Scandinavian automotive supplier body, FKG, is describing the lack of a Swedish Industry Minister as a “bit odd,” following the election of a new Parliament in Stockholm.
The newly-installed Social Democratic party, headed by former IF Metall chairman, Stefan Lofven, does have a Minister for Enterprise and Innovation, Mickael Damberg, but neither it nor the previous administration appears to have had a dedicated Industry Minister, particularly with regard to the automotive sector.
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“I hope they [government] do what they are saying and that is by pinpointing a person and a department taking care of the industry,” FKG managing director, Fredrik Sidahl, told just-auto at the supply body’s Annual Forum in Gothenburg.
“We don’t have a Minister of Industry – the previous government neither [but] they are starting steps to put the department more like the UK where you have the Automotive Council – it is the Department of Internal Affairs.
“We need to combine research, finance, education under one hat; it is linked together.”
Many of the 400-plus delegates at the Gothenburg conference expressed the hope Lofven would tap into his tenure at the helm of IF Metall and propel automotive manufacturing up the new administration’s agenda.
Lofven’s union replacement, Anders Ferbe, also hinted at his own influence at the Social Democratic top table.
“I have the benefit of being on the Social Democratic party board and perhaps I have certain influence,” noted Ferbe to the conference.
Lofven has been handed an early and welcome manufacturing boost nonetheless with Volvo’s announcement during FKG’s event of a third Torslanda shift, which will add 1,300 direct jobs and trickle down to supply chain employment.
However, Sidahl pressed the absence of an industry-specific politician as the new government in Stockholm starts to take shape and is already confronted with some Cold War era echoes with rumours of a Russian submarine incursion into its waters – a move reportedly hotly contested by Moscow.
“We lack a government which says industry is important for Sweden – even the previous government,” said Sidahl.
“We have not got an industrial Minister – that is a bid odd. The Prime Minister I guess, understands the situation better than the previous one – he is quite fresh.”
