Response to interpellation 2024/25:116 on the business sector's preparedness for supply and economic defense
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
1 M argues that the government is consolidating efforts to build a strong total defense through historical investments in military and civil defense 1. M emphasizes that public-private cooperation is a fundamental prerequisite and that the government has established the business council as well as appointed a national advisor to strengthen the supply preparedness 1. M argues that they choose to work within existing structures to maintain momentum as time is short 2. M argues that a new agency is not automatically the solution to societal problems 2 and that they instead work with an economic planning framework and pilot studies 3.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Statsrådet Carl-Oskar Bohlin (M)
Madam Speaker! Markus Selin has asked me if I intend to take any initiatives to strengthen the business sector's supply readiness and economic defense, and if so, which ones. Markus Selin has also asked which initiatives I intend to take to clarify how supply chains can be sustained or built and to clarify the conditions between the state, the business sector, and authorities in the event of a crisis or war.
Let me say that we find ourselves in a very serious security policy situation. A war is raging in Europe, and the Defence Preparedness Board already stated in 2017 that an armed attack against Sweden cannot be ruled out. The actors in society must therefore take measures to be able to meet and handle an armed attack.
The government is now consolidating its efforts to build a strong total defense and create a better balance between civil and military defense. In the recently presented total defense bill, the government gave the direction for the construction of the total defense over the next six years. It concerns historical investments of 173 billion extra to the military defense and 37.5 billion extra to the civil defense. With the defense decision in place, the path is paved to build actual capability.
The build-up of civil defense must take place expeditiously and in close cooperation with the business sector. Private-public cooperation is a fundamental prerequisite for strengthening our capability, not least within the supply readiness. As part of the work to strengthen cooperation between private and public actors, the government has established the cross-sectoral business council. It is a forum for mutual exchange of information and advice on issues of common importance for the business sector, the labor organizations, and the state regarding total defense and crisis preparedness. Seven meetings have been held so far, and the council is being developed continuously.
Another measure that the government has taken is to appoint a national advisor to support the government's work in strengthening Swedish preparedness and supporting the business sector's preparedness planning, including by contributing to developed cooperation between state actors and the business sector to create a strong total defense.
In the total defense bill, the government describes how the economic defense shall be strengthened and developed. A central task will be to establish a structure where Sweden's needs for supply-critical goods and services can be identified as part of the build-up of the supply readiness. In July 2024, the government decided on additional directives for the investigation on the business sector's supply readiness. The investigation shall now also analyze and describe how agreements on the purchase of goods and services to secure supply readiness can be entered into to create an efficient, uniform, predictable, and long-term supply of society-critical goods and services.
Based on the stable and long-term foundation that the total defense proposal constitutes, the government, together with the business sector, will continue to build a strong economic defense and a robust supply preparedness.
Markus Selin (S)
Madam Speaker! I thank Minister Bohlin for the answer. I will get straight to the point and begin with what I, and we Social Democrats, think. We Social Democrats want to see a new agency for the development and monitoring of the business sector's supply preparedness and economic defense.
I can argue for this, Madam Speaker, but let me lift my eyes and do it properly. The world's oceans cover 70 percent of the Earth's surface. Global shipping transports between 80 and 90 percent of the world's traded goods, and this also applies to Sweden.
12 percent of the world's goods pass through the Suez Canal. A couple of years ago, a cargo ship ran aground in the canal, and it caused a blockage. This blockage hit Sweden's industrial production quite hard and brutally. It resulted, for example, in Scania in Södertälje, which manufactures one of the world's best trucks, having to stop its production, just because a cargo ship ran aground in the Suez Canal, something that had repercussions.
Madam Speaker! Last year, 55 percent of Sweden's GDP came from exports. Sweden is a very export-dependent country in one corner of Europe, and 80 percent of what we do in Sweden is handled by private companies. That is actually the basis for why we are standing here and debating this tonight. When 80 percent of our GDP comes from private companies, we can, by studying what is now happening in our turbulent world, with a little imagination begin to discern what will happen to Sweden in a larger crisis or in war.
This is the reason why we have proposed that a new agency for economic defense and supply readiness should be investigated quickly. In its 2023 partial report Kraftsamling, Försvarsberedningen touches upon some of what Minister Bohlin was referring to, namely that there is a lack of a structure for foreign trade and the supply of industrial goods. Minister Bohlin touches upon this, but I am emphasizing industrial goods and foreign trade.
I cannot help but become a bit ideological and now come to the number of agencies. It is actually mentioned quite a lot, and Minister Bohlin is also touching upon it. I have full respect for the fact that a lot is happening in the world right now. In the total defense bill, I could read within the area of economic defense that there are four investigations, many of which resemble each other. I have also taken note of some references to the EU, and then a special investigator is to become a national advisor.
It is a bit interesting, because one actually happens to forget that there is a proposal from an investigation regarding precisely a new agency for our industrial goods that is to strengthen our preparedness.
Statsrådet Carl-Oskar Bohlin (M)
Madam Speaker! I did not perceive any question in the member's contribution, but let me nevertheless say that the government is doing quite a lot to strengthen the security of supply in Sweden. I mentioned some of them in the introduction.
Let me state in slightly more detail that the civil framework that will now be in place, when the Riksdag hopefully adopts the government's proposed bill for the total defense, provides an opportunity for reinforced supply preparedness within respective sectors – within health and medical care, where it was, as is well known, lacking during the pandemic, and within food and water supply, where we will return with more specified proposals along the way.
The economic planning framework provides conditions for greater preparedness for supply. Are we at the goal? Absolutely not. There are still outstanding pieces of the puzzle.
I believe that Markus Selin might be mixing it up a little when he reads in the total defense bill, because what is being discussed is a new sector for, among other things, foreign trade and industrial goods. It is an issue that the government is continuing to work on, which I believe is evident in the bill.
It is, Madam Speaker, not unique that the answer to one of the Social Democrats' defined problems is a new agency. I am not saying that it is automatically always wrong, but quite often it is perhaps not the answer to all societal problems. What we are trying to ensure is that we do not lose operational capacity or speed of governance.
Sometimes it can naturally be right to establish new agencies, but the experience is unambiguous in so far as it shows us that from the moment one decides to start a new agency until one has operational capacity, a number of years have elapsed. It is time that the government simply judges does not exist.
We choose to continue working within existing structures in order to be able to see a linear and successive growth in capability, precisely because time is short and the importance of moving forward in this is very great. Therefore, we choose to proceed in the manner that I have now accounted for.
Markus Selin (S)
Madam Speaker! No, I do not think I have misunderstood anything. I spent nearly two minutes explaining the situation, that 80 percent of what we do here in Sweden is managed by private companies and that 55 percent of our GDP comes from exports. That is exactly what I am basing this on, so no, I have not misunderstood anything.
When I read on page 127 in the total defense bill regarding the partial report SOU 2024:19, I looked it up and read what is written there. I therefore do not just read what the government writes, but I also check the sources.
The government is dodging here, plain and simple. In the sub-report I just mentioned, a new agency for industrial policy is identified. There are, for example, phrases such as "Industry employs over 800,000 people in Sweden." It is a straight admission that Sweden is an export-dependent industrial country. This is what I and the Social Democrats have taken firm hold of.
Finland has solved it in a concrete way. We can look at that. There, the Supply Readiness Center exists. I have personally been there and visited, and it is magnificent. It is a state agency. Although only 75 people work there today, that is what we are looking for, really, put simply.
There is everything from coordination, preparedness work, import, export, ensuring functions and monitoring of the international developments. That is why, Madam Speaker, I began by talking about the Suez Canal and the ship that ran aground. It is easily done, and it is fragile. Then we can stand here and argue over whether we have 10 or 11 preparedness sectors or 61 agencies with designated roles.
We Social Democrats do not believe in this. It is not possible. We do not believe that this today will solve the problem that I have just formulated, namely that 80 percent of what we do in Sweden today is handled by private companies and that 55 percent of our GDP comes from exports. We will have problems, Madam Speaker. That is why I stand here and air my small concern, because it can happen quickly. It is enough with one ship running aground. That was a bit of background material.
I shall return to the ideological [aspect] that I advertised a bit in my first speech. Minister Bohlin will recognize me, for I am on precisely the same track. I have noticed in recent years, purely politically, that the number of agencies in Sweden has become a value, a currency.
Probably, if one wants to invest more in tax cuts for those who already have a lot, it sounds good to say that one's own party is efficient and can reduce the number of agencies. But then we can end up in the situation, Madam Speaker, where we build giant colossi of agencies where we can use terms like suboptimization and similar expensive units. Then one can discuss whether we should continue with this and invest 10 million kronor in name changes here and there. This, too, one can continue to scrutinize and twist and turn.
My questions remain, therefore. I must perhaps ask Minister Bohlin for an apology if I was unclear, but the questions are: What is it that is to govern the relationship between state, business, and authorities - that which Minister Bohlin has proposed both orally here and in the written report? Will we be able to compensate in crisis and war? Ultimately, this is about the fact that we cannot maintain the people's will to defend if we do not have economic stability in society, Madam Speaker. It will not work.
Statsrådet Carl-Oskar Bohlin (M)
Madam Speaker! It must be said that Markus Selin is a bit scattered in his speeches. It is a bit difficult to follow and see what the common thread actually is.
Claims are piled on top of anecdotal facts which I do not have any objections to in themselves – it is completely correct that Sweden is an export-dependent country, it is completely correct that shipping is of great importance for Sweden, and it is completely correct that the business sector has an instrumental role in our total defense. All of that is completely correct, but it is perhaps a bit difficult to discern the contours of the words that Markus Selin piles on top of each other.
Let me nevertheless try to answer, to the best of my ability, the question that was asked at the very end of the post. The answer is that we are establishing a financial planning framework for civil defense, which in turn will also enable an enhanced supply readiness within each sector – spare parts, materiel, and supplies – which builds robustness and redundancy in the system.
We have tasked MSB and Socialstyrelsen with producing a pilot study for a supply analysis of a sector. Parallel to this, we have tasked MSB with establishing a national contact point for production transition in order to be able to facilitate the type of events we saw during the pandemic. At that time, the business sector pivoted with all its might, but public Sweden had difficulty facilitating a point of contact in a purposeful way.
We do not, however, share the Social Democratic assessment that a new agency automatically solves this problem. Yes, we will look at the question of more preparedness sectors. Yes, we will look at the question of whether agencies that today are not preparedness agencies perhaps need to become preparedness agencies so that we can move forward as quickly and effectively as possible.
Markus Selin (S)
Madam Speaker! I have respect for the fact that there is very much to do within this area, but as the structure looks now, I am not confident that we will solve this - not at all. Of what is done in Sweden, 80 percent is done by private companies, and 55 percent of our GDP comes from exports. Sweden stands out compared to corresponding countries in the OECD. That one then starts adjusting a little here and a little there does not make me confident.
I also follow what Svenskt Näringsliv themselves say - there is much written on the internet, if one wants to take part of it - and Svenskt Näringsliv also does not seem to be on board as it looks now. We must urgently address this.
I have caught a few quotes that stand out. "Despite the fact that important planning prerequisites are still missing," it says in Svenskt Näringsliv's recommendations from February. They also write: "Cooperation between companies and authorities within the total defense can and must be concretely developed." I take one more quote, Madam Speaker: "Cooperation between companies and authorities needs to be organized differently than inter-agency cooperation between authorities."
This is how we can continue, Madam Speaker. I hope that Minister Bohlin has caught any further questions – and perhaps even felt like giving some potentially new answer.
Statsrådet Carl-Oskar Bohlin (M)
Madam Speaker! I must say as I said earlier and this time stop there: I actually perceive no further question from Member of Parliament Selin.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.