Regional development

Josef Fransson (SD)

Madam Speaker! Today we are debating Expenditure Area 19 Regional Development, and I would like to take the opportunity to already at the outset move for approval of the proposal in the report NU2. And I can state that reservations in the report are completely lacking.

Madam Speaker! Regional development is a broad field and actually spans many committees and expenditure areas. In the interest of honesty, almost all policy that has an impact on the conditions for regional growth is contained within other reports. I will take the liberty of speaking from a somewhat broader perspective than that which is contained within this specific expenditure area.

When talking about regional development, a common mantra is that all of Sweden shall live. There is nothing strange about that. We in Sverigedemokrater agree with this. I also want to say that we also put actions behind the words. If one is serious about the words that all of Sweden shall live, then it is utterly strange that one punishes the countryside in various ways, for example when the left side in Swedish politics - then I include Centerpartiet - forces through the world's highest fuel prices. Or when one tries to kill domestic aviation by imposing aviation taxes and even closing down the central Bromma airport. Or when one starts tinkering with the travel deduction in a way that clearly worsens the possibilities of living outside the big cities, to such an extent that we in the new government cooperation had to step in and tear up the Socialdemokraternas and Miljöpartiets destructive regulations for precisely the travel deduction.

Now that the government and the Sweden Democrats are lowering the reduction obligation to the EU's minimum level, this is something more that will benefit our long country as a whole and hopefully also have an inflation-dampening effect when the freight costs for our goods go down. There are thus many winners in escaping the previous government's policy in this area.

Madam Speaker! Thanks to the Tidö parties, there are also many other good things underway that will contribute to the development of the various parts of the realm. Take just one such thing as that we are now easing the coastal protection rules, which gives municipalities the opportunity to use their land in a completely new way to build attractive housing that people are prepared to pay for!

Regional development

The permit processes, not least for the mining industry but also for other permit-required activities, are now being simplified and lead times shortened. Defense investments will also benefit both regional development and infrastructure in parts of the country.

Another thing is farm sales. It is another component. Even though we from Sverigedemokraterna still see a development potential in the regulations based on what we have seen so far, it is positive that the farm sales are finally getting off the ground. But as so often, unfortunately, the EU is a bureaucratic roadblock of great proportions when one wants to do something good for one's nation. It is sad.

Madam Speaker! Sweden is full of hardworking Swedes and enterprising entrepreneurs who can stand on their own feet if the conditions are given. Unfortunately, large parts of Sweden have been kept in a constant subsidy dependency, partly through the municipal equalization system. The incentive structure rewards waste and punishes entrepreneurship. Therefore, I think, not least on a personal level, that it is of great interest to see what the Equalization Committee, which will soon present its investigation, comes up with. Reforms for growth are needed here. Completely different incentive structures for business and for entrepreneurship are needed here. It should pay for a municipality to try to attract companies or be helpful with a business establishment. Today, those incentives are weak.

On a somewhat related theme, the Sverigedemokraterna would wish for a regionalization of the property tax for industrial properties and power production facilities. Even though it does not constitute a part of the Tidö parties' joint budget, we still maintain that such a model and its impact on regional development work should in any case be investigated.

Madam Speaker! In a debate on regional development, it is reasonable to also say a few words about the reindeer husbandry. Let me be clear. We in SD safeguard our national minorities' uniqueness and right to preserve and develop their culture. But special rights designed as they are today hinder development and create conflict.

Reindeer are a pleasant and exotic element for tourists and are generally a welcome feature in the landscapes in the north. But the reindeer husbandry act and its application really need to be reviewed and reformed.

When the stakeholders of reindeer husbandry can slow down or stop alternative industries on half of Sweden's surface, we have a problem. It must be noted that reindeer husbandry has an extremely modest turnover while simultaneously being heavily subsidized by the state. Despite the fact that those who live off reindeer husbandry are only a few hundred in number, it pushes out mountain and hunting tourism, mining, residential construction, infrastructure investments, and much more, which is precisely what northern Sweden needs in order to develop.

The question is sensitive, but we must dare to address the issue in a reasonable, fair and equal way that is worthy of a democracy in the 2020s.

Madam Speaker! Last but not least, I want to point out that the Social Democrats have recently repeated a theme, namely that they criticize the government and the Sweden Democrats for not correcting quickly enough what the Social Democrats themselves have caused during their eight years in government.

First you destroy, and then you complain that others do not repair and restore quickly enough. The shamelessness is at times total. It can be about us not dealing with the gang shootings quickly enough, which is a consequence of the Social Democrats' failed migration, integration, and crime policy.

It can also be about the fact that we are not lowering fuel costs fast enough, which the Social Democrats have deliberately pushed upwards for several years.

It can also be about the fact that we do not resolve the electricity shortage quickly enough, which the Social Democrats have directly caused together with the Green Party by closing six of twelve nuclear reactors prematurely. Self-reflection is conspicuously absent.

The shortage, or perhaps more accurately the power shortage, now lies like a wet blanket over both corporate expansion and individuals' wallets. My absolute perception is furthermore that the Social Democrats' inflated electricity prices and fuel prices are the reason why Sweden has had several percentage points higher inflation than our Nordic neighbors recently. We must hope that it takes a while before the Social Democrats get the chance to make Sweden more dangerous and poorer again.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Monica Haider (S)

Madam Speaker! Today we are debating Expenditure Area 19 Regional Development. The Riksdag established the expenditures for the area on 29 November, and the Social Democrats' proposal for appropriations lies above that level. We can therefore not reserve ourselves in favor of our proposal. Therefore, we abstain from taking a position and instead have a special statement regarding our policy on the area.

The policy we advocate for aims for all of Sweden to live and grow and for the development power that exists across the country to be strengthened and utilized. The gaps between people and between city and countryside shall be reduced. To meet our time's societal challenges, every region needs to be given the opportunity to develop based on its unique conditions. For Sweden to be able to lead the green industrial transition and create thousands of new jobs, we believe that regional development policy needs to go in harmony with many other policy areas. Not least, a functioning labor and skills supply is an important part of a powerful regional growth policy. We want the government to continue the relocation of agencies from the large cities to increase efficiency, utilize the expertise in the whole country and contribute to regional development.

Madam Speaker! The regional fund programs are important for large parts of Sweden. The programs that the Social Democratic government has launched and which apply until 2027 should be completed. Likewise, it is important that the Fund for a Just Transition continues to be used to support the green industrial revolution in the specifically designated regions.

Both public and commercial services shall be available throughout Sweden. The support for grocery stores introduced by the previous government has slowed the death of rural trade. Everyone should have a reasonable distance when they are to buy food or pick up pharmacy items, regardless of whether one lives in the sparsely populated areas, in the countryside or in the city. What we have seen in recent years is that the support for the grocery stores has been eroded given the large cost increases that have occurred in recent years. The operating support therefore needs to be increased. Therefore, we Social Democrats are adding an extra 20 million kronor to this in our budget motion.

We also consider that vehicle inspections need to be made available in larger parts of the country and that the Riksdag's authorization to sell Svensk Bilprovning AB should be revoked.

Madam Speaker! The Social Democrats' proposal for total expenditures for the appropriation area amounts to 8.8 billion kronor for 2024, which is 4.8 billion kronor more than what the government has proposed. The proposal involves, among other things, an increase of appropriation 1:1 Regional development measures by 20 million kronor compared to the government's proposal. It is an investment to strengthen services in rural areas, both public and commercial services. It shall be available throughout the country.

Furthermore, we propose that a new appropriation be introduced, 99:1 Compensation for high fuel costs, and 4.8 billion kronor be added. It is a thought discount. The proposal implies, among other things, that residents in municipalities that primarily consist of countryside and where the need for a car is great receive a larger discount than residents in areas with a more developed public transport system. It shall be weighted geographically based on Tillväxtverket's division into six municipal groups. It is a targeted measure that goes to those who need it most. It is calculated per car with a ceiling of 2,000 kronor and with an individual income ceiling of 50,000 kronor per month.

The support for public service was introduced in 2016 by the Social Democratic government, and it has been significant for grocery stores in rural areas. The distance to the nearest store has decreased.

Regional development policy is very important for the whole of Sweden to hold together. Everyone should have equal opportunities to live, reside, and work regardless of where in the country one lives. For this to become a reality, we must have a welfare system that works everywhere in all of Sweden - equal school, healthcare, and elderly care. Therefore, the Social Democrats are allocating 10 billion kronor more than the government to welfare. We see the economic concerns that the municipalities and regions face next year. I can take my own municipality as an example. We are going to save many millions in Älmhult Municipality but still get a deficit. We will then have to use 27 million kronor from the equalization reserve, which means that after next year it is practically empty.

Public service is important for the countryside. Therefore, it is unfortunate that the government is saving and stopping the establishment of new service offices when we need more offices and not fewer. We Social Democrats want to open more offices.

We can also see that the savings on our various agencies will affect regional development. This applies to the county administrative boards, Försäkringskassan, Arbetsförmedlingen, among others. Government jobs will disappear across the entire country due to these savings.

Regional development policy concerns the entire political field, and what is done in budgets affects regional development.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Ann-Charlotte Hammar Johnsson (M)

Madam Speaker! I would like to begin by moving for the approval of the proposal in the report.

At this time of year, it is the various expenditure areas that are on the agenda for the Riksdag's work so that we can make decisions on the budget for 2024.

Here and now, the area of regional development is on the table for debate and decision. It concerns project activities, regional business support and support for commercial services, as well as payments from the European Regional Development Fund and the Just Transition Fund.

Government agencies and other actors who have activities of particular importance for this specific part are also included under this area. This can, for example, be Jordbruksverket and Tillväxtverket, to name a couple. It should be said that the pandemic accelerated both the signing and the submission of documents digitally, which was necessary to have efficiency with the regional and local actors who apply for funds.

410 million kronor are allocated to Almi AB under the appropriation for the European Regional Development Fund. These are funds for business development and innovation. The intention is that the funds shall be used so that small and medium-sized enterprises can strengthen their competitiveness.

Those who read about the government's policy will see that there are recurring writings stating that measures and proposals shall lead to precisely competitiveness.

In the area, there are also funds, as I have previously mentioned, from the European Regional Development Fund which are intended to contribute to strengthening competitiveness in all parts of the country by promoting the digital green transition.

Regional development policy aims to strengthen the possibility to live, work and reside in the entire country. People and companies shall be given the opportunity to grow and develop regardless of whether they choose to settle in the city or in the countryside. For this to work, it needs to be, among other things, easy to start companies, and transport needs to be efficient.

Technology provides development power. Mail and parcels by drone have been discussed at the same time as self-driving vehicles have been developed. When it comes to service points such as grocery stores, self-scanning stores have appeared both in the city and in the countryside and created opportunities.

All this, and that which happens at companies and with entrepreneurs, moves our regions and municipalities forward. By making it easier to start and run companies even in the countryside, we can create more opportunities for people to grow and operate throughout Sweden. Differences cause municipalities and regions to develop in their own way.

Entrepreneurship is local and creates ripples for jobs and growth when establishments are made and companies choose to expand. A few weeks ago, we had three municipalities from Skåne here in the Riksdag who wanted to tell us that it matters to them that vineyards and farm sales are established. Tourism – the opportunity to stay, visit, and take part in the Swedish food and drink culture – matters for the municipalities' revenues, and so it is in other parts of the country as well.

Digitalization in agriculture creates effects, and so do vineyards. When it comes to work in rural areas, one can ask what the craftsmanship on vineyards can mean. Yes, it can mean the following: If one has 900 hectares of farmland and carries out a digitalization, one might have four employees, while in the craftsmanship on a vineyard of 4 hectares, one might have nine employees.

Another example is from 2019, which is now four years ago. The Scanian bakery company Pågen was then denied the opportunity to expand its company in Skåne because it was not possible to guarantee enough electricity. Pågen could therefore not develop its company in Malmö.

For us Moderates, the foundation lies in recreating a sustainable and robust electricity system in the country. Therefore, it is with pleasure in a difficult time that I can state that we took decisions regarding nuclear power last week. It is with great frustration and sorrow that I think of the situation we find ourselves in and what the Social Democratic government, with the help of C, V and MP, has inflicted on AB Sverige and our companies and citizens out in the regions and municipalities.

Madam Speaker! Living and working outside major cities can involve great distances, not least for entrepreneurs, and the further north one goes, the greater the distances are - and thus also the fuel costs. Therefore, within the framework of the budget's transport subsidy, local support can be sought in the four northernmost counties. It is one of the items that is in the report.

Since I am already on the subject of transport, I would like to point out to those following the debate that on November 21, we were able to follow the first flight across the Atlantic carried out with 100 percent SAF, that is to say sustainable aviation fuel. The departure was from London, and it landed in New York – a milestone on the way toward the new.

In Örnsköldsvik, investments are being made in electric fuel, and in southern Sweden, Preem is investing in precisely SAF. The fact that aviation can now cover long distances and carry out journeys with 100 percent renewable fuel provides momentum in the transition. This, Madam Speaker, is innovative power. The Moderates believe in development power and technological development as solutions. In the future, we will be able to travel around our elongated, mile-wide country with flights that run either on electricity or on other fuels that are renewable. I also believe that in the future we will see people landing in more locations than today.

Another example of a rethink is to ensure everyday commuting for people and freight traffic for companies, to build on what exists and to renovate roads and railways, as well as to pay off the large maintenance debt. This is done instead of the costly high-speed trains that the previous government devoted itself to. It would have cost very large amounts.

Regional development is found in a wide range of measures within many policy areas, which we also heard in a previous speech. There are twelve points written down within our area, with many different parts found in other policy areas in the budget. The regional development policy has the mandate to coordinate efforts so that they complement each other and create synergies. More work and efficiency must be achieved here, and that is what we are looking for with this. On January 1, 2024, the term regional development also replaces the previous term regional growth.

With that, Madam Speaker, I move once again for approval of the committee's proposal.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Monica Haider (S)

Madam Speaker! Efficiency is a well-known concept on the bourgeois side, and it is also a frequently used concept. You also mentioned efficiency in your speech, Ann-Charlotte Hammar Johnsson.

Now, the sitting SD government is going to streamline the agencies with a saving of 1 percent straight across all agencies. This means that Statens servicecenter will have to cut 90 services and Försäkringskassan about 450 services. I wonder what it is that does not need to be done at these two agencies - especially at Statens servicecenter, which was going to start new service offices all over the country. Försäkringskassan is also located in various places in the country.

You have also announced that you are going to merge ten agencies – or incorporate some agencies into other agencies, as it says. For example, the Swedish Work Environment Knowledge Agency, which is located in Gävle, and the Swedish Work Environment Authority, which is located in Solna, are to be incorporated into one another. Then one can wonder where the agencies will end up. Is the intention that they should remain in the places where they are merged, or will they be moved? Will regional political considerations be taken into account when incorporating agencies into one another? I think it would be very interesting to know that.

So, there are some questions for Ann-Charlotte Hammar Johnsson.

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Ann-Charlotte Hammar Johnsson (M)

Madam Speaker! I understand that for the Social Democrats, talking about efficiency can be a negative thing. For me, it is about working smart.

It is also the case that one can always improve one's operations; it is not stationary, I hope, so that funds are added without one moving forward. Money does not always have to be everything either. As Member Monica Haider says, the government has now decided to make an efficiency gain of 1 percent. It is a difficult time - we know that - and then we must all help each other. One can then take the opportunity to see how one can work in new ways.

We can take the example of the pandemic, which accelerated digitalization and the possibility of signing via email and BankID instead of submitting papers – or "luntor," as I call them. The Swedish Board of Agriculture worked with Leader projects in that way, in connection with what we have talked about previously regarding working efficiently with the different project funds available for application. There, one had to submit luntor which someone then sat and went through at different levels, and only I will say it, I know how much time the administration took there. I believe, therefore, that there is very much to be saved by working in that way.

I also think merging agencies is smart if it is possible to achieve gains from it. There are, after all, very many different agencies that do different things which perhaps overlap from time to time. Things might be done two or three times if one works in silos. I therefore see coordinating an organization and improving the exchange as positive.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Monica Haider (S)

Madam Speaker! It is not that we Social Democrats are against efficiency, but when the newspaper headlines say that 90 positions are to be cut at the service offices and 450 positions at Försäkringskassan – which, in addition, are constantly being given new tasks to handle – one becomes a bit curious about what the efficiency is supposed to lead to. I absolutely believe that there are things that can be done to make it more efficient.

You say that one should work smart and that money is not everything, Ann-Charlotte Hammar Johnsson. You are right about that - but have the 450 who will be let go from Försäkringskassan not worked smart? Is that how it should be interpreted? Are those 450 people no longer needed, or the 90 at Statens servicecenter? That is what I would like to know.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Ann-Charlotte Hammar Johnsson (M)

Madam Speaker! Thank you for the follow-up question, Monica Haider!

Yes, what do the newspapers choose to write about in their headlines when a change is made? If it is towards plush, it is always positive, while I perhaps do not always think it is positive to provide a lot of funds without knowing how they are to be used. We can also see that authorities have used money in different ways; sometimes they have received government assignments to carry out projects and chosen to take down those funds and instead invest in other projects. I can, for example, speak about an agency like Vinnova. It is probably good that there will be a review of how work is carried out at the different authorities. It is not that from one day to the next one decides to cut off authorities, but there has been an ongoing process where they have looked through how they want it and work.

I don't usually care that much about newspaper headlines and their impact. But I think they choose not to write anything that is positive, instead they want to know what will happen when one reduces by 1 percent per agency. One can see different parts in that, and if a newspaper headline describes that cuts are being made in the number of services, it puts a point on the whole thing.

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Birger Lahti (V)

Madam Speaker! I want to begin by stating that since the Left Party's proposal for appropriations within the expenditure area is above the government's, I cannot reserve myself. The Left Party's budget alternative must be seen as a whole. Therefore, we choose to refrain from taking a position and instead present a separate statement on our policy.

How should one achieve regional development? I will give you a short historical description.

I live and have lived my entire life in a small village in the northern part of Pajala municipality. The village was established because forest workers were needed in the state forests. People were relocated with promises of a hundred days' work in the forest. One was to build a barn and a residential house and clear cultivation land for the livestock. The village was first called only Pajala Ö kolonat. My grandfather was the one who first moved into the village in 1924. The house was completed in 1923, which means that my parents' farm has turned one hundred years old this year.

It was some kind of regional development also at that time. A village was established in the middle of the forest. It was poor and much misery as well as constant wrestling over what were rights versus obligations for the crofters towards the colonization board and vice versa. Now all this is history. The village was actually called Kaarnevaara.

Why do I tell you this then? Well, I want to tell you about how societies were built up when people were given housing and livelihood. The suburbs then, in the 40s and 50s, received very favorable loans for houses, which in common parlance were called *barnrikehus*. But they were probably actually called *Per Albin-hus*.

Schools were built in almost every village, because the numbers of children were large. Shops were in almost every village. When I was a boy, I could cycle to three shops, and I am talking about a radius of barely one mile. Today, I have to take the car six and a half miles to buy a liter of milk.

There was public transport in the form of bus connections to the church village or the municipal center every day, even with two departures. That the buses were tasked with taking the milk cans from the villages' milk stations, acting as mail carriers, and handling freight transport was only natural.

We guys who went to school helped as well as we could with the loading and unloading of the pots, of course. And I can say that we became quite good at knowing which cows milked well in the villages.

It was faith in the future that mattered in the countryside, clearly.

What was the driving force? Well, natural resources, which are things that do not exist in the paved urban environments and concrete neighborhoods. The forest was clearly the largest employer. Then came food production in the form of milk and meat from the farms. One had clearly built up a self-sufficiency of basic foodstuffs at that time. Then, of course, weekly commuting from the farms to mining work in the ore fields was very common from the mid-60s onwards.

I have so many times driven past all these villages, which today stand almost empty of people and farms. Barns were as common on almost all farms as a garage is in residential areas today. The society planning of that time included the countryside's contribution to AB Sverige. In return, we received social contracts that ensured we had functioning infrastructure such as telephony, which cost the same for everyone in the country. The electricity price was favorable, and it was the same price for everyone. We always had doctors on site at the health centers, dentists likewise. And the mail came six days a week. Today it comes twice a week. The roads were maintained as well as possible. The winter road maintenance actually worked too well if you asked a ten-year-old who wished that the road would not be plowed to avoid going to school.

Well, what has happened with all the development and these villages that were built up a number of decades ago? In my village, there were mostly a hundred of us. Now there are eight people left. It has largely been the same development in surrounding villages. My municipality had 15,000 inhabitants. Now we are fewer than 6,000.

Does it have to be like this? Yes, if you ask all previous governments, regardless of color, they would probably have to answer that the laws of nature and EU rules make this the consequence. But now that large cities are struggling with housing shortages, unemployment, and problems that come with there being too many people who do not get jobs or housing, then politics should probably realize the value of populating the entire country. There are still natural resources that can contribute to us managing to transition societies away from the fossil and thereby contribute to all of Sweden's prosperity as well as provide climate benefits.

Madam Speaker! Northern Sweden is signaling today for enormous investments in the industry of the future and transition. Then we must establish a regional policy that not only helps the business sector but also helps the countryside become vibrant and thus live up to the slogan that everyone is talking about, that all of Sweden shall live. But this time we must be smarter when it comes to what the resources shall give back to the regions. Only then can we finance living conditions in places that will contribute with forest resources, minerals, electricity production and food. But then the state must be active and take the lead when it comes to regional development.

The government often speaks of a paradigm shift. But most recently in the debate yesterday regarding the expenditure area of energy, we heard from the government base that they do not believe in the industry's plans and in the technology that is supposed to move us away from fossil dependency. One would wish that the paradigm shift applied to development in places that have seen decommissioning for decades. But there is more focus on splitting the country than on seeking consensus on what could work to create faith in the future in a situation where everything points to the fact that we have the ingredients but the chefs are completely missing.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Louise Eklund (L)

Madam Speaker! I thank you for the floor. I truly appreciated the contribution, even though what the member recounts stands for precisely everything that liberalism does not stand for. It is a kind of folkhem nostalgia that I believe leaves out very many life choices, not least for women who perhaps did not have the same bright picture of how Sweden looked during the 60s and 70s.

I am also thinking about the introductory image, which was about how the Swedish state power in the beginning of the 1900s actually colonized the inland of Norrland and offered Swedish workers farms and work in exchange for what was actively driven as a colonization of the inland of Norrland just to push out Finnish-speaking people or people in the border areas towards Finland.

It is not an entirely bright picture that was painted of how the Swedish state acted at that time. I do not intend to misinterpret. I know that it was not the member's intention to draw any parallels to that type of policy.

But I still wonder when the member expresses that the state needs to populate Sweden in a different way. Could the member elaborate – what type of active population policy should the Swedish state have in order to be able to fill Norrland in the way the member requests?

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Birger Lahti (V)

Madam Speaker! Thank you, Louise Eklund, for the question! Let me start by taking a few municipalities closest to me as examples: If all 16-year-olds starting upper secondary school today were to start working in the public sector when they graduate in three years, they still would not be enough. They are not enough to cover what healthcare, elderly care, and school would need.

What does this say about the picture of society? Well, it says that we must get people to move in. If we are to make these towns attractive, we must have something else to offer than cold, mosquitoes, and poor conditions. We must have a different form of tax policy. There must be some form of added value when one grants a permit, regardless of whether it concerns a wind power project or a mining industry.

The industry will always be able to fix it anyway. They will have fly-in, fly-out and set up the shift rotations so that they get the job done. But the towns will not survive if we do not get people moving in.

The state must take the lead and show that the current situation is not sustainable without having people living there.

It is an enormous waste of resources today when the houses stand empty. One can buy a house for 250,000 kronor. It might even be fully renovated with new windows and doors. But people do not move there with the conditions we have today. Is it reasonable that people crowd here in the big cities while we have problems up north because we must get people there?

The policy that governs today constantly lands on the market should handle everything. No, the market has failed. Therefore, I say that the state must take the lead and show that there is another way. That is primarily about more of the resources created there having to stay there, so that there is a added value in living and residing in the countryside.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Louise Eklund (L)

Madam Speaker! Thank you, Birger Lahti, for the answer! Then I understand a bit more what direction the member is thinking of.

The tax tool is a tool. But I perceived the member's speech as being that he was looking for a broader palette and a different type of society.

I completely agree with the problem situation that we see in, for example, Luleå or Boden. One stands with very fine conditions for a completely different type of social development, but despite this, one does not have the possibility to obtain the labor force that is currently being requested, and furthermore, it will need to grow in step with the new industrialization that one wants to see.

The member may gladly elaborate on this a bit further. The tax tool is a tool, but does the member see that there are some other ways for the state to play a more active role in filling the jobs that are currently vacant in places like Luleå or Boden?

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Birger Lahti (V)

Madam Speaker! Thank you again, Member, for the question!

I am only saying that what we are doing today is not moving us forward. It has gone backward for 35-40 years now, regardless of the color of the governments. One has not had any regional policy to speak of.

One has constantly trusted the market. One deregulated the electricity market. One has privatized vehicle testing. In all of this, it is always the countryside that becomes the loser. The countryside always gets the short end of the stick, because the market does not exist there but in the large cities. If one trusts the market, as the Liberalerna do, and thinks that the market should handle everything, we will fail once again.

I say that the state must ensure that it is lucrative and provides added value if one settles there. There are many things. We can write off loans for people who are needed there. We can provide added value. But what is happening today is tearing the country apart. We will face enormous problems, and they have already begun. Still, it is expected that we will take care of wind power projects and mines and manage the forest, but the people are missing.

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Lili André (KD)

Madam Speaker! Thank you, Member Lahti, for your speech! You paint a very fine picture from your upbringing of a living countryside that you have been part of experiencing. You also highlight a great deal about what the state needs to do.

I perceive that you want the state to once again invest more in the northern parts of Sweden, where we see that it is needed. But the question is how we are to achieve that. We are in a recession, and inflation exists in the entire economy. It does not yield on its own, and we need measures to address the rate of inflation.

You in the Left Party want to increase the borrowing in the budget by 175 billion kronor. That is a way to drive up inflation. My question to Member Lahti is: Are there no other proposals from the Left Party regarding how the whole of Sweden can live and how Norrland can live? We have regional development funds. We have companies. How does the Member view those areas?

(THIRD DEPUTY SPEAKER: I remind all members that they speak through the Speaker and therefore do not use "you" in the debates.)

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Birger Lahti (V)

Madam Speaker! Thank you, member, for the question! If we had had the same view on when something is invested and had politicians as cautious as we have in Sweden today, we would never have had towns like Malmberget, Gällivare and Kiruna. A railway was built there that cost approximately as much as the entire state budget in Sweden. It was courageous politicians who realized that this investment had to be made. It would never have come to fruition if we had not had politicians who dared.

The same thing is happening now. The Member of Parliament raises our view on how to finance investments and that one should refrain from having a surplus goal. This is exactly what is needed! Something was needed that enables us to handle the climate issue, which is relevant wherever one is. But there are, of course, those who question it today.

If we do not dare to make these investments in northern Sweden to move away from fossil fuels, they will not succeed.

We had something called Vänsterdagarna in Gothenburg. There was a representative for small business owners there. They said that we in Vänsterpartiet are the only ones who have understood how much electricity prices affect small businesses. Many are collapsing today because the state stands helpless in introducing another pricing model for Swedish electricity production. It is also an example of how we want to help people. It is small businesses that are affected.

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Lili André (KD)

Madam Speaker! Thank you, the member for the answer! I still do not hear that the member sees that we are human beings and have companies that are also creative and can gain advantages when it comes to establishing themselves in your home region in northern Sweden.

We build society from the bottom up. This is where the member could have a policy and ideas on how entrepreneurs can grow and want to establish themselves in the fantastic northern Sweden. We Christian Democrats see that there are great opportunities. We have regional development funds. How does the member see that they can be used in the best way?

I would like to hear the members further problematize how northern Sweden can live without the state putting in more money at just this time, when the welfare will become even more vulnerable if we increase the state's budget with borrowing.

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Birger Lahti (V)

Madam Speaker! Thank you again for the question!

A prerequisite for having a company is that you have customers. If you are in a village with eight people left, there is a shortage of customers there. Regardless of whether you are a small business owner or an employee somewhere, you also need community services.

Without a growing society, it is difficult to become an entrepreneur. If you are in a village where there have been a hundred people and where there are eight left, there are not many customer relationships that you can build there, and the distances are becoming ever longer.

This is connected. It is clear that companies find it easier to get customers and get business ideas if it is a growing society. I am convinced that if we wait for the small business owners to turn the development in a village where we see that the youth do not even suffice for the public sector, it is difficult to get the ideas to flow from the small businesses.

All of this is connected. We must have a society that grows together with the large investments. Then small businesses will have a lot of work and good conditions. Everything that we put into the development fund and help from the state is good. But unfortunately, it is not enough if communities are dying out.

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Lili André (KD)

Madam Speaker! I would like to begin by moving to approve the committee's proposal for a decision in the report Expenditure Area 19 Regional Development.

Regional development is close to my heart. I have personally worked in my home region, Region Gävleborg, and have worked for regional development with great commitment. I have also had the privilege of working in the city of Stockholm, and through that, I see differences between city and countryside in terms of conditions for innovative power and development.

All people, regardless of place of residence, shall be able to share in the basic social rights and public services of society and be given reasonable conditions to support themselves. The primary task of regional development policy is to contribute to the development of viable regions throughout the country.

Regional development is largely about development projects, national as well as EU projects. These are funds to be applied for so that one can work together with other actors such as academia, the business sector, public activities, and civil society. The difficult part has been and continues to be to achieve the effects and results needed for a county with better health, more people in jobs, and companies that develop for a competitive Sweden.

The Christian Democrats' vision is that all of Sweden should function. We Christian Democrats look with pleasure at the government's objective and work to provide good conditions for people and companies to develop and grow.

We know that Sweden's sustainable growth depends on both the conditions for the business sector and the environments in which people live and work. Therefore, it is not only Region Gävleborg as an individual region that is important, but it is also important together with other regions in Sweden to achieve effects such as competitive companies. It is about getting more startups that develop into scaleups, good communications, attractive living and housing opportunities, innovative power, and access to public and commercial services.

In the countryside, there are great development opportunities, not least within the tourism industry and the experience industry. But they also exist within the production of renewable energy and environmental technology, production of food, development of sustainable aquaculture, or within the forestry industry, to give some examples.

Madam Speaker! The Christian Democrats' policy aims for people, regardless of where in the country they live, to be able to participate in society's basic social rights and be given reasonable conditions to support themselves and develop their surroundings.

The general efforts the government is now making at the national level for jobs, education, infrastructure, and an improved business climate need to be combined with regional development efforts.

Vital regions are built when people and society's actors collaborate locally with strength and will from a bottom-up perspective. Enthusiasts who burn for an idea can mean a lot for a region's development. Kristdemokraterna want to give them tools so that these ideas can be realized.

Madam Speaker! We Christian Democrats see that Sweden needs more national coordination responsibility. It is about seeing opportunities for development in all parts of the country from a national horizon, where regional advantages shall be taken into account.

Country and city are not opposites but complement each other and, with that perspective, make Sweden a better country. We need to coordinate more regions and actors. Regional advice, research, and education are needed. We need to work with knowledge dissemination from academia. We need to build networks and bring home more money from the EU. It is also important to continuously evaluate the work being done in the regions.

Madam Speaker! Now that I have the privilege of being a Member of Parliament and to serve in the Committee on Industry, I am pleased to be part of a direction that fulfills just those goals. The government's budget shows that we believe in Sweden, and all of Sweden.

But the challenges are extensive. The rural resident in Skåne does not face entirely unexpected challenges compared to the one living in the interior of Norrland. Some rural municipalities succeed in breaking declining population curves, while other municipalities are still sliding down the demographic slide. The population decline in rural areas entails negative consequences for welfare, but also for infrastructure investments and entrepreneurship. Kristdemokraterna want to reverse the negative development.

Madam Speaker! We face great investment needs in our country. Much of the basic infrastructure is increasingly approaching its technical lifespan, and large resources must be spent to maintain it.

I am thinking about roads and railways. I am thinking about sewers, and I am thinking about the electricity grid. But I am also thinking about housing and a functioning welfare state. We cannot be content with merely maintaining. We must also gather strength to build new things and scale up.

The new industrialization taking place in the northern parts of Sweden is something that we welcome. The state should not step in and take over the responsibility from municipalities and regions or from the private sector. But there must be a will and readiness from the state level to play a role in the important social construction, a responsibility for coordination.

It is no secret that the sitting government has succeeded in combating the high inflation. I believe it is very wise. But as we break this, we must turn our eyes toward another, more long-term goal. It is to create forms for how the state can take a leading role in the series of new and large investments that are to be made.

For me as a Christian Democrat, it is not a question of whether the state has a responsibility here, but what that responsibility should look like. It is a task that must be developed over time. But I believe the time is ripe for us to seriously begin planning for the state to be a force that drives Sweden in a spirit of nation-building.

I look forward to us building further on our country step by step and that it shall be a folkhem worth the name.

Madam Speaker! With that, I thank you for the floor, and I move once again for approval of the committee's proposal in the report.

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Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist (C)

Madam Speaker! The Centre Party has submitted a specific statement regarding expenditure area 19.

Living, working and acting outside larger cities and communities can be a dream, something troublesome or a fairly common everyday life. One thing is certain: the challenges and conditions for life beyond frequent public transport differ enormously depending on where in Sweden one lives.

One might think that this is a substantial budget area, but it is only just over 4 billion of the over 1,300 billion we have in the state budget.

Centerpartiet, however, seriously wants to compensate those who have long distances and no alternative to the car and increase the budget allocation to 10 billion. I will return to this.

Madam Speaker! Many decisive issues that have to do with opportunities for regional development are unfortunately not something that is handled within this specific budget area. Let me nevertheless frame today's debate with some of them.

The Center Party has for a long time argued that certain tax bases must become more regional. This would make it clear which economic values are currently produced in many of Sweden's municipalities and regions but are taxed nationally. The Center Party wants more parts of that tax to become regional and that the money should, to a greater extent than today, remain not where they are paid in but where they are produced.

It must pay off for municipalities and regions to improve their business climate, to make productive investments that are important for all of Sweden and to release land for important infrastructure and production. It is locally that one lives with the sometimes negative consequences of hydropower and wind power and the extraction of minerals. Tax policy must be used as a tool for creating growth across the entire country.

For all of Sweden to be able to live and develop, we also need a functioning infrastructure. The transport system must be robust and reliable. Flights and trains must complement each other in an efficient way. But despite everything, our roads are a quite central and important part. In the future, they will also become climate-smart and increasingly convenient the more autonomous it becomes to travel on them.

There is a great need for new investments in and maintenance of our road network. It must be possible to travel on the roads year-round, at good speed and with good safety.

The private road network alone is actually 43,000 miles long. The largest part of it is in the countryside, and it is primarily private individuals and road associations that maintain these roads. For comparison, one can say that there are 220 miles of motorway in Sweden. There is thus 200 times as much private road as motorway.

For many, it is easy to believe that these roads mostly lead to summer cottages and hunting cabins and that the wear and tear is not so troublesome. But the truth is that 1 million people begin and end their journey to and from work on these very roads. The individual roads are also very significant for transporting goods and ensuring that both the forest industry and mining industry, as well as the tourism industry, can function.

Continued digitalization of the country is another important part of the infrastructure, not only so that remote work can be possible but also for a modern agriculture and forestry and a modern logistics industry. The same applies to the possibility of remote teaching and digital welfare services. And certainly, it is a bit strange that the world has started talking about 6G networks when we know that in quite large parts of Sweden, even the 4G network does not work? That is something one can discover by taking any county road in Norrland.

The car is and will continue to be important in the countryside, and even though the vision is that all cars shall run on electricity, not all types of cars will be electric-driven for many years. I believe the Swedish Energy Agency has said that in 2030 there will still be somewhere between 2.5 and 3 million cars that do not run on electricity.

The simplest way to make it possible even for rural residents to drive climate-smart is to ensure that there is domestic biofuel to drive on and proper compensation.

Madam Speaker! In order to reduce carbon emissions and reach net-zero emissions in 25 years, the world's countries have agreed on a text which, among other things, speaks of the crucial nature of rapid actions during this decade, i.e., the next six years, a tripling of renewable energy by 2030, and that the world shall move away from fossil fuels.

We in the Center Party stand for that we want to continue with diesel containing 30 percent renewable and not, as the government, go down to 6 percent, because we know that the transition which is very negative for the climate that the government is now carrying out increases emissions by 4 million tons per year. That is as much as all of Swedish domestic aviation emits in a year or broken down per day as much as 2,300 Swedes' annual consumption of carbon dioxide.

We have therefore developed a model that lowers the price of fuel by 4 kronor for everyone and by 7 kronor for those who have no alternative to the car in the countryside. Then we can continue to reduce carbon emissions, produce biodiesel in Sweden - which makes us more resilient and less dependent on imports even in times of crisis - and let perfectly good cars run as long as they last.

Madam Speaker! The goal of the regional development policy is development power with strengthened local and regional competitiveness for a sustainable development throughout the country.

It does, however, need to be investigated how the state can act more coordinately to achieve the policy goals and at the same time give the regions the responsibility and the room for maneuver that they need to be able to carry out long-term measures locally and regionally. No such investigation or review has actually been conducted for 20 years.

Even the regulations for the regional business subsidies, which are sometimes completely counterproductive and prevent regions from even cooperating, and the transport subsidy would need to be reviewed to be better adapted for smaller companies and more clearly contribute to increased sustainability and growth.

Madam Speaker! The Center Party's unified policy for strong development throughout the country is about local tax bases, well-functioning infrastructure, business policy based on the conditions of small companies, substantial compensation for long distances, and better coordination of regional development funds.

But something as fundamental as security is also needed for people and companies in the countryside so that they can continue to save and invest in their forest and land with the certainty of knowing that it will have a value in the future, without an orchid sabotaging a life's work or a bird making a company worthless because the bank no longer sees any value in a forest that cannot be harvested and where the entrepreneur might possibly receive compensation after ten years of processing.

So, it is no longer possible to use this forest as an asset for a loan. But residential houses and outbuildings, then? Someone thinks. Well, at the foot of a mountain where there is no slalom hill, those buildings are completely worthless. They cannot be used as collateral for a loan.

It is not strange that a sense of lack of freedom and hopelessness is spreading in the countryside.

Madam Speaker! The Centre Party stands on the side of the individual against the state, just as we stand side by side with the small businesses that make the country grow, because it is only people and businesses that can build the entire country strong.

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Ann-Charlotte Hammar Johnsson (M)

Madam Speaker! Thank you for the speech, member!

I requested the floor regarding two parts.

One thing is this matter of living in the countryside and driving a car and being able to survive on the means one has.

It is a subsidy-like policy that C stands for. They want to stop the tax cut on fuel. They also want to raise the tax. They also do not want to reduce the reduction obligation significantly.

The primary solution is to distribute fuel vouchers, vouchers that one should have printed out in some way and take with them. They might perhaps be easy to copy on the black market, if one looks at it that way.

I am finding it very difficult to make all the parts fit together here. One is supposed to improve roads but at the same time not make it possible for people to drive. The member may be welcome to elaborate on that.

Regarding the transport subsidy, the second part, I have read that 75 percent goes to small companies and 62 percent to medium-sized companies. It is mostly within the timber industry. The member may elaborate on in what way this is to be improved since it has been described as not being good enough.

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Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist (C)

Madam Speaker! Thank you, Ann-Charlotte Hammar Johnsson, for the question!

I will begin with that which concerns being able to continue being climate-smart, driving in the countryside and using all the vehicles we have in Sweden for as long as possible.

It is incomprehensible to me why we should not let those who live in the countryside drive climate-smart. We can have an inclusion of biofuels that can be produced in Sweden instead of paying fines to the EU. It is foolish to give billions in fines to the EU because we cannot achieve climate goals when we can do so by gradually having production of biofuels in Sweden. There were many companies that were in the starting stages of doing this but discontinued it because the policy changed.

We want to make this compensation with a 4 kronor reduction if one has biofuels plus one receives these checks – naturally, they are not checks but a digital tool. Exactly how this is to work will be seen later. What is, however, completely clear is that those who sell fuel today say that it is not a problem. In that way, we make it possible to use smart money in Sweden. We also ensure that those who live in the countryside can continue to use their cars for as long as possible and drive on more biofuels.

When it comes to the review of transport subsidies, it is about a whole, looking over many parts of the transport subsidies. I cannot answer today how they affect different parts of the country, but I know that many companies point out that this is a problem today.

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Ann-Charlotte Hammar Johnsson (M)

Madam Speaker! I thank the member for the answer.

The transport subsidy is distributed today in the four northern counties to get the business sector to grow and develop more. It is from there we have the figures 75 percent to small companies and 62 percent to medium-sized companies, which I still thought were positive figures. We have moved from people not even knowing that the subsidy existed and money was left over. Unused money is unwise; it is good when it is put to use.

We are in a very difficult time, and our population and our companies are having a very hard time. I still have not heard any other answer than that one can produce fuels in Sweden. But these are still tax increases that hit directly against private individuals, against families and children, against people who are going to their work and so on. It is not only in Norrland that there are long distances; if one works in the public sector with irregular hours, which women often do, one can have so far home that one cannot get home if there is no public transport.

I see this as a very good way, in a time when one cannot do all the things one could do if one simply filled the budget with funds. We have an inflation to take into account, and in this way, people can have more money left in their wallets.

I don't exactly think it is a rural-friendly alternative that C presents. I am actually a bit surprised by it.

Last but not least, you have proposed the business form micro-enterprise to test business ideas. However, no one else in the opposition has conceived of this, so I wonder how you intended to deliver it.

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Elisabeth Thand Ringqvist (C)

Madam Speaker! Thank you for the questions, member!

I will start from the back with micro-enterprises. The Centre Party is a bourgeois, liberal, independent opposition party. We present our proposals completely independently of the rest of the opposition. If we present proposals on micro-enterprises, we do so because we believe in it. That is how we do it with our policy.

The same applies to the policy we believe in for the countryside. In the countryside, regardless of whether we are talking about northern Sweden or the countryside on Öland where I also often am, there are still very many cars that run on diesel and will do so for many years to come. We cannot, after 2030 or 2035, deny them the ability to run in a climate-smart way. This is absolutely the simplest way to ensure that one can still travel in a partially climate-smart way.

We do this with tax cuts. It is a 4 kronor reduction of the fuel cost for everyone so that the blending of biofuels will work. Then there is a reduction specifically targeted at those who do not have public transport nearby. It does not matter whether it is northern Sweden or southern Sweden; it depends on the classifications that Tillväxtverket makes.

Then it was a question of whether the transport subsidies concern northern Sweden. Northern Sweden is half of Sweden, so it still hits a bit differently. That is why I get very different pictures from companies when it comes to how the transport subsidies can be used in the best way. We want to understand that better.

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Louise Eklund (L)

Madam Speaker! Many of us here in the chamber were born and raised outside the influence of the large cities, and so was I. In that case, one knows that regional development is built on roughly the same things as urban development or development in general. Companies are needed, and the companies need access to skilled employees. One needs functioning infrastructure and preferably electricity at affordable prices.

There is no structural difference, or does not need to be, between development in different parts of the country. It is therefore also clear that regardless of where in Sweden one is located or what type of company one visits, there are some recurring problems that politics must solve. One is what we have seen with the skills supply, which currently entails major consequences for Swedish growth. We see this not least in cities like Luleå and Boden, which are currently hunting for labor with light and lantern. The same problem exists also in southern Sweden, where very many industrial companies for a longer period have had problems finding employees for the job opportunities that actually exist here and now.

If trained labor with the right competence is not available, companies risk being forced to shut down their operations, to move them or, as in northern Sweden, to not be able to start them at all. Politics cannot solve all these problems, but we know that in order to secure the supply of competence in the long term, education with adult education, colleges and universities of high quality and breadth is required. It is crucial that we succeed in training more people into the labor market and thereby the community and opportunity for self-sufficiency that it offers.

Here, I would like to make an extra point for the university college, which has an important task to fulfill already today but above all tomorrow with the needs we see in several places in the country. It is an effective form of education that is clearly linked to the regional labor market. We also see how the local folk high schools here are making great contributions.

If one is to highlight something that makes regional development special compared to, for example, the urban, it is precisely that the tourism industry in many cases constitutes a large part of the local economy. Sweden is an attractive country to visit. We have both nature and cultural environments that many want to travel to. That we continue to nurture and take care of our cultural heritage, which is not only located in Stockholm, is important for many reasons, and precisely the tourism potential is one of them.

In the same way, we need to take care of our completely unique Swedish nature. Storm Babet, which moved in over the country in October, had major consequences along our southern coastal stretches, where property owners in places such as Beddingestrand and Smygehamn saw their houses be swept out into the sea. This points to the need for active coastal protection where the state may need to have a greater national coordination responsibility, which has also been raised previously here in this chamber. I believe that in this case, we have much to learn from countries like Denmark and Holland in how they have worked with, for example, beach nourishment to protect coastal stretches and valuable nature.

Regional development

We can continue to focus on the tourism industry. It has for some time been one of Sweden's fastest-growing industries, even though the pandemic naturally had major consequences for this specific sector. It concerns companies that are often run as small family businesses and which are strongly connected to the local area. These companies must be given the conditions to run their operations and develop their entrepreneurship.

Many positive examples can be found. I have previously highlighted the development we have seen in Halland, where several hotels and restaurants have put the region on the gastronomic map so that it has become a tourist destination with visitors not only from Sweden but also across national borders.

In Skåne, we have a similar development. There, a weak krona has led to increased tourism primarily from our western neighboring country. Here, the traditionally food-producing region has succeeded very well in creating a tourist destination with a focus on food and drink.

I raise this because it shows how important the bill that the government is now working on regarding farm sales of alcoholic beverages is. Allowing small-scale and artisanal farm sales of wine and beer will mean very much for regional development and for Sweden to be able to continue to position itself as an attractive food and drink region.

From the Liberals' side, we are willing to go further. We want to allow wine and beer to also be sold in license stores as a complement to Systembolaget. We believe this would provide great opportunities for Swedish beverage production and the tourism industry surrounding just the gastronomic, while we continue to have a safe and responsible sale of alcoholic beverages in Sweden.

I move for approval of the Committee on Industry's proposal for a decision under expenditure area 19 Regional development.

The deliberation was hereby concluded.

(A decision was to be taken on 19 December.)

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