Sweden seeks to champion sustainable solutions, smart cities, and so much more & More News Here

THUNBORG: Trade promotion is a precedence space for our embassy. I’m happy to see insurance policies and reforms put in place by the Philippine authorities during the last a number of years which have made it simpler to do enterprise right here and, most essential, which have moved more folks out of poverty and into the center class, thus contributing to financial development and improved high quality of life.

We hope this reform coverage will proceed and be strengthened underneath the brand new authorities, which has made it enticing for Swedish corporations equivalent to IKEA and H&M to make investments on this nation, for manufacturing corporations equivalent to Swedish Match or OSM Group to develop or arrive right here, respectively; and for client-services corporations equivalent to Transcom International to purchase and develop.

Swedish corporations supply direct employment to more than 17,000 Filipinos, with Transcom being the most important of them, using virtually 10,000 in Metro Manila, Davao City, Bacolod City, and Iloilo City.

Moving past the pandemic, it is crucial to forestall any additional lockdowns, and to simplify pointless bureaucratic guidelines. To help on this effort, Team Sweden, consisting of the embassy, Business Sweden and Swedish corporations, have launched into a booster-vaccination marketing campaign, which ensured all their workers and households are absolutely inoculated and boosted.

We are involved to study that solely 15 % of the Philippine inhabitants has taken a 3rd shot regardless of the simple entry to vaccines, lots of them donated via the COVAX mechanism the place Sweden is among the largest per capita contributors. My nation has donated 10 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines, largely via COVAX. Over 1.5 million vaccine doses have been donated to the Philippines. It has additionally supplied a complete of $260 million in vaccine help.

In mild of the worldwide crises we face: the pandemic, the Russian aggression towards Ukraine, and the local weather disaster, it is crucial to construct again higher, greener and more inclusively, and to construct resiliently and sustainably for future generations.

Which sectors on this nation will Sweden concentrate on for its native work?

Sweden has much to supply within the areas of smart transportation and smart power options with world main corporations equivalent to Volvo, Scania, digitalization large Ericsson and Swedish-Swiss ABB, in addition to many small and medium enterprises. It has been significantly rewarding to work with the Department of Transportation within the improvement of the Edsa Busway, and we glance ahead to working with more cities keen on creating their public-transportation methods equivalent to Davao City.
We hope more medium-sized and small Swedish corporations will discover the native market enticing, particularly these that may supply sustainable options within the space of renewable power. The Philippines has notable potential on this space—let’s flip pure calamities into optimistic energy-generators for the welfare and good thing about its inhabitants!

Swedish companies rank excessive on innovation and sustainability: two precedence areas of the embassy. For us, sustainability contains environmental, social, and financial sides: the dedication to a clear and inexperienced setting via round financial system options, good labor situations, gender equality, capacity-building alternatives for all workers, sound financial practices, and freedom from corruption. For us, that is “corporate social sustainability,” which is essential to doing good enterprise.

Further, particular initiatives are carried out by the Sweden Alumni Network, which leads initiatives just like the Sea Mariners Program for coastal cleanup, the Fashion Revolution—a sustainable trend exhibit, and applications for gender equality.

Sweden can also be a big core funder to worldwide organizations and the United Nations. Over 25 UN businesses are energetic on the bottom within the Philippines. We help each humanitarian and developmental applications, equivalent to these related with Typhoon “Odette” final December, and the peacebuilding course of in Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

We additionally work on particular initiatives, equivalent to supporting the ladies, peace and safety agenda within the BARMM with the United Nations Development Programme, in addition to the empowerment of girls in deprived communities in distant areas there, along with the nongovernment group (NGO) Islamic Relief.

Conversely, which areas on this nation do Sweden really feel maintain much promise for enchancment, and how can your nation contribute considerably?

I’ve visited the BARMM, and I can not stop to underline the significance of the continued peacebuilding course of, in addition to the worldwide and nationwide help for the work accomplished by the BARMM transitional authority. The decommissioning course of should proceed and embody all events and the respect of human rights—together with these indigenous folks, which should be upheld. This isn’t solely essential for nationwide safety, but additionally for regional and world safety.

Sweden was the primary nation to undertake a feminist international coverage in 2014. Gender equality and ladies’s rights are main priorities for our embassy. We focus particularly on ladies’s sexual well being and reproductive rights: the fitting for girls to determine if and when they want to have kids, free entry to contraceptives, significance of sexual schooling in class, since this can be a urgent situation for enhancing the well being and well-being of the Philippine inhabitants, and for lowering poverty.

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Together with the European Union and the UN, the embassy is a eager observer of points associated to the respect of common human rights, be it civil and political, social, financial or cultural that each one nations have adopted, the enhancement of the rule of legislation, and the upholding of democracy—together with press freedom, the liberty of expression and group.

We welcome the UN Joint Programme on Human Rights, which seeks to affirm the Philippines’s dedication to the primacy of human rights, the significance of a free democratic house for civil society, and the precept of worldwide cooperation. We anticipate that this can proceed to render essential and speedy outcomes, in addition to concrete adjustments on the bottom.

In 2022 Sweden and the Philippines are commemorating 75 years of bilateral relations, and it’s significantly essential to spotlight the robust mutual ties between our two international locations, the unwavering help now we have proven for the UN Charter, and for worldwide legislation and humanitarian legislation over time. We look ahead to shifting ahead collectively, in cooperation with the personal and public sectors, with NGOs, academia and civil society, along with the EU, the UN and the Asean.