Stronger Sweden-India Sambandh With The Successful Conclusion Of India-Sweden Business Summit 2019
The Summit focused on promoting business ties between India and Sweden
Mumbai: With an aim to further strengthen the bilateral ties between India and Sweden and explore various business opportunities in both the countries, Business Sweden organised the India-Sweden Business Summit in New Delhi on the sidelines of the Swedish State visit. The summit was attended by a high-level Business Delegation representing Swedish Companies encompassing both large, well-established companies and start-ups, along with representatives of Swedish Government agencies and universities.
The summit largely emphasized on exploring various business opportunities in India and consisted of three-panel sessions, Addressing the key imperatives for sustainable growth of the Indian economy i.e. Manufacturing competitiveness and Innovation etc…
Welcoming the audience, Mr Fredrik Persson, Chairman, The Confederation of Swedish Industry presented his opening remarks. The keynote address was delivered by Mr Leif Johansson, Chairman, AstraZeneca, followed by a special address by Mr Ibrahim Baylan, Minister for Business, Industry and Innovation, Government of Sweden.
During the inaugural session, Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Finance, Government of India (TBC) talked about the various business deals between India and Sweden and how both the countries are generating employment for the citizens of India and Sweden and catalyzing their economic growth.
Baba N Kalyani, Chairman, CII’s National Committee on Defence thanked everybody for attending the summit and delivered his vote of thanks.
The first-panel session was titled ‘The battle of supply chains’ focused on how India can integrate better in the global supply chains, by improving manufacturing competitiveness with agile policy responses, business-friendly environments and efficient logistics to attract investments.
The participants in the session were Mr. Tom Johnstone, Chairman, Husqvarna Group, Ms Karin Lindahl, CEO, Indiska, Mr Deepak Bagla, MD & CEO, Invest India. The session was moderated by Dr Amit Kapoor, Chairman, Institute for Competitiveness.
The second-panel session ‘Winning at innovation’ focused on how India can become an innovation powerhouse. Despite being an ideal testbed for disruptive technologies and business models, India spends less than 0.75% of its GDP on R&D in contrast to Sweden that spends more than 3% of its GDP on the same.
The participants of this session included Mr Michael Johansson, President and CEO, Saab Group, Mr Marcus Wallenberg, Chairman, SEB, Mr Mohit Bhatnagar, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital, and Kiran Karnik, Chairman, CII’s National Committee on Telecom and Broadband. The moderator of this session was Mr Rajan Navani, Managing Director Jetline Group of Companies.
The third-panel session titled ‘Succeeding in India’ discussed the recipe for success in India amidst the various challenges like complex business environment, infrastructure bottlenecks, different business cultures, different customer behaviour etc.
The participants of this session were Mr. Theodor Swedjemark, Chief of Staff, ABB Group, Mr Puneet Anand, Group Head Marketing, Hyundai Motor India, Mr Subir Kumar Chowdhury, MD, JCB India and Mr Vinod Aggarwal, MD and CEO, VE Commercial Vehicles. The session was moderated by Mr Ravi Venkatesan, Unicef’s Special Representative for Young People.
The India-Sweden Business summit is a part of the ongoing #SwedenIndiaSambandh. Their Majesties King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden are on a State Visit to India from December 2nd – 6th, 2019 at the invitation of President Ram Nath Kovind. The State Visit will last for five days during which Their Majesties will travel to New Delhi, Mumbai and the state of Uttarakhand.
The aim of the State Visit is further to strengthen the cordial relations between Sweden and India, and to promote Swedish-Indian cooperation, including within the frameworks of the Joint Action Plan, the Innovation Partnership and existing memoranda of understanding. The visit affirms Sweden’s commitment to be a key partner for India in its rapid development and in efforts to tackle common challenges in areas such as the climate change /environment, infrastructure, research and health. The visit aims to enable increased trade and investment for Swedish and Indian companies in both directions.
Speaking at the India-Sweden Business Summit, Ms Ylva Berg, President and CEO, Business Sweden, said “This delegation is strengthening the foundation of our relation built on more than 20 business delegations in recent years. Sweden and India share values and have an understanding that enables collaboration for innovative solutions when facing challenges of a growing population, pollution and climate change”
Also speaking at the summit, Mr Anders Wickberg, Trade Commissioner to India, Market Area Director South Asia, “It is with great honour to have so many Swedish enterprises showing extended interest in India and attending our High-Level Business Delegation. Over 50 companies and institutions have chosen to participate, exemplifying increasing interest in India and positive signals for the future, furthering our bi-lateral relations.”
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