Sweden performs better in employment, education, health, and well-being than other countries, which are essential for social and economic growth.
The Swedish economy is mainly based on exports. The country has large companies in sectors such as industrial or pharmaceutical.
Advanced Manufacturing
Sweden has a solid and successful industrial engineering/manufacturing sector that accounts for approximately 20 per cent of the country's GDP. Essential sub-sectors are traditional industries, such as steel, automotive, chemical and forestry, industrial machinery and equipment, automation and food processing equipment.
The Swedish government contributes a large amount of capital from tax collection for research and development of new technologies that contribute to the objective of being sustainable and innovative.
The pandemic forced companies to close and look for alternatives to promote social distancing, such as digitising systems to make them autonomous and remote monitoring, creating new streamlined solutions and disruptive technologies.
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in Sweden is high level. Sweden is attracted to new technologies with the internet industry, the high level of education, and the cooperation among government, academia, researchers and developers.
The Swedish innovative agency Vinnova invests considerable income in new research and projects in conjunction with academia, companies and organisations, contributing to sustainable growth.
Health Industry
eHealth
The Swedish government, together with The Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR-Sveriges Kommuner och Regional), have developed an e-Health strategy, "Hälsa 2025: A strategy for implementing Vision for eHealth 2025", making the primary purpose of: "make Sweden the best in the world at exploiting the opportunities that digitalisation and eHealth have to offer". Sweden has a significant digital development in health services, like electronic patient notes or case management systems and digital information processing. And there are new investments in digital solutions for chronic illness, digital health meetings, and clinical knowledge-health support; this will lead to a better digital work environment for employees and better digital services for patients and families.
The vision settled in 2016 in the health systems is: "In 2025, Sweden will be the best in the world at using the opportunities offered by digitalisation and eHealth to make it easier for people to achieve good and equal health and welfare, develop and strengthen their resources for increased independence and participation in the life of society."
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated eHealth services due to social distancing and fear of infection, incrementing online medical consultations and e-prescription. They are creating new opportunities for technological development and innovation in artificial intelligence, developing mobile applications to offer services and meet the demand for online care to people who require it.
Medical Equipment
The Swedish healthcare system is one of the most developed in the world. Spends almost 11.5 per cent of the GDP to ensure high-quality equipment, installations and health professionals to offer the patient and families great patient attention. Prove of this is the low infant mortality rate of 2 children per 1,000, and the life expectancy is 81 years for men and 84 years for women.
Newsweek magazine ranked 2,200 hospitals in 27 countries, including five hospitals from Sweden, in the top 250. This rank was based mainly on the COVID-19 response inside the hospital, isolating entire rooms for infected patients, getting the proper clothes to protect the medical staff, and using medical equipment like ventilators. The Swedish hospitals included in the ranking are Number 8, Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset in Solna city, Number 51, Akademiska Sjukhuset in Uppsala city, Number 131, Sahlgrenska Universitetssjukhuset in Göteborg city, Number 151-250 Norrlands Universitetssjukhus in Umeå city, Number 151-250 Universitetssjukhuset Linköping in Linköping city.
The medical industry always seeks to improve healthcare equipment with technological innovation to treat and mitigate diseases, offering patient-friendly devices and devices that can be used at home and are easy to use.
Construction industry
Investments in the construction industry represent 8 per cent of GDP. In 2015, the Swedish government aimed to become the first fossil-free welfare nation in the world and create a roadmap for each industry and business. For the construction and civil engineering sector, halve fossil-free emissions by 2030.
The construction industry has to be green and sustainable and halve emissions, and to achieve that when building, it has to be included three dimensions of sustainability: economically sustainable (focus on business), socially sustainable (focus on people), environmentally sustainable (environment and climate in focus).
Exist projects and programmes that want to play their part in Sweden's digitalisation journey. The Smart Built Environment Program wants to add knowledge and investigation when modelling and construing something new. And The municipal project Royal Seaport is building intelligent apartments with tools that manage every aspect of living life.
The industry is going into an enormous technological transformation. The journey towards zero has already started and will continuos until all sectors are transformed and the country is more sustainable.
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