Norway + Sweden = Stronger together!

In connection with the Norwegian Crown Prince Couple's official visit to Stockholm on 2-3 May, TechSverige, together with our sister organization ICT Norway, organized a roundtable discussion with representatives from both Norwegian and Swedish tech companies. We also participated in the Norwegian Crown Prince Couple's reception at Norra Latin - an event to thank Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel for hosting the visit to Sweden.

The purpose of the official visit was to help strengthen the close business cooperation between Norway and Sweden - with a focus on the green industries and a knowledge-based sustainable future.

The reception at Norra Latin was opened by Aud Kolberg, Norway's ambassador to Sweden. The hosts, Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit, also welcomed everyone. Representatives from our member companies had the opportunity to talk to the Crown Princess Couple and the Crown Prince Couple. Among the issues raised were how digitalization contributes to sustainable development, the need to attract more people to tech - not least girls - and the importance of increased digital participation.

The round table was held at the Hotel At Six and began with The Crown Princess Couple and Crown Prince Haakon attending a joint meeting on sustainability, circular solutions and offshore wind power. At the meeting, Sweden's Minister for Foreign Trade Anna Hallberg and Norway's Minister for Trade and Industry Jan Christian Vestre spoke about our countries' innovative strength and the green solutions that the world needs. To be a strong driving force in this, we need to work together across national borders and not individually.

TechSverige hosted the roundtable together with our Norwegian sister organization IKT-Norge. Around 30 CEOs of Swedish and Norwegian tech companies participated and the conversation was led by Åsa Zetterberg, Director of TechSverige and Øyvind Husby, CEO of IKT-Norge. The theme of the conversation was "Restart Tech Scandinavia, Norway-Sweden - How do we become stronger together?". The Swedish and Norwegian tech industries have strong economic ties with many companies operating in both markets.
- Together, we play an important role in the development of Scandinavia and in the ability of the whole world to meet new societal challenges. Technology plays an increasingly important and central role, while the potential for exploiting technology and digitization is much greater than we see today, said Åsa Zetterberg in her opening speech.

The focus of the talks was both to highlight cross-border cooperation but also to discuss the way forward in order to further strengthen the Norwegian-Swedish relationship. The talks and discussions were based on the tech industry's shared responsibility and how we can strengthen ourselves in a number of areas such as sustainable digital solutions, innovation, increased digital skills and digital security.

The roundtable was also hosted by Norway's Minister of Trade and Industry, Jan Christian Vestre, who explained that the opportunity for cooperation between Norway and Sweden has never been greater. Vestre also pointed out that Norway and Sweden agree that policy instruments should find each other across national borders and that at the same time we need to reduce digital barriers between our countries. In particular, Vestre referred to data sharing and public ID systems as an obstacle to increased cooperation.

We also had the opportunity to make a number of suggestions to the Norwegian minister. Among other things, the issue of how public procurement across national borders can be stimulated - not least with a focus on the circular economy - was raised. Other proposals that were raised were about harmonized regulation of cybersecurity and how we can jointly address the huge skills needs of the tech industry.

The results of the discussion will be summarized and jointly submitted to the responsible ministers in Norway and Sweden.