Asia Magazine #9

A bulletin by Chalmers students in Asia

asiabulletin no9

2007 05 /all-in /swedish president in taiwan /

/let’s pump it south korea /how are babies made /man enough for manila?/

/two sides of the coin

asiaContents Editorial

2

asiaOffice Life and times at the office

3

Representatives Spring 2007

4

NCTU Europe

5

asiaReport Two sides of the coin

6

All-in

8

Swedish president in Taiwan 10 Let’s pump it South Korea 12 How are babies made 13 Business in Hong Kong 14 Beyond Bali 16 The CIA-take off in S’pore 18 Man enough for Manila? 20 Singapore Life 22 Transaction convenience 23 Chalmers in Asia 24

WHAT IS CHALMERS ASIA? Chalmers Asia was opened in March 2003 and is the result of a bilateral exchange agreement between National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) and Chalmers University of Technology. The Chalmers Asia office is strategically located at NCTU, near Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park.

PURPOSE - Increase awareness at Chalmers about the development in East Asia, with focus on Taiwan.

- Support mobility of students and staff between NCTU and

Chalmers - Enhance Chalmers’ visibility in Taiwan and the neighbouring region

THE CHALMERS ASIA BULLETIN The purpose of this publication is to increase the awareness of Asia among the students and the staff of Chalmers. The articles are written by the Chalmers exchange students in Asia.

Editors: Axel Janson axel.janson@asia.chalmers.se Fredrik Ramberg fredrik.ramberg@asia.chalmers.se Design: Anders Perntz anders.perntz@asia.chalmers.se Yeu-Fwu Hua yeufwu.hua@asia.chalmers.se CONTACT web www.asia.chalmers.se Chalmers Asia National Chiao Tung University phone +886 (0)3 573 73 69

+46 (0)31 780 41 55 1001 Ta-Hsueh Rd. fax +886 (0)3 573 74 69 Hsinchu 300 Taiwan, R.O.C.

Letter from editors

Letter from head of office

Congratulations! A new and fresh number of the Chalmers Asia Bulletin is finally released and needless to say, the bulletin no. 9 contains some hot stuff. The Chalmers exchange students in Asia, managed from the headquarters in Taiwan, have travelled all of Asia to bring you the best from this part of the world. The following articles feature interviews with people, phenomenons and corporations that you will not find in other papers. We hope they will provide you with some insight about what happens in this part of the world.

I was preparing my speech for the upcoming Chalmers Asia Anniversary when it struck me, nine months has already passed in Taiwan and I still did not know what monotony and everyday life feels like in this country. At first, a new day was a new adventure, but still today, silly and funny incidents occur all the time.

AXEL JANSON FREDRIK RAMBERG

Editors

Letter from designers What you are holding in your hands is the work of a group. We hope you can enjoy the layout as we have tried to make the content as comprehensible as possible. anders perntz yeu-fwu hua

Design

It all started in spring 2006, when I signed up for a course at Chalmers about Economics and Production systems in Asia It was the perfect course for students with interest in this region and it increased my understanding for Taiwan when I arrived here in June last year. Chalmers arranges a summer course in Mandarin at our partner university NCTU in Taiwan. Later, when the “real” school started in September we could manage a little bit of conversation in mandarin with our Taiwanese classmates. We also started to engage ourselves in Chalmers Asia – Taiwan Office. The work at the office varies greatly and it enabled us to get to know each other faster.

Letter from CHALMERS PRESIDENT

Our stay in Taiwan and our work at Chalmers Asia – Taiwan Office will soon come to an end and a new group with new ideas will take over. During this year I have met people that I would never have had a chance to meet elsewhere. The study tours for the Chalmers office has lead to meetings with mainly Swedish companies all around Asia. So far we have been to Korea, China, the Philippines, Indonesia and Japan. However we have also made interesting contacts at our university and at companies in Taiwan. This is no doubt one of the best exchange opportunities offered at Chalmers right now. Visit www.asia.chalmers. se and find out more about Chalmers Asia program.

It is truly a great pleasure for me to send a warm greeting from Chalmers to all students and friends associated with Chalmers Asia. This is the part of our world where we are experiencing the highest degree of exciting development.

The globalisation is moving fast and opportunities as well as challenges are changing in a fast pace. Students and staff at Chalmers have to be aware of these changes and be given an opportunity to get involved. Chalmers Asia, a student driven platform, provides important insight and support in this respect. A successful time abroad will have a positive effect on building network, carrier, international experiences and these are all important ingredients in a successful and good life. Since I became president of Chalmers in August 2006, I have at several occasions had the opportunity to benefit from the experience developed through Chalmers Asia. One of the most visible and influential expression of their activities is the Asiabulletin. Glimpses of the development seen with a Swedish perspective, with curiosity and admiration, on spot in different parts of Asia, provoke excitement about what is going on. We need to seize the opportunity. Chalmers Asia and Asiabulletin are part of our attempt.

KAJSA TORRING

KARIN MARKIDES

Head of Office

President

asiaOffice

Life and times at the Office

Following our habit and “work hard - play hard”-attitude, after the final exams that ended the autumn semester in January, we once more scattered in pursuit of the good life and our well deserved rest. The winter holidays included the Chinese Lunar New Year, an interesting new experience for most of us. We feel that it was in many ways similar to Swedish Christmas celebrations, although all the gifts are red envelopes filled with cash. At the end of February we had all returned from wherever we had been off to and started the dealing with the spring semester at NCTU and Chalmers Asia.

Not only have we now started the preparations for the reception of the new Chalmers students that are coming and the new NCTU students that are going, but our office’s 4th anniversary was going to be celebrated on the 27th of March.

This is one of the biggest events regarding the number of guests, among them the new president of NCTU, President Wu. In retrospect, the event was to our satisfaction a brilliant success in all aspects. If you were there, you know what we mean, and if you were not, try to catch the 5th anniversary next year.

As we mentioned in the last issue, in order to give you as much as possible of Eastern Asia, we at Chalmers Asia are doing study trips around the region. These trips are supposed to enrich the network of Chalmers beyond the countries and cities where Chalmers exchange students are situated. The trips result in many things, one of them being articles that can be read in this very bulletin or on our homepage. To give you this bulletin we have gone to Korea, Cambodia and Vietnam; an enjoyable duty at its worst.

Our office has recently been enriched by two new talents from Chalmers, Linda and Mikael. Linda will be studying here during the spring semester; Mikael is working with his thesis and will do so all the way until the autumn. Needless to say, they have given all of us new beliefs for the future and the eerie feeling of solitude has left us, our office finally feels complete. For the reader who is keen on learning more about the workings of our office, we would like to direct you to www.asia. chalmers.se for further information.

As the sun has started its relentless shining on Taiwan, the coming weekend will bring NCTU’s 111th anniversary, with massive celebrations to follow. There will be beauty contests, go-kart riding, bone marrow donation, feasting in Swedish “semlor”, job recruiting, singing, dancing and anything else you could possibly imagine. Admittedly a little late in the spring for “semlor”, but here at Chalmers Asia we work outside the common and accepted limits and boundaries of mankind.

asiaOffice

Axel

REPRESENTATIVES SPRING 2007 Mikael Lars Marcus Anders

Kajsa

Linda

Yeu-Fwu

Fredrik

MARCUS LINDEBERG, representative, is part of the Academic

KAJSA TORRING, Head of Office, is a student at NCTU’s

Exchange, he is also webmaster of the Chalmers Asia web site. Marcus is a student at NCTU’s Electrical Engineering department and has a background in Engineering Automation and Mechatronics at Chalmers University of Technology.

Management of Technology department and has a background in Industrial Engineering and Management at Chalmers University of Technology.

AXEL JANSON, Deputy Head of Office,is a student at NCTU’s

FREDRIK RAMBERG, representative, is part of the Alumni group.

Management of Technology department and has a background in Industrial Engineering and Management at Chalmers University of Technology.

Fredrik is a student at NCTU’s Electrical Engineering department and has a background in Engineering Physics at Chalmers University of Technology.

ANDERS PERNTZ, representative, is part of the Project Report and

Corporate Relations group and is and is primarily responsible for the making and the layout of the Chalmers Asia Bulletin. Anders is a student at NCTU’s Electrical Engineering department and has a background in Engineering Automation and Mechatronics at Chalmers University of Technology.

LINDA HERNSTRÖM, representative, is part of the Project Report

and Corporate Relations group and is and is primarily responsible for the Chalmers Asia contacts towards companies in the region.

Linda is a student at NCTU’s Management of Technology department and has a background in Industrial Engineering and Management at Chalmers University of Technology.

LARS ANDRÉN, representative, is part of the Academic Exchange.

Lars is currently working on his Master thesis concerning Event Marketing in a Global Context at the Computer Science department at NCTU. He has a background in Computer Science and Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology.

MIKAEL LARSSON, representative, is part of the Alumni group.

Mikael is currently working on his Master thesis concerning protein multimer formation and structure at the department of Bio-Chemical Engineering at NCTU. He has a background in BioChemical Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology.

YEU-FWU HUA, representative, is part of the Project Report

and Corporate Relations group and is primarily responsible for the Chalmers Asia contacts towards companies in the region.

Yeu-Fwu is a student at NCTU’s Management of Technology department and has a background in Industrial Engineering and Management at Chalmers University of Technology.

NCTU Europe’s Column examination lasts for four hours here in Sweden and without the pressure of time, students can concentrate on their examination.

Besides, every course has at least two times of re-examinations each year for students who failed a course. On the contrary, in Taiwan, exams are quite short and stressful and you have just one opportunity to pass the exam in each semester.

To conclude, every country has their own education system which is most suitable for their students. However, it is nice to see the differences in study between Sweden and Taiwan and I really learn something different from group work and presentations, here at Chalmers. Seeing the differences in studies and learning from Swedish classmates can really help us to broaden our horizons as well as learn some more about the Swedish spirits.

At first glance of the economies of Sweden and Taiwan you get the clue that the countries’ industries are very different. Taiwan, as everybody knows, is famous for its electronic and semiconductor industry. On the contrary, Sweden is famous for its inventions and companies like IKEA and Volvo. This makes you wonder if the university education in these countries also differ.

In Sweden, they divide a learning period into four quarters, which is different from Taiwan. Generally speaking, people take 2~3 courses (10~15 credits) every quarter, and each quarter contains lectures , tutorials , projects or experiments for seven weeks, and finally, the eighth week is examination. In a 5 credit course in Sweden, projects, presentations as well as examinations are all commonly required which is not the case at Taiwanese universities.

Projects can be made by one person or a group but it is more common that students are required to work as a group. The groups meet many times for group discussions and it is common to see students discussing projects in the library, in the cafe or in the group room at all times. This is not the case in Taiwanese libraries where silence is a basic requirement. Students study hard and keep quiet in order not to disturb other people’s thoughts. In my opinion, Swedish, or western educations treat discussion as the core of their study. Advanced and novel ideas are always brought out during the discussion, which might help create better innovations.

Written examination is usually compulsory in the end of each quarter. The examinations here are more or less as the same in Taiwan. Students have to interpret different phenomenas and heartmemorize important things. One interesting difference is that the

NCTU Europe is located at Chalmers in Gothenburg, Sweden, and is run by exchange students from NCTU. NCTU Europe has many missions. First of all, it promotes and supports the exchange of staff and students between Chalmers and NCTU. In addition, it enhances NCTU’s visibility in Sweden and other European countries. Moreover, it provides interested students with information about National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park, and introduces recent development in technology in Taiwan. Furthermore, via NCTU Europe office, Taiwanese companies can expose themselves to Chalmers and other institutions in Sweden.

NCTU Europe Skeppsgrand 3, Chalmers University of Technology S-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden web phone e-mail

www.europe.nctu.edu.tw +46 (0)31 7722588 yuanting@student.chalmers.se

Opening hours Monday – Friday 12.00–13.00

Two sides

BY MARCUS LINDEBERG

asiaReport

Have you ever thought about realizing a product innovation, starting up a trade company or taking the step into the manufacturing business? In one of the world’s fastest growing economies, this is possible.

With significantly lower production costs than most countries including China, the manufacturing heaven of Vietnam offers great opportunities for you as an entrepreneur to realize your dreams.

For quite some time China has been in the worlds focus when it comes to big scale manufacturing outsourcing. As time has passed by, however, the increasing production costs in China, mainly caused by rising labour

Lecture in Vietnamese business conducted by Jamie Ma at Yen Wan Packaging Inc.

costs, have caused many international companies to turn their heads to-

by domestic manufacturers but not close to as frequently it happens in

ward the neighbouring country Vietnam. Vietnam is undergoing rapid

China. According to Jamie, to be on the safe side, you just have to take it

economical development and the entrance into trade organizations like

carefully and seek out the manufacturers yourself instead of going with

WTO is making it easier for foreign companies to start doing business

the ones that seek you out. The risk when it comes to finances and efforts

in the country.

invested is not big either. The regulations for a foreigner wanting to start a business in the country are very simple and straight forward. Together

When it comes to manufacturing of relatively simple products, not re-

with the matters mentioned above, the fact that you can start a busi-

quiring the latest high technology equipment, the production costs in

ness and get an export license more or less for free should be incentives

Vietnam are just a fraction of what they would be in Europe or North

enough for a young entrepreneur wanting a manufacturing base.

America. In an interview with Mr Jamie Ma, an American entrepreneur

Facts about Vietnam

with his roots in Vietnam, the economical advantages of manufacturing your products in Vietnam were clearly presented to us. Mr Ma is produc-

Population est. 84 million Government Communist

state

ing simple plastic components for the American drug industry. He told us that the costs for an American company to produce these products in house are so much higher compared to producing them in Vietnam that the transportation cost does not matter.

Common fears among foreign people and businesses thinking about manufacturing or importing products from a developing country like this are many. Is it too risky? Will there be problems with the logistics?

Will the culture differences be too substantial? Will people try to deceive you? According to Jamie, Vietnam is not a risky place for foreigners to do business in. The country is one of the most political stable countries in the region and the people are very friendly to foreigners in spite of the cultural differences. Worth mentioning here is that Sweden have had an extraordinary good relationship with Vietnam ever since the aid Sweden offered to the country after the war in the seventies, giving Swedes

Capitol

Hanoi

Languages

Vietnamese, English, French, Chinese, Khmer

Av. life expectancy

71 years

GDP/capita $3100

perks like not being forced to have a Visa when entering the country.

When it comes to the logistics, Vietnam is well located in the East Asia

Industry

region. With the international harbours of Singapore and Hong Kong as neighbours the export of goods from the country runs smoothly. A well developed network of shipping companies guarantees fast and inexpensive shipping from your doorstep to locations all over the World. Mr Ma told us that he usually just call the shipping company and they come to his company the same day, give him the price and ships the goods without a hassle.

Concerning the risk, Vietnam is less risky than most developing countries such as China. It still happens that foreign companies get deceived

Food processing, garments, shoes, machinebuilding, mining, coal, steel, cement, chemical fertilizer, glass, tires, oil, paper

of the c in

BY ANDERS PERNTZ

asiaReport

What do you do when your chief engineer does not turn up for work? How do you schedule your production during power shortage? At a first glance Vietnam seems like the obvious choice to make your business flourish. Everything is not what meets the eye, a saying supported but several local companies we visited in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) as well as the opinion from Swedish Trade Council. There are certain issues you must be aware of before entering the market to become a successful player. Concepts like time, understanding the flow of labour, the role as a manufacturing manager and the language are vital areas to conceive to run your business successfully.

WORKING CONDITIONS Being a factory worker in Vietnam is not an easy job and for the record most receives a salary far below other developing countries. Monday to Friday, 8-10 hours, is the general working week with occasional Saturdays and overtime. The typical salary is around 200 $/month if you work as an engineer in a Vietnamese company. Taking in mind that a house in Ho Chi Minh City costs around 50000$ and banking loans are not an option gets you pretty stranded where you are. Foreign companies generally offer a higher salary causing the labour to rush to the employer providing the best offer. This is a big issue in Vietnam because management never knows when their workers are leaving. At Viet Steel Mr Nguyen tells us that they are constantly facing problem with workers demanding higher salary or else leaving. In a company with 50 workers it is common with 200 people coming and going during a couple of years. Contracts regarding the employment at a company are a weak guarantee managing staff to stay at their current position. Labour unions are generally quite passive and seldom take action. What makes the workers stay in a small to medium size company is almost entirely depending on a solid relationship between the manager and the workers. To achieve this mutual trust, respect and loyalty from workforce manufacturing managers are often forced to live in proximity to or within the factory. “The team at the factory is a second family demanding as much attention as a real one”, according to Mr Jamie Ma. Whenever an employee is in financial trouble the company has to step in giving aid to the person. “It takes a while establishing tight bonds to workers so you know you can rely on them”, he continues. Managers have to monitor the workers to make sure the production is carried out during the whole day. Not being able to be on site 24 hours a day is taking one step further away from safe running production.

PRODUCTION Producing goods in Vietnam are in most cases easy but government is not too supportive except to big international companies which are given better treatment and special offers. Small organisations also have a hard time protecting their patented inventions against illegal copies. Mr. Jamie Ma simply put it: “You have to speak to the company making copies of your product telling them to stop, but there is little else you can do.”

Meeting with Nguyen Thanh Binh

Meeting with Håkan Ottoson at the Swedish Trade Council

Facing the competition from big neighbour China is always present, in fact Vietnam sometimes experience the lack of raw material since the giant in east is sucking everything from foreign suppliers. Local hazards are the unstable power supply due to an insecure source; hydroelectric power.

Vietnam is mainly powered from the many rivers but during this time of year, the dry season, water flow is too small creating interruptions in industry and domestic electricity networks. This is the problem of the day as we are visiting Globe, a factory in the outskirts of HCMC manufacturing slippers for the local market. The factory is empty except for a young girl working at a mouldings machine.

WHAT TO KEEP IN MIND AS A FOREIGN INVESTOR “Coming in as an outsider with little or no experience of Vietnamese trading will make it hard for you adapting to the local market”, Mr Nguyen Thanh Binh reveals. He is the manager at Swedish-owned Terraco producing plaster and filler for domestic market. A local contact knowing the rules or where to go to get by anyway is necessary when building a business from the start in Vietnam. Local expertise is something invaluable, evidently obvious to Håkan Ottosson at the Swedish Trade Council, who is building up a network of Vietnamese engineers serving as leaders in the market for Swedish investors. Relations to customers are handled with great care as everywhere else but you need to know when to give a sales person/retailer a push in the right direction. Promotion plans, bribes, money under the table or whatever you call it is common and something that can change a negative decision in seconds. Time is not always looked upon the same way in the west; you really have to state your point to make a deadline.

Mr. Binh is further worried about the education in Vietnam. He explains the current situation with newly graduated engineers coming to their first job lacking too much knowledge causing trouble to the company. Basically students need deeper and more thorough understanding of their field and practical training to be better prepared. Vietnam also has the problem with children working in the factories. Locally it is accepted, probably because the common sense says that everybody should contribute to the family or to finance education. Corporate social responsibility may be an issue to big companies but not for the family run local slipper producer.

Marcus Lindeberg and Anders Perntz majors in Production Engineering at Chalmers and is currently studying in Taiwan.

All-in

The story of a man taking it beyond the game

BY YEU-FWU HUA

asiaReport

“I’m all-in!” This phrase is commonly used in poker and basically means “I’m willing to risk all my chips on this hand”. However, for poker pro Dan Schreiber, perhaps better known as Rekrul, this short phrase is not only a part of his poker repertoire but also his way of living – able to risk everything for a single dream.

Everything started with the computer game, StarCraft. This is a story of a young man who went thousands of kilometres to pursue his dreams, and how life can take the strangest turns, for better or for worse.

We, the representatives of the Chalmers Asia Taiwan Office and our good friend Eric Sun from USA, are sitting in a typical Korean barbecue restaurant. There are loud voices from the customers around us and exotic fragrances that we have never experienced before. Dan Schreiber, a 22 year old poker pro and former Starcraft pro gamer sits on the other side of the table. He seems to be a normal down-to-earth guy and tonight, this young man is going to share the story of his life with us. A story of how he went from being a professional StarCraft gamer from the US to a highstakes poker shark in Korea.

It all started in a small state in the US, the little known state of Ohio. Dan was born in the peaceful countryside of Ohio and had a similar upbringing as the other kids in the neighbourhood. His parents raised him to be compassionate for his fellow man and always to remember what was really important in life. Maybe this was the reason why as a boy, Dan dreamt of being a police officer. After he finished high school, he went to college. By then he had discovered the computer game StarCraft, a real-time strategy game released in 1998 and the love of his life. When we ask him why he enjoys Starcraft, his answer is easy: “Because it’s the best game. There is so much skill involved.” Even after 9 years, it is still easy to see how much he continues to enjoy the game.

Dan Schreiber, high-stakes poker pro and former Starcraft pro gamer

“Son, you’ve got to find a job in a factory”, Dan’s father told him when Dan flunked his first year of college. “You’re not going back to school.” Time passed and his mother brought him a paper with job ads, telling him to find a job. By then Dan had already become the American champion of StarCraft. He was the number one player in the US and had talked to some friends in Korea, the Mecca of StarCraft, about going professional. So he told his mother, “Mum, I have a job lined up”. With surprise, his mother replied, “Really, where?”

Korea, with its population of 50 million is the home to the world’s most advanced computer game culture. A major part of this culture is dedicated to StarCraft and the 20,000 public PC gaming rooms, or “PC bangs” that attract more than a million people a day. In the early days these two phenomena amplified the impact of each other. “The same year as the PC Café boom started in Korea, StarCraft started getting big as well, so they helped each other out”, Dan explains.

“In Seoul. Seoul, Korea.”.

The professional players of StarCraft are granted superstar status comparable to that of the top actors, singers and sports stars. Players such as Lee Yoon Yeol (Nada), Ma Jae Yoon (Savior) and Lim

That was two and a half years ago. Today Dan is a well known high-stakes pro in the online poker community where he is making his living. When we ask about live poker, Dan explains that the type of poker he plays, no limit Texas Hold’em, is not very well known in Korea - there is only one casino that offers it. Of course, there are some underground casinos. “I used to go there but I stopped going. Some places are nice, just a bunch of guys who want to gamble, but there are other places that are more hardcore, with people losing money and getting into fights over losses. Once I went to this kind of mafia hide-out place. There was one guy kicking the shit out of another guy in the backroom and no one reacted. That was normal there and that’s why I stopped going.”

Yo Hwan (Boxer) are objects of admiration for millions of fans around the nation and the finals of top StarCraft tournaments are held in stadiums, with tens of thousands of fans in attendance.

These games are also broadcasted live on TV, with several TV channels fully dedicated to computer games, especially StarCraft.

Dan packed his things and left Ohio to pursue a career as a professional gamer in Korea. He had two friends he would live with, Elky and Giyom. Both of them were high-profile StarCraft players in Korea and were also foreigners, like Dan. However, pursuing his dreams of being a pro player wasn’t easy. Since Starcraft was so popular, the competition was extremely tough. Dan was the best in the US, but in Korea he would not make the top 100. This didn’t faze Dan. “I mean I was just happy to have a place to live, food to eat and a chance to fulfill my dream. I loved the game so much.”

Dan worked hard but as time passed he failed to win tournaments, where were crucial to advancement. “It was just too hard”, Dan tells us. “Then I really got corrupted by the drinking and the nightlife. My money was running short. At one point I only had 400 dollars to my name.” That was when his two friends, Elky and Giyom started to get really good at poker and were making good money.

In college, Dan played some low-stakes poker but didn’t really profit. “I wasn’t that much of a wining player and I didn’t play that much anyway.” But when his financial resources started to dry up, he went back to poker. “There was nothing I could do besides go back to poker. StarCraft didn’t pay. I was like, screw StarCraft, even if I become the best player in the world and I make 100,000 USD a year that would be nothing, and I am never going to become the best player in the world. I’d be lucky if I made ten thousand a year.”

Dan quit playing StarCraft competitively six months after coming to Korea and asked Elky to lend him 400 dollars to deposit into an online poker site. The poker tables he sat down at in the beginning cost 100 dollars each. In retrospect, with a bankroll of only 400 USD he could easily go broke. “I was an idiot”, Dan openly admits. “But I was lucky, I ran so good. I ran so good for two months.

I made like 50,000 dollars in a month. I was playing pretty good but I was so lucky.” Then, a lot of things started clicking for Dan, concepts and strategies he never thought about back in college.

When he had earned enough money to move out on his own, he got his own place in Seoul and continued to play online poker.

Dan comes to us as a very successful person, but there are other aspects of being a poker pro as well. One of his friends told him “Poker equals money, money equals freedom”. “That might be true”, Dan admits. “But sometimes it’s just too much freedom.

Almost everyone I know who is successful at poker is dangling in neutrality or worse off because they can’t handle that freedom.

Only a very select few successful poker players are mature enough to handle all the immaturity that being a poker pro allows. Sure, if you are a poker god you drive a corvette and have a huge house but your life is only about one thing, material possession. Does that make you happy? I don’t think you have to go to college. You can do anything with your life - just have fun and make sure you are happy and do not harm other people. If you play poker and you’re losing you won’t be happy. If you play poker and you’re winning, yeah, you’ll be happy but you are harming other people.

I used to think ‘Sure, it’s their choice if they want to gamble, I’m giving them fun!’ but now I totally disagree with that. Even if that person is very rich and you’re not harming him you are not benefiting society in any way - you are just using its goods for your pleasure. Owning rich people in poker and getting rich yourself to me is the exact equivalent to some spoiled brat living off his parents his whole life with no job. He is a waste of space. I’ll go ahead and apologize to all the people I will take money from in my next year of poker playing but rest assured I will put it to good use in the future.”

With these words of Dan, we leave the Korean barbecue restaurant, with its loud voices and exotic fragrances, to continue our quest for enlightenment in the midst of the buzzing Korean nightlife.

Yeu-Fwu Hua majors in Industrial Engineering and Management at Chalmers and is currently studying in Taiwan.

Swedish president in

Taiwan

BY FREDRIK RAMBERG asiaReport Jan Nilsson started his work carrier at Ericsson as an IT engineer, at the same time that he finished his education in “Industrial Engineering and Management” at Linköping University 1978. Today, almost 30 years later he is the President of Taiwan’s second biggest mobile company; Far EasTone. His carrier in Asia already started in 1992, as marketing manager for Mobile Systems with Ericsson in China. This article will give more insight into Jan’s carrier, including 15 years in Asia, working mainly in the mobile telecom industry. He will also share his best memories, experience and tips with us.

Jan Nilsson started his work carrier at Ericsson 1978. His first job was as a project leader for a group whose main task was to computerise a system to estimate production cost for AXE switches.

Ericsson was very pleased with his work and after only 1.5 years he became the manager for the production economy group at Ericsson SRA, later called Ericsson Radio. He stayed there for 1.5 years until he “passed through the corridor at the right time” and was promoted to become the manager of the material administration. His work was then mainly to rationalize the logistic organization. Consequently Jan became a formal departmental manager at Ericsson, before even reaching the age of 30.

Jan mentions many times that he was at the right place at the right time, one reason why he was able to become a departmental manager at Ericsson at a very young age. When he is asked how much luck and coincidences that he thinks have been involved in his carrier, he gives us a very fast answer. “It is about luck, coincidences and competence, there is no question that luck and coincidence have played important roles”.

When Jan worked as the manager of the material organisation he came in close contact with a manager at an Ericsson division working with the Middle East. The relationship grew stronger and Jan was recruited to be economy and production manager for this division. He tells us that he liked this job a lot, but unfortunately his division manager had a fall out with the Ericsson president and had to leave. When this manager left Jan decided to resign from Ericsson as well.

Jan worked one year as a consultant, but he did not find this job

very satisfying. When he got an opportunity to lead a fusion of three companies in the sheet metal forming business he took it.

This was just a four month job and as payment he got a small part from one of the three companies, which was producing compact dishwashers. When he first became the owner of this company it was relatively small, but just after a few years the company was doing very well and had started to expand at a fast pace. In 1991 the Swedish bank crash occurred and Jan realized that he had expanded too much with borrowed money. He could not do anything about the situation and his company went into bankruptcy.

Jan was very disappointed and decided to leave Sweden and he promised himself that he would never come back again to live in Sweden.

At this point Jan decided to look up his contacts from his time at Ericsson, to see if they had any jobs for him. Again he was at the right time at the right moment; Ericsson was searching for someone who could merge the financial departments of different Ericsson establishments in Germany into one, a 9 month project. After this was finished Ericsson offered him a job in China as a market manager for Mobile Systems in China. This was the starting point of his carrier in Asia, and he has been active here since then.

His main tasks as market manager were to promote and sell mobile telecommunication systems. The year when Jan came to China there was a boom in the telecom industry and the demand was huge. During his first year he sold products to the approximate value of 1.1 billion USD, which can be compared to 200 million USD the previous year. Jan spent his time in China going

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asiaReport around the country to sign contracts and visit banquets. After a couple of years in China with very good results, Ericsson decided that they wanted him to go back to Sweden to work at the headquarters. Jan had promised himself to never go back and he kept his promise. Hence the only solution for him was to resign a second time from Ericsson.

Jan had begun to like Asia and just after he finished his job at Ericsson another major Swedish telecommunication company, Telia, contacted him.

Telia had recently obtained a mobile license in India and they wanted him to start up their new business there.

His contract was for two years and on the day the contract was expired he left the country. The company was active in two cities and had 300 emMr Jan Nilsson, posing with Chalmers Asia representatives ployees, but he did not like the business environment in India. He had lots of problems with the local A normal day Jan works around 12 hours consisting mainly of shareholders who ran some kind of “friendship corruption”, as meetings and decision making. Jan says that when you work in Jan calls it. He told us a short anecdote about when he was gothe positions as he does the work has to come in the first hand, ing to build up a technical center. One of the local shareholders the family and your private life has to be your second priority. “It proposed that they should choose what Jan thought was a rundoes not matter if it is night or weekend, if there is job it has to be down building. Jan checked up the owner of the building and it done”. Jan can not speak Chinese, but he says that it has not been turned out to be the uncle of the local shareholder. When this an obstacle for him during his work carrier in Asia. When he was information surfaced at the committees table and it was time for in China for example, they did not expect a foreigner to speak the decision, the local shareholder had hired a priest that said Chinese. Both parts always had their own interpreter. Here in that his suggestion was the best. Jan answered by bringing in five Taiwan everyone at the company can speak English and he has additional priests who advocated his own suggestion and Jan’s a full time employee translating all news from the media, related suggestion was voted through. to Far EasTone. He admits that it is a big handicap in the private life.

Jan then moved to the Philippines for two years to work with a fix line telecom operator. During his time in the Philippines DeutWe ask Jan if he can give some advice for those Chalmers Stusche Telecom contacted him and wanted to recruit him. When his dents who are dreaming about a work carrier in Asia. He says contract had expired in the Philippines he started at Deutsche “You have to be downright honest and never take any shortcuts.

Telecom, who gave him the mission to go to Indonesia to take As a westerner you are expected to act neutral, if you comprothe command of one of their company threatened by bankruptcy, mise, it is over. Even if you work in a corrupt environment, you later merged in to Indosat. The work he did there made him well cannot be corrupt yourself.” known in Asia, when he left the company after three years he had changed the bankruptcy threatened company into a comJan came to Asia by coincidence, he says that he loves to work pany with a market value of 1.7 billion USD. Deutsche Telecom in this part of the world and wants to stay here. When we ask wanted to send him back to Europe, but Jan did not like the nohim about what he thinks he is doing in ten years he has a clear tion of this. When he was preparing to go back he was contacted picture of it. Sweden, which he only visits once every second year and offered the job as President for Far EasTone in Taiwan. Ten nowadays, is never in the discussion. However, he can picture days after this first contact he shook the hand of the chairman himself in his apartment in Manila, working at a 50% pace. The and became the first foreign president of a stock exchange listed rest of the time he will spend with his friends at the golf course. company in Taiwan’s history. Far EasTone was listed on the small company stock exchange in Taiwan when Jan took command of Fredrik Ramberg majors in Engineering Physics at Chalmers and the company. Today, four years later Far EasTone is three times is currently studying in Taiwan. bigger, listed at the Taiwan main stock exchange and has tripled its stock value.

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Let’s pump it South Korea

BY AXEL JANSON

asiaReport

We meet Mr Lee, General Manager for Flygt Korea Ltd., in the Ace Techno Tower located in Kuro-Dong, Seoul. Just back from Rio, he has his technical adviser You-Myung Lee with him to answer our tough questions.

This area in Seoul is packed with company representative offices and took us about forty minutes to reach by taxi from the central part of the city. Remember that this city, including its suburbs, hosts about twenty million citizens. The companies are located here for the same reason as in all countries, the people with the right competencies live in the city.

Flygt’s main business is pumps and mixers, and it is originally a Swedish corporation. Today however, American ITT Industries is the owner of the company. Flygt is not a very big organization in Korea, the company serves around five percent of the South Korean market. In this market, the solutions provided by Flygt is in the high-end when it comes to quality, and are therefore offered at a slightly higher price. The strategy is to not only sell pumps, but rather custom made pump-solutions. Flygt aims to serve the part of the market that demands extraordinary quality and reliability.

It is hard to compete only with price, many companies in the Asian market has internally the slogan “never loose an order because of price”.

Mr Lee has been to Sweden many times. The Flygt head office is located outside Stockholm, and there are production facilities in Emmaboda, Småland, for historical reasons. When discussing differences between Sweden and Korea, Lee brings up the reliability of oral agreements in Sweden. If a customer in Korea has promised something but not signed any contracts, the whole thing can be denied and the order lost the day after.

There are, however, some less good experiences that Lee has from our country as well. “In Sweden, everything is expensive and there is no service what so ever.” One funny incident took place during

a business trip to Emmaboda, when Lee was having “pytt i panna” at the local restaurant. Needless to say, the nightlife was kind of limited. So he decided to try some snaps. After finishing eight of these superb drinks, the bill landed at approximately 1500 SEK. Welcome to Sweden!

When Swedish businessmen come to Korea they usually have a problem with the spicy food. The Chalmers students had that experience the very first day, cursing over their Korean “kimchi”, which is basically cabbage in chilli sauce. Mr Lee, however, is a big fan of the “surströmming”, and usually buys a couple of cans every time he is in Sweden.

It is hard to do business in Korea if you do not know the language.

The knowledge of English in general is limited, and people are not always keen to help you. One strange phenomenon that we have seen in many Eastern Asian countries is that people can read and write English, but not speak a word. You-Myung Lee was like that when he graduated from university. “At my fist job, there was this Japanese customer who greeted me “good morning”. I remember I could not even reply him with anything else than ‘ok’, and my boss got really annoyed.”

According to foreigners we met in Seoul, the Korean language is said to be very logical and easy to learn. In addition, if you know Chinese, things will be a little easier as Koreans actually understand Chinese characters in many cases. All the signs in the streets are translated to Chinese, so we got to practice those skills as well.

When we tell the Flygt staff that we are planning to go skiing for the weekend, they recommend Peyongchang. This place is actually one of the three finalists to host the 2014 Winter Olympics. Last year Flygt arranged a trip to the mountains as an event for the employees. Many of them had never skied before, even though skiing is popular in Korea. It took about one hour for them to go down the first slope, and many employees gave up after that.

After the interview at the Flygt Korea office, Lee drove us to a fancy Korean restaurant in connection to the National Theatre. The menu he recommended contained twelve dishes plus three desserts which is actually more than our usual dinner. The food was really different but good, and we had to drink a lot of traditional Korean liquor, Soju, despite the boys’ wild protests. They did not protest that much when Lee paid the bill for the evening though.

Axel Janson majors in Industrial Engineering and Management at Chalmers and is currently studying in Taiwan.

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?

How are babies made

BY LARS ANDRÉN

asiaReport

From the evolutionistic perspective of humanity, we are alive and walking this earth for a single purpose; to ensure the survival of our own genes. This being so, all our actions and thoughts share the same origin; they are somehow helping us with this very task. Different cultures and religions are making people all over the world express this in quite different ways. Following the fashion of our bulletin, we will tell you all about Eastern Asia’s way of doing it. Although in many ways similar to anywhere else in the world, there are a few interesting differences in the affairs of superficial beauty, relations and sexuality that can be noticed.

To summarise, seemingly, what is seen and what is not makes all the difference. It is very common in Korea, Japan, China and Taiwan for children to go to separate schools until, or even including, university level. On the odd occasion in these countries, once outside their home, you might see lovers holding hands. No other signs of affection are displayed publicly, not even between married couples. Needless to say, sings of affection in public between couples of the same gender are rarer still. As usual, China goes over the top; the government claiming that there simply are no homosexuals in the country.

In Taiwan, there is evidently a clash between the traditional and the modern. At the cinemas or on TV, too much nakedness is consequently scrambled out of vision.

Friends tell us that any form of sexuality is by habit frowned upon and hushed up by most parents, causing the sexual education in school to lack anything but the very basics. Adolescent girls, however, will go shopping for a miniskirt and a “party-bra”, before heading to a club, all outside the prying eyes and ears of their parents. Asking the clubbers, usually in their twenties, if their parents approve of their nightlife, they are often bound to answer “They would go totally crazy if they knew”. If you ask the parents, people who go clubbing are “other people”, not their children. As in most places, children do not tell their parents everything they are up to, and especially so in this case. The decent, prudish front has its cracks though.

Unsurprisingly, as most large cities, Taipei, Tokyo and Seoul have quite vast “red light districts”. A few other things are more surprising though. Last year, in the Tokyo subway, the Chalmers Asia representatives saw business men openly reading pornographic comics. Later on, they stumbled upon a big building filled with and only selling pornographic material, a building of four floors. In Korea, plastic surgery is quite common among young girls, and walking around in Seoul you can see two or three clinics wall-to-wall in the same street. Many Korean parents give their daughters a surgery on their 18th birthday. A currently very popular TV-show in Taiwan is “4F”, a literal translation, an easy going program of dining and travelling. The “4” is the number of native girls in a group who travel the region; the “F” is the size of their bra. To a European, it just does not go very well with the strict and polished front. It is easy to get the sense of as long as you do not talk about it, everything goes.

All over Eastern Asia, as tradition has it, girl or boy, no matter how old you are, you stay with your parents until you get married.

The girl- or boyfriend of a child might be welcomed to dine with the family, but staying the night is usually simply out of the question. Being so, in the cities there are plenty quite fancy so called “Love Hotels”, where rates are offered either by the night or by the hour. As anywhere else in the world, when there is a will, there is a way.

Lars Andren majors in Computer Science and Engineering at Chalmers and is currently working on his thesis in Taiwan.

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Business in Hong Kong

BY SAMUEL OLSSON

The establishment of foreign companies in Hong Kong has increased steadily during the last years. The average annual increase has been five percent during the last five years and there are no signs that this trend will decline in the next coming years. One of the main reasons for establishing companies in Hong Kong is said to be the location. Hong Kong is located at the centre of East Asia and serves as a gateway to mainland China. A lot of businessmen obviously chose to establish companies in Hong Kong, but how is it to run a business here and in what ways is it different from Sweden?

Johan, who previously worked as an industrial designer in Sweden, came to Hong Kong for the first time in 2004 after getting an invitation from the Hong Kong government. Since China started to open up, a big part of the production that formerly took place in Hong Kong has due to cost reasons moved to China. To manage this transition Hong Kong started to build a value adding service industry, where services such as design can be sold to the new production companies in China. Due to lack of competence in Hong Kong, the government needed to attract people and companies from other parts of the world. This is why Johan got his invitation to come to Hong Kong. It also describes a very important transition in Hong Kong’s economy.

The year after Johan first came to Hong Kong he investigated the prospects for design companies in Hong Kong. One of the things he noticed was that the companies in China had a very limited understanding for value adding services, it was clear that their aim was to produce as much as possible, as cheap as possible. Despite this, the group of Swedish design companies that he represented decided to start a joint venture company in Hong Kong; Swedish Design Limited.

In order to answer this question I interviewed three entrepreneurs and businessmen, with different backgrounds, who have their own companies in Hong Kong, all operating in different fields. Although having their own companies in Hong Kong, the three of them have experiences of doing business in Sweden. I met Johan Persson who is heading a small industrial design company, Sofia Wallin who produces her own clutch bags and JĂśrgen Harrysson who is the managing director of a company that designs and produces lighting systems.

Johan was involved in the establishment of Swedish Design Limited in 2005 and is now the head of the company. During his two years that he has worked in Hong Kong he experienced many differences between businesses in Hong Kong and in Sweden. One general thing, he says, is that the business climate is tougher and faster than in Sweden, decisions are supposed to happen very fast. There is one exception though, that is when new business relations are established. This can take quite some time because people really want to get to know each other before they do business. The merits and references are important but a good personal relationship between the business partners is even more important. Johan’s impression is that it is to a great extent a relationship based economy with a lot of meetings.

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“...the way people do business is more short-sighted then in Sweden and that is all about acting quickly” of manufacturing companies are represented here and there are plenty of markets where components are available.

In her contact with businessmen in Hong Kong and China Sofia has experienced that they in general are not as honest as Swedish businessmen or, as she expresses it herself, “if they get the chance to cut a corner, they will”.

Jörgen launched his company Perfekt Technologies 15 years ago and five years later he launched another company called Isola. He tells me that it is very easy and cheap to start a company in Hong Kong. It takes about one week, and costs around 10 000 HKD, which approximately equals 10 000 SEK. The regulation and taxes are also very favourable for companies.

The fact that things often are done very fast also have negative consequences. Johan tells me about when they first installed the phone in their office; it had to be redone twice because it was not done properly. So doing things fast might sometimes make things more time consuming then if they would have been done properly the first time.

One of the advantages of running a business in Hong Kong, he says, is that there is a lot going on here, the probability of running into a business offer is much larger then, for example, in Sweden.

Sofia runs her own business, Bossy Cat Limited, since a couple of years. She has experiences from dealing with production companies in China and says that it is very important to supervise the production to ensure that the product really turns out the way it is intended to. When dealing with production companies in China it is of course an advantage if you speak Mandarin, but all major production companies in China have an office in Hong Kong where English works out fine.

An important part in designing her clutch bags is to do product sourcing, which mean searching for parts that could be suitable for her bags. For this purpose Hong Kong is a very good place, a lot

During his years as a businessman in Hong Kong Jörgen has experienced that the way people do business is more short-sighted than in Sweden and that it is all about acting quickly. If a company considers a deal is not good enough or if it is delayed, the company will rather cancel it then trying to reason with the other part in order to reach a deal which is beneficial for both parts.

After completing the three interviews my impression is that Hong Kong has a lot to offer but also that high demands are placed on the businessmen. For production companies Hong Kong is close to an ideal place due to the nearness to China, the good opportunities to do product sourcing and the favourable regulation and taxes. On the other hand, the business climate which is fast paced and a bit harsh put high pressure on the businessmen.

In the end of my interview with Johan I asked him what advice he would give someone who is thinking about starting a company in Hong Kong. His reply was unambiguous. If you want to start a company in Hong Kong you should first figure out how things work here and to do that, you have to come here and experience Hong Kong yourself.

Samuel Olsson majors in Engineering Physics at Chalmers and is currently studying in Hong kong.

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Beyond Bali

BY LARS ANDRÉN

asiaReport

Chalmers is at the moment putting strong effort into increasing their number of foreign students, hoping to create a more international environment. At the same time, starting from autumn 2008, students from outside the European Union may have to pay some 11000 USD (80 000 SEK) in fees for a year of studies at a university of technology in Sweden. The same kind of bill was recently passed in Denmark, causing the number of non-European students to drop to close to none. On first glance, this might appear to be the reasonable thing to do. One might feel that it is just another burden for the Swedish taxpayers and that Sweden has nothing to gain by paying for foreigners’ education. However, there might be a different aspect of this issue, one where Sweden and its population gain more than it pays. While heading south, we tried to shed some light on this question.

TROUBLES AND PROMISES ore resources and a vast population with An archipelago of more than 17000 islands, rising levels of education. The largest instiislands containing the world’s largest active tution for higher education, University of volcanoes, inhabited by some 230 million Indonesia, can be found in Jakarta. people speaking several hundred languages. This is the world’s third largest demo- EDUCATION AND DEMOCRACY cracy, and most populous Muslim-majority At University of Indonesia, ranking among nation; Indonesia. Although evoking posi- the top 230 in the world, Dr Yohanes Stetive images of its coffee, rainforests and the fanus was the first person to study for Ph island of Bali, Indonesia is at the same time D at the Computing Science department, connected to suffering and violence due to which he did in Canada. He says that altthe terrorist bombing at that very island in hough there are universities in Indonesia, 2002, frequent earthquathey are quite few; eve“Although evoking kes and volcano eruptions. ry space at University positive images of There is a big difference of Indonesia has some its coffee, rainforests 20 or 30 applicants. As between areas and islands; and the island of Bali, with universities, MasJava, containing the capital of Jakarta, being the most ter Programmes in InIndonesia is at the populous is also the most same time connected to donesia are very few developed one. In the suffering and violence” and the quality of them west, Aceh-province, alis quite low. This being ready suffering from poverty and civil war, the case, to go abroad to study is very powas struck badly by the tsunami of 2004. pular among Indonesian students. Knowing Today, Indonesia is growing with strong of Chalmers and Sweden, Dr Yohanes has potential in all directions. The future brings previously recommended students at his both hope and fear. On one hand, radical department to go there. terrorist groups, seriously widespread cor- Corruption, which stalls any kind of social ruption and the frequent occurrence of and industrial development, is believed to natural disasters. On the other; unmatched be so widespread partly because Indonesia opportunities for tourism, plentiful forests, is now democratic. In other, undemocratic

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countries in Eastern and South Eastern Asia, development is faster and corruption lower. This dilemma, “democracy vs. progress”, is not a simple one to solve. Dr Yohanes, being an advocate for democracy, is of the mind that democracy can not work

At the University of Indonesia

without an educated population. He states that if the population is not mature enough, democracy will not function as it is meant to. In addition, to prevent corruption, the nation has to have some sort of a social security net. Without one, people will try to help themselves and their family best they can, a common method being to acquire money from your work.

INDONESIAN IN SWEDEN Between a friendly game of tennis and work, Indonesian native and Chalmers Master Alumni, Erlangga Arfan explains to us how he likes to see the Swedish social security system at work, how taxes paid actually come to benefit the people. He takes time to sit down and talk to us over a cup of creamy coffee in the bustling metropolis of Jakarta. Having experience of working with IFS, a Swedish software development company headquartered in LinkĂśping, he states that his main reason for coming to Sweden and Chalmers was that he wished to study somewhere where education was free. Any foreign student, Swedish or other, will tell you about the problems of getting to know and adapting to a different culture.

Erlangga, not being an exception to this, felt that it was difficult to get to know his fellow Swedish students rather than other international students. In spite of this, he stresses the fact that even though he has not yet found an employer where he can fully use the knowledge gained in his time at Chalmers, he experienced his studies in Sweden as extremely valuable.

Before he went to Sweden he only knew of the brands Ericsson, ABB, Volvo and IKEA, but after staying in Gothenburg, a town he previously did not know the first thing about, amongst other things he learnt that Sweden has a strong pharmaceutical industry and that there are numerous small companies in this region and other places in Sweden with a world leading hi-tech focus. Unable to find a job in Sweden due to

the language barrier, upon graduation he returned to Jakarta. When we ask if a foreigner in Indonesia would have the same experience, the answer is that he strongly believes that it would be the other way around. He says that Indonesian employers value foreigners and their opinions more than locals, and though there is a language barrier, the employers will provide a translator for foreigners.

Currently, while working in a different company, Erlangga is setting up his own company as a freelance consultant for the improvement of supply chain management, a field that he studied in Chalmers. Furthermore, living in Indonesia, he still has some activities related to Sweden such as organizing more than 60 Swedish alumnus for promoting Swedish education in Indonesia. By using his numerous contacts in Sweden and good knowledge of its brands and Erlangga Arfan enjoying a break and a coffee industries, along with their products and services, he is working with an institution Most Swedish companies make their mopromoting cultural-exchanges and business ney abroad; Sweden is simply too small of opportunities between the two countries. a market. When the wheels start to turn THE DIFFERENT ASPECT Lying on the outskirts of Europe, a small and rather unknown university like Chalmers has not got much to offer in comparison to the much more famous universities of Western Europe and USA. However, it is doing very well for a university in a country of nine million people, and it can attract students from all over the world, especially not-so-wealthy ones, since there is no tuition fee. The common arguments for not introducing a tuition fee are that the more international students the better the quality of the education, foreign students help universities to keep them from closing their educational programmes that are less popular among Swedish students and that there is no scholarship system in place as substitute. We wish to present another.

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in a developing country, an unknown and small, but industrially advanced, country like Sweden can get advantages by being at least known about. A concrete example of this is that Ericsson is providing scholarships for Indonesian students to study in Sweden. Foreigners that have studied in Sweden return to their countries with an increased awareness of Sweden’s industry and social system, not only providing Swedish companies with a short cut into these growing markets, but also bringing thoughts and ideas of how a democracy is supposed to work.

Lars Andren majors in Computer Science and Engineering at Chalmers and is currently working on his thesis in Taiwan.

The CIA take

BY LOUISE FORNANDER, MARIA KARLSSON Are you an enterprising person who does not fear new challenges? Are you full of ideas and want to change the world you are living in? Singapore is the perfect environment for developing your ideas and expanding your thoughts. To set up a company in Singapore is a pretty simple task, which Hannes Graah invites everyone who is full of ideas and initiatives to do. Hannes took advantage of his clubbing-addictions to implement his businessconcept and pursue the dream of running his own multinational corporation.

Singapore is the most developed country in South East Asia with an educated population and a stable political situation. The economy of Singapore is a highly developed and successful free market economy in which the state plays a major role. It has an open business environment, relatively corruption-free with transparent stable prices. Singapore has a highly developed market-based economy and has been rated as the most business-friendly economy in the world. Its gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, is equal to that of the major European countries. Singapore is located at a unique geographical and cultural cross-road, and it is an ideal base for setting up and expanding a business regionally, and even globally.

This opportunity has Hannes Graah seized, a psychology graduate and last year law student from Lund University in Sweden. An ongoing exchangeyear at National University of Singapore has broadened his perspective on the cultural differences between East and West. He tries to transplant western concepts into the Asian context, and thereby fill upcoming needs in the East. We met him in the beginning of March, and the coming week his company will embrace the general public. The night before the opening of the internet-site there will be coverage of several parties in Singapore, in where he will show off the services that his company provides during its first stage.

The idea of CIA, Clubbing in Asia, developed during the numerous clubbing-nights in S’pore in the beginning of last autumn. The Singaporean nightlife was quite similar to the western, but one major service was absent.

The website www.cia.sg is a community where people who are enjoying the city’s nightlife can get the latest updates on upcoming events, look at pictures from previous parties and communicate with each other. The CIA site also has a second face with some unique features that are yet to be announced. In the future there will even be an opportunity to hire your own private guide to the most popular and fancy clubs in the major cities in Asia, everything to make your night unforgettable.

Already by the launch next week CIA will become an international company, starting in several cities, in the hope of expanding to all major developed cities in Asia: Beijing, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, you name

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-off in S’pore

it! Four managers and a few photographers (CIA agents) are employed

is needed, part of which goes to the representative office and the many

at the moment and an IT-company, Techsailor, is working on the online

small unexpected extra costs.

platform. The manager’s work is mainly to be the spider in the web for his or her city, take care of all the club-connections and be up to date with the

When we ask Hannes about unexpected events during the past months,

events in the nightlife and the party scene.

only one week before the opening of CIA, we expected an answer considering major culture-differences and language-barriers. But the

To set up almost any kind of business in Singapore is easily done. Exceptions

answer was simply that the planned working-hours had expanded greatly

are for example banks, cigarette manufactures and finance companies. An

and so had the budget. One interesting feature that he had encountered

EntrePass, which is an entrepreneur license that is valid for 1 year and

was that for most Asians the relationship was much more important for

renewable as long as the business is an ongoing entity, has to be applied

conducting business than an actual contract. Working without a contract is

for at the Ministry Of Manpower. The application is straightforward with

a thing most Caucasians would never-ever do…

only a few layers of bureaucracy that should not be unfamiliar to someone from Sweden. Singapore is appreciative of “foreign talent”, and “talent”

CIA will hopefully create a success and expand throughout Asia. Hannes

is usually implied by evidencing good financial status or finding a local

says that he will not be discouraged if things do not go as planned. This

sponsor. The whole process from application to registered company takes

experience has taught him many things that he will always carry around. To

about two months. In contrast to Sweden, you also need a representative

be able to read people is probably the most important one, and also to see

office with a registered address in S’pore before starting. An obvious

and use the difference between the cultures of West and East. If you want

difference is the large tax benefit when locating your business to S’pore.

to succeed, you have to take the chances that might be just in front of you.

Only chargeable income above S$ 100 000 (480 000 SEK) will be imposed

The last advice that he gives to us is: Use the wave of culture-differences,

with a corporate tax of 21%. For the entrepreneur, dividends are tax-free.

and surf it!

To start up a company is not a thing you do over a night. A start-up capital

Louise Fornander and Maria Karlsson majors in Biotechnology Science at Chalmers and are currently studying in Singapore.

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Man enough for Manila?

BY KAJSA TORRING

asiaReport

Together with Lars I decided to visit the Philippines, one of Taiwan’s neighbouring countries that seem to have fallen behind the growth wonders that have taken place in Eastern Asia during the last decades. The Philippines consists of about 7000 islands that are located southeast of China and north of Australia. 90 million people inhabit these islands that offer amazing landscapes and clear water, making it perfect for tourism. Also, the geographical proximity to some of the major economies in Asia seems promising for business opportunities.

Surprisingly enough, tourists are reluctant to visit the Philippines and the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has not yet taken off. During our stay in the capital city; Manila, Lars and I met two Swedes who are working in Manila to find out if there are indeed opportunities in this South-East Asian country that has not yet caught the attention of the world.

Lovely dinner with Magnus Wibling from ABB at Paso Uno in Makati City, Manila

TWO PATHS TO AN INTERNATIONAL CAREER The first person we met was ABB’s president in the Philippines; Magnus Wibling, a Chalmers alumnus with a Master of Science in Mechanics. We met him a Sunday evening in November 2006 when Lars and I had just returned to Manila from a couple of sunny days on the beaches of Puerto Gallera, south of Manila.

He took us to a nice restaurant in Makati City and we started of by sharing our experiences as tourists in the Philippines. Magnus, being an experienced diver, seemed to know every diving spot in the Philippines.

Apart from the diving, Magnus has always had a great interest in working in an international environment and for that reason, after his first job as a consultant in Gothenburg, he started to work for ABB. He decided to tell his manager from the very beginning about his international career intentions, and today he thinks that this was the critical factor that brought him overseas. It only took him a year to get his first job-opportunity abroad. He moved to Istanbul in Turkey and then on to Thailand and Switzerland, before ending up in the Philippines, where he has lived the last seven years. He believes that Swedish people are good at adapting to different cultures which makes it easier for them to work abroad.

The second person we interviewed was Fredrik Agerhem, who had been working at the Swedish embassy in Manila for about ten months. He started off by telling us about his background.

During his years as a student at Stockholm School of Economics he also worked for TetraPak and Carnegie, and when he got the opportunity to study as an exchange student in the Philippines he decided to work for TetraPak there as well. After graduating,

he started to work for JKL, a PR-agency in Stockholm, but later on he decided to apply for the diplomat program at the Swedish government. Upon finishing his diplomat studies, he was a natural candidate to the job opening at the Swedish embassy in Manila due to his previous experiences of the country.

FILIPINO, SPANISH OR AMERICAN? Fredrik gave us insight into the prerequisites that the Philippines have to deal with. The country was once a Spanish colony and a lot of land was taken over by Spanish families. The Spanish-American war and fight for independence in the 1870s freed the country, but the U.S. then decided to make the islands to an American colony.

The Philippines has been an independent country since 1944, but its liaisons to U.S. remains strong. Even so, the Spanish families that once conquered the country still own large parts of land.

Fredrik described the Ayala family as an example. They decided to use their land in the Manila area for the construction of office buildings. They created Makati city, which is from an economical perspective, the most important part of Manila. The family has also invested in corporate businesses and are today owners of some of the largest companies in the Philippines. Ayala is consequently one of several families with Spanish ancestors that have great economical power in the Philippines.

A DEMOCRACY WITH PROBLEMS TO GROW The Philippines is a democracy and its President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo came to power in 2001. Even if it is a functioning democracy, the government does not seem to be able to solve problems like unemployment, poor infrastructure and famine. The rich

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BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES Even though the Philippines have many problems, it is also a country of opportunities. Fredrik mentioned that lack of competition has made the value chain in the Filipino companies incomplete. Different companies are responsible for different parts of the production which makes it difficult to go from idea to product and therefore stops innovations from breaking through. Companies that can manage the whole value chain have a competitive advantage. The labour costs are quite low and a newly graduated employee earns about 2000 to 3000 SEK a month. Fredrik, with a background in marketing, also mentioned that Philippine companies have poor marketing skills; the right marketing should give easy access to the market. In addition, since English is the second official language in the Philippines it is an excellent location for call centres.

When our five day stay in the Philippines came to an end, I must Transporting money in Manila is a rather serious business. In Sweden the guards are armed with a baton, in Manila they are not. families also keep a strong foothold on the political stage and are reluctant to changes since they have nothing to gain from them.

Due to corruption, the revenues from tax are consequently quite low and the governmental investments are also at a relatively low level.

This has made it difficult for foreign companies to maintain profitable businesses in the country. Magnus tells us about ABBs operations in the Philippines. Their main sales in the country are products for electrification. They have 50 – 60 percent of the market share today and Magnus predicts that ABB will retain a strong position in the Philippine market. Even so, the lack of infrastructural investments reduces the potential to increase the market size for electrification products that are ABBs main products in the Philippines. The amount of FDI is very low according to Fredrik at the Swedish Embassy, and Magnus personal experience is that more and more companies cut down the amount of staff and operations in the Philippines.

The high unemployment rate and the low wages in the Philippines have, according to both Fredrik and Magnus, created a problem known as “brain-drain�. About 8 million Filipinos live and work abroad. Fredrik mentioned that you earn 20 times more as a nurse abroad, than you do as a doctor in the Philippines. The Filipino that work abroad send back their wages which has resulted in an increase in consumption; 3.9 percent out of 5.1 percent of GDP growth in 2005 was due to pure consumption.

say that I was sad to leave the country. The people are very friendly, and it was easy to get around since everybody speaks English. It is a country troubled by its past, but its ambitious population and their growing consumption pattern creates opportunities for business investments. If the government increases its efforts to solve the problems they have in poor infrastructure and unemployment; the Philippines has a good potential to become one of the more important economies in Asia.

Kajsa Torring majors in Industrial Engineering and Management at Chalmers and is currently studying in Taiwan.

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Singapore Life

BY KARL OLOFSSON Calvin Lee Zida a Chinese-Singaporean born and raised in the post-65 generations, a final year student at School of Computer Engineering at Nanyang Technological University.

He shares his experience of Singaporeans with us, exchange students and student life in today’s Singapore.

Singapore is a truly mixed cultural nation with people from all over the world. The majority of the population is Chinese, who originates from the neighboring countries and People’s Republic of China. Roughly, 75 percent of the population is Chinese. The other major ethnic groups are Malays, Indians and Eurasians. Since British colonization, citizens of Singapore began to use what they call Christian names. Calvin Lee Zida believes that this happened because of cultural influences brought by the British. The Christian name is a must for the religion of Christianity.

Lee Zida states that most of the Singaporeans have an overall welcoming attitude toward foreigners. While other countries focus on their own culture and religion, Singaporeans are proud of

Paragon, one of the most luxurious shopping malls in Singapore At Nanyang Technological University there are

in nature. For recreation activities, shopping is a

currently 24000 students. Among them are 17000,

popular weekend activity. Otherwise, local stu-

just like Calvin, in their undergraduate studies

dents prefer activities like going to the cinema,

for a bachelor degree. The rest are postgraduates

bowling, pool, karaoke and dating.

aiming to get a master or doctorate degree. Most

The university uses a grade scale from F to A. A

of the students stay within the campus. Likewise,

is the highest grade and gives a grade-point of 5,

Lee Zida stays in one of the campus halls. His

while F means fail and is equal to zero. Under-

parents do not live far away and he visits them

graduate degree students go through four years

regularly on weekends. Serenity strikes the cam-

of full time studies, completing subjects with an

pus area during the weekends in the beginning

average of at least 2.5, C+ or higher.

of the semester. During exams period, grasping of fresh air in the library would be difficult.

Going to Singapore, as part of the fourth year

Overall, Singaporean students are hard-working

abroad program, is a great opportunity to see something new and has been really exciting so

the differences and the uniqueness between the

far. In the beginning there was a lot of local ex-

different groups. Hong Kong is similar in many

perience and adventures. Right now, exchange

ways but closer to China and the influence of other cultures is less evident.

students from Europe are traveling around Asia

Like most Singaporean men, Calvin started to

change students who try to live as much as possi-

to seek even more exciting adventures. For exble, Singapore is a great place if you want to see

study at University after his military service

Southeast Asia. Its central location in the region,

when he was twenty one. All Singaporean male

accessible to other countries by a huge number

citizens have to serve mandatory military service

of budget airlines made traveling around cheap

for two years. On the other hand, the women in

and easy. The most interesting cites around

Singapore who are eligible for studies at univer-

Southeast Asia can be found in the Lonely plan-

sity can continue their studies after completing

et’s yellow bibles.

junior college or polytechnic education. Hence, comparatively, the age difference between undergraduates gender of similar year is approximately 2 years.

The real Singapore Sling at Long Bar, Raffles Hotel

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Karl Olofsson majors in Information Technology Engineering at Chalmers and is currently studying Singapore.

Transaction convenience

BY CHRISTOFFER CRONSIOE

Once upon a time there was a plastic card that was going to replace cash in Sweden. No longer would the people be forced to carry around heavy coins and wrinkled bills. The idea was not to compete with the giants of credit and debit cards, but rather to provide a more convenient way of buying small things like newspapers or movie tickets, replacing coins in vending machines and parking meters. No small feat, but the banks took the challenge and advertised the cash card frenetically. Seven years passed before the project died. The last cash card terminals were taken offline in 2004. However the Singaporean story of cash card is totally different.

In Singapore the same breed of Less attractive visually, and less useful in general, since it does cash cards are performing very not work in the public transport system, and cannot be refilled well, and have done so for several with cash. It is only use is for working the printer at the campus years. This fact has given me the library and for buying golf balls at the driving range. There must opportunity to experience the be people that like and use it more than I do though, because it has smorgasbord of applications of been around since 1996. this amazing technology that never quite took off in my home country. I have been in possession To enjoy maximum functionality, one must have both these cards of not one, but two different cash cards for the better part of seven in the wallet, in addition to credit and/or debit cards for bigger months now, and I must say that even though the usability of these purchases, so the system is not entirely up to the standards of my cards might seem unimpressive to the non-user, it really is rather ideal world of transaction convenience. One Singaporean bank convenient in everyday life. For instance the first card I got, the is currently experimenting with letting customers pay using their “ezlink” card used for public transport. It is used for all public fingerprint at a select few coffee shops in Singapore, so even with transport in Singapore, meaning buses and subway (MRT) in the the current generation of contactless card technologies trying to entire country. Imagine a bus pass you establish themselves, the next logical “One Singaporean bank is currently step on the technology ladder is could use in any city in Sweden, and if the city has a tram line or a subway you experimenting with letting customers already visible. could use it there too! pay ‘using their fingerprint’ “ The forces of the free market will do The technology, if not life-changing, facilitates at least the kind of its work and in a few years we will see which technology that “why not”-convenience that we should be able to expect in our comes out ahead. Until then I hope that the new Västtrafik card civilization of geometric passports and induction cookers. What is the first step of a second coming of the cash card in Sweden. makes the ezlink even sweeter is the fact that they can be used to Actually no, that is only half true. If we were all allowed to use pay in more places than the public transport system. Mostly at fast our MasterCards and VISAs on the bus, we could throw all these food-food joints and drink shops, like McDonald’s and 7-eleven, cash cards in a big fire and be happy for the rest of our lives with but it has to start somewhere. The card is refilled with cash at any the one card that works everywhere. That would be the ultimate MRT station or at most outlets that use the system. transaction convenience.

The other card I use is not compatible with the ezlink system. It is simply called “cash card” and is the ugly bastard sibling of ezlink.

Christoffer Cronsioe majors in Industrial Engineering and Management at Chalmers and is currently studying in Singapore.

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Chalmers in Asia

Studying at Chalmers does not limit you to Gothenburg, Sweden. Through many exchange programs Chalmers students are given the opportunity to study at a range of Asian universities. Likewise, students from many different countries are invited to study at Chalmers in Sweden.

Sendai, Japan Tohoku University

Tokyo, Japan Tokyo Institute of Technology

Shanghai, China Sino-Swedish campus at Fudan University

Hsinchu, Taiwan National Chiao Tung University

Hong Kong, China The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Singapore Nanyang Technological University The National University of Singapore

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Chalmers University of Technology SE-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden Phone +46 31 772 1000 Internet www.chalmers.se

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