Small and Medium-Size firms in Sweden and Government Policy

The small and medium-sized firms are an important part of the Swedish economy. They are employing more than one million people or one third of the employees in Sweden. Small firms help many villages in the countryside to survive. They promote technical development and are important as sub-contractors to large industries. These firms, however, often face obstacles such as insufficient security for loans, lack of risk capital, and sometimes insufficient management expertise in the fields of technical development, financial planning, or marketing. The aim of governmental policy is to remove these obstacles. To achieve this, a number of supporting institutions have been launched in the last years. The most far-reaching is the organization of the Regional Development Funds. These funds are working in all 24 counties of Sweden, providing financial assistance and management service in various forms. The Funds do not compete with private organizations but work closely together with bank and private consultants. The Swedish Board of Industry (SIND) is the principal and financer of the Funds. According to the experiences of SIND, the small and medium-sized firms really need the services offered by the Funds. Those firms which have received support from the funds have been well benefited.