The Director-General has the floor

Mission: Growth!

The agency is now beginning its first full year of operations with Government letters of instruction and regulation for 2010 that outline a well-filled mission portfolio. These tasks, which have been formulated in close cooperation between the agency and the Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Communications, provide a good, clear framework for the agency’s focus and approach. Here, I would like to provide you with an overview of our missions and role in growth policy.

Our Government missions - an overview

Growth Analysis shall prepare the basis for the growth policy of the future. I have chosen to group some of these missions in five, specially prioritised areas:

Equity and loan capital
The supply of capital is crucial to growth. The Government therefore wants Growth Analysis to analyse and evaluate growth policy efforts to further improve the supply of equity capital and loan capital in new and existing companies. Despite decades of Swedish and international research and analysis, a good deal of practical knowledge is still lacking with regard to where needs are the greatest and how efforts could be made even more effective. This is particularly true of the supply of capital for fast growing companies. This is why I am very pleased to note that Growth Analysis has been given unique opportunities to contribute to filling these knowledge gaps. These opportunities comprise continuously and systematically mapping supply of and demand for capital on the market, as well as conducting in-depth, continuous evaluations of the more than SEK 2 billion the regions are currently investing in equity capital in small businesses, including funding from EU structural funds.

Services, service innovation and functioning innovation systems
The service and knowledge society is a reality. Here is where many of the new jobs are created. Services are also of crucial significance to the innovation systems of the manufacturing industry. Consequently, more knowledge is needed about how development in the service sector should be measured and promoted. Growth Analysis has been assigned the task of developing the public statistics in this area. On one hand, this involves the general issues of statistical measurements in the service sector, and on the other specifically seeking to measure the role cultural industries and service innovation play in growth. The Government also especially emphasizes issues of diversity and entrepreneurship in healthcare. One central issue is how the service sectors will be able to contribute to positive development on their own and in interaction with other industries.

The opportunities of globalisation…
It is a well-known fact that Sweden is extremely dependent on developments in the rest of the world, with a level of prosperity that rests to a high degree on the success of international markets. Swedish companies are global and I know that the Swedish growth policy agencies also work in a global perspective, but want to do more to be able to properly contribute to forming internationally competitive conditions for our companies. This is why I am very pleased that the Government has assigned Growth Analysis the mission of being responsible for foreign offices in the dominant economies of the world, namely the United States, Japan, China, India, the EU/Europe and, soon, Brazil as well. These offices have the task of assisting Swedish authorities in their work of making international contacts, forming alliances and learning from others in a global perspective. The foreign offices also play a central role in the analyses and direct assignments the agency has been given by the Government and cooperating authorities.

…and the significance of the territorial dimension
The fact that all development is tied to its location may be obvious, but it does not always receive attention. The Government recognises this and points out the significance of the territorial dimension and the need to integrate rural issues into all analysis activities. The fundamental question is: How can the full potential of the entire country be utilised? This question is addressed in the mission linked to the national strategy for regional competitiveness, entrepreneurship and employment 2007-2013 and in surveys of developments in the so-called functional analysis regions. Among the agency’s tasks, assisting the work of the regional employment termination coordinators during 2009-2011 can be noted, in which the analyses conducted by the agency on future labour and expertise needs in Sweden’s functional analysis regions may be of use. Modern information technology creates new conditions, especially for the more sparsely populated areas of the country. In its Letter of Regulation, the Government has consequently emphasized surveying the status of IT use in small enterprises and in various industries. The regional and local levels are also becoming increasingly more important in the formulation and implementation of policy. This has received considerable attention in the mission list and Growth Analysis has received the question: What role do the municipalities and regions play in growth promotion work?

Database for overview and efficiency improvement
The various national growth policy efforts form a whole that promotes growth and renewal. A holistic perspective and synergy effects are of central importance and the Government has therefore commissioned the agency to maintain a database with information on national efforts. This database shall be formed so that it can provide answers to questions such as: How much of the support and development resources go to various categories of entrepreneurs? How much of the funds are used to create the conditions for sustainable development? How much goes to service innovation? Where in Sweden are the resources invested? How much better are things going for the companies and entrepreneurs that received the support? What good can regulatory simplification do? The objective is to create a simple and effective database that will be able to provide a knowledge basis for better allocation of State resources.

Our role in growth policy 

My conclusion from the review of the missions is that Growth Analysis has been assigned a crucial growth policy role. We will supplement the analyses of the Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Communications and the National Institute of Economic Research of the conditions for a balanced public budget, a stable monetary value and a functioning tax system. These analyses indicate the necessary macro prerequisites that can never be compensated with selective growth policy. The national and aggregate perspectives are not enough, however. Growth Analysis’ micro-perspective is also needed, shedding light on entrepreneurs, business operators and employers – all of those who develop innovations or apply the knowledge of others in various innovations. Our analyses and the growth policy should contribute to giving these people strength, knowledge and a desire to change their every day and that of others. This is particularly true of their ambitions to find ways towards an ecologically sustainable society.

Research emphasizes the connection between entrepreneurs, innovators and location…
Together with perspectives from business economics, ethnographic and political science research, some international research based on economic micro-theory provides necessary knowledge about the significance of entrepreneurship, innovation and territorial conditions to sustainable growth.

...and is supported by well-tried experience
Growth Analysis’ work is not only based on science, but also well-tried experience. International and well-tried experiences of practical growth policy are summarised in the recently published report, the OECD 2010 – Territorial Review – the Case of Sweden. Sweden receives good marks. The OECD also provides a number of examples of how sustainable growth has been successfully promoted regionally and locally. Concepts such as entrepreneurship, innovation and regional expansion are considered to be of central importance. The OECD also points out that there is a great deal to gain by linking the metropolitan regions of Stockholm, Västra Götaland and Skåne together with their surrounding regions.

However, the metropolitan areas and regional expansion are not the only solution. Social changes are also noted that speak for rural areas, particularly in the environmental field. According to the OECD, new competitive conditions are being developed in the global perspective where wind power, biofuels, ecotourism, experience tourism and health tourism, as well as more part-time residences are providing new future development opportunities to other parts of Sweden.

Lastly 

I view Growth Analysis’ work as an important complement to central and national analyses of the economy at a macro level. Our role in growth policy is to contribute to evaluations and analyses that supplement and provide a basis for the effective growth policy that Sweden needs to manage the global challenges.