Digital policy

The Government took two decisions on 3 August 2017 as a result of the information that has emerged about the Swedish Transport Agency’s procurement of IT services. The first decision is to appoint an inquiry chair to review the events that led to security-sensitive and otherwise secret data being handled in contravention of Swedish legislation. The second requires the Swedish Transport Agency to identify the data that was handled inappropriately and determine what measures may be necessary to ensure the appropriate handling of protected information in future.

The Government is presenting a national strategy for developing and enhancing cyber security in Sweden.

The strategy outlines the focus of the Government’s digital policy. The vision is for sustainable digital transformation in Sweden. The overall objective is for Sweden to become the world leader in harnessing the opportunities of digital transformation.

On May 18, the Government presented a strategy for how digital policy will contribute to competitiveness, full employment, and economic, social and environmentally sustainable development. The strategy outlines the focus of the Government’s digital policy. The objective is for Sweden to become the world leader in harnessing the opportunities of digital transformation.

Open data for new solutions. This was one of the items on the agenda of the National Innovation Council meeting on 15 May. Ms Barbara Ubaldi, project manager at the OECD, where she leads the work on digital government and open data, was invited to the meeting to inform about open data initiatives in other countries. The Government has asked the OECD to review and deliver proposals on how Sweden can accelerate the use of data in the public sector.

The government’s ambitions concerning coverage in the entire country are highly set and in order to work according to a long-term perspective the entire country needs an active broadband policy. By way of the broadband policy, the government would like to inspire all operators to a continuously fast broadband expansion and especially to see an improvement for users who find themselves outside densely populated areas and small populated areas, in order for Sweden to be completely connected. In order for the vision to be realized, both public and private efforts are required. The government will therefore work to maintain the positive development in fast broadband expansion. In the new strategy, the starting point is a market-driven development, completed by public efforts.

The Government's efforts to strengthen Sweden's life sciences and the significance of policy innovations in developing the reception and introduction system for newly arrived immigrants were two of the topics discussed when the National Innovation Council held its first meeting of the year on Thursday 25 February.

At the National Innovation Council meeting on 24 November, the Government presented the focus of the new digital strategy, which is intended to benefit citizens and businesses, and support the business sector and social development.

At the initiative of Minister for EU Affairs and Trade Ann Linde, the Government today welcomed a number of European ministerial colleagues to Stockholm to form a 'Digital 9' group (D9). The aim is to begin a new collaboration and, in doing so, take on a leading role in the EU when it comes to pushing forward the agenda on digitalisation issues and creating a digital single market within the EU.

The Government is launching five innovation partnership programmes to help meet a range of the societal challenges that Sweden is facing. These programmes involve new ways of travelling, residing, doing business, living, communicating, and using and preserving the world’s resources and ecosystems. Partnership between public actors, business and academia creates new, innovative solutions that strengthen competitiveness, contribute to sustainable development and create more jobs.

Sweden’s prosperity is built on innovative and successful export companies that time and again have managed to renew and reorganise production and products to keep pace with changing markets. The Government’s strategy for new industrialisation is an important stage of the effort to benefit from the window of opportunity for new industrialisation that is now open to Sweden.

On 13–17 June, Minister for Upper Secondary School and Adult Education and Training Aida Hadzialic is traveling to the United States to participate in the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), the world’s largest video game trade fair, in Los Angeles, California. The aim is to promote the Swedish gaming industry.

The Government’s objective is that Sweden will have the lowest unemployment in the EU by 2020. The new Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation will be the hub of activities to create jobs and sustainable growth throughout the country.