Municipalities and Regions on the Competitive Edge : Ten Swedish Examples

Municipalities and regions in Sweden are very important welfare actors in Sweden: child care, schools, spatial planning, health and medical care are but a few of their tasks. Swedish municipalities and regions have independent power of taxation, and almost all income tax goes directly to municipalities and regions. They employ almost one third of the Swedish labour force, and their services make up more than 20% of Swedish GDP.

Several of the Swedish municipalities and regions are on the competitive edge in various welfare services. In the light of the Swedish presidency in the European Union the autumn of 2009, we would like to expose some of them in this leaflet.

The selection of examples reflects both a geographical and a thematic span. As a result we have examples from Umeå in the north to Malmö in the south. Thematicly there is an equally wide variety. Among many subjects there are chapters on district heating, ecological tourism and a working-competence centre.