Pär Fors re-elected as Chairman of the Board

On May 7, IT&Telekomföretagen held its Annual General Meeting. Due to the prevailing circumstances, the meeting was held digitally for the first time. Pär Fors, incumbent chairman, was re-elected and talks here about the board's work for the coming year.

What are you most looking forward to pursuing as re-elected Chair of the Board?

Looking ahead to the coming year, I see that there are two main perspectives that will be in focus. One is that we need to deal with the circumstances that have arisen due to the coronavirus. Although the situation regarding the spread of infection has improved, we need to continue to support our member companies in matters arising from the coronavirus pandemic. This may involve, for example, providing direct support on labor law issues, but also being a driving force together with Almega and the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise on issues related to the support measures introduced by the government as a result of the virus.

In addition to the important work ahead of us in terms of continuing to support our companies in matters related to the development of the coronavirus pandemic, we have important, constructive and forward-looking work ahead in terms of restarting Sweden. The second perspective is thus about scaling up the forward-looking work and showing how the IT and telecom industry is an important engine for restarting the economy, for example by working with digitization issues. A digitally powerful Sweden requires new solutions, not least in terms of IT infrastructure.

What challenges does the industry face in the future?

We have worked actively to push IT and digitalization issues towards politics to show what the industry can contribute to society in various areas and this is a continued important work for us. Many of the challenges that exist in the IT and telecom industry are linked to various regulatory issues. For example, it can be about creating secure cloud solutions, but also regulatory issues that can facilitate the startup scene so that it can develop.

During the coronavirus pandemic, the introduction of new digital ways of working and services that previously took months or years to implement has now been completed in a matter of weeks. One challenge - or our big opportunity - is to make sure we keep up this momentum with faster decision-making. In the 5G area in particular, it is important that we keep up the pace, as we see that we are lagging behind the rest of the world due to a slowness in regulatory matters.

Another important issue for us, and a challenge for the industry, is to increase the proportion of women. We have been successful in the past with our Womentor change and leadership program, which we have now taken up again with the aim of accelerating the industry's gender equality efforts and increasing the proportion of women working in IT and telecom companies.

What issues do you think are important for IT&Telecom companies to continue to pursue? 

It is important to continue the work of influencing the government and authorities so that they affirm the digital development and look at the needs of our important digital sector. In the telecom sector, 5G will continue to be a major issue, where we in Sweden have unfortunately fallen behind the rest of the world. To strengthen Sweden's global competitiveness, it is important to take advantage of and build on the opportunities offered by 5G. An important task for us is to explain how new technologies such as AI and robotization can be used safely and enable new solutions. Not least for the Swedish public sector, we need to show how digital solutions can be highly secure, so that security and regulatory issues do not prevent technological development.

Demonstrating the benefits of digital solutions and increasing digital use are also important issues for us to pursue. Developing services and solutions such as distance learning and digital health care are two examples of areas where digital use can be increased - as a complement to regular activities.

How do you see the current situation from an industry perspective?

The crisis we are currently experiencing has highlighted the importance of digitalization and put issues related to our industry high on the agenda. From our customers in the industry, it is clear that the more digitally mature companies, or authorities, have weathered the crisis much better than the digitally immature ones. In this way, amidst all the misery, the pandemic has further proven how digitalization is an important part of the solution to many societal challenges we face.

I am very proud of how we in the industry have been able to contribute with new services, as well as delivering the most basic services needed for digital meetings, teleworking and teaching. Without the digital infrastructure that we have in Sweden, we would not have been able to make the transition that we have made. We in Sweden have coped with the disruptive and rapid change much better than many other countries.

However, much remains to be done in terms of IT infrastructure in Sweden. Ensuring that everyone has access to broadband with a good connection is a matter of democracy. There are too many people in rural areas who cannot work remotely under the same conditions as people living in urban areas, which is why it is important to work to improve connectivity outside the cities.