Business Climate Surveys

The 2022 Business Climate Survey has demonstrated the resilience of the Canadian market and highlighted a hopeful future for a wide variety of Swedish companies present in Canada. Canadian-Swedish trade relations grow stronger as the impact of Covid-19 subsides and investors look for stable, safe, and growing markets to continue to expand.

This year’s Business Climate Survey is the first product of the strengthened collaboration between Business Sweden and the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Taipei. The report highlights a positive business climate for Swedish companies in Taiwan and a strong investment outlook. In addition, the report showcases Taiwan’s stable market for Swedish companies to do business in.

The United Kingdom has many prominent industries, a thriving start-up scene and one of the most important financial hubs in the world, London. Thanks to low entry barriers and a large market size, there are a lot of opportunities in sectors where Swedish companies can fully leverage their strengths. Team Sweden in the UK have conducted the third edition of the Business Climate Survey among Swedish companies in the UK, whose findings are presented in this report.

Team Sweden has carried out the Business Climate Survey, calling on Swedish companies active in Thailand to report how they perceive economic and market conditions and comment on factors such as sustainability and innovation. Many companies state that they plan to increase their investments in Thailand in the near future. The Thai economy is recovering but not as fast as in the other ASEAN countries, casting a shadow of stagnation over Thailand.

Malaysia’s geographical location within the Indo-Pacific region, surrounded by fast-growing economies, along with its sustained track record of good rankings in ease-of-doing business, provides many promising business opportunities for the future. Overall Swedish companies are increasingly positively viewing the outlook and business opportunities in Malaysia.

Sweden and India work together in key strategic areas; with a growing emphasis on co-creating sustainable green and inclusive growth with innovation and creativity at the core. Welcome to the 2022 Business Climate Survey report highlighting Swedish companies’ experience of doing business in India and their perception of the local market conditions.

The first Swedish company to enter the Italian market did so in the early 1900s, but most of the Swedish subsidiaries were established in the 1990s when business interest from Sweden to Italy started to increase significantly. Italy is Sweden’s 12th largest trade partner with 2.5 per cent of the total exports destined to Italy.

South Korea’s economy has performed well in recent years with strong fundamentals. The trend of decisive policy response helped South Korea’s economy to navigate the Covid-19 shock well. For Swedish companies in South Korea, 2021 was another profitable year, even in a time of uncertainty. Sixty-nine per cent of respondents replied they were profitable in 2021.

With the discovery of oil in the late 1950s, the seven emirates that currently comprise the UAE a transitioned from one of the poorest nations in the world into one of the richest. Today the UAE holds the world’s sixth largest proven crude oil reserves, the country’s per capita gross domestic product (GDP) ranks in the top globally, it is the second largest Arab economy after Saudi Arabia and the most competitive economy in the Middle East and North Africa.

Among Swedish companies responding to the Business Climate Survey, 61 per cent reported a profitable financial performance in 2021. Looking ahead, Swedish company respondents are overwhelmingly optimistic about turnover growth in their respective industries over the coming 12 months.

Türkiye and Sweden have long standing and important economic ties. In 2021, Türkiye was the 19th largest trade partner for Sweden. Türkiye, with its strategic geographical location between Europe and Asia, and its young population (53 per cent of the population is under 35) strengthened its position in global value chains in the post pandemic period.

France has historically been an important trade partner for Sweden and this relationship keeps growing. With almost 68 million inhabitants, France is the third largest market in Europe, and the seventh largest economy in the world. In 2021, France was Sweden’s ninth biggest trading partner. 460 Swedish companies are established on the French market, with a total of more than 95,000 employees.

Despite slightly lower growth expectations, more companies said they will be increasing investments in Brazil during the next 12 months, adding up to 70 per cent of respondents this year. With this result, Brazil comes out as the second largest market where Swedish companies will increase investments in all markets analysed by the Business Climate Survey in 2022, only behind the UK.

Japan is the world’s third largest economy and Sweden’s third largest export market outside of Europe. Unsurprisingly, Japan is also a key market for Swedish companies with 40 per cent of companies reporting that at least 25 per cent of their total revenue for the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region is generated in Japan. It is our hope that this report will provide a fresh perspective and serve to create many new business opportunities between Japanese and Swedish companies.

Vietnam remains an emerging market which often requires presence on the ground. With a sizable population of over 97.3 million including the fastest expanding middle class in the Asia-Pacific, Vietnam is one of the key markets in Southeast Asia and is increasingly emerging as a manufacturing hub in the region. Overall, the majority of respondents remain positive of Vietnam’s business climate.