DOING BUSINESS LIKE SWEDES DO – Young Generation Will Change Ukraine

The Swedes held a national referendum on their nuclear-(free) future. In 1980 (!). It took me several days to get my head around the level of issues that are publicly discussed there. And at the same time, it is only now, in 2016, that we, Ukrainians, are working out our own position on energy efficiency and alternative energy.
Almost all biomass is used in an energetics. Forests are uncommonly “clean” – as much as we could see when flying over them 🙂
Clean air is supported by the fact that Swedes usually use just one boiler per one town. It works both for warming and for cooling. Whereas in Ukraine, it is typical to have a boiler per a household.
The vast Nordic electricity market is completely deregulated. It is up to a Swedish consumer to choose a seller. What he or she may not choose, though, is who and how transports such chosen electricity.
The country’s dependence on oil has fallen from 90% in the 1980s to 30% now (and this remainder percentage is still there only because of a transport sector).
Tax stimulation is the most effective one
Carbone dioxide tax was introduced already back in 1999 (!)
Renewable energy is to make up 50% of total energy use by 2020.
The Swedish Energy Agency, a specialised executive organ in the field, has just 370 employees (!) and manages an annual budget of 1.3 bln EUR. In this situation, one cannot avoid the comparisons with Ukraine: the number of civil servants, a level of responsibility, efficiency and zero tolerance for corruption.
The mentioned Agency created Lamp Guide – an application that helps to choose a type of lighting that is most suitable and effective for one’s room and type of work.
Energy crisis monitoring and management are an independent field of state policy.
Swedes have not yet introduced a fully on-line public procurement system (our PROZORRO is a superb advanced novelty! 😉 )
The Swedish Central Bank is one of the oldest in the world (well, it and Tha Bank of England cannot really decide who was actually THE first 😀 )
The stability of the banking system is so stable that Swedes earn almost nothing for depositing their savings at banks. This is the way one pays for reliability. And here one sends ardent greetings to ardent Ukrainian admirers of “bank bargains” of 20%.
Corruption is a synonym and doom of Ukraine. Overcoming corruption is a prerequisite for all other reforms. (Yes, sounds obvious. But its was mentioned to us by every single person we meet during our stay in Sweden).
The reform of Ukrainian civil service is a functional necessity. Just think: just 370 (!) Swedish civil servants are responsible for an energy sector. And their Central Banks has reduced its staff from 1,200 to 330 persons – with a view to reduce the latter number to 42. The National Bank of Ukraine currently has 10,000 employees. Nevertheless, there were also many positive comments about what the NBU is doing. In particular, they concerned the gradual reduction of the number of staff and appearance of “new faces” there.
24/7 communication with the public about all issues, in particular – the most difficult ones, is paramount. And it is crucial to use simple wording for that instead of a “PhD-encrypted language”.
“People need to be interested in monetary policy and understands it”. Wow, and who would the Ukrainians survive without striking because of all the credits in foreign currency they have taken?
Swedish authorities are interested in educated voters.
Much attention is paid to monitoring academic research. It is important for the Swedes to know that academic research: 1) is practical and 2) is as much widespread in open space as possible. (Anyone who has faced the Ukrainian “academia” sights bitterly and goes on adding “great Ukrainian academics” to a list of sources used for “writing” an article, the price of publication of which in an “academic” journal costs a quarter of a students’ monthly scholarship).
Everyone supports territorial integrity of Ukraine and understands the illegality of annexation under contemporary International Law.
The first question asked by MP Christian Holm Barenfeld concerned Nadia Savchenko and Oleg Sentsov. He promised he would remind the Prime Minister about the illegality of imprisonment of Ukrainian political prisoners by Russia and an obligation of the latter to exchange prisoners of war.
Ukraine should agree its draft laws on technical barriers to trade more – pursuant to its obligations under the WTO TBT Agreement.
The WIPO website aggregates all the principle national laws on intellectual property. The Ukrainian legislation is published there predominantly in… Ukrainian. I cannot but agree with the Swedish Paten Office that it such situations an investor will not even face the problems with foreign currency control in Ukraine. He / she will not just get as far as that because he / she simply does not have a primary possibility to study principal national legislation in this field. At this preliminary stage, an investor already has either to invest in a Ukrainian translator or in a legal advice from a Ukranian law firm.
Taxation: some taxes are paid to the State Budget, some of them are paid to local budgets. If there are any disproportions between the regions, there are clear procedures of redistribution of funds of local budgets.
In comparison to the rest of Europe, both the authorities and population of Sweden are relatively calm as regard a refugee issue. The country accepted 150,000 refugees in 2015 and expects the arrival of the same number in 2016. In terms of the capacity of economics, Sweden can accept the given number of people. The majority of prejudices and fears are of a social character, i.e. what impact an influx of refugees will have on a labour market and unemployment level in a long-run perspective, who to ensure social reintegration of child soldiers, etc.
There is gender parity in almost all state authorities. Female representatives sometimes even prevail in some municipal councils.
There are many more males with baby strollers in Sweden than in Ukraine who are walking their kids by themselves. Observing a dad showing his 1-year old kid Cubist paintings and then proceeding to a room where a Dzyga Vertov film was demonstrated, I was convinced (again!) that open thinking and healthy society are born, first and foremost, out of education and culture.
The Swedes are amazingly and healthily slim, moderately open and informally frank.
I haven’t found a single souvenir with my beloved Karlsson! It turned out that he was considered not a very good hero in Sweden – because he ate too much and sometimes talked his friend into playing truant. 😉 Oh well, they haven’t seen the marvellous Soviet cartoon, poor fellows!
I have alsways considered myself to be quite advenced in and open to contemporary art. However, while watching conemporary ballet at the Swedish Opera, I was at a loss: 1) have not they mixed contemp with performance? 2) why are all grey-headed Europeans head over heels, clapping and I cannot even imitate a clever and satisfied face? 😉
Contemporary art has occupied all Swedish state bodies. And – mark my word – in such forms that they truly widen the horizons of civil servants 😉 For instance, the title photo to this post was taken at the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs.

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