Episode 16: Telia's Johan Dennelind — Global Policy Lab — Catalan independence referendum

<p>Host Ryan Heath talks to POLITICO's chief Europe correspondent Matthew Karnitschnig about a homegrown journalism experiment: POLITICO's first Global Policy Lab. We convened labor and economics experts, executives and union representatives, along with regular POLITICO readers, to develop stories about how Europe can engineer growth, and in particular to develop real policy prescriptions for how Germany's old world manufacturing base could survive the country's demographic crisis.</p> <p>Robots to the rescue: Germany is using robots to beat back its demographic crisis of an aging population and to keep its manufacturing competitive. For all the value delivered by robots Matthew Karnitschnig told us that &quot;You can't just rely on robots. There really is going to be no way around dealing with the problem without more immigration.&quot; To maintain Germany's current workforce average net migration levels would need to 400,000 per year.</p> <p>Telecoms connects all, so must support all: Telia CEO Johan Dennelind rejects the idea of telecoms as a &quot;siloed industry&quot; that exists in its own corner of the economy. He says telecoms is a platform that connects everyone, so he has both business and social obligation to commit to projects like the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.</p> <p>No charity here: From helping to deliver corruption-free markets to better health outcomes for women, Dennelind says delivering on social goals is part of Telia's annual reporting and &quot;part of our core business. This is good for us and our shareholders.&quot;</p> <p>Sweden's Stockholm second only to Silicon Valley in start-up race: Dennelind says Sweden's success &quot;comes on the back of an ecosystem in Stockholm that is fantastic,&quot; which is due to Sweden's political framework, skills base, local attitudes and good capital funding.</p> <p>No need for Macron's proposed EU agency for disruptive innovation: &quot;I don't think it's needed. What is needed is to let loose the forces that are out there,&quot; i