globalEDGE Blog - By Tag: sweden

Over the past few weeks, winter weather has dumped snow and freezing rain across northern and central Europe. As a direct result, uncommon transportation system delays are disrupting supply chains, causing havoc at airports, and stopping road traffic. The recent wave of extreme weather has created many problems that affect businesses and the intricate network of supply chains, going beyond the immediate inconveniences of travel.

For millennia, the elusive beauty of the Northern Lights have captivated travelers worldwide, proving their magnetic draw. As more and more people flock to the northernmost parts of the world to try and catch a glimpse of the famous celestial light show, the international Northern Lights tourism industry has undergone a remarkable evolution, transitioning from niche interest to burgeoning global business.

As the medical industry continues to advance each year, experts are seeing significant success in collaborations with Artificial Intelligence; the combination of these two markets is helping many patients get their diagnoses faster and efficiently.

Recent examinations have shown that AI has allowed radiologists to decrease 50% of their workloads. Also, instances of false positives given to patients have lessened. This new advanced system may eventually save millions of lives, specifically as experiments continue to measure how AI takes on cancer. 

The discovery of a sizable rare-earth element deposit in Sweden raises new expectations for Europe's transition away from fossil fuels and a reduction in the reliance on China, which currently supplies most of the vital minerals. Rare-earth elements are essential for renewable energy and electric vehicles. The Swedish state-owned mining corporation LKAB has already started creating a strategy to extract the components from the largest known deposit in Europe. The deposit contains certain rare-earth elements that might be utilized to make permanent magnets, which are needed to power electric motors and wind turbines. The mining of iron ore may result in the production of rare-earth elements as a byproduct.

In current times, convenience has become a huge factor when consumers are scouring the market for goods and services.  People want groceries to be delivered to their doorstep, entertainment at the click of a button, and two-day shipping as often as possible.  Subscriptions are one area of convenience shopping that has gained popularity in the last decade.  Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, and HBO dominate the television market.  More and more often, we are seeing families cancel cable in favor of one or multiple of these television providers, many of which are offered at a lower monthly rate.  These services also present a wide variety of shows and movies, making them more enticing to customers than traditional television.

Some countries are embracing the rise of electric cars, others are pulling in the other direction, and the rest are muddling through with no plan. Countries are encouraging the use of electric cars in order to reduce toxic emissions, enhance environmental awareness, and promote transportation sustainability. Moreover, electric car owners benefit from a lot of perks that include free parking spaces, city congestion tax incentives, and many more. This article gives an overview of five countries encouraging the ownership of electric vehicles and how they are doing it.

Since 2011, the Swedish Institute has handed over the keys to the country’s official Twitter account to a new Swede every week, letting them tweet anything they please. This tradition will come to a conclusion on September 30, 2018. The goal of this was to show the country as it really existed through the eyes of various citizens. This innovative marketing strategy has won approximately 30 awards, including the international Grand Prix, two Silver Lions in Cannes Lions, and gold at the Clio Awards. At the end of this project, 365 account users will have tweeted around 200,000 tweets on @Sweden.

Until this day, we deal with controversies on gender pay gap globally. Is the whole matter due to gender discrimination by employers or is it just a fraction of it? Does culture or family traditions play a role? Or does it just come down to the fact that women are expected to raise a family and work less, or even leave their job, at some point? These are all factors that contribute to the gender pay gap problem, however, the way people look at it has created some misconceptions.

The word refugees has been thrown around quite often recently due to the several ongoing situations across the world. There is no doubt that the impact of the inflow of refugees into a country is very controversial. They have been welcomed by some and rejected by some. Some look toward the benefits and some look at the disadvantages of allowing in refugees.

Sweden is a relatively small but prosperous country which is a part of the Scandinavian countries in the Northern part of Europe. The country itself has about 10 million people (roughly the same as the State of Michigan) and an area size similar to the State of California. While Sweden is a unique, wealthy, and equal opportunity country, it is seldom one of the first countries that people think of or plan to go to when they visit Europe. Now, Sweden wants to change that.

As a direct result of Russia's increasing influence and perceived expansionism into Eastern Europe, Sweden and Finland have recently agreed to tighten their relations with NATO. The two Nordic countries have long held interest in joining NATO, especially since Sweden abolished compulsory military service in 2010, but the recent push towards membership has been fueled by growing tensions with Moscow, especially by the unauthorized entry of Russian planes into their airspace. Although it is clear that both countries are joining primarily for security purposes, joining a security alliance such as NATO also holds important economic implications for the newly admitted countries and the international system.

Since the Nordic economies are relatively small and open, exporting constitutes an important part of the economic activities in the Nordic region. Denmark, Norway, and Sweden have all had greater exports than imports every year since 1995. As the Nordic countries focus on exporting a few different products, each of them contributes to the growth of the regional Nordic economy and they together form a competitive market in the global economy.

In this gE Blog Series, we feature the Nordic countries, which consist of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. Together the Nordic countries make up a cultural and geographical region in Northern Europe and are integrated economically, historically, and linguistically. In the most recent Doing Business Economy Rankings by the World Bank Group, all five of the Nordic countries were ranked in the top 14 out of 189 countries. The rankings measure the ease of conducting business and reflect how conducive each country’s regulatory environment is to a business operation. In all, ten factors are used to rank the countries. A few of the most notable factors are ease of starting a business, paying taxes, trading across borders, and enforcing contracts.

Valentine's Day, contrary to popular belief, is a holiday filled with history and tradition worldwide. There are several different legends that surround Valentine's Day and Saint Valentine himself. Legends vary from culture to culture, and so do the traditions and the ways that the holiday is celebrated.

During the cold winter months, businesses use an enormous amount of energy to heat their working facilities. With soaring energy prices around the globe, businesses are looking for ways to save energy to reduce these high energy costs. A company in Sweden has found an exceptional way to do just this. Sweden’s creative approach to heating might just surprise you.