Sweden woos Indian firms

Swedish companies are looking at business opportunities in Bangalore as well as at wooing companies here to invest in Sweden, according to Inga Eriksson Fogh, ambassador, Embassy of Sweden.

Ms Eriksson was part of the delegation from Sweden which is in Bangalore to participate in the Bangalore IT.com. After visiting ABB, Telelogic and MindTree, the delegation also visited Wipro.

Swedish film-makers, who are also part of the delegation, "contacted Bollywood to increase opportunities for promoting shooting in both countries. Swedish film-makers are also inclined at shooting in various Indian locales. We are in Bangalore to look at opportunities in IT and telecom," Ms Eriksson added.

After Bangalore, the delegation will go to Delhi and will look at possibilities of boosting Swedish imports from India. Sweden's exports to India is currently four times that of its imports from India. "We are very inclined at increasing Indian imports," she added.

"Currently, there are about 70 Swedish companies in India, while only about 15 Indian companies are in Sweden. These include IT majors like Wipro, Infosys and TCS. Also, over 20 per cent of the IT companies in Sweden are foreign-owned.

To help more Indian companies invest there, we have a team in the delegation which will specifically talk about investment opportunities in Sweden," Lars-Olof Lindgren, director general of trade policy, ministry of foreign affairs, Sweden, said.