Sharing the Swedish recipe for innovation

LAST month, Cornell University and its publishing partners presented its global innovation index for the 10th time. Sweden reached second place, after Switzerland. Since 2011, Sweden has finished top three in the world every year. Singapore has also been ranked among the top 10 countries over several years, reaching third place in 2011 and 2012. Our two countries are innovation leaders; I hope that with better collaboration we can become even stronger.

Last year, Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, was ranked as the city in Europe with the most billion-dollar startups, so called unicorns, per capita and globally second only to Silicon Valley as a birthplace for successful Internet companies. Innovation comes high on the Swedish government's agenda. Because our competitiveness depends on our ability to create and make practical use of new scientific discoveries - in short, our capacity to innovate.

Our ambition is to make Sweden a world leader in the development of innovative products, services and business models through joint efforts by all relevant stakeholders. In my role as Minister for Enterprise and Innovation, I was recently asked if there is a Swedish recipe for creating innovation. The short answer is that there is no silver bullet; rather there is a number of contributing factors.