The Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce Georgia strengthens economic trade, commerce and investment between Sweden and the State of Georgia, creates a distinctive networking platform for the international business community, and provides a forum for cultural outreach and education.

Georgia is the place to be, it offers international business partners a thriving community of global commerce and the most culturally diverse environment in the region. Georgia is the crossroads of the US by air, land and sea. With the world’s largest airport, two deep water ports, and the most extensive surface transportation network in the country, Georgia can provide you access to over 80 percent of the U.S. industrial market within a couple of days.

Whether you are looking for business contacts, need trade related information, or have an interest in the Swedish culture, you will benefit from what Georgia and SACC-Georgia can offer.

Sweden the most competitive EU nation

According to the World Economic Forum study released just days ago, Sweden remains the most competitive economy in the European Union, followed by neighbors Finland and Denmark.

Those three Nordic nations ranked above the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany in the analysis, which is based on indicators such as economic and productivity growth, research and development spending, and unemployment. Italy ranked as the third-least competitive nation, just above Romania and Bulgaria at the bottom of the list. Greece was fifth from last.

“While some progress has been made, much remains to be achieved in order to fully harness Europe’s economic potential,” Klaus Schwab, the WEF’s founder and chairman, said in a statement. “Accelerating the reform process” across the EU “will be critical for ensuring that the region gets back to growth,” he said. Europe’s economies are struggling to recover from the worst worldwide recession since World War II. While reviving global growth has boosted exports, consumer spending within the region remains weak and Greece’s spreading debt crisis is clouding the outlook. The Nordic countries “are the strongest European performers in the area of innovation, attributable to their companies’ aggressiveness in adopting new technologies and their level of spending on R&D,” according to the study. It also cited “the high degree of collaboration between universities and the private-sector in research” in these nations.

See Nordstjernan for more information

SACC-Georgia welcomes their new Trainee

In the beginning of June, SACC-Georgia will have a new trainee! She will be with us for a yearlong internship.  She is warmly welcome in the SACC-Georgia office by the other SACC-Georgia trainees Rickard Nyberg and Josephine Gertzen. They are looking forward to working with her – Emelie Hilm will contribute with her new ideas and exercise her knowledge within the Green industry. This is a perfect match for SACC-Georgia’s Green Theme 2010.

”I am now looking for a new challenge at a work site where I can use my skills from my education and have the opportunity to show what I am capable of achieving” – Emelie Hilm

Emelie is born and raised in Åhus, Sweden and she has been living in Uppsala since the fall of 2006. She studied the Agricultural Programme of Economics and Business Administration with a major in Business Administration.  Emelie will receive her Master’s in 2012 after returning to Sweden.

Princess Victoria meets Elekta in Seattle

Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden and heiress to the Swedish throne, with Tomas Puusepp, President and CEO of Elekta and Vivek Mehta, M.D., director of the CATRT at Swedish Cancer Institute, in front of the Elekta Synergy radiation therapy machine at the Swedish Cancer Institute.

Crown Princess Victoria was in Seattle to celebrate Sweden Week (http://swedenweek.org) – a time to honor the Swedish influence of the city of Seattle.

Part of the festivities included a technology tour of Swedish Medical Center on Friday, as well as a Nobel Laureate Tribute Dinner on Friday night which honored six Nobel winners from Seattle. Elekta was a gold sponsor of Sweden Week and the Nobel Dinner. Saturday evening she commemorated the Centennial Celebration of Swedish Medical Center by attending Celebrate Swedish – the annual fundraiser for Swedish Medical Center, of which Elekta was a sponsor.

Swedish Cancer Institute (Seattle) and Elekta also finalized a strategic partnership to launch a major new cancer-care initiative to transform radiation oncology delivery for cancer patients. This unique, multi-year, multi-product collaboration covers the spectrum of cancer management – from treatment planning and delivery to workflow and connectivity – and enhances Swedish Cancer Institute’s ability to provide patients access to state-of-the-art technology early in the product introduction cycle.

This partnership agreement, which is among the most comprehensive in Elekta’s history, includes Swedish’s acquisition of multiple cancer management solutions, including radiation-therapy treatment systems, treatment planning workstations, electronic medical record systems, clinical service, and Leksell Gamma Knife® Perfexion™ (radiosurgery) system. Elekta will also provide expertise in process transformation, technology enablement and strategic marketing.

For more information see http://blog.elekta.com/

Greener search: New Thinking

Growyn, the Green Search Engine

Going green is in many ways common sense, in other cases good business sense. SACC-Georgia is not alone to focus on going green but the local Swedish Chamber of Commerce found an interesting new partnership in Sweden along the way, Growyn.

We have also recently launched a first version of our environmental portal called Growyn Green, which is a news, discussion and blog portal focused on environmental issues. We aim to integrate the public’s thoughts and questions about the environment with recent research results and news feeds from other sources.

Click here to see the full interview at Nordstjernan