Substantial relations have steadily developed between Sweden and the Republic of China (Taiwan), despite the absence of diplomatic relations. There are contacts between the two sides in a wide range of areas such as trade and investment, academic exchange, research, tourism and culture, as well as cooperation between various NGOs and political parties.
The ROC (Taiwan) and Sweden have representative offices in each other’s capitals – the Stockholm-based Taipei Mission in Sweden (TMIS), and the Swedish Trade Council’s Taipei Office respectively.
Trade between Taiwan and Sweden in 2021 was over US$ 1.5 billion dollars. The value of imports from Taiwan to Sweden was US$ 769.8 million dollars. The value of exports from Sweden to Taiwan was US$824.7 million dollars. Taiwan is now Sweden’s sixth top trade partner in Asia.
The Double-Taxation Agreement signed between Sweden and Taiwan has provided a positive effect on bilateral investment relation. In 2012, Swedish SCA group acquired Everbeauty Corporation, a Taiwanese diaper company, with 1.9 billion Swedish Krona. In the same year, MediaTek, a Taiwanese IC design company, acquired Swedish CoreSonic, a digital signal processor chip design company, with 245 million Swedish Krona. In February 2015, Swedish international fashion brand, H&M, opened its flagship store in Taipei. These successful stories of bilateral investment show a promising future to business relation between Sweden and Taiwan.
There is also an increase in cultural exchange, as a spillover effect of escalating economic interaction. A number of Swedish universities and colleges pursue academic co-operation and exchange with Taiwanese counterparts. There are good prospects for extended and intensified exchange, for instance, in the field of technological development, and in research fields as electronics, telecommunications, IT, medicine and biotechnology, in which Sweden and Taiwan are either pre-eminent or complementary. Co-operation in the environmental field and green energy is also of great interest to both parties.
There is also an increase in academic exchange between Sweden and Taiwan. 19 Swedish universities and colleges pursue academic co-operation and exchange with 26 Taiwanese counterparts. There are 67 agreements or MOU between Swedish universities and Taiwanese universities. The cooperation is about exchange students program, exchange scholars program and research.
