A HEAD of Sweden’s National Day festivities on June 6 as well as the 75th year of its bilateral ties with the Philippines, ENVOYS&EXPATS recently caught up with Ambassador Annika Thunborg to better appreciate her country’s multifaceted work at the local front.
Envoys&Expats: What are the Swedish Embassy’s priority programs in the Philippines?
THUNBORG: Trade promotion is a priority area for our embassy. I am pleased to see policies and reforms put in place by the Philippine government over the last several years that have made it easier to do business here and, most important, that have moved more people out of poverty and into the middle class, thus contributing to economic growth and improved quality of life.
We hope this reform policy will continue and be strengthened under the new government, which has made it attractive for Swedish companies such as IKEA and H&M to invest in this country, for manufacturing companies such as Swedish Match or OSM Group to expand or arrive here, respectively; and for client-services companies such as Transcom International to acquire and expand.
Swedish companies offer direct employment to more than 17,000 Filipinos, with Transcom being the biggest of them, employing almost 10,000 in Metro Manila, Davao City, Bacolod City, and Iloilo City.
Moving beyond the pandemic, it is important to prevent any further lockdowns, and to simplify unnecessary bureaucratic rules. To assist in this effort, Team Sweden, consisting of the embassy, Business Sweden and Swedish companies, have embarked on a booster-vaccination campaign, which ensured all their employees and families are fully inoculated and boosted.
We are concerned to learn that only 15 percent of the Philippine population has taken a third shot despite the easy access to vaccines, many of them donated through the COVAX mechanism where Sweden is one of the largest per capita contributors. My country has donated 10 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines, mostly through COVAX. Over 1.5 million vaccine doses were donated to the Philippines. It has also provided a total of $260 million in vaccine support.
In light of the global crises we face: the pandemic, the Russian aggression against Ukraine, and the climate crisis, it is important to build back better, greener and more inclusively, and to build resiliently and sustainably for future generations.
Which sectors in this country will Sweden focus on for its local work?
Sweden has much to offer in the areas of smart transportation and smart energy solutions with world leading companies such as Volvo, Scania, digitalization giant Ericsson and Swedish-Swiss ABB, as well as many small and medium enterprises. It has been particularly rewarding to work with the Department of Transportation in the development of the Edsa Busway, and we look forward to working with more cities interested in developing their public-transportation systems such as Davao City.
We hope more medium-sized and small Swedish companies will find the local market attractive, especially those that can offer sustainable solutions in the area of renewable energy. The Philippines has notable potential in this area—let’s turn natural calamities into positive energy-generators for the welfare and benefit of its population!
Swedish firms rank high on innovation and sustainability: two priority areas of the embassy. For us, sustainability includes environmental, social, and economic sides: the commitment to a clean and green environment through circular economy solutions, good labor conditions, gender equality, capacity-building opportunities for all employees, sound economic practices, and freedom from corruption. For us, this is “corporate social sustainability,” which is key to doing good business.
Further, special initiatives are carried out by the Sweden Alumni Network, which leads projects like the Sea Mariners Program for coastal cleanup, the Fashion Revolution—a sustainable fashion exhibit, and programs for gender equality.
Sweden is also a large core funder to international organizations and the United Nations. Over 25 UN agencies are active on the ground in the Philippines. We support both humanitarian and developmental programs, such as those connected with Typhoon “Odette” last December, and the peacebuilding process in Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
We also work on specific projects, such as supporting the women, peace and security agenda in the BARMM with the United Nations Development Programme, as well as the empowerment of women in disadvantaged communities in remote areas there, together with the nongovernment organization (NGO) Islamic Relief.
Conversely, which areas in this country do Sweden feel hold much promise for improvement, and how can your country contribute substantially?
I have visited the BARMM, and I cannot cease to underline the importance of the continued peacebuilding process, as well as the international and national support for the work done by the BARMM transitional authority. The decommissioning process must continue and include all parties and the respect of human rights—including those indigenous people, which must be upheld. This is not only important for national security, but also for regional and global security.
Sweden was the first country to adopt a feminist foreign policy in 2014. Gender equality and women’s rights are major priorities for our embassy. We focus in particular on women’s sexual health and reproductive rights: the right for women to decide if and when they would like to have children, free access to contraceptives, importance of sexual education in school, since this is a pressing issue for improving the health and well-being of the Philippine population, and for reducing poverty.
Together with the European Union and the UN, the embassy is a keen observer of issues related to the respect of universal human rights, be it civil and political, social, economic or cultural that all nations have adopted, the enhancement of the rule of law, and the upholding of democracy—including press freedom, the freedom of expression and organization.
We welcome the UN Joint Programme on Human Rights, which seeks to affirm the Philippines’s commitment to the primacy of human rights, the importance of a free democratic space for civil society, and the principle of international cooperation. We expect that this will continue to render important and immediate results, as well as concrete changes on the ground.
In 2022 Sweden and the Philippines are commemorating 75 years of bilateral relations, and it is particularly important to highlight the strong mutual ties between our two countries, the unwavering support we have shown for the UN Charter, and for international law and humanitarian law over the years. We look forward to moving forward together, in cooperation with the private and public sectors, with NGOs, academia and civil society, together with the EU, the UN and the Asean.