Gandhinagar: Consul General of Sweden in India Ulrika Sundberg today said that the Swedish companies in Gujarat could create 250,000 direct job opportunities instead of current around 8000 if certain policy measures with regard to direct selling and retail etc were taken.

After an investment facilitation mechanism meeting of Swedish delegation comprising of 9 companies of the Scandinavian country and also the General Manager of the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in India Mrs Sara Larsson, with Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on the sidelines of Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, Mrs Sundberg told newsmen in Ahmedabad that the 29 Swedish companies including Perstorp, Sandvik, ABB, Fortum etc currently employee 8000 people directly in the state and around 35000 indirectly.

She claimed that the number of direct employment in these companies can be taken up many fold and up to 250,000 if issues related to retail and Direct selling and some others were resolved.

She said that the number of Swedish companies in Gujarat has gone up to 29 from 26 in 2017.

Mrs Sundberg also said that the Swedish companies were also willing to increase the number of women in the work-force.

‘We had last year started a program in an Industrial cluster in Pune where 50 Swedish companies are present. The women are skilled and employed in the companies. In India as per a world bank report the number of working woman which was 42% of their total population in 1992 has come down to 26% in 2017. It was going further down while in other parts of the world it was going up. This is despite the fact that the number of educated woman was going up in India too,’ She said.

In India currently around 200 Swedish companies were present with a permanent work force of 250,000 and indirect employment to around 1800000.
Talking about the meeting with CM Rupani, Mrs Sanderg said apart from expansion and investment plans and challenges in relation to the direct selling industry and land acquisition the issues of sustainability and efforts to upskill and address skill gaps by the industry as well as increasing female participation were also discussed.

She said that Gujarat was the second most preferred option for investments by Swedish companies.

On the occasion mobile hydraulic manufacturing company Olsberg shared details about setting up its first facility outside of Sweden in Gujarat (on the outskirts of Ahmedabad). Perstorp Chemicals also shared about its first Indian unit in Bharuch district with an estimated investment of Rs 520 crores. Sandvik on the other hand shared that it would expand its facility in Rajpur in Mahesana.

DeshGujarat