There remain some fiscal and regulatory barriers. Telework background and take-up of ICTs General background Sweden vies with Finland as Europe's most intensive user of Information Society technologies. It invests a higher proportion of GDP in IT than any other European country and occupies first or second place on most of the relevant metrics. January 1998 Sweden is a relatively prosperous European country, with GDP per capita similar to the Netherlands, but only half the Netherlands' population spread across more than ten times the land mass. The services sector includes a high proportion of public services employment and Sweden has not yet developed a strong exporting position in services.
Public agencies account for one third of all employment.
Sweden has been a leading advocate of free trade. In manufacturing Sweden's count of home based multinationals is very high relative to the scale of the home economy, and includes several household names - Ericsson, ABB, SKF, Volvo, Saab, Atlas Copco, Scania. Swedish-owned multinational firms account for about half of total Swedish exports. In recent years Sweden has also attracted investment by foreign owned multinationals. However, more women than men are in part time work or in low paid jobs and there are pressures for further steps towards equality of opportunities.