housing issue is one of the biggest challenges in politics right now. The shortage of housing - especially rental housing - also has a negative impact on our industry. Not least, the housing shortage makes it much more difficult for companies to compete for and attract the skills that exist outside Sweden. As the two Spotify founders recently put it: "Requiring young people coming to a new country to immediately buy expensive condominiums reduces the attractiveness and is not sustainable in the long term". A statement that, quite rightly, received very broad support.

But Kaplan's other area of responsibility, i.e. IT, also has a very great bearing on our society and our welfare and should therefore be given at least as high a priority as housing issues. The digitization that is now underway involves a revolutionary structural transformation in almost all areas of society. Properly utilized and properly prioritized, it can help solve many of our most important and most urgent societal problems and challenges. We have been talking about this for a long time, and we are pleased to see that this insight is having an increasing impact far beyond our industry.

It is now high time that this realization really lands in our government as well. Someone must take the lead and clearly point out the direction we want the policy to take. Call this someone the Minister of IT or the Minister of Digitization, the main thing is that he or she has the mandate to decide, to change and to demand coordination and prioritization. And most importantly: that this mandate extends beyond the IT Minister's own desk. As I have written and said many times before, and as I continue to insistently repeat: taking advantage of and properly using digitization requires not only action, courage and will on the part of politicians, it also requires coordination.

Temporarily, our "someone" is Sr. Mikael Damberg, who took over responsibility for IT policy on Monday. We do not yet know how long this temporary solution will last. But what is clear is that IT and digitalization issues are in great need of ownership and leadership.

With Stefan Löfvén now managing Kaplan's ministerial portfolio, there is a great opportunity to "do it again and do it right" and finally give digitization issues the focus and individual ministerial post they deserve!