芬蘭與瑞典的工業競爭力.pdf49

1. INTRODUCTION
Sweden and Finland are among the world’s richest and most highly developed economies
today, but it is often forgotten that the Nordic region was still one of Europe’s poorest and
most backward corners around the middle of the 19th century. The remarkable transformation
that commenced around 1850 in Sweden and some decades later in Finland has gradually
changed both countries from underdeveloped agricultural economies to advanced industrial
welfare states. This process is interesting not only from an historical perspective, but also
from the point of view of today’s developing economies.
One of the distinguishing features of the Nordic development history is that growth was
fuelled by the expansion of industries based on domestic raw materials, such as timber and
iron ore. From a position as suppliers of simple intermediate products to more advanced
economies in Western Europe, Sweden and Finland were able to upgrade the technological
level of their raw material based industries, and establish a foundation for a more diversified
economic structure. Over time, both countries managed to successfully diversify into related
activities, such as machinery, engineering products, transport equipment, and various types of
services. Many of today’s developing economies have abundant supplies of natural resources,
but few countries seem to base their long term development strategies on resource intensive
sectors. The reason is arguably the risk that they may never be able to move from production
and exports of low value added commodities to more advanced industries. However, the
Swedish and Finnish experiences suggest that development strategies based on raw materials
may form a solid base for sustainable development, and demonstrate some of the requirements
for diversification and growth of more advanced industries.1
Another notable observation regarding the Nordic economies is that industries based on
domestic raw materials still account for a significant share of manufacturing activity, although
the export, production, and employment shares of more knowledge intensive manufacturing
and service sectors have increased rapidly during the past decades. The forest and metal
industries together employ almost one-fifth of the industrial labor force in Sweden and supply
about a quarter of total Swedish exports – in Finland, the corresponding shares are even
higher. The continuing prominence of these sectors implies that raw material based
production is not only a temporary stage in economic development, but can instead be a
sustainable element of an advanced industrial structure. This kind of long-run success requires
public policies and company strategies that preserve the raw material resources and create the
skills and competence that are needed to remain competitive in the face of increasing labor
costs and changing technologies.
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