The re-establishment of trade and investment and the Swedish participation in the development of mobility infrastructure all point to Sweden establishing stronger bilateral relations with the Philippines, said the Swedish Ambassador to the Philippines Annika Thunborg.

Thunborg, in a roundtable discussion with The Manila Times on Monday, said that the Swedish embassy in the Philippines has been successful in its contacts with Manila after the 2016 reopening of the embassy.

“We decided to reopen because of the growing interest from our private sector. Companies saw opportunities here because of the emerging economy, the growing economy, the growing middle class,” the envoy noted.

Thunborg identified large companies that have found a new home in the Philippines, such as OSM Group, IKEA, H&M and Volvo Group trucks and buses, as important indicators of renewed tires.

The latest to open was IKEA, which opened its largest store in the world in the Philippines – a 730,000 square meter facility in Manila.

The Swedish manufacturer OSM Group opened a production facility for consumer electronics and industrial products at Clark Freeport Zone, Clark Development Corp., weeks earlier.

“I was very happy to be able to open just two weeks after IKEA, we inaugurated the OSM Group which opened the factory in Clark, Angeles in Pampanga. The OSM group they design, they produce portfolios, folders for Amazon, Google, Samsung and for many others digital companies, and they will have over 300 employees around February [202]”, sa Thunborg.

The Swedish envoy revealed that IKEA plans to expand more of its department stores in the coming years.

“We will know how long it will take depending on [Covid-19] pandemic, but that’s the idea, “she said.

In addition to OSM Group and IKEA establishing larger establishments in Clark and Pasay City, respectively, another large Swedish retailer, H&M, has been active in the Philippines since 2014 and opened its very first store in the SM Mega fashion hall in Mandaluyong City.

“H&M now has over 40 stores and that they can of course satisfy the growing middle class; there is a larger market here,” said the ambassador.

Thunborg added that the largest Swedish company that has established itself in the country so far is Transcom, an outsourcing company that provides customer care, sales, technical support and debt collection services through a network of contact services.

It has been in the Philippines for 14 years.

“Transcom is actually our largest company here, they employ over 10,000 people. [What we] I have also seen since 2016 the growing interest in the service sector, the call centers where the Philippines has a very competitive market, says Thunborg.

The envoy added that with a young and English-speaking population, the Philippines can meet Western needs.

In the midst of the pandemic, she said that Transcom was starting work from home, which it will launch in several other cities in the country, including Davao.

“I visited Transcom here, and they are in good condition and talked about many people in the same premises,” the ambassador added.

Another company that expanded its operations in the Philippines during the pandemic is AstraZeneca, a Swedish-British multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company.

“It’s quite large here. They have 300 employees, but what’s interesting is that they have a female top manager who is Filipino and all the staff are Filipino,” the envoy said.

Thunborg also said that the presence of their companies shows the emerging market capacity that the Philippines has in terms of its trained workforce in this case.

This is also a promising sign that a manufacturing company opened its doors during the pandemic, she added.

The envoy said that Swedish companies and engineers have also started working with the Ministry of Transport’s mobility and public transport solutions to build smart cities, including on the EDSA Bus Way project.

“We worked closely with them and provided technical assistance to see how we can actually create more Bus Rapid Systems, not only at EDSA but also in other parts of the country,” she added.