35. Sweden
35.1. SMEs in the national economy
SMEs account for 99% of all enterprises in Sweden as well as 60% of employment and 48% of value added. Most SMEs operate in services, wholesale trade and retail, and construction. There are relatively few Swedish small and medium enterprises in the manufacturing sector.
In the annual statistics report on public procurement (Statistik om Offentlig Upphandling), Sweden refers to the European Commission’s classification of SMEs.
35.2. National policy framework to support SMEs in public procurement
The Swedish Government has adopted a National Procurement Strategy.1 One of its seven policy objectives is to ensure a multiplicity of suppliers and well-functioning competition. In this strategy, the Swedish Government encourages contracting authorities to ensure that they actively strive to provide a real chance for small enterprises to participate in public procurement, for example by removing barriers such as excessive criteria for economic and financial capacity where such are unjustified.
35.3. Implementation mechanisms
Implementation of the National Public Procurement Strategy must be carried out by each contracting authority. However, the National Agency for Public Procurement has the specific task of implementing and following up on the strategy on the basis of its seven policy objectives. The Agency also offers support to SMEs, for instance through guidelines such as “New public procurement legislation – What does this mean for you as a supplier?” It also offers a help desk service whereby SMEs can contact the agency to pose any question concerning public procurement.
In view of the results from the Agency’s follow-up, work on the strategy within the contracting authorities will also be followed up in various ways by the government. At the level of the governmental authorities, this has already begun to take place in the form of inter-authority dialogue and a few specific governmental assignments.
As mandated by the Swedish Government, the National Agency for Public Procurement has initiated several activities in order to support implementation of the Strategy by contracting authorities. One of the initial initiatives was to conduct a survey on the contracting authorities’ strategic use of public procurement (Trendens 2017, no. 1, www.upphandlingsmyndigheten.se/verktyg/trendens/).
Additionally, the National Agency for Public Procurement offers information, support and training, as well as other state agencies such as Sweden’s innovation agency Vinnova and the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth.
35.4. Monitoring performance
The annual statistical report on public procurement, published by the Swedish Competition Authority and the National Agency for Public Procurement, measures the number of contracts awarded to SMEs. The survey of contracting authorities is also taken into account in assessing the SME support strategy in public procurement – especially the question, “Do you take efforts in facilitating for small suppliers’ participation in your public procurements?”
In 2016, SMEs fewer less than 9 employees, or micro-enterprises, represented 40% of all bidders. For SMEs with fewer than 49 employees and more than 10, or small enterprises, the corresponding figure was 35%. However, the number of tenders submitted by micro and small enterprises that resulted in awarded contracts was only about 50%, and about 22% in terms of value (Table 35.2).2
References
[1] OECD (2017), Financing SMEs and Entrepreneurs 2017: An OECD Scoreboard, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/fin_sme_ent-2017-en.
[2] Swedish Competition Authority and The National Agency for Public Procurement (2017), Statistik om offentlig upphandling (Statistics on Public Procurement) 2017, https://www.upphandlingsmyndigheten.se/globalassets/publikationer/rapporter/rapport-2017_5-statistik-om-offentlig-upphandling-2016.pdf.