The town of Malmoe has reinvented itself, transforming from a depressed, crime-ridden industrial town full with 22% unemployment, to a clean, high-tech, sustainable town whose residents enjoy their quality of life.

From Expatica: "We had an unemployment rate that was the highest in Sweden," says Ilmar Reepalu, the Mayor of Malmoe. "At the same time most of our industries [had] closed down...we didn't know where to go."

Apparently city leaders figured out "where to go" pretty quickly, because in the last 15 years they have transformed Malmoe, luring high-tech businesses into sleek, new, green and efficient offices and reducing the town's unemployment rate to an impressive 3 1/2%.

"The actual problem we have is ourselves," says Katarina Pelin, Malmoe's Environment director. "So what you have to do is stop writing programs and strategies...stop using the right words, start the action."

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