Welcome to Sweden: Working women, quality of education credited for high living standards

The Express Tribune has a cup of tea with Swedish ambassador Tomas Rosander.

ISLAMABAD: Education and jobs are keys to countering violent extremism.

Although he was speaking about his home country’s efforts to ensure that immigrants can integrate easily, Swedish Ambassador Tomas Rosander’s words could hold the key to Pakistan’s biggest challenge --- terrorism.

Just ahead of Sweden’s National Day today (Saturday), Ambassador Rosander sat down with The Express Tribune to discuss trade, aid, migration, and quality of life, with a note of ABBA and a touch of football.

Although the Pakistani community in Sweden is not very large, “around 5,000 to 10,000 people... I would guess mostly former students who married in Sweden and opened up businesses”, yet Sweden remains an important friend for Pakistan, with an aid estimated around “123 million Swedish Krona (Rs1.51 billion), and increasing bilateral trade”.

Trade

“We have had some very good news recently. Exports to Pakistan, as well as imports from Pakistan went up very significantly during 2014. We have also registered similar positive figures for the start of 2015. Hopefully, we see a trend break here, after over a decade of rather slow trade. Still the balance of trade is in our favour, and imports from Pakistan are mainly traditional commodities such as textiles and rice. There is ample room, both for an increase in volumes and a diversification of commodities and services,” he said.

Rosander then elaborated that a large and growing portion of Swedish exports to Pakistan are telecom products and services. “Ericsson is expanding in Pakistan, and I also see great potential for green technologies where Swedish companies have a lot of competence to offer. Sectors such as water management, and solar and wind energy, waste management, transport, and food safety. I see increasing interest from both sides in these sectors.”

Migration

Meanwhile, as Sweden’s demographics change due to increasing immigration, the country has been making efforts to improve immigrant integration through access to jobs, education including language skills, and also ways to address cultural and social barriers.

“Sweden has a very large immigrant population, about 15 to 20 per cent in Stockholm. We have, by tradition, had a very generous refugee policy and Sweden is one of the top five receiving countries in Europe. Lately, the biggest influx has come from war-torn Syria. Many of our immigrants come from countries with very different value systems, and second-generation immigrants especially risk getting caught between the values of Swedish society and the values of their parents’ generation,” he said.

Aid and education

“Our foreign aid to Pakistan is mainly channelled through the UN system and mainly focuses on humanitarian needs, for example, among the refugees in K-P and FATA.” He added that Swedish development agency experts regularly visit Pakistan to follow-up on the situation and the use of aid.

He also said there is growing interest among Swedish entrepreneurs and companies in the health and education sectors. “We have one big endeavour in the educational sector in Punjab in the pipeline, I hope an agreement will be signed this summer.”

Women in parliament

Sweden is among the countries with the highest share of women in parliament. Rosander said the country is “proud of our achievements to counter the gender gap”.

He also highlighted Swedish efforts to pursue this cause in the EU and UN. “The foreign minister has even launched what has been labelled a feminist foreign policy, which is basically gender equality in all fields.”

Social services and the environment

Now consistently ranked among the countries with the highest quality of life, the ambassador explained that getting there was not easy. “It takes much focused efforts in a broad range of fields, and a lot of hard work --- there is no free lunch.” He then highlighted two significant factors --- “a system for education that is free, of the highest quality and with wide outreach, and the introduction of legislation and social schemes and structures that made it possible for women to enter the labour market in full force.”

Music, food and football

Aside from trade, politics, and policy, speaking on what is arguably Sweden’s most famous cultural export --- pop music --- he said, “Our role on the music scene is still big, although much takes place backstage, so to speak. Some of the world’s most successful lyricists, studio producers and video producers are Swedish. And the music of ABBA is of course eternal. It will continue to follow us.”

On the food front, he cited Lahore as his favourite Pakistani food town, praising the many “tasty, simple, and healthy” yoghurt-based condiments on offer.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 6^th, 2015.