- Things have indeed happened in Tallinn since I spent time here doing research for my book "Estland - En ny generations nation" ("Estonia - A new generation's nation") which was published in 2002. And things have indeed happened in Stockholm as well. Sweden's capital region's economy is growing rapidly with high-tech ICT companies leading the boom, said Maria Rankka, CEO of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, as SCCE members met her at a business lunch, Tuesday 22 September.

- The most common profession in the Stockholm region nowadays is being a computer programmer and it is frequently said that our long and dark winter nights are an incentive for people to sit down in front of their PC's and develop their programming skills. However, the academic education possibilities that Stockholm can offer shouldn't be forgotten. I'm especially thinking about the Royal Institute of Technology, the Stockholm School of Economics and Karolinska Institutet, one of the world's leading medical universities, continued Maria Rankka.

- It is not only the Stockholm region's economy that is growing, so is the population. It is estimated that over two busloads of people migrate to Stockholm every day and that leads us to the main problems Stockholm is facing. To make a short summary of them, I can say that they include housing, housing, housing followed by infrastructure!

- An important part of our work at the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce is to lobby to influence politics in our region. I'm happy to say that the ongoing expansion of Tunnelbanan, Stockholm's metro system, with new tracks and nine new stations, is a good example on how our lobby work has influenced the politicians' decision making.

- Stockholm's, and Sweden's, economy is depending on exports and we do have an international perspective in our Chamber's work as well. One example is the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce which has developed into one of the world’s leading forums for dispute resolution. Another very good example is that we are the "home" of the Swedish Chambers International, SCI, which represents a significant part of the Swedish business community on key markets outside Sweden. I'm happy to note that the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Estonia is one of the members in SCI!

- Startups will continue to be an important factor for Stockholm's continued growth. Having noted that big, and since long well-established corporations perform poorly in terms of buying up, invest in and cooperate with fast growing startups, we have started a project called "Team Up with Startups" in cooperation with the incubator STING - Stockholm Innovation and Growth, concluded Maria Rankka.

On behalf of the SCCE, I would like to thank Maria Rankka for an interesting presentation. My sincere thanks also go to our members for an equally interesting Q&A and discussion session.

Reporting from Swissôtel Tallinn,

Kristiina Sikk

SCCE Ombudsman