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As the largest shareholder in Telia, the Swedish state has requested an extraordinary general meeting to replace the operator’s chair, Marie Ehrling, with Lars-Johan Jarnheimer, current chair of Ingka Holdings (IKEA), Egmont and Arvid Nordqvist, and former CEO of Tele2.
Daniel Kristersson, chair of Telia’s nomination committee, describes Jarnheimer as “strongly business minded” with extensive experience within telecommunications. Telia is also in the process of replacing its chief executive, Johan Dennelind, who announced he would step down earlier this year. Ericsson states it has a total of 70 agreements with operators globally to deliver 5G equipment – 19 of the networks are in commercial use and the biggest focus is on China. CEO Börje Ekholm comments, “We are trying to be disciplined when we compete for contracts. We want to compete with better technology, not purely on price wars.”
Ericsson’s interim report, which was released yesterday, exceeded analysts’ expectations in several areas and also raised targets for sales and profitability. At the same time the official cost of the corruption scandal in six countries, which ended up in 49 employees being fired and SEK 11.5 billion in fines etc., was made public. Sweden is one of the countries in the EU with the lowest share of its population living with severe material deprivation, according to the EU’s definition. Two per cent of the Swedish population were in severe material deprivation in 2018, according to figures from Statistics Sweden. This means that around 160,000 people could not afford at least four of nine defined costs, concerning not being able to pay debts on time, not coping with unplanned costs and not affording to heat their property.
The average figure for severe material deprivation in Sweden has been at 1-2 per cent in recent years. The EU average is 6 per cent. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) writes in a coming report “Fiscal Monitor” that efforts to tackle global warming have so far been insufficient. Finance ministers have a central role in implementing fiscal policy to curb climate change and significant changes to tax systems are required.
The IMF says some 50 countries have some form of programme for taxing carbon dioxide emissions and highlights Sweden as a good example. The global average price is only USD 2 per tonne, which is “far below what the planet needs” but in Sweden the tax is USD 127 per tonne, which has brought down emissions by 25 per cent since 1995, while GDP has risen 75 per cent. While economists are now predicting growth of less than one per cent for Brazil, the market for the truck industry appears to be bright. According to the organisation, Anfavea, sales will increase drastically and vehicle maker Volvo’s CEO Martin Lundstedt is positive about the Brazilian market being the company’s second largest.
“Latin America is coming back and we are going to have a strong year,” he told Reuters. At the same time, SvD Ekonomi reports that Volvo Trucks is hoping that the strike that has broken out at subsidiary Mack Trucks’ production plant in the US will be resolved quickly. The strike involves around 3,500 employees at six American plants Minister for Infrastructure Tomas Eneroth (S) wants to have Swedish electric roads – and quickly. Power company Eon is now in the queue to be part of the project. The company estimates the price tag for electric infrastructure for 1,000 km of motorway is around SEK 10 to 12 billion.
CEO of Eon Energidistribution, Johan Mörnstam says that more need to get involved. So far Eon is collaborating with H&M, Siemens and Scania. Mörnstam also believes that Eon could have a bigger role although points out that a major challenge is capacity in the grid, which needs to be resolved before the electric road vision can be “fully realised”. Following a breakthrough in EU budget negotiations, Sweden and Denmark will not have to contribute to a new budgetary instrument designed to strengthen the resilience of euro area economies.
“A fantastic success,” said Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson after Thursday’s meeting. Nonetheless, Sweden and Denmark will have to help fund a new instrument designed to help non-euro countries qualify for the single currency. “The difference is that this support should be within the EU budget,” Ms Andersson said. Sweden, Austria, Denmark and the Netherlands – the “frugal four” – remain united in their determination to keep the EU’s 2021-2027 budget capped at 1 per cent of the bloc’s gross national income (GNI) and have sent a letter to this effect to the union.
Speaking from Luxembourg, ahead of the 10 October meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council, Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson said 1 per cent of GNI was an appropriate level, even after the UK leaves the EU. The European Commission has called for an overall pot of 1.11 per cent of GNI The multilateral trading system is facing a crisis at a time in which international cooperation is needed more than ever, given the global challenges. Therefore, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) will submit proposals to Director General Roberto Azêvedo at the World Trade Organization (WTO) Public Forum later today, write Marcus Wallenberg and other representatives of the body in Dagens Industri.
Transparency must be enhanced, rules updated and confidence restored in the dispute settlement system. US President Donald Trump’s refusal to nominate new judges to the WTO’s appellate body is a threat to the entire dispute settlement system, one of the WTO’s most important tools. Should the US blockade continue until December, the body will lack the minimum number of judges to make rulings and the body will cease to function. This requires a speedy solution; we are aware that the WTO is working on this but the world of business requires results, they state. Volvo Cars and parent company Geely plan to merge development and production to create a division to supply in-house brands Geely Auto, Proton, Lynk & Co and London EV, as well as third-party customers, with combustion engines.
The merger is a step towards the transformation of the company in the direction of electrification and will create economies of scale, Volvo Cars Chief Executive Håkan Samuelsson has told DI. Around 8,000 will be employed in the new company. Volvo Cars has pledged that every new model launched from 2019 onwards will be electrified with its first all-electric XC40 making a debut next week. |
AuthorWe are a small, but qualified team of graduates in politics, economics, English and classics dedicated to providing quality news digests in English that offer readers a first-hand look at the most important topics covered by the Swedish press. Here you will find a selection of the articles that are published in our Swedish Press Review. Archives
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