Corruption in India: Major challenge for Swedish firms

The survey conducted on 138 companies said "bureaucracy and corruption are rated very poor" on the scale of 1-10 (10 being very favourable). The two problems are listed on the first and second positions. However, a majority of them still remain positive about investing in India.

"...96 per cent of the companies are planning to increase their activites in India in the next three years," a joint survey conducted by Swedish Embassy, Swedish Trade Council and Swedish Chamber of Commerce India said.

Despite these issues, the Swedish firms like Alfa Laval, Tetra Pak and Scania have lined up investment plans for the country. The other bottlenecks faced by the Swedish companies are related to acquisition of land for commercial use, registration as a legal entity, financial challenges and difficulty in finding business partners.

"These are the obstacles, Indian government is focusing on corruption...I hope that there are some results in the right direction," Swedish Trade Commissioner Anders Malmstrom said while releasing the survey.

"Complicated formalities, cumbersome decision-making, attempts at corruption or fear from individuals to make major decisions are issues reported by Swedish firms in India," the survey said.

Besides the shortage of skilled professionals is another problem faced by the Swedish companies. They also find lack of transparency, labour regulations and import duties to be high.

All in all, the advice to the Swedish businessmen from the findings is "doing business in India can be tougher than most markets- send your best man/woman for the job...plan establishment in phases and bring patience and perseverance."