Global Citizenship
2 nd Quarter 2019
•
The Design Issue
By Design: Creating, Recreating, and Redefining
The EU and the Securitization of Chinese Investment 01 9 772571 794008
ISSN 2571-7944 Published Quarterly
Sovereign Equity: A Paradigm Shift
What Type of Art Is Popular with Collectors Today?
Henley & Partners’ annual Global Citizenship Conference has become the world’s largest and most significant conference on investment migration. In celebration of the conference’s 13th successful year, we again expect well over 400 attendees, a multitude of industry leaders, top-tier international service providers, and senior government officials who will share first-hand information on the latest developments in residence and citizenship planning. Register now using the promotion code ‘GCR’ to secure your attendance by visiting henleyglobal.com/london2019
Antigua · Australia · Austria · Canada · Croatia · Cyprus · Dubai · Greece · Grenada · Hong Kong · Jersey · Latvia · Malaysia · Malta · Moldova
13th Global Citizenship Conference 11-13 November 2019 ∙ Rosewood London
Define your Future Montenegro · Philippines · Portugal · Singapore · South Africa · South Korea · St. Kitts · St. Lucia · Switzerland · Thailand · United Kingdom · Vietnam
Contents Upfront 5
From the Editor
7
Contributors
8
News and Updates
12 Events
Columns 18
Kochenov The Citizenship of Personal Circumstances in the EU
19 Brexit The EU and Investment Migration Programs 20 How to Protect Your Assets 21
38
Diogenes Life after Death
22 On Trend Smart Technology for the Modern Home
Opinions 28 Tourism as a Driver of Economic Development in Portugal 30 The EU and the Securitization of Chinese Investment 32 Authoritarian Populism versus Classical Liberal Cosmopolitanism 34 Hong Kong’s Resilient Housing Market
Cover Story 38 By Design: Creating, Recreating, and Redefining
Country Review 44 Portugal: Picture Perfect
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Features 53 Interview Parag Khanna 56 Sovereign Equity: A Paradigm Shift 59 Portugal’s Attractive Tax Regime for Newcomers 60 Europe’s Migration Lessons for Japan 62 Facilitated Naturalization
64
64 What Type of Art Is Popular with Collectors Today? 66 The Future of Personal Air Travel and eVTOL 70 Museums of the World 74
Asia’s Most Future-Ready Cities
78 Treating Arthritis of the Knee 79 Plant-Based Protein: Better for the Earth, Better for Us 82 Portugal Is Thriving
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84 Design Works of Wonder 87 Emerging Expat Hubs
Global Life 90 Global Citizen Simon Anholt 92 Property Lisbon Green Valley • Lisbon
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94 Marco Polo Cheval Blanc Courchevel • Courchevel 96 Culinaria Spyce • Boston 97 Medicus Prof. Dr. Andreas Michalsen 98 Books 100 Reflections Epicurus
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Gran Hotel Son Net — where luxury meets history Open all year for guests to enjoy an authentic escape and experience. The 31-bedroom hotel is also available for exclusive hire and offers privacy and elegance. Castillo Son Net s/n, 07194 Mallorca, Spain www.sonnet.es | sales@sonnet.es
UPFRONT
From the Editor
Legacy Design
W
IMAGE: Henley & Partners
hen the death of pioneer American industrial designer Charles Harrison made news last November, the international design community felt a weighted loss. The author of A Life’s Design, Harrison was the brains behind the design of various household staples, including the humble plastic refuse bin on wheels, transparent measuring cups, and the iconic 3D View-Master®, the hallmark of many childhood memories. Harrison also designed more than 100 sewing machines in his lifetime, propelling his impact and legacy to global stature. Even so, the significance of his contribution was lost on many, unfortunately, as — unlike his familiar designs — his was not a household name, which provides a poignant metaphor for the imperceptible yet substantial influence that design has on our lives. As a homage to Harrison and the plethora of creative masterminds whose efforts make our lives that much more convenient, and beautiful, this edition of Global Citizenship Review focuses on design. Our Cover Story offers an insightful look at how design thinking principles are finding increasing value and application in everyday scenarios, challenging us to be more innovative in our problem solving. In On Trend we explore how the design of technology and appliances is responding to the revolution of the tech-equipped smart home, and elsewhere we consider the future of personal air travel, and how electronic aircraft solutions are being designed to meet the dynamic needs of time-pressed affluent travelers. A design-themed issue would, of course, be incomplete without a visual meander around some of the world’s most interesting destination museums and feats of design. In Country Review we revel in the treasure that is Portugal and feature the country’s outstanding residence program, a leading option for those seeking EU access and global mobility for themselves and for their descendants, for those who choose to design their own legacy. May you find, in the pages that follow, the inspiration to envisage, design, and realize the life and legacy your heart desires.
Dr. Christian H. Kälin Editor in Chief
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Global Citizenship
Editor in Chief Dr. Christian H. Kälin Publishing Director Charlie Scott Senior Editor Monwabisi Mhlophe Managing Editors Janine Droux Ilka Lane Publishing Designer Wade Hunkin Editorial Board Ghada Al Atrash Canada Laura Austin USA Dr. Tony Gao China Nadine Goldfoot UK Prof. Dr. Christian Joppke Switzerland
Marnin J. Michaels Switzerland Kamal Rahman UK Jim Rogers Singapore Correspondents Jennifer Lai China and North Asia Dominic Volek Southeast Asia Dua Yassin Middle East Polina Kuleshova Russia/CIS Irina Curbelo UK/Europe Amanda Smit Africa Domenic Presutti North America Andrea St. Bernard Latin America/Caribbean
Online Visit globecit.com or issuu.com/ideos_publications Subscribe Visit globecit.com or email info@globecit.com Advertise If you are interested in advertising in Global Citizenship Review, please write to editor@globecit.com Feedback Comments and suggestions, praise, and criticism are welcome. Please write to info@globecit.com Publication information Global Citizenship Review (ISSN 25717944) is published quarterly by Ideos Publications Ltd., Zurich, Switzerland © 2019 Ideos Publications Ltd. This periodical and the individual contributions contained in it are protected under copyright and applicable terms and conditions of the publisher.
Global Citizenship
2 nd Quarter 2019
•
The Design Issue
By Design: Creating, Recreating, and Redefining
Dr. Parag Khanna Singapore Prof. Dr. Dimitry Kochenov Netherlands Dr. Robert W. Kuipers Switzerland
The EU and the Securitization of Chinese Investment 01 9 772571 794008
6 | Global Citizenship Review
ISSN 2571-7944 Published Quarterly
Sovereign Equity: A Paradigm Shift
What Type of Art Is Popular with Collectors Today?
UPFRONT
Contributors 18
Prof. Dr. Dimitry Kochenov
Irina Angelescu
Chairman, Investment Migration
International Affairs Specialist
Council; Chair in EU Constitutional Law
USA
University of Groningen, Netherlands Nadine Goldfoot
Ahmed Elgammal
Partner, Fragomen Worldwide
Director, Art and Artificial Intelligence
UK
Laboratory, Rutgers University
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20
Doug Woodham
Partner and Head of Private Wealth
Managing Partner, Art Fiduciary
Stephenson Harwood LLP
Advisors, USA
UK
64
Luís Araújo
Dr. Parag Khanna
President, Turismo de Portugal
Author of The Future is Asian; Founder
Portugal
and Managing Partner, FutureMap
74
Singapore
Dr. Angela Stanzel
Dr. Robert Muggah
Senior Policy Fellow, Asia Program
Co-Founder and Research Director
Institut Montaigne, France
Igarapé Institute, Brazil
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30 Dr. Tom G. Palmer
Dr. Andreas Krüger
George M. Yeager Chair for Advancing
Specialist: Orthopedic Surgery and
Liberty; Executive VP, International
Traumatology, B3 – Praxis am
Programs, Atlas Network , USA
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Bahnhofplatz, Switzerland
Binoche Chan
Bruce Friedrich
Chief Operating Officer, List Sotheby’s
Executive Director, The Good Food
International Realty, Hong Kong
Institute, USA
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34
59
USA
James Quarmby
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32
60
Rosa Freitas Soares
Malte Zeeck
Partner, Deloitte
Founder and Co-CEO, InterNations
Portugal
Germany
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News and Updates Asia Consolidates Its Passport Power In a resounding demonstration of Asia’s growing power and influence on the world stage, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea now hold joint top spot on the Henley Passport Index, with a visa-free or visa-on-arrival score of 189. These latest results consolidate 12 months of Asian dominance, after Japan first climbed to the top spot in February last year. Germany currently sits alone in 2 nd place, with a score of 188, while five countries now share 3rd place on the index, which is based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The UK and the USA look increasingly unlikely to regain the top spot they jointly held in 2015, with the UK now siting in 5th place with a visa-free/visa-on-arrival score of 185, and the USA in 6th , with a score of 184. Afghanistan and Iraq remain at the bottom of the ranking with a score of just 30, a position one or both countries have occupied throughout the index’s 14-year history. The Henley Passport Index is the most rigorous and sophisticated measure of global access, providing an in-depth picture of travel freedom, including which destinations can be accessed visa-free or with a visa-on-arrival with which passport.
Top 5 and Bottom 5 on the 2019 Henley Passport Index
1. Japan, Singapore, South Korea Visa-free access to 189 destinations 2. Germany Visa-free access to 188 destinations 3. Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Sweden Visa-free access to 187 destinations 4. Luxembourg, Spain Visa-free access to 186 destinations 5. Austria, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland, UK Visa-free access to 185 destinations
100. Eritrea, Sudan Visa-free access to 38 destinations 101. Yemen Visa-free access to 36 destinations
103. Somalia, Syria Visa-free access to 32 destinations 104. Afghanistan, Iraq Visa-free access to 30 destinations This graph shows the countries that occupy the top and bottom five ranks on the 2019 Henley Passport Index. In certain cases, a rank is shared by multiple countries because these countries all have the same level of visa-free or visa-on-arrival access. The information provided here reflects the Henley Passport Index ranking on 26 March 2019
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SOURCE: Henley & Partners
102. Pakistan Visa-free access to 33 destinations
Sovereign Equity Concept Launched at Davos 2019 With the need to address entrenched inequalities firmly on the ‘Globalization 4.0’ agenda, Henley & Partners launched the concept of ‘sovereign equity’ on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos this year. Sovereign equity, particularly through investment migration, provides a means for governments to achieve fiscal balance and economic growth without increasing their debt — meaningfully addressing the growing inequalities inherent to traditional sovereign debt financing by engaging with the global community of high-networth investors. In a multi-stakeholder public discussion that brought together government heads and ministers, leading academics, and renowned experts, panelists considered the transformative effects that well-regulated investment migration programs can have on the economy and society at large, supporting growth and creating employment opportunities.
South African Museum Ranked Top Cultural Destination for 2018 At a glittering event held in London, South Africa’s Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) was awarded the title of ‘Cultural Destination of the Year’ by Leading Cultural Destinations Awards’ judging panel, effectively ranking it as the top museum for 2018. Zeitz MOCAA, which was also awarded ‘New Culture Destination of the Year — Africa’, opened its doors in 2017 and houses what is considered the largest collection of contemporary African art. Other winners at the highly anticipated awards include Fogo Island (Canada) for ‘Best Cultural District’ and Fondation Carmignac (France) for ‘New Culture Destination of the Year — Europe’.
Singapore Is Favorite Destination for Expats
IMAGES: Shutterstock
SOURCE: Henley & Partners
UPFRONT
According to HSBC’s Expat Explorer 2018 survey, Singapore is again the overall favorite destination for expats thanks to its leading performance in the categories of economics, working, family, social, and well-being. For the fourth consecutive year, Singapore comes out on top, with 45% of expats moving to the country to “progress their careers” and 38% to “improve their earnings”. In addition, 60% of expats in Singapore report that “their children’s health and well-being is better here than at home”. The results of the survey place New Zealand in 2nd position overall, with Germany 3rd, Canada 4th, and Bahrain 5th. Bahrain moved up from 9th position in 2017. Speaking of some of the motivations behind an expat’s choice to move, John Goddard, Head of HSBC Expat, says: “Expats don’t leave their native homes, jobs, friends, and families just for the money. The decision is as much about pursuing new challenges, greater knowledge, new skills, and wider life experiences.” HSBC’s annual report is based on a survey of expats around the world; this year’s edition drew responses from over 22,000 individuals.
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Rolls-Royce Celebrates Top Sales in History In early 2019, luxury motor vehicle brand Rolls-Royce Motor Cars announced that 2018 had been the most successful year of its 115-year history, with over 4,100 cars delivered to customers globally. The BMW-owned brand reports that its growth is being seen in regions across the world, which ties in with various reports indicating growing numbers of high-net-worth individuals the world over; however, its dominant markets remain the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. Speaking on Rolls-Royce’s customization and personalization excellence, believed to be a significant driver of the brand’s success, Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös says: “[Our] customers are highly educated and true global citizens.”
Canada Strips Aung San Suu Kyi of Honorary Citizenship Canadian senators unanimously voted in favor of revoking Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi of her honorary Canadian citizenship due to her perceived lack of motivation to end violence against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was awarded citizenship in 2001 in recognition of her prodemocracy efforts in her home country.
40
30
20
10
Month (Source: Fifth Annual Report on the Individual Investor Program of the Government of Malta (1 July 2017–30 June 2018), November 2018)
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IMAGE: Shutterstock
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
0 Jul
The Office of the Regulator: Individual Investor Program recently released the Fifth Annual Report on the Individual Investor Program of the Government of Malta (1 July 2017– 30 June 2018), in which the annual performance of the Malta Individual Investor Program (MIIP) is outlined. According to the report, 330 applications for the program were received, which is 47 applications fewer than the previous year and brings the overall total program applications to date to 1,431. The highest number of applications were received from main applicants based in Europe (42.7%), Asia (32.4%), Africa (9.1%), and the Middle East (7.9%). While Europe remains the leading source, applications therefrom did drop slightly. In terms of approvals, 223 applications were concluded positively; it is worth noting that some applications had been submitted in the previous year. Overall, the program has a rejection rate of nearly 20%. For the reporting year, the MIIP generated more than EUR 260 million for the Government of Malta. According to the Regulator, Carmel L. De Gabriele, “the income which the Government is and will be deriving [from the MIIP] will, in the coming months and years, play an extremely important role in the country’s infrastructural boom and social development”.
Number of MIIP Applications Received July 2017– June 2018
Number of Applications
Malta IIP Regulator Releases Annual Report
Advance Praise for Dr. Christian H. Kälin’s Ius Doni Editor in Chief of Global Citizenship Review Dr. Christian H. Kälin launched his highly anticipated book Ius Doni in International Law and EU Law to much praise. Providing a comprehensive analysis of the concept of ius doni in both international and EU law, Kälin’s book explores in detail the legal and political concepts of citizenship and introduces a new term for what is already an increasingly common and accepted practice of granting citizenship on the basis of substantial contributions to a state. Praising the recently launched publication, CEO of the Investment Migration Council Bruno L’ecuyer commented: “Kälin provides a thorough analysis and answers in what can be considered the standard work on the subject.” L’ecuyer’s sentiments are echoed by esteemed EU constitutional law expert Prof. Dr. Dimitry Kochenov, who states that Ius Doni is “a masterful and path-breaking analysis of one of the crucial new developments in citizenship law from the doyen of global ius doni practice”.
EU Developing New Pre-Travel Screening Security System The European Parliament has accepted a 2016 proposal for the establishment of a European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS) to enable the EU to perform pre-travel security and migration risk screening of travelers benefiting from visa-free access to the Schengen Area. According to Dimitris Avramopoulos, the European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship: “The new ETIAS will ensure that we no longer have an information gap on visa-free travelers. Anyone who poses a migratory or security risk will be identified before they even travel to EU borders.” The ETIAS is currently under development and is expected to be operational by late 2021. Once launched, it will require travelers to present both a valid travel document and ETIAS authorization. At present, travelers from more than 60 countries are set to be affected by this development, including those from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, UAE, and the USA.
2019 Henley & Partners Global Citizen Award® Call for Nominations Now Open
IMAGES: Brill; Henley & Partners
IMAGE: Shutterstock
UPFRONT
Global residence and citizenship planning firm Henley & Partners has announced that nominations for the prestigious Global Citizen Award® are now open. The award is a unique international prize honoring remarkable individuals working at a local level to advance one of the global challenges plaguing humanity today and is open worldwide to those working in a field with a direct link to the issues they are looking to effect. The award itself consists of a bespoke sculptural medal, an award certificate, and a monetary prize that goes toward supporting the awardee’s humanitarian efforts. Following the award, Henley & Partners will work closely with the awardee for a period of one year, raising awareness about the awardee’s work and supporting their selected project. The 2019 laureate will be selected by the Global Citizen Award® Committee and honored on 13 November 2019 at the Global Citizen Award® gala evening. Nominations can be submitted via henleyglobal.com/gca/ until 5 June 2019.
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UPFRONT
Events
The Cannes Film Festival is the most prestigious film event in the world, and this year marks the 72 nd anniversary of its inception. The 2019 selection committee consists of many industry influencers such as renowned journalist Virginie Apiou, seasoned director Laurent Jacob, editor and columnist Eric Libiot, and academic Dr. Lucien Logette, among many others. The event is expected to be a celebration of design, creat ivity, and all-round enjoyment, offering guests a unique opportunity to revel in all things glamorous.
Since its humble beginnings as a local springtime exhibition, the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Chelsea Flower Show has become a global phenomenon that draws thousands of visitors each year. The RHS has announced that this year the Great Pavilion will boast 80 select exhibitors of extraordinary talent. Guests will experience breathtaking aesthetic displays from different regions, ingenious technological and practical designs, and even a dry garden. The first of its kind, walk-through judging of Tom Dixon’s garden is expected to be a particularly special addition to this year’s showcase.
12 | Global Citizenship Review
26 May Monaco Grand Prix Monaco The Monaco Grand Prix is perhaps the most prestigious event in Formula 1 racing, drawing visitors from across the globe to watch the most skilled drivers in the world speed through the avenues of the French Riviera. The Circuit de Monaco is well known for its challenging narrow streets, signature hairpin bends, and constant changes in elevation, which prove difficult for even the most seasoned drivers. The track extends along the coastline past Port Hercules, making the event open to viewing from street level or from the comfort of a luxury yacht.
IMAGES: Shutterstock
14–25 May Cannes Film Festival France
21–25 May RHS Chelsea Flower Show UK
3–6 June Investment Migration Forum Switzerland
IMAGES: Shutterstock
IMAGES: Shutterstock
UPFRONT
The Investment Migration Council will once again host the renowned Investment Migration Forum (IMF), which has shown steady growth over the years to become the world’s leading independent forum on investment migration. Attracting academics, government officials, media, and industry stakeholders from over 40 countries, this annual event hosts numerous sessions addressing a range of topics, including the implementation of a transnational code of ethics for migration professionals; the impact of global sanctions on the international migration industry; and the future of residence and citizenship programs. The IMF is a prime opportunity to network with industry heavyweights, share and gain valuable insights, and stay abreast of developments
5–14 July Copenhagen Jazz Festival Denmark Having once hosted the legendary likes of Ray Charles, Annette Peacock, and Dizzy Gillespie, the Copenhagen Jazz Festival is a reliable host to the biggest names of the jazz scene. With more than 250,000 guests in 2018, this year’s festival is sure to be a spectacle of sight and sound and a genuinely enjoyable celebration of the genre. Fresh talent is constantly on the horizon as new and exciting fusions step forward to be heard at one of the 20 historic venues. For guests looking to make the experience more enlightening, guided tours are worth considering.
13–17 September Biennale des Antiquaires France For more than 50 years, the Biennale des Antiquaires (La Biennale Paris) has been a hub of excellence in the art world, bringing together rare and historic artworks for exhibition to the public. This edition of the event is expected to feature 100 exhibitors in 20 different galleries, spanning no fewer than 6,000 years of art history. The organizers of the Biennale des Antiquaires are stringent about the standards of authenticity and transparency of their exhibitors in order to ensure that the audience is viewing authentic pieces of art. The event is now officially held as an annual occasion, and the exhibition opens for its 31st edition under the roof of the beautiful Grand Palais in Paris.
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27 June–3 July Masterpiece London UK
28–29 June G20 Osaka Summit Japan
1 July Spear’s Wealth Insight Forum UK
12th Global Residence and Citizenship Conference
R 11–13 November 13th Global Citizenship Conference UK
esidence and citizenship planning firm Henley & Partners once again put on a top-class conference, making the 12th edition of its annual Global Residence and Citizenship Conference (GRCC), hosted at the Mina A’Salam Hotel in Dubai, its most successful to date.
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Brimming with thought-provoking content, expert speakers, seniorranking government officials, and top-tier international media, the GRCC provided an excellent opportunity to network and stay abreast of developments shaping the investment migration industry.
IMAGES: Masterpiece Fair; Shutterstock; Spears; Henley & Partners
Event Review
Above: Members of Henley & Partners’ executive committee (Hugh Morshead, Peter Vincent, and Marco Gantenbein) with Minister of Economy and Infrastructure for the Republic of Moldova H.E. Chiril Gaburici (second from left) and Sophia, the world’s first-ever robot-citizen (center)
IMAGE: Henley & Partners
IMAGES: Masterpiece Fair; Shutterstock; Spears; Henley & Partners
UPFRONT
A highlight of the conference was the participation of the first-ever robot-citizen, Sophia, who made international headlines in 2017 when she was granted citizenship of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Sophia introduced an exclusive panel debate on the battle for digital supremacy being waged between the global superpowers and what this new technological climate means for the future of global citizenship. Among the panelists were Taavi Kotka, former CIO for the Government of Estonia and pioneer of the country’s digital nation and e-residency initiatives. Another highlight of the GRCC was the launch of the highly anticipated Moldova Citizenship-by-Investment program. Representing the Government of Moldova was Minister of Economy and Infrastructure for the Republic of Moldova, H.E. Chiril Gaburici, who commented: “The
MCBI program will provide our economy with muchneeded foreign direct investment that will enhance the daily lives of all Moldovans, while strict due diligence standards and compliance procedures will guarantee the credibility and sustainability of the program.” Other highly topical sessions in the program included ‘A Changing World: Where Are We Going and How Are We Getting There?’, ‘Two Years with Trump: The New Trade Wars and What They Mean for Democracy and Investment Migration’, and ‘Stimulating Economic Growth
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Above: Head of Group Philanthropy at Henley & Partners, Paola De Leo, Global Citizen Award® recipient Diep N. Vuong, COO of Henley & Partners, Marco Gantenbein, and conference MC, Katie Fielder Right: Vuong with Group Chairman of Henley & Partners, Dr. Christian H. Kälin
through Transformative Foreign Direct Investment Policies’. The GRCC was co-hosted by Tariq Qureishy, Founder and CEO of MAD Talks, Dubai, and Katie Fielder, Dubai-based journalist and broadcaster. As has become custom, the Global Citizen Award® was hosted on the final evening of the GRCC. The recipient of 2018’s award was Diep N. Vuong, Co-founder and President of Pacific Links Foundation. The prize was awarded to Vuong in recognition of her decades-long international campaigning for the rights of those enslaved by human trafficking as well as her grassroots work in protecting those rescued from such enslavement. Paola De Leo, Head of Group Philanthropy at Henley & Partners, says of Vuong: “Her commitment to fighting the global scourge of human trafficking, her uncompromising advocacy for the fundamental right not to be submitted to slavery, servitude, forced labor, or bonded labor, and her visionary and transformational holistic approach to preventing trafficking has inspired the Global Citizen Award® Committee and all of us at Henley & Partners.” The annual GRCC has become the world’s largest and most significant conference on investment migration, bringing together presidents, prime ministers, senior government ministers and officials, leading academics,
experienced industry professionals, and top-tier financial and business media. The 13th edition will run as the Global Citizenship Conference in London on 11–13 November.
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Calling for the next global visionary Nominations are now open for the 2019 Henley & Partners Global Citizen Award
®
“I have been given an opportunity to take part in creating a safer global society in which vulnerable people are given a real chance to live and thrive.” Diep N. Vuong President, Pacific Links Foundation Global Citizen Award® Laureate 2018
The Henley & Partners Global Citizen Award® is a unique international prize that honors remarkable individuals working at a local level to advance one of the global challenges affecting humanity today. Diep N. Vuong was named as the recipient of the 2018 Global Citizen Award® in recognition of her courageous, decadeslong international campaigning for the rights of those enslaved by human trafficking, as well as her grassroots work in protecting those rescued from such enslavement.
Closing date: 5 June 2019 Please download the nomination form and submission guidelines at henleyglobal.com/gca/
COLUMNS
Kochenov
The Citizenship of Personal Circumstances in the EU Prof. Dr. Dimitry Kochenov, Chairman, Investment Migration Council Chair in EU Constitutional Law, University of Groningen, Netherlands citizenship conditioned on a market endorsement and the performance of ethically questionable acts, like venturing out across the invisible inter-state borders within the internal market. Rather than celebrating the abstract humanity of the bearer through the extension of rights based on a formal legal status aimed at ignoring the actual differences between the holders, EU citizenship, on the contrary, virtually never protects the weak and the needy based on their humanity and legal status but uniquely connects such protection with the perceived cross-border or economic aspects of the lives in question. This said, this is all about giving recognition to the person. Instead of using the logic of the shift from the purely legal to social reality to extend additional protections to those whom the legalistic framework renders invisible, EU citizenship deploys the same to the opposing end: to pre-empt the extension of rights. In this sense, EU citizenship is a negative departure from the abstract citizenship ideal, looking beyond the strictly legal truth of supranational-level status only to undermine the latter’s effects should the dogmatic ideal of a ‘good market citizen’, which is by definition deprived of any moral or ethical contenu whatsoever, not be satisfied. This unexpected development demonstrates the attractiveness of the formal legalistic world of clearly formulated and meticulously enforced legal truths, which citizenship has precisely been drifting away from over the last decennia, turning modern constitutionalism towards the person. Endnote 1 W Rogers Brubaker, Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany (HUP 1992) 34 The full contribution of the author on ‘The Citizenship of Personal Circumstances in Europe’ is available in D Thym (ed), Questioning EU Citizenship: Judges and the Limits of Free Movement and Solidarity in the EU (Bloomsbury/Hart, Oxford/ Portland, OR, 2017).
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IMAGE: Supplied
C
itizenship has been defined as “an object and an instrument of closure”1 — the chalk of the line between the ‘outs’ and the ‘ins’; an indispensable element of the legal ‘world-making’. Exclusion is one of the traditional functions of citizenship. However, the creation of a supranational citizenship derivative from the nationalities of the member states has produced something new in the EU. The EU altered the essence of citizenship by demanding inclusion of other EU citizens into the national community guided by the principle of non-discrimination based on nationality, thus abolishing the legal relevance of member state nationalities in an array of crucial areas of human activity where EU law applies. The EU has also removed somewhat the member states’ ability to regulate migration of EU citizens, with a very clear outcome for the relevance and function of the nationalities of the member states to go beyond providing a bridge to the ius tractum status of EU citizenship, that is the means to acquire the supranational status. Thirdly, and crucially, EU law deactivated what is usually perceived as one of the last remaining purely citizenship, as opposed to human, rights: the right not to be deported. The ability of anyone to stay within the realm of their national legal system, protected by it from expulsion to a foreign land, is equally shattered. EU law does not only reward the movers regarded as useful in the context of the internal market but also ‘un-protects’ the static citizens even at the national level. EU law’s opening of states is empowering for those who are willing and ready to benefit from what is on offer. Enforcing old assumptions would unquestionably imply trimming the life chances of such individuals. While EU citizenship has the potential to ‘take over’, de facto, from the nationalities of the member states, it seems to be based on entirely different principles. It is a
Brexit
The EU and Investment Migration Programs Nadine Goldfoot, Partner, Fragomen Worldwide, UK
B
rexit negotiations continue to follow a winding path; the EU and UK’s withdrawal agreement was rejected by the UK Parliament. ‘No deal’ preparations are intensifying.
No Deal and the Immigration Status of EU Nationals in the UK
IMAGES: Supplied; Shutterstock
IMAGE: Supplied
COLUMNS
The UK Government has released plans for immigration if the UK leaves the EU with no deal agreed. The policy would apply between Brexit, (originally set for 29 March 2019), and a new immigration system being introduced before 1 January 2021. Under the policy, free movement will end after Brexit, although precisely when is not clear. It is becoming increasingly difficult for the government to take the legislative steps required in time for the anticipated end of free movement. European nationals coming to the UK after the end of free movement will be able to enter, stay, and work for three months. Those intending to stay longer will need to apply for three years of ‘European Temporary Leave to Remain’, after which they will need to apply for permission to stay in the UK under the new immigration regime. We understand they will not be able to extend this leave, nor will it lead to indefinite leave to remain. The policy paper clarifies the position of EEA (Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein) and Swiss nationals, who will in general be treated in the same way as EU nationals. The situation is more complex for UK nationals in Europe and UK businesses wishing to send workers there after Brexit — each jurisdiction is preparing domestic legislation.
EU Commission Reports on Investor Migration Programs The EU Commission recently published Investor Citizenship and Residence Schemes in the EU, a report that examines selected schemes, focusing on Bulgaria, Cyprus (pre-June
2018 changes), and Malta. These countries (and Austria) offer citizenship routes for those making significant investments. The report highlights the importance of the highest standards of regulatory practices — compliance and due diligence are critical to any program’s integrity. Investment migration schemes must indeed be subject to stringent due diligence checks and not be compromised by illicit practices. The industry is committed to achieving this and welcomes the opportunity for constructive engagement this report creates. We must also be alive to the benefits that investor programs bring for that engagement to deliver meaningful outcomes. This is not simply a question of the competency of states within the EU but impacts the nationals of member states — individuals concerned by the prolonged Brexit negotiations have similarly considered programs in mainland Europe. A balance is needed to ensure that appropriate checks are made so that legitimate individuals can continue to invest and benefit from these programs. There also needs to be greater understanding of why they use these programs.
Moving Forward from the Report It is easy to make blanket assumptions of illegitimacy or tax evasion (in fact, tax residence is often quite separate to immigration residence) and no doubt the report will generate academic debate on the concepts of citizenship and residence. The reality is an industry committed to the highest standards of ethical practice and, for the most part, similarly minded applicants. There are nonetheless improvements to be made and we hope the report precipitates constructive engagement toward a common goal of best practice and social and economic benefit for the EU and the broader industry.
COLUMNS
How to
Protect Your Assets
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ost of my clients are entrepreneurs who often risk huge amounts of capital and effort on new ventures. Naturally, when these become profitable there is a desire to extract money from a highrisk environment (the trading company) to a lower-risk environment (the shareholder’s personal bank account). This extraction of cash is the first step in asset protection. Low risk does not mean no risk. Cash or assets held in the name of an individual are always vulnerable in the event that the owner faces some kind of threat. Threats can come from all sorts of directions — for instance, legal claims from creditors, divorcing spouses, disgruntled business partners or, in the worst case, the client could be on the wrong end of bankruptcy proceedings. If this happens, then all of the client’s assets are exposed and could be seized in order to meet that claim. Indeed, one of the first things a potential claimant will do before launching legal proceedings is to assess the financial substance of the potential defendant. Where that person is a ‘man of straw’ (which is what we lawyers like to call people with no assets), then there is no point making a claim in the first place as the chances of recovering any money will be negligible. This is why some of my wealthiest clients actually have no assets in their name at all and everything is wrapped up in trusts, foundations, or offshore companies, and/or given away to spouses or family members, thereby making it very difficult for a potential claimant to (a) understand what the individual is actually worth and (b) recover any money in the event that a claim is successful. We all understand that prevention is better than cure so the act of legally distancing yourself from your assets, while still enjoying them, is the best way of preventing legal problems later on. You may be wondering how it is possible to enjoy assets while not actually owning them — surely what is
given away is gone? This might be true in respect of outright gifts of cash to family members since the recipient may spend that money and, once spent, it is indeed gone forever. However, for other kinds of assets the position is more nuanced. For instance, it is very common for entrepreneurs to make sure that the family home is in the name of their spouse, and sometimes it is possible to include the children as well on the property title. However, when it comes to financial assets like shares in the trading company or a portfolio of investments then issues of control become more important. In my experience, clients generally will not want to give away control of their companies or their portfolio assets to inexperienced (or possibly untrustworthy) family members. In this scenario, we need to introduce the concept of a trust or foundation to hold those assets. With a trust the legal title to the assets is given to the trustee, who will hold those assets for the benefit of the settlor (the person who funded the trust) and their family. This arrangement gives us the legal separation of ownership and control needed for asset protection. Sometimes this is enough to completely protect the asset in question and at other times more action is needed. This is when we start considering offshore trusts — that is, a trust that is not based in the same jurisdiction as the client. Some jurisdictions (like most EU countries) do not recognize trusts, meaning that if you want a trust you are forced to consider an offshore jurisdiction. It is for this reason that countries such as Jersey and Guernsey have been such popular centers for trust administration. There is no point building up wealth if you are not going to take the necessary steps to protect it. History is littered with cases of fortunes made and lost. With some prudent action taken early on, you can sit back, relax, and enjoy your wealth.
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James Quarmby, Partner and Head of Private Wealth, Stephenson Harwood LLP, UK
Diogenes
Life after Death
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s there life after death? Before this very delicate question can be answered satisfactorily, a number of subsidiary questions need to be answered and a number of related matters explained. Every brain, even the brain of an ant, is something so delicate and complex that any attempt to understand it is a futile business. How can a tiny desert ant run along an irregular circuitous path far away from its hole in the sand and then find its way back to that same hole in a straight line? Its brain is extremely small but, despite that, also extremely efficient. What this little creature manages to achieve is so extraordinary a feat that we are tempted to believe it is able to think. We easily forget that the meaning and content of the words ‘think’ and ‘thinking’ are things that we, as human beings, have created and invented. Without us, the meanings and content of these words — and, of course, of all other words and concepts — would not exist, because nothing in existence would know what ‘exist’ even means. At some time — we cannot know precisely when — in a certain organism, something happened that was of such importance that no other event can bear comparison with it. That something was the birth of the phenomenon that we understand as ‘consciousness’. It was born not alone but as one of twins. Its sibling was the world as we know it. Upon the certainty of the perceptible world are based all of our sciences and our entire epistemological system. Many highly intelligent individuals spend their precious time on Earth working on shamelessly expensive large particle accelerators, hoping that some deus ex machina will answer the question of all questions: How was the world created? With the birth of consciousness, two crucial elements, which form the framework of our world,
were also born. We call them ‘space’ and ‘time’. Whatever happens must happen through and within them, because it cannot be separate from them. And whatever happens in our mind is the result of change. Change acquaints us with the phenomenon of time, which is the name we give to the thing that separates two events. An event is a change of coordinates in an arbitrary system of reference. Because everything is in perpetual motion, change is everywhere. This means that we are always something different from what we seem to be. In other words, one moment we are, and the next moment we are not. The formula to remember might be: every life experience is also a death experience. Whatever we experience changes us, which means that after the experience we are not what we were before it. Thus, intensive living is also intensive dying. Those who cannot see these two things as one unity separate them very clearly and do not comprehend that thriving children are dying children, that making progress means approaching death. Similarly, we remain deeply convinced that time passes only in one direction. In physics, for instance, the time vector is irreversible. Therefore, we speak of ‘present’ and ‘future’. Each of our singular experiences, without exception, has a beginning and an end, a birth and a death. Once we have understood this, we can also understand that ‘before’ and ‘after’ are products of our misunderstanding of what ‘matter’ in fact is. So-called matter is but a delicate product of our imagination, and our imagination is the product of an interplay of forces of which so-called matter consists. In short: Matter lives in us, and we live in matter, which is without beginning or end. The same applies to life and death. There is no singular beginning, and there is no end, it is a continuum.
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On Trend
Amazon officials claim that, as of January 2019, over 100 million Alexa devices have been purchased by customers around the world. E-commerce and service sales by the online retail giant generated a net revenue of over USD 230 billion in 2018.
Leading research and advisory company Gartner recently reported that “Worldwide IT spending is projected to total USD 3.76 trillion in 2019, reflecting an increase of 3.2% from 2018”. The firm forecasts that the increase will largely be driven by the “shift to cloud”.
Reporting by online statistics portal Statista indicates that the global smart home industry will reach a staggering value of almost USD 41 billion dollars by 2020.
The acronym ‘Smart’ stands for ‘self-monitoring analysis and reporting technology’ and is powered by internet of things (IoT) technology.
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arly in 2018, the biggest retailer in the USA unveiled its latest range of home appliances. “Alexa, make me some popcorn” is one of the requests it accommodates, and Amazon’s latest microwave oven will prepare the snack. Alexa is Amazon’s virtual assistant with which you communicate by voice. It can do things like set reminders, dim the lights, or answer general knowledge queries. But unlike the popular Alexa speaker, also known as Echo, the smart oven isn’t able to tell you the weather or the latest score of a cricket match. It’s intended as an entry-level product in an entire ecosystem that’s being rolled out aggressively by Amazon. Amazon is positioning itself as one of the many players in the smart home market, announcing a total of 70 new products toward the end of 2018. Household technology companies such as Apple, Huawei, Google-owned Nest, Philips, and Samsung alongside lesser-known brands such as Belkin and Ecobee are contributing to a multi-billion dollar revenue-generating market. Today, a growing number of products in our homes are bought online. As large technology companies such as Amazon, Apple, and Google launch their own platforms for smart functionality, homes today are be-
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coming more automated, providing greater energy efficiency, convenience, comfort, and well-being. But beyond adding greater convenience and comfort, architectural designers are increasingly incorporating these features to adapt to the shifting lifestyles of the modern person. According to Deloitte’s 2017 Smart Home: Technologies with a standard battle report, smart home revenue in the USA alone is expected to grow over threefold between 2016 and 2021, exceeding USD 32 billion. In China, revenue could exceed USD 13 billion in 2021, com-
Above: Amazon’s Echo device was launched in 2014 and was initially designed to be a smart speaker before evolving into the virtual assistant it is today
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Smart Technology for the Modern Home
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Above: LG’s smart InstaView™ Door-in-Door® refrigerator is a wifi-enabled appliance that allows users to view the contents of the fridge by simply knocking twice on the panel, thus preventing the loss of cool air. LG’s partnership with Amazon means fridge owners can issue voice commands to the fridge using Alexa
pared to only USD 1.2 billion in 2016. Europe is expectcated with and adapted accordingly. Home access can ed to represent a USD 19 billion market in 2021. The furthermore be monitored using digital systems to report further found that, in the UK, 52% of all houseincrease the home’s security. holds surveyed had at least one connected device in their The popularity of smart homes stems from advances smart home; the most popular were smart TVs followed in artificial intelligence (AI) and the internet of things by smart thermostats. Interestingly, the UK’s Office for (IoT). AI refers to the use of powerful computing to National Statistics has in 2019 included smart speakers perform complex statistics to make predictions, automate in its monthly ‘shopping basket’, certain tasks, and do things which comprises goods and services otherwise thought to be limited monitored to measure consumer to the capabilities of the human Global smart home price inflation in the country. brain, and even beyond. The revenue is to grow by 500% popularity of AI has grown A 2018 report by NPR and Edison Research entitled The Smart Audio alongside that of IoT, which also over the five years to 2021 Report, found that 43 million relies on modern advances in people in the USA owned a smart cloud storage infrastructure, speaker like Amazon’s Echo. Smart access to more powerful homes are connected with electronic devices such as computing power, and the availability of data. Whereas smartphones, tablets, and more subtle gadgets such as AI relies on data to make more accurate predictions, IoT wifi-enabled thermostats that provide real-time monicaptures that data. IoT is a network of physical objects toring and automation of a home’s appliance use, secu— think cars, smartphones, and appliances — that use rity, entertainment, and efficiency. Lights, heating, sensors to gather information and communicate with other televisions, and microwaves can be virtually communiapplications in the network. According to technology
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ceramic top to act as a hob for cooking, while plate-sized heating elements ensure served food stays at an optimal temperature. Users of the tabletop can keep their plates warm and their drinks cold on the same table. “We basically treat the tile as a circuit board and attach circuits The Social Kitchen to the back so they can all be installed in the factory”, Technology and design compasays Clemens Weisshaar, adding nies are at the forefront of deterthat they are trying to work at the mining how the modern home intersection between design and Smart homes are functions. “You don’t have to technology. Besides heating and gaining momentum within touch anything, it’s very clean, cooling elements, the circuitry it’s very natural, and it’s somecan be customized to include fields of architecture and thing a bit new but with existing devices such as wireless charging technology”, Italian design studio modules, touch-control panels, design, influenced by ideas Tipic co-founder Tommaso Corà and even wifi base stations. to ensure optimization told Dezeen. In 2016, the studio In the USA, the global kitchen unveiled a smart kitchen counappliances market is expected to of lighting, climate, tertop called the Tulèr kitchen. balloon to USD 253 billion by and energy usage The design integrates various 2020, up from about USD 175 interactive functions including a billion in 2014, according to sink that appears out of the surAllied Market Research’s Kitchen face with a simple gesture. Appliances Market report. Some of the world’s biggest Swedish-German design studio Kram/Weisshaar is technology brands are heading into this sector, adapting similarly merging the fields of tech and aesthetics. It has their products to modern lifestyles. For instance, leading not only demonstrated how the smart home can influence Korean smartphone manufacturer Samsung this year the interior architecture of the home but also how it can unveiled a smart refrigerator that understands voice accommodate smart living. In a bid to take the host out commands and sports a 21.5-inch touchscreen. The of the kitchen, the company’s SmartSlab Table allows the appliance is part of the brand’s Family Hub range and has
Above: Home automation has gained incredible popularity in recent years, with the attainment thereof increasingly influencing structural aspects of home design and construction
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company IBM there are more than 12 billion IoT devices around the world currently connected to the internet, from toasters and parking meters to vending machines and smartphones.
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home energy efficiency programming, and the weather forecast to modify the heat or air conditioning before peak times. Ecobee estimates that consumers can save an additional 10% on electricity bills. Smart homes are gaining momentum within fields of architecture and design, influenced by ideas to ensure optimization of lighting, climate, and energy usage. German architect Rolf Disch, for example, claims to have built the first house in the world to generate more power than it uses. Built in Freiburg, Germany, the Heliotrope’s energy is entirely renewable and emissions-free, and the building rotates to make the most of the sun’s light and heat. Above: Smart home products manufacturer Nest recently launched its smart doorbell, Nest Hello, feeding into the interest in connected security systems. The doorbell provides HD footage of all activity at one’s doorstep, allowing home owners to access 24/7 streaming
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three built-in cameras that can beam live images of the fridge’s contents to a phone. “From creating shopping lists to coordinating schedules to playing your favorite songs and movies, the Family Hub keeps your life more connected than ever”, describes Samsung.
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Sustainably Smart In order to save more money and have a smaller carbonintensive footprint, consumers seek seamless systems to control energy use by automatically activating and deactivating lighting, heating, and air conditioning systems. While kitchen appliances are expected to boom and their technologies are striking a chord with novel designs, according to a 2017 survey conducted by PwC in the UK, Smart Home, Seamless Life, savings on utility bills were the most impactful benefit of smart home devices in the eyes of current non-users; 86% of Britons said that reducing their energy bill or increasing energy efficiency affected their decision to own a connected home device in the future. Dutch multi-national Philips has a popular range of Hue smart light bulbs that can integrate with Amazon’s Alexa, Google Home, and Apple HomeKit, and can cycle through various colors and dim or switch off when a preset condition, such as the time of day, is triggered. Moreover, smart home product company Nest, along with Ecobee, helps customers automatically cut down on heating and cooling when electricity rates are at their highest. The systems use residents’ comfort preferences,
Big Ideas for Small Living As much as there is a growing need for people to become more sustainable, smart homes are also designed to be more efficient. The tiny house movement has gained momentum in some parts of the world in the wake of rising house prices and living costs, as well as for meeting the need to be environmentally friendly. Designed by nice&wise design studio, the Ecocapsule is a low-energy, internet-connected mobile dwelling packed into a compact, egg-shaped form. The energyefficient pod is capable of accommodating two adults and includes a built-in kitchenette, a flushing toilet, and hot shower. “It allows you to stay in remote places out of reach of infrastructure [but] with the luxury of a hotel room”, the company notes. “We have engineered the product from scratch to be as self-sufficient, practical, and functional as possible.” The capsule includes a rainwater collection system and solar panels, ensuring self-sustainability. Unveiled in late 2017, Dot Architects developed the Baitasi House of the Future for tech company Whaley in Beijing, China. The 30 m 2 wood-framed house offers four different layout options that can shift according to the needs of its residents. For example, the layout can be changed from a three-bedroom house to a small office. The movable walls are operated by a smart TV that also controls lighting modes, curtains, a security alarm, and other appliances. In late 2018, Amazon announced its partnership with homebuilder Lennar in an aim to showcase its smart home products powered by Alexa. The homes are equipped with wireless speakers, video doorbells and smart locks, thermostats, and lights. As interior design and technology merge into one, there will be countless benefits in both convenience and costs.
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Tourism as a Driver of Economic Development in Portugal Luís Araújo, President, Turismo de Portugal, Portugal
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ourism is one of the most dynamic economic 12.5% of the national GDP. It also has an important role activities in Portugal, positioning itself as the in national exports: tourism is the country’s largest largest exporter of services in the country and exporter of services (50.1%), having increased by 18% in showcasing persistent growth levels over recent years. In absolute value in 2017. 2017, tourism activity in Portugal broke all records: more These are the results of a carefully thought-through than 20 million guests and over 57 million overnight stays 10-year strategy, Tourism Strategy 2027, which focuses on were recorded, marking a momentous achievement for a joint effort from public and private agents and is sustained the sector. The same is true for receipts, which exceeded by a framework of five strategic priorities aimed at: EUR 15 billion for the first time, having risen by 19.5% • Valuing the territory from 2016, the fastest growth since 1998. Additionally, • Boosting the economy the tourism trade balance surpassed EUR 10 billion for • Enhancing knowledge the first time. • Generating connectivity Portugal’s ever-expanding tourism industry is showing • Promoting the destination growth not only during the Tourism Strategy 2027 aspires to traditional high seasons but year position Portugal as one of the round: the seasonality index fell most competitive and sustainable The markets that from 38.7% in 2015 to 36.5% in tourism destinations in the world 2017. The highest growth rates — a place to visit and invest in, registered the highest in terms of guest numbers were where one can study and live comgrowth, reaching record registered in the A zores fortably. With these objectives in (+16.8%), Centre (+13.2%), and mind, three areas of action are numbers, were China, Brazil, Alentejo (+12.8%). In order to vital for the consolidation of tourPoland, and the USA ensure the promotion of all ism as a driver of national develPortugal’s regions, Turismo de opment: i) training, ii) innovation, Portugal has been hard at work and iii) entrepreneurship and implementing several programs and platforms. investment attraction. The top five markets to Portugal are already well known: Within the scope of training, the strategy focuses on the UK, Germany, Spain, France, and the Netherlands. the qualification of human resources with skills suited to However, market diversification is a vital strategic the requirements of a market in constant flow. In practical commitment that has been reinforced through concerted terms, we want to double the level of educational actions to promote and assist destination marketing. In qualifications in tourism from 30% to 60%. To this end, 2017, the markets that registered the highest growth, Turismo de Portugal has developed a program in its reaching record numbers, were China (+41%), Brazil network of 12 tourism schools called Tourism Training (+39%), Poland (+36%), and the USA (+35%). Talent (TTT), which is focused on people’s talents, the The excellent results of the tourism sector underline development of soft skills, innovation, and the its key role in the national economy, already representing internationalization of tourism professionals. The TTT
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program is aimed at enhancing the skills of both students and professionals, adapting their training to new market trends, opening the schools to the community, and encouraging entrepreneurship. It is worth mentioning that TTT was awarded first prize in the Innovation and Public Policies category of the 14th edition of the United Nations World Tourism Organization awards. The project was considered an example of capacity building for future generations of human resources of the sector, and the program is being considered by countries such as Colombia, Croatia, Kazakhstan, Morocco, and Romania for possible adaptation in their markets. Innovation and entrepreneurship are decisive factors for the success of any industry, and this is also true for tourism. To leverage Portugal’s status as a global hub of digital innovation, Turismo de Portugal has defined a pioneer initiative, called Tourism 4.0, to support travel and tourism startups, fostering entrepreneurship and the innovation ecosystem in the country. In 2018, Tourism 4.0 monitored 15 incubation programs in which 350 startups participated.
As an organization and country, we seek to encourage a culture of disruption in companies that aim to develop new business ideas, thus our ambition of nurturing startups that may impact on tourism. The vibrant relationship between Turismo de Portugal and startups with initiatives focused on entrepreneurship, innovation, and enhancing a very active entrepreneurial tourism ecosystem resulted in a case study by the intergovernmental body, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Regarding the investment attraction, we are focusing on a set of financial and tax incentives to foster business development. Portugal was ranked 29th by the World Bank in its 2018 Ease of Doing Business ranking. Platforms and programs are available to support investment. This is the case of Invest in Tourism, a platform that promotes and discloses business opportunities in the sector, aiming at upgrading and rehabilitating properties that are currently vacant or inactive that display potential for tourism activity. Directed specifically at those who are interested in investing in tourism, the platform collects and presents objective and updated information and represents a single contact and advice point for investors, promoters, and local agents. Another example is the Revive program, an interesting incentive to invest in tourism. A number of unused historical buildings, the majority in a poor state of conservation and owned by the State, are put for concession to national or foreign private entities. This is materialized by a public tender that obliges the properties’ rehabilitation, preservation, and conservation on behalf of the State, which maintains ownership. The objective is to preserve and enhance national heritage through rehabilitation and guarantee the properties’ sustainability, bringing to life underused or abandoned spots that are then made available for public enjoyment. Living in Portugal is another platform aimed at attracting investment. This website gathers relevant information from multiple sources for foreign citizens who intend to live in Portugal, ensuring that administrative formalities inherent in the process of purchasing a house in Portugal and establishing residence and tax residency in the country are properly understood and complied with. The platform also contributes to the competitiveness of Portugal by promoting an appealing image of the country. All these initiatives and programs have the purpose of consolidating the role of tourism as a main driver of the Portuguese economy, with the capability of creating a multiplier effect and leveraging a significant role for Portugal in the international economic landscape.
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The EU and the Securitization of Chinese Investment Dr. Angela Stanzel, Senior Policy Fellow, Asia Program, Institut Montaigne, France
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n November 2018, the EU, the European Parliament, the European Council, and the European Commission reached provisional agreement on rules for an unprecedented framework to coordinate the screening of foreign direct investment into Europe. According to the European Commissioner for Trade, Cecilia Malmström, this framework “is an important milestone in the process we initiated only a year ago to protect critical technology and infrastructure in Europe”. The proposed mechanism is the outcome of a demand by France, Germany, and the previous government of Italy in a joint letter addressed to the European Commission in February 2017. This joint letter was triggered by a sharply increasing Chinese investment flow to Europe, which prompted a debate in several member states on the question of Chinese influence that comes with acquiring major stakes in large-scale European companies. In addition, Chinese investment increasingly targets key future industry sectors, a development seen in the context of Made in China 2025 as a policy initiative to upgrade Chinese industry by boosting innovation and domestic growth. In 2017, Chinese companies made around 250 acquisitions in Europe, which involved an investment of over USD 57 billion, mostly in Germany and the UK. Some of the member states, in particular France and Germany, have been articulate about their concerns and have already reacted to the new development of Chinese investment flows. France’s Minister for the Economy and Finances, Bruno Le Maire, noted during his visit to China in January 2018 that Paris would welcome investment from China but only after screening deals to ensure that French assets were not ‘looted’. In July, the French government presented to parliament its action plan for business growth and transformation. The plan includes
several measures to ensure increased control over foreign investments, and to protect strategic industries by, for instance, streng thening procedures for prior authorization of foreign investment. Germany’s leading industry group Federation of German Industries (BDI) recently argued in a draft position paper on China that a new EU instrument is needed to prevent state-subsidized takeovers, and provide more transparency when Chinese firms acquire European firms so that their ownership structures and financing can be vetted. In view of the Made in China 2025 policy initiative, the BDI paper, published in January 2019 called on the EU to develop its own industrial strategy for 2030. Germany amended its national law, the Foreign Trade and Payments Ordinance (AWV), in July 2017. The amendment tightens the rules for foreign investors and enables the German government to screen foreign takeovers if the stakes are 25% or higher. Since even the 25% threshold appears insufficient, Germany’s federal states, represented by the Bundesrat, urged Berlin in April 2017 to lower the threshold to veto foreign investment from its current 25% to 10% of shares. This unanimous proposal by Germany’s federal states illustrates the growing consensus in Germany for more protection from China’s deep pockets and industrial ambitions. In August 2018, Germany’s Finance Minister Peter Altmaier confirmed that the threshold will be lowered, possibly to 15%. The UK too has proposed legislative reforms on national security and investment, and Italy reformed its investment monitoring system (to reach beyond defense and national security industries) in December 2017. Following the joint initiative by France, Germany, and Italy, and because of the heated discussion within the EU on the securitization of foreign investment, on
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13 September 2017 the European Commission proposed In parallel to the screening framework, the Commission the creation of an unprecedented EU-wide framework is completing an in-depth analysis of foreign direct for screening foreign direct investments. On 28 May investment flows into the EU, focusing on strategic 2018, the European Parliament’s trade committee sectors and assets that may raise security or public order approved the proposal and drafted a list of critical concerns. In addition, the Commission has set up a sectors that should be screened, such as investment in coordination group with the member states to assist the media, election infrastruct ure, data analysis, Commission with advice and expertise on matters biomedicine, and car manufacturers. Shortly thereafter, relating to screening foreign investments. The European in June, permanent representatives of the EU member Parliament and the Council need to formally approve states agreed on the Council’s position and endorsed the proposed regulation, which was scheduled for March the proposed regulation for screening foreign 2019 (ahead of the EU elections in May 2019). investments. On this basis, the presidency commenced Even though the proposed mechanism is non-binding, negotiations with the parliament. The proposal for it has raised concerns among several member states, screening foreign investment had thus been identified such as Finland, Greece, Poland, and Sweden. These as a legislative priority by all three institutions. countries are concerned partly that a screening mechThe framework the European institutions have now anism would limit the EU’s so far open and free trade agreed upon sets out provisions for the EU and its stance, and in particular that it might damage their member states to protect their foreign investment relations national interests. It builds on with China. Recently, the new the national review mechanisms government in Italy also turned China has expressed that 13 of the member states on the previous government’s already maintain and does not efforts to scrutinize Chinese much concern about the require other member states to investment in Europe. Italy redevelopment regarding adopt a screening mechanism. versed its position in order to It prov ides the member states align itself as a trade and investforeign investment in and Comm ission with the opment partner to China. the EU, describing it as tion to screen foreign investChina has indeed expressed ment on the grounds of securimuch concer n about t he “protectionist trade policy ty or public order and sets out development regarding foreign basic requirements for screening investment in the EU, describing for short-term interests” investment, such as transparenit as “protectionist trade policy cy, non-discrimination, or judifor shor t-term i nterest s”. cial review. The proposed regulation includes a coopHowever, facing a long-term trade dispute with the eration component on foreign investment issues USA, and likely not wanting a conflict on two fronts, between the member states and the Commission, as the Chinese government has (as yet) refrained from well as between the member states. harsh criticism of the EU. In addition, the framework enables the Commission For the EU there is a momentum now to show both to review investment that might affect the ‘Union’s the doubting member states as well as foreign investors interests’, such as projects involving EU funding or that the proposed framework is an opportunity rather critical sectors. However, the Commission would not than a protectionist measure. A basic, common EU be able to block an investment or a takeover deal. The approach toward foreign investment in fact creates proposed screening mechanism is different from that more legal certainty and transparency not only for of other countries due to its non-binding nature. member states that maintain, or for those who intend Member states will have the option to screen, accept, to adopt, a screening mechanism but also for foreign or block investment either way. The framework investors. As Austria’s Minister for Digital and therefore reflects the diverging interests in foreign Economic Affairs Dr. Margarete Schramböck notes, investment, from high to non-existent, of the member “This is not about closing down our markets but about states and the attempt to balance these interests. acting responsibly.”
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Authoritarian Populism versus Classical Liberal Cosmopolitanism Dr. Tom G. Palmer, George M. Yeager Chair for Advancing Liberty and Executive Vice President for International Programs, Atlas Network, USA; Senior Fellow, Cato Institute, USA
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ccording to Democritus of Abdera, a fifthabroad are blamed for the problems of the world, century BCE Greek thinker, “[t]o a wise man, which in fact are caused by politicians who almost the whole earth is open; for the native land of never have multiple passports. Turkey’s populist a good soul is the whole earth”. Of course, not everyone strongman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan thunders against agrees. A rising tide of angry populism is surging around business people who have left the country: “The hands the globe; its leaders insist that souls are the collective of our nation would be on their collars both in this property of the national state and that wise individuals world and in the afterlife.” (now derided as ‘globalists’) are, in reality, the enemies Yoram Hazony’s 2018 book The Virtue of Nationalism of the people. Like pitchfork-wielding angry mobs in heralds the re-emergence of tribalism as a political ideal. the past, they have their own intellectual leaders: a Hazony categorically asserts that “all political order” variety of theorists have stepped forward to condemn (“all”) is founded on small, intimate groups “consisting modern society and call for a revival of ‘tribalism’. of individuals bound together by mutual loyalties Tribalism is the new/old wave in politics, and it’s putting developed over long years of shared hardship and stable, constitutional governtriumph”. Hazony tries to ment, rational discourse among resurrect, on that pre-modern citizens, and, indeed, the modbase, a political theory centered Now is a good time for ern world in jeopardy. on family, tribe, and clan. Of Before closer examination course, who is in the tribe and those who do not wish to it’s worth noting that now is a who isn’t is never as obvious as be consumed in a populist good time for those who do not Hazony assumes but is itself wish to be consumed in a a political determination, as conflagration to start thinking populist conflagration to start savvy authoritarian populists about multiple passports t h i n k i n g a b o ut mu lt ipl e recognize. Íñigo Errejón, a leader passports, and about legally of the far-left Podemos populist putting their persons and their party in Spain, notes that assets out of reach of the self-appointed tribal leaders collectivities are created by positing an enemy against of the future. Those who choose the modern, nonwhich the tribe must struggle, “the casta, the privileged”. tribal life are definitely in the cross-hairs of the neoWhen asked “who are the casta”, Errejón responded: tribalists. In his 2018 nationalist book, Ship of Fools, “The term’s mobilizing power comes precisely from its right-wing populist commentator Tucker Carlson rails lack of definition. It’s like asking: ‘Who’s the oligarchy? against the rootless cosmopolitans he believes are the Who’s the people?’ They are statistically undefinable. source of all of A merica’s current problems and I think these are the poles with greatest performative predicts: “When it fails, they’re gone. They’ve got capacity.” Populist leaders choose who is the enemy: money offshore and foreign passports at home. Our the rich, the privileged, the rootless cosmopolitans, the rulers have no intention of staying for the finale.” ‘Jewish financiers’, the ‘Asian entrepreneurs’, the Holders of multiple passports and those with assets globalists, whomever they tag as the exploitative enemy
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OPINIONS
in opposition to whom they seek to create, as left-wing looking for work in New York: “No one had asked me populist Chantal Mouffe put it, the “sort of people we about my nationality, my religion, my origin, and — want to build”. fantastic as it may seem to the world of today with its Today’s populists, often with surreptitious support fingerprinting, visas, and police certificates — I had from the Kremlin, are clamoring to bring down modern, traveled without a passport…Without the hindering open societies that allow people and goods and capital interference of the State or formalities, or trade unions, to flow across borders in pursuit of freedom, the highest in that now legendary freedom a deal was made in returns on investment, or simply happiness. What they a minute.” want are walls and antagonism. Steve Bannon, the farThat world was brought crashing down by the right American populist, promised in 2016 that “[i]t eruption of tribal hatred and violence known as the will be as exciting as the 1930s”, that is, a time when First World War, when passports were reintroduced, the ability to relocate one’s family, one’s life, one’s assets allegedly for national security reasons. We’ve been was especially important; those who were prepared struggling since the end of the war to make travel easier survived and those who were not became victims. again. To ‘national security’ concerns we can now add The fight for freedom of movement — of people, the populists as a powerful force against freedom goods, and capital — has been ongoing for centuries. of movement. Louis XIV issued an edict in 1669 requiring that subjects Princeton University political scientist Jan-Werner could not leave the kingdom nor travel from town to Müller identified the core of populism: “In addition town without a passport or an aveu, a testament of good to being anti-elitist, populists are always anti-pluralist. character from the religious authorities. Those and many Populists claim that they, and they alone, represent other restrictions on freedom of movement were abolished the people.” But Müller didn’t go quite far enough in the 19th century, thanks to agitation by classical libtoward understanding the nature of contemporary eral thinkers, notable among them the free-trade econpost-modern populism. The influential leftist popuomists. As the International list Ernesto Laclau, in one of Labor Office’s 1922 report his especially turgid works, On Emigration and Immigration Populist Reason, insisted that Holders of multiple noted: “During the whole of the ‘the people’ are constructed by th passports and those with 19 century, migration was, genidentifying an enemy, that “in erally speaking, unhindered, and the case of populism…a fronassets abroad are blamed for each emigrant could decide on tier of exclusion divides society the time of his departure, his into two camps”. Thus, “[t]he the problems of the world, arrival or his return, to suit his ‘people’, in that case, is somewhich in fact are caused by own convenience. Almost all thing less than the totality of countries kept an open door both the members of the communipoliticians who almost never for emigrants and immigrants. ty: it is a partial component have multiple passports The USA in particular, the great which nonetheless aspires to country of immigration, willingbe conceived as the only legitly received the millions of emiimate totality”. And who better grants who went there from all the countries of Europe, to be the anti-people than those who travel, those and almost all other countries of immigration held out who live and work abroad, those with assets, homes, welcoming hands. In the European countries of emigraand businesses outside the reach of the leaders of tion, the disappearance of passports and a fairly general ‘the people’? indifference on the part of the Governments so far as Unsurprisingly, far-right populist Marine Le Pen put migration was concerned rendered this easy.” it rather less turgidly in 2015: “Now the split is not In his lament for the world that was destroyed by between the left and the right but between the globalists tribalism, The World of Yesterday, the great Austrian and the patriots.” When it’s patriots vs. globalists, those writer Stefan Zweig described his first visit to the USA designated as ‘globalists’ have good reason to start before the First World War. As an experiment, he went thinking about their options.
2nd Quarter 2019 | 33
Binoche Chan, Chief Operating Officer, List Sotheby’s International Realty, Hong Kong
A
fter more than a decade of rising home prices, a debate is now underway on whether the bull has run its course given the lingering USA–China trade war and rising interest rates. While it was inevitable that ongoing trade conflicts would take a toll on buyer confidence, this is an opportunity for the once overheated market to enter a phase of positive price correction and adjust itself to a new normal. At the end of the day, occupiers, not speculators, will remain the driving force of the housing demand in Hong Kong. As property prices continue to correct and return to a healthy track, buyers who were previously sitting on the sidelines will be lured back to the market, ensuring that Hong Kong’s real estate market remains a promising investment in the long run.
a smaller 3% over the same period. That is a sign that the luxury property market proves to be more resilient to the mass market.
Rental Market Though prices were under downward pressure, rents remained on the rise. This suggests that potential buyers prefer sitting on the sidelines for the moment, turning to rentals until affordability improves amid a slowing market.
Private Housing Demand to Outgrow Supply Over the years, Hong Kong’s population has continued and will continue to grow, according to government statistics and forecasts. Population growth has been largely stable, at an average rate of about 0.72%. The number of households has grown at an average rate of 1.46% per year since 2015. Against this scenario, housing supply failed to catch up with potential demand. New residential completions were insufficient to support housing demand generated by household growth. In 2017, around 44,400 new households were formed, while only 31,452 of new public and private housing units were
Luxury Property Market In the broader market, Hong Kong home prices fell by a modest 3.6% in August 2018 from July that year as illustrated by figures from the Rating and Valuation Department. However, homes larger than 160 m2 of saleable floor area, or those considered a luxury by Hong Kong standards, dipped
Widening Gap of Demand and Supply 50,000
44,400
40,000 30,000
35,800 27,800
31,452
29,653
27,411 20,000 2015
2016
2017
Year Demand
Supply
(Source: Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, 2017)
34 | Global Citizenship Review
IMAGE: Supplied
way
Hong Kong’s Resilient Housing Market
Number of Units
s d
OPINIONS
IMAGE: Supplied
OPINIONS
Kai Tak Land Sale — AV Better Site, on top of MTR Station AV HKD 17,800
Number of Units
20,000
Goldin AV HKD 15,500
16,000
Wheelock, New World, Henderson, and Empire Holdings AV HKD 14,500
12,000 8,000
2018/11
2018/11
2018/5
2018/2
2017/5
2017/3
2017/1
2016/12
2016/12
2016/11
2014/5
2014/2
2013/6
4,000
Time Period (Source: Lands Department, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, 8 November 2018. Note: Timeline not in scale, for illustrative purpose only)
completed during the same year. This demand–supply gap has widened in the past few years. It is the reason why property prices have been on the increase.
Residential Real Estate Market If history is any guide, residential property prices tend to go up over a longer time horizon despite periodic fluctuations. In Hong Kong’s real estate history, there are two housing slumps on record, respectively triggered by the Asian financial crisis in 1997 and the global financial crisis in 2008. Immediately after the Asian financial crisis in 1997, banks aggressively asked underwater property owners for cash to compensate for the difference between the loan value and their home’s fair market value. High loan-to-value (LTV) mortgage borrowers who were unable to pay what the banks had asked for risked seeing their properties repossessed. The downturn persisted into the early 2000s but got back on track. Whereas the market correction after the 2008 global financial crisis was relatively short-lived, real estate prices were buoyed by the many rounds of quantitative easing initiated by the USA. To cool down an overheating market before 2012, the government introduced punitive stamp duty surcharges, including the special stamp duty, double stamp duty, buyer stamp duty, and a 15% stamp duty on purchases made by second-home buyers together with stricter mortgage lending rules. However, the so-called cooling measures did not work out as intended. The property market took a breather right after the implementation but then returned to the rising trend until reaching today’s position.
In 2018, a moderate price correction was observed, however, as mortgage rates remain low historically, while most buyers are allowed access to mortgages set at a healthy LTV ratio of 60%, property owners still command a strong holding power. They are more able to withstand downward price swings than in the past two financial crises.
Opportunities for Developers When fear emerges, developers show their greed by being more aggressive in the land market and the purchasing of old buildings earmarked for redevelopment. For example, Henderson is still actively acquiring properties in a couple of old buildings in Kowloon City and the Mid-levels from individual owners. In the fast-developing Kai Tak, a consortium of developers (Wheelock, New World, Henderson, and Empire Holdings) recently acquired a piece of land from the government at an accommodation value of HKD 14,500 per square foot. Goldin Properties also acquired another land parcel in the area at HKD 15,500 per square foot.
A Slowly Deflating Property Bubble Given the slowing pace of rising interest rates and trade conflicts, hiccups in the Hong Kong property market are unavoidable, and also understandable. Having said that, Hong Kong’s solid housing market fundamentals — continued population growth, low unemployment rates, and stronger links to the neighboring cities — will continue to drive the housing market in the long run, and will remain a safe bet for the value investor.
2nd Quarter 2019 | 35
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COVER STORY
D
esign follows function. While this is a simple yet powerful way to express how design and practical living relate, the boundary between science, design, and art is a shifting one, pushed, pulled, and redesigned in a relentless pursuit of novelty. We tend to think of design as primarily an aesthetic manipulation of a base form, such as a chair but the creativity, problem-solving, and practical feasibility inherent in effective and innovative design hint at far more complex and influential manifestations than those that simply catch the eye.
The chair offers a practical example of an object that epitomizes function made concrete. All chairs are designed to enable sitting. And everyone needs to sit. However, the chair addresses not only this seemingly simple function but also status, context, technology, behavior; an ‘old’ chair in a different setting, or new material, is a new expression. Designer George Nelson elevates the chair to its own throne: “Every truly original idea — every innovation in design, every new application of materials, every technical invention for furniture — seems to find its most important expression in a chair.”
38 | Global Citizenship Review
IMAGES: Shutterstock
By Design: Creating, Recreating, and Redefining
IMAGES: Shutterstock
COVER STORY
Unlike art, design is required to fulfill some practical design is good business” (John Watson Jr.), today has purpose, like sitting rather than philosophizing. This an in-house innovation lab, IBM Design Thinking, with purpose is usually determined by stakeholders other than over 30 studio spaces and whiteboards, and Post-it ® designers themselves. However, there is more to design notes aplenty. But the integration of design goes beyond methodology than fulfillment of purpose or function. the lab: “Design is everyone’s job. Not everyone is a Function is what the design has to do. This sounds designer but everybody has to have the user as their straightforward but describing an object’s or a system’s north star”, says Phil Gilbert, IBM’s Head of Design. function and sub-functions can take a tedious and Bridget van Kralingen, Senior Vice President Blockchain, distracting number of verbs and adjectives. Design to Industry Platforms, Global Industries, I As and these, and you risk an inefficient and impractical result.1 Partnerships at IBM, echoes the thinking succinctly: While function may be essentially the Big Bang of any “There’s no longer any real distinction between business design problem universe, it isn’t the be-all and end-all of strategy and the design of the user experience.” that universe. Yes, the practical purpose of a chair is for Former PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi sitting on, but this does not account for every atom of championed design thinking in her 12 years in the position, even the simplest seat. Designers typically draw from a during which the company began to see steady revenue range of tools other than function to solve a problem: growth. Interviewed for Harvard Business Review’s from analogy, metaphor, framing, and strategy, to common September 2015 issue, dedicated to the evolution of design sense and even a bit of anarchy. Standard problem-solving, thinking, Nooyi was asked to define good design: “A or normal abduction, involves knowing which outcomes well-designed product is one you fall in love with. Or you you want and the scenario for hate. It may be polarizing but it has achieving them, that is the ‘how’; and to provoke a real reaction…We had seeks to establish the ‘what’: an object, to rethink the entire experience, from There’s no longer service, or system. However, in design conception to what’s on the shelf to any real distinction abduction, all you know is the desired the post-product experience.”4 outcome: you need to resolve the Similarly, a rethink of the entire between business ‘what’ and the ‘how’ that will lead to employee experience is how design that outcome.2 “It begins by imagining thinking is manifesting in human strategy and the design a solution that does not yet exist and resource (HR) management. While of the user experience outlines a pathway to realize it”, traditional HR focuses on training, explains Deloitte in its commentary assessing, ensuring compliance, ‘Beyond Design Thinking’.3 and documenting work practice, If this extent of thinking and analysis is required these processes add to an already complex and drainwhen handing over to a designer, it is little surprise that ing work environment. Design thinking in HR practice organizations integrate design thinking into wider, shifts focus to the employee’s personal experience: “It non-design scenarios and environments. So, how has empowers HR to reimagine every aspect of work: the design thinking been adopted and to what level of physical environment; how people meet and interact; success or failure? how managers spend their time; and how companies Tim Brown, CEO of design consultancy IDEO, defines select, train, engage, and evaluate people”, describe design thinking as “a human-centered approach to Bersin, Solow, and Wakefield. 5 And exactly as in prodinnovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to uct design, it should generate and test prototypes that integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, culminate in further ideas, tools, and solutions. and the requirements for business success”. This somewhat Re-enter the chair. Office furniture design company wide definition allows for endless applications and degrees Steelcase solidifies HR design thinking into the concrete of application of the concept, as the examples that follow realm of product design. CEO Jim Keane explains: “If illustrate. Several well-known companies, such as Airbnb, you want to change your culture, getting the physical IBM, PepsiCo, and Virgin Atlantic have in recent years space to match the body language is critical. If you incorporated design thinking in one way or another. change the culture but don’t change the space, the space IBM, which has maintained since 1973 that “good will anchor behaviors in the past.”
2nd Quarter 2019 | 39
COVER STORY
When body and mind have to put in long hours, as in university libraries, Steelcase observed that students would seek out lounge chairs rather than chairs and desks, contorting themselves into different origami-like human shapes for hours. There is something more comforting, less punishing, about lounging, despite the likely pins and needles, cramps, and numbness. Realizing that the workplace demands similar mental clarity and endurance from its workers as learning institutions expect from the bright young minds of students, Steelcase pursued a new office chair design centered around lounging. Designed to support the body ergonomically in an alert recline, the Brody chair has the status appeal of a first-class airline seat while offering a psychological safe spot cocoon from which genius can manifest.6 Certainly, the Brody would seem to echo Bersin et al’s claim that design thinking in HR can directly contribute to employee satisfaction, productivity, and enjoyment. Another area in which design thinking has gained traction in large corporate spaces, such as Nestlé’s, is through experiential learning, where an individual’s context and work is the content rather than a detached presenter’s PowerPoint slides or notes. Simulation and prototyping are integral to their learning program. But what has been the experiential learning of participants in design thinking itself over the growth of its popularity and ‘establishment’ as a panacea for mediocrity? Some critics don’t think much of it at all. In an analysis of the trend, Deloitte points out
that many firms develop grandiose expectations from design thinking but put in only superficial analysis and don’t follow through with effective synthesis. Too many team members (of whom only a small proportion will be a creative, a trained designer) dilute critical thinking, complicate simple solutions, and are subject to the influences of populism and the momentum of the masses. The result can be a timeconsuming yet rushed process. A designer explains: “Designers and creatives are only as good as the team they are surrounded by. If a talented designer has to spend 80% of their time teaching others or constantly explaining every decision in a rational way to stakeholders, they might not be such a talented creative in a few years. Their craft deteriorates.”7 Superficial design thinking is a “theater of innovation” (as described by a partner at IDEO), only playing at effecting real change and novelty; without strategy, discipline, and trust, real creativity and innovation are mythical beasts, ones that, if actually even discovered, are corralled and caged. Nooyi sees a fine line between innovation and design. “Ideally, design leads to innovation and innovation demands design”, she says. 8 In its analysis of design thinking and what lies beyond it as a trend, Deloitte notes that these days effective innovations are “more about elegant integration of the known than about the primary invention of the new”. 9 Here, the
Design Thinking Process
Ideate
Empathize
Define
Test
Prototype
Above: According to Interaction Design Foundation, design thinking “is a design methodology that provides a solution-based approach to solving problems”. Previously, design thinking was confined to design-related problems but more and more companies around the world are using the approach to tackle a spectrum of challenges and encourage innovation within teams
40 | Global Citizenship Review
COVER STORY
IMAGES: officesnapshots.com
Above: Various companies are awakening to the importance of creating work spaces that are more intuitive and conducive to high performance. One such way is to provide a variety of seating arrangements to allow employees flexibility and autonomy
use of elegant is not flippant. Considering that elegant means to be graceful and stylish and pleasingly ingenious and simple, one can see how, in the phrase ‘design thinking’, it is the taste, talent, aesthetic sensibility, and astute insight that is in the blood of designers that brings the sophistication needed to truly redesign the everyday. Not just thinking about it. Innovation in design is more than about producing novelty or newness; it includes seeing, thinking, and acting differently on the part of both designer and user. Designers frame function but reframe, and reframe again ad infinitum; in so doing they not only design but, one could say, begin to define. With every new iteration of or perspective on an entity, be it a chair, a methodology, or a behavior, one could say that the entity itself undergoes a change — it is understood differently. Therefore, does function follow design? After all, we sit the way we do because we are bipedal vertebrates with joints that bend just so. There are only so many ways a chair can be shaped.
Endnotes 1 Kees Dorst, Notes on Design: How Creative Practice Works (BIS Publishers, 2017) 2 Ibid. 3 Larry Keeley, ‘Beyond Design Thinking’ (Deloitte Insights, 15 April 2015) deloitte.com/insights/us/en/focus/businesstrends/2015/beyond-design-thinking-business-trends.html 4 Adi Ignatius, ‘How Indra Nooyi Turned Design Thinking into Strategy: An Interview with PepsiCo’s CEO’ (Harvard Business Review, September 2015) hbr.org/2015/09/howindra-nooyi-turned-design-thinking-into-strategy 5 Josh Bersin, Marc Solow, and Nicky Wakefield, ‘Design Thinking: Crafting the Employee Experience’ (Deloitte Insights, 29 February 2016) deloitte.com/insights/us/en/focus/ human-capital-trends/2016/employee-experiencemanagement-design-thinking.html 6 Nick Compton, ‘This Company Is Designing the Future of Office Furniture’ (Wired, 29 September 2015) wired.co.uk/ article/steelcase-future-office-furniture 7 Lillina Ayla Ersoy, ‘Why Design Thinking Is Failing and What We Should Be Doing Differently’ (UX Collective, 19 June 2018) uxdesign.cc/why-design-thinking-is-failingand-what-we-should-be-doing-differently-c8842f843b44 8 Op cit. Ignatius. (2015) 9 Op cit. Keeley. (2015)
2nd Quarter 2019 | 41
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COUNTRY REVIEW
Portugal
Picture Perfect Getting to Know Portugal The region of present-day Portugal was inhabited as far back as circa 400,000 years ago. By the time of the expansion of the Roman Empire to the Iberian peninsula (3 BCE), it had already been visited by Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, and Celts, who mixed with the native Lusitanians. The region was later occupied by Germanic tribes and the Moors before
44 | Global Citizenship Review
IMAGE: Shutterstock
S
ituated on the Atlantic seaboard, Portugal is one of the oldest countries in Europe. It boasts an excellent reputation, which is hinged on the country’s offering of sunshine, stability, and security. Portugal also brims over with culture, making it a favored destination for individuals and families seeking a new adventure, be it for a vacation or for long-term residence.
IMAGE: Shutterstock
COUNTRY REVIEW
Portugal GDP in Billions 2013–2017 230 Amount in Billions
an independent kingdom was established in 1139. In the 15th century Portugal rose to dominance as a colonial power, later abandoning its system of dictatorship in favor of democratic rule. Over the past few decades, Portugal, which has a population of almost 10.4 million, has done a remarkable job of improving its global positioning both socially and economically. While Portugal is shifting towards offering business-oriented services, a third of its economy remains in manufacturing. The country is the world’s largest supplier of cork and enjoys the benefits of a strong tourism industry. Portugal is a member of the Schengen Area and the EU and began using the euro as its currency in 2002. Today, the country has a GDP of USD 217.6 billion, and its unemployment rate is less than 9% of the total labor force. According to the latest update of the Henley Passport Index
220
210
195 2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
Year Above: The performance of Portugal’s GDP has been impressive in the last few years, showing a steady regaining of its strength following a turbulent 2014–2015 (Source: The World Bank, 2018)
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COUNTRY REVIEW
*The threshold will be reduced by 20% should the funds be committed to a low population density area, defined as one with fewer than 100 inhabitants per km² or with a GDP per capita below 75% of the national average.
Above and opposite page: Portugal’s real estate market is set to be among the top performers in Europe, aided by investor anxiety over Brexit
of March 2019, Portugal has the 5th most powerful passport in the world (alongside Austria, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, the UK, and the USA), since it enables holders with visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 185 destinations.
Golden Residence Permit Through its Golden Residence Permit (GRP) program, Portugal has produced streamlined legislation that enables non-EU citizens to obtain a residence permit based on investment, thus creating eligibility to subsequently apply for the Portuguese passport. The Portugal GRP program is a five-year residenceby-investment program for non-EU nationals. The residence permit allows free circulation in the Schengen Area and requires a stay of an average of only seven days per year in Portugal over this period. Current legislation offers three qualifying routes of committing funds to obtain residence status under the GRP program. Residence must be maintained for a minimum of five years, after which the applicant is eligible to apply for Portuguese citizenship. While the capital transfer option is the most straightforward route, Portugal has a thriving real estate market that is diverse and offers attractive investment potential. The GRP is valid for a period of one year after issue and is renewable for two subsequent periods of two years,
46 | Global Citizenship Review
IMAGE: Shutterstock
The Golden Residence Permit program’s qualifying options are: Capital Transfer 1. Capital transfer of a minimum of EUR 1 million into a Portuguese bank account or specifically approved investment options 2. EUR 350,000 for research activities of public or private entities that are part of the national scientific and technological system* 3. EUR 250,000 in support of artistic production or in the recovery or maintenance of the national cultural heritage* 4. EUR 350,000 for the acquisition of units of investment funds or venture capital funds committed to the capitalization of companies incorporated under Portuguese law, with a maturity of at least five years, and with at least 60% of the investment portfolio in companies with a head office in the national territory Property Acquisition 1. A real estate purchase with a minimum value of EUR 500,000* 2. A real estate purchase with a minimum value of EUR 350,000 for the refurbishment of properties older than 30 years or in an area of urban regeneration, including the cost of renovations* Business 1. Creation of a minimum of 10 new jobs* 2. EUR 350,000 for the incorporation or increase of the share capital of a company registered in Portugal, creating or maintaining a minimum of five permanent jobs for a period of three years
equaling a total of five years for the program. Thereafter, applicants have three options to choose from. They can either: • Extend the GRP by two years, • Apply for permanent residence, or • Apply for citizenship (Portugal allows double citizenship)
Taxation in Portugal
IMAGES: Shutterstock
IMAGE: Shutterstock
COUNTRY REVIEW
There are numerous benefits to Portuguese citizenship, and one of them is that the country allows dual citizenship. Another attractive factor is Portugal’s taxation system. Personal taxation for non-residents on Portuguesesourced employment and pension income is charged at a preferential rate of 25%, although interest and rental income, dividends, and capital gains are taxed at 28%. For new residents wanting to become tax resident in Portugal, the non-habitual resident (NHR) regime may be more beneficial. Once NHR tax status is obtained, income derived from a Portuguese source through a number of defined, high-value professions will be subject to income tax at a flat rate of 20%, although some surcharges may apply. Income derived from a foreign source and relating to employment income, pension income, and business and professional income can be subject to exemption.
Above: The University of Coimbra is one of Europe’s oldest, with origins dating back to 1290. The university is an official UNESCO World Heritage Site, and its Baroque Library, pictured here, is a national treasure, housing over 50,000 books from the 16th to the 18th centuries
2nd Quarter 2019 | 47
COUNTRY REVIEW
Portugal The golden bridge between Europe, America, and Africa, Portugal is the country that discovered the world and is only now being rediscovered by the world.
Country Information
Language
Currency
Economy
Population
Portuguese
Euro
Tourism- and manufacturing-oriented
10,355,493 (USA CIA, 2018)
Portugal is the westernmost European country with an almost 900-year history, nearly 600 of which were as the empire whose colonies extended across Africa, Brazil, Indochina, the Malay Peninsula, and Persia. The Portuguese border remains one of the oldest in the world and remains almost identical to the one that was defined in 1297.
Porto
Coimbra
Portugal Lisbon Evora
Faro
Peaceful People According to the Global Peace Index’s 2018 ranking, Portugal is the 4th most peaceful country in the world. In 2014 the country was ranked 18th. This significant improvement over the years reflects the concerted effort by the Government of Portugal to increase the country’s attractiveness.
48 | Global Citizenship Review
Quality of Life Portugal offers excellent international and national schools and universities, world-class healthcare clinics and hospitals, exceptional cuisine, and a mild climate. These important factors are some of the reasons why Portugal enjoys an aboveaverage life expectancy for its birth rate, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
COUNTRY REVIEW
Tax Benefits •
Portugal does not apply a wealth tax or tax on gifts and inheritances in the direct family line and in relation to foreign assets. Non-residents are only taxed on Portuguese-sourced: • Employment and pension income at 25% • Interest and rental income, dividends, and capital gains at 28% Flat tax rate of 20% on income from employment and self-employment derived from the exercise in Portugal of qualifying value added professions by non-habitual resident (NHR) individuals
•
•
Henley Passport Index
41st
2019 Henley Passport Index
12th
Quality of Nationality Index
26
ND-GAIN Country Index
Human Development Index 2018 Human Development Index
10 th
Travel Freedom Ranking Kälin – Kochenov Quality of Nationality Index 3rd Edition
Kälin – Kochenov Quality of Nationality Index 3rd Edition
th
•
100% exemption on pensions from foreign source which never gave rise to a deduction for Portuguese corporate tax purposes Residents under the NHR regime may enjoy: • Over 75 double tax treaties with other countries • Exemption from personal income tax on capital gains from the sale of foreign property (listed tax havens excluded) • Other exemptions subject to specific conditions
Economy and Markets
Country Rankings
5th
•
24th
2016 Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index
Good Country Index 2019 Good Country Index
Capital of Culture In 2012, Guimarães was the European Capital of Culture, reflecting the charming character of both the city and the country. Portugal regularly hosts international film and music festivals, conferences, world exhibitions, and summits, as well as sporting events. Portugal is also a favorite tourism destination, a testament to its diversity and international appeal.
Exports USD 59.3 billion (2017) Refined petroleum Cars, Vehicle parts Leather, Footwear
Imports USD 78.3 billion (2017) Crude petroleum Cars, Vehicle parts Packed medicaments Petroleum gas
(Source: Observatory of Economic Complexity, 2019)
Leisure and Sports A long coastline of stunning beaches, dramatic cliffs, and idyllic countryside are not the only drawcards to Portugal. The country attracts international sports competitions and tournaments in golf, surfing, tennis, and horse-riding, and Portugal often receives recognition at the International Travel and Tourism Awards.
2nd Quarter 2019 | 49
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FEATURES
Interview
Parag Khanna Global strategy advisor and best selling author Parag Khanna carved out time from his schedule to share with Global Citizenship Review his expert insight into the growing influence and dominance of Asia Global Citizenship Review (GCR): Parag, it’s great to chat to you! Your latest book, The Future Is Asian: Commerce, Conflict, and Culture in the 21st Century was recently published. What has been Asia’s status until now, and how is it evolving? Parag Khanna (PK): For decades, even centuries, Asia’s full geographic extent has been neglected. Five hundred years of colonial division and a half-century of Cold War rivalries have, until now, made Asia less than the sum of its parts. The past quarter century since the Cold War has kicked off a genuine process of Asian reintegration that harkens back to the pre-colonial world of the 15th century and earlier. West Asia, or what we have grown accustomed to calling the Middle East, now trades far more with the rest of Asia than with Europe or the USA. All the sub-regions of Asia — such as South Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, East Asia — have rapidly growing trade and investment ties with one another. They are confidently rekindling and establishing economic complementarities. All of this was well underway before China’s recent launch of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the largest coordinated infrastructure investment plan in human history, which will serve primarily to tie Asia’s sub-regions even closer together.
purchasing eurobonds. Indeed, Asia’s market appeal is so strong that Europe has diverged strongly from the USA in how to handle Asia’s rise: while the USA is launching trade wars to reduce Asian surpluses, Europe is exporting its surpluses to Asia. Furthermore, first Japan and now China have enormous foreign direct investment (FDI) stocks and continue to acquire assets worldwide far beyond Asia. Asians are also the largest source of global migrants: the Chinese and Indian diasporas are growing on all continents, even South America. Indeed Indians have the highest incomes of any ethnic group in America.
IMAGE: Kreg Holt
GCR: If the future really is Asian, what are some of the key factors driving the growth of Asia’s influence globally? PK: The Asianization of the world is of course multidimensional. Demographics and economics are key: Asia is home to more than half of the world’s population and all of the world’s fastest growing economies. They are of necessity reaching out worldwide to acquire resources and access markets for their booming exports. Asians have also built up the largest currency reserves, which have been crucial for global financial stability, for example by holding down USA’s interest rates and
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GCR: You talk about China having “taken a lead in building
GCR: To what extent are urban and digital growth the cornerstones of Asia’s future success? PK: Urbanization and digitization have achieved growth on an unprecedented scale in Asia. Asia’s mega-city clusters with populations nearing 100 million are four or five times larger than their counterparts in the West such as Los Angeles and London. Urban services economies are the reason Asians are leapfrogging the traditional manufacturing path of development and instead creating jobs in construction, logistics, hospitality, and other areas. Mobile internet and finance have propelled the peer-topeer economy and unleashed Asia’s high savings into financial products in credit and insurance. China has been a leader in mobile payments, and ecosystems such as WeChat have been replicated across the region. Asia has thus rapidly become home to billions of connected urban consumers, and Asian governments are spending up to 30% of their budgets (as India is) on infrastructure, especially for cities.
Above: Parag is a trusted advisor to governments and multinationals who rely on his services and geopolitical expertise. He is seen here at the 2017 Moscow Urban Forum participating in a session entitled Age of Agglomerations with McKinsey & Company’s Global Managing Director at the time, Dominic Barton and the Mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin
PK: This is a wonderful question! The Western experience teaches us that diversity breeds difference but Asia’s deep diversity of large, rooted civilizations separated by mountains and water, and representing mutually unintelligible languages, tells a different story: no Asian culture could ever successfully conquer the others as Europeans have tried to do to each other. Asians are simply too detached from each other and self-absorbed. They intuitively realize that they must live and let live. This means there are inherent limitations to the actual influence China can have over its neighbors, as was the case with Japan in the mid-20 th century. All Asian powers are pursuing their ambitions, and while their interests do overlap and sometimes conflict, they will skirmish more at the margins than at their cores. They are skirmishing over the South China Sea waters between them, not to conquer entire sub-regions such as Southeast Asia. Outside Asia there is something of a division of labor emerging that has gone largely unnoticed. Japan and China have opened many doors with their infrastructure investments and resource deals, but India has come in behind them capturing deals in training workers and implementing software platforms. Their ambitions inadvertently reinforce one another.
GCR: In what way is the region’s ethnic, cultural, and linguistic diversity a benefit to its economic and political ambitions?
GCR: The Future Is Asian: Commerce, Conflict, and Culture in the 21st Century is described as offering
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the new Silk Roads across Asia but it will not lead alone”. Which countries do you expect will lead alongside China in this new world order, if you were to describe it as such? PK: The most significant error in contemporary strategic thinking that I seek to correct with this book is the notion that China’s rise, and its BRI, paints a linear path to Chinese hegemony in Asia and even global supremacy. This is false. The world is irrevocably multi-polar, with North America, Europe, and Asia all important at the same time. Asia itself has throughout its history been multi-polar, not unipolar. Only the Mongols were able to assert themselves across the swath of Asia stretching through the Arab world to Europe. But today all of Asia’s civilizations — Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Persian, Turkic, and Russian — are strong and confident. None want to be a Chinese vassal. China’s infrastructure investments are actually accelerating the process of modernizing states such as Pakistan and Uzbekistan. Rather than China dominate them, it is actually giving them the tools and capacity to govern themselves more effectively and dilute Chinese encroachment. This is completely consistent with imperial history: empires actually sponsor the very forces that resist them. The British learned this all too well in India!
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[businesses] “a global strategic roadmap for decades to the global system appreciates Asia as a whole and come”. How exactly should businesses position comprehends its collective impact on the world. That is themselves to benefit from the shifting geo-economic why I wrote this book! dynamic we are witnessing? PK: Global businesses or multi-nationals need to wake GCR: Is the concept of ‘Asia First’ a direct retaliation up quickly to Asia’s third major growth wave that is against the protectionist ideals of ‘America First’, or is mounting. After Japan and the Asian Tigers (South Korea, it rather a more strategic and productive approach? Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore) during the 1960s PK: It would be too generous to call ‘America First’ a to 1980s, China then rose to become the ‘factory of the strategy, unless the purpose of strategy is to harm one’s world’ and the largest economy. Asia’s next growth wave own interests. Industrial policy such as what Asian nations is being propelled by the 2.5 billion people of South and aggressively practice works for developing countries, but Southeast Asia — from Pakistan through to the the USA needs immigrants in many sectors and is scaring Philippines. These nations already represent about them away. Its global companies depend on foreign reveUSD 6 trillion in GDP and are growing fast. India today nues, yet the USA is walking away from trade agreements. is the fastest growing country in the world. Southeast Asia It is cutting itself off from important sources of growth (the 10 member states of ASEAN) has half the population — particularly Asia — at a time when Asia is learning to of China and India (only 700 million people) but already meet its own needs with less dependence on the USA. has a larger GDP than India (more than USD 2.5 trillion) When America does come back to the table, it might be and receives more FDI each year too late. In that sense, ‘Asia First’ than China does. Furthermore, these has been underway for some time, countries represent far more open forging ahead under the surface Global businesses or political economies than China’s since the 1990s. That is the point multi-nationals need to economy, hence the opportunities of departure of The Future Is Asian for businesses to penetrate their and in the period since then Asia wake up quickly to Asia’s markets are enormous compared to has flourished far more rapidly than China’s. Because the Western tech anyone could have imagined. third major growth wave sector has never had full access to that is now mounting the Chinese market, it is ahead of GCR: How did your interest in the curve in focusing on South and the region develop? Southeast Asia. Other sectors should PK: Well, for one thing: I am follow its lead. Asian! I was born in India and have roots from Central Asia to the Mediterranean. I spent my childhood in Abu GCR: How do you expect the global system will respond Dhabi and Dubai, the Gulf region, which my diplomat to the rise of Asia and the resultant Asianization of grandfather always insisted should be called “West Asia” economies and societies? as Indians have always termed it. At university I developed PK: The notion of Asia rising goes back decades to the a theoretical interest in regional systems, which is the ‘rising sun’ of Japan, which captured Western attention approach I take to Asia in this book. At the same time, with its aggressive business expansion. More recently, I immersed myself in Central Asian history and began China’s rise has polarized the world, with the USA viewing traveling regularly to the former Soviet republics. In it as a threat, while most of the rest of the world, including researching my first book, The Second World, I spent a Europe, sees China as an opportunity. As Asia comes great deal of time in that region, as well as driving across together, its powers are finding ways to accommodate western China and after that across Russia. Subsequently one another and agree to common rules of engagement. I served as an advisor to USA Special Operations Forces Currently, 23 of the 25 trade liberalization agreements in Iraq and Afghanistan. Through all these travels, I under negotiation are in Asia. New multi-lateral bodies came to experience firsthand the opening of Asian borders such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank have and the steady resurrection of the ancient Silk Roads. I mostly Asian membership and demonstrate Asians’ ability believe this is truly the most significant geopolitical and to solve Asian problems. We are not yet at the stage where geo-economic trend of the 21st century.
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Sovereign Equity: A Paradigm Shift Dr. Christian H. Kälin, Editor in Chief, Global Citizenship Review Group Chairman, Henley & Partners, Switzerland
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core premise of investment migration is to resources such as hydrocarbons or minerals, their ability enhance a country’s economy in exchange for to reduce debt, increase revenue, and attract investment residence or citizenship rights for individual is extremely limited. 2 investors. This is a good description of a classic ‘win-win’ Debt financing is helpful and often critical in times of formula. However, it is clear that the benefits of residencecrises. But as Dominica showed in the aftermath of two and citizenship-by-investment programs for host nations consecutive hurricanes in 2017 and 2018 that destroyed go far beyond extra funding for the national treasury or large parts of the country’s infrastructure and devastated increased foreign direct investment (FDI). One of the entire villages, citizenship-by-investment was a lifeline industry’s unique and most positive attributes is its ability that enabled the government to rebuild infrastructure and to endow nations with a considerable provide support to those affected.3 source of sustainable revenue without Outside of a crisis, when them having to increase debt and countries find themselves lacking Prudently managed thereby burden future generations. This fiscal autonomy they lose the ability residence and citizenship to operate as truly sovereign states, capacity to expand a state’s ‘sovereign equity’ by increasing the number of forfeiting the gains from their programs with citizens who actively contribute to its economies to pay off creditors.4 future wellbeing also has the invaluable Countries also lose the ability to stringent due diligence capacity to reduce a key aspect of invest sufficiently in core on applicants and inequality within as well as between infrastructure, education, and health states – a phenomenon that is uniquely services that enhance the lives of their transparent structures facilitated by investment migration. citizens.5 This can lead to a scenario are able to drive in which society’s best and brightest Sovereign Equity in Practice leave to pursue opportunities investment that meets Sovereign equity is a means for elsewhere, depriving the country of governments to improve public finances their skills, which in turn diminishes the needs of countries and support economic growth and the prospects and quality of life of without adding to employment creation without the general population.6 increasing their debt – meaningfully Investment migration is arguably the burden of debt addressing the growing imbalances and the single most effective means of inequalities inherent in traditional addressing this dilemma. As a direct sovereign debt financing by engaging with the global injection of liquidity into a country’s economy, it relieves community of high-net-worth investors. stress on the national treasury without tying the country There are many sovereign states around the world into debt-based obligations. Moreover, it is not only a source that lack the traditional capacity to raise sufficient of income, but also a proven driver of FDI streams. This revenue and that may even at times be locked out of twin dynamic is extremely effective in mitigating the financing through capital markets or international problems brought about by sovereign debt and limited lenders.1 Countries can thus find themselves trapped in inbound investment – ultimately providing greater national a pattern of negative debt and short of discovering natural autonomy and prosperity for all citizens.
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Investment Migration, Fiscal Autonomy, And Freedom
In the Caribbean, a similar success story has been unfolding over the past ten years. Since the reform and relaunch of Prudently managed residence and citizenship programs the St. Kitts and Nevis Citizenship-by-Investment Program with stringent due diligence on applicants and transparent in 2007, the subsequent investment boom in this country, structures are able to drive investment that meets the needs and in several other Caribbean countries that launched or of countries without adding to the burden of debt. Such enhanced programs, is remarkable and unprecedented in funding can be used either to pay off existing debt or to the region’s history.12 create societal value through strategically targeted govFollowing independence from Britain, the Federation ernment spending. This provides governments with sigof St. Kitts and Nevis witnessed a decline of its sugar nificantly increased fiscal autonomy – a key factor in how industry. It simply became unsustainable to produce sugar sovereign a country can be. in the country and to compete on world markets. This Investment migration programs also act as remark resulted in a massive annual deficit, threatening to ably successful FDI platforms to attract capital and undermine the entire economy.13 It is thanks to its skills to an economy far beyond the specific investment citizenship-by-investment program that the country was requirements of each residence or citizenship program. able to restructure its economy away from loss-making The numerous material benefits of FDI are clear 7, but it sugar production and raise hundreds of millions of dollars is in the beneficial social impact created by this type of in FDI geared towards providing a sustainable transition investment that real human value is found. Increased and laying the foundations for future growth and investment drives employment opportunities for citizens development.14 Today constituting 30% of national annual at all levels, from architects and construction workers, revenue, investment migration is, according to Prime to manufacturing and technology companies, and to the Minister Timothy Harris, “a pillar in the foundation of the tourism sector and other service industries. The result country’s unique future and prosperity.”15 is more business activity and new emIn Antigua and Barbuda, the ployment, leading to an overall more country’s citizenship program, dynamic and positive socio-economic created in 2013, now constitutes In Antigua and environment.8 The natural consequence approximately 15% of the Barbuda, the country’s of this is to alleviate pressure on govgovernment’s annual revenue and ernment spending, further increasing is responsible for substantial citizenship program, fiscal autonomy and ultimately estabinvestments in the construction lishing greater prosperity. sector that have helped to create a created in 2013, now sustainable tourism and leisure Proven Socio-Economic Benefits constitutes approximately industry. In addition, investment In the aftermath of the 2008 financial migration has been a major driver 15% of the government’s crisis, Malta’s economy, for example, like in the country’s transition to annual revenue all of Europe’s, was weak. Just years after renewable energy. Thousands of the launch of the citizenship program in solar panels have been successfully 2014, the country had one of the highest installed on government buildings growth rates and one of the lowest unemployment levels and land throughout Antigua to produce electricity, in of any EU member state. It is now the best performing significant part paid for by the citizenship-by-investment economy in the EU by almost any measure.9 Furthermore, program. The program was also essential in providing the since 2017, Malta has been able to report an annual budget necessary capital to support recent efforts to rebuild Barbuda surplus for the first time in decades.10 after a recent tropical storm devastated the island, forcing By the end of 2018, Malta had raised almost EUR 600 the evacuation of the entire population. On the macro level, million in direct revenue, seen property sales exceed EUR the liquidity injected onto the sovereign balance sheet, 110 million, earned EUR 70 million in rentals, and received combined with the long-term income streams created by new investments of over EUR 120 million in government bonds.11 businesses and their associated tax revenues, has helped the Results like these are virtually impossible to achieve using island nation to pay off its entire external debt to the traditional ways and means of public finance. International Monetary Fund (IMF) — over USD 320 million
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— built up after the economy shrunk by one quarter during the global financial crisis. Overall debt is down from a challenging 104% of GDP to a more sustainable 72%. When the IMF conducted a review of the Antigua and Barbuda economy, it found that the inflows of capital provided by investment migration had significantly helped to boost public and private sector construction, improving economic growth and pulling the country out of a deep recession.16 In Moldova and Montenegro, where the two most recent European citizenship programs were launched in 2018, the positive impact can be expected to be similar. In addition to boosting fiscal health and economic growth, the enhanced inflow of much needed investment will enable both countries to become more competitive and their economies to become more sustainable, which will result in their greater autonomy and being better able to steer their own futures. This sovereign equity will result in them being less dependent on foreign lending and able to drive national resources to where they are needed most. For ordinary Montenegrin and Moldovan individuals, the benefits of a new debt-free revenue stream will be felt directly in economic growth, employment opportunities, better social services, and improved infrastructure and education.17
Sovereign Equity Represents the Beginning Of a Global Trend The concept of sovereign equity is both self-evident and revolutionary. It has the potential to bring about a paradigm shift in how sovereign states approach sovereign funding, attracting investment from abroad, and public finance. Sovereign equity is also a means of addressing persistent global inequality. FDI has already shown to be essential for developing, transitional or recovering economies, but it can also be critical for regional development in large and advanced economies.18 Sovereign equity, made possible through investment migration, will support ongoing economic growth and prosperity. The benefits of sovereign equity enable countries to turn away from debt and dependency towards fiscal autonomy, stability, and independence. Investment migration represents one of the most important opportunities for growth and economic development for those countries able to offer it — creating considerable societal value and persuading productive members of the community to stay and contribute to their country rather than to emigrate. In short, investment migration is a long-term positive solution, one that injects new liquidity into an economy, creates sustainable income streams that can support public financial needs, and attracts much-needed FDI.
Endnotes 1 Stephen Park and Tim Samples, “Towards Sovereign Equity” (2016) Stanford Journal of Law, Business, and Finance 21 (No. 2) 2 International Monetary Fund, “Global Debt Database” (IMF.org) imf.org/external/datamapper/datasets/GDD accessed 13 February 2019 3 Government of the Commonwealth of Dominica, “HurricaneProof Dominica: Investors Join Forces and See the Caribbean Country Flourish” 22 October 2018, cbiu.gov.dm/2527/ 4 Martin Guzman, José Antonio Ocampo, and Joseph E. Stiglitz (eds) Too Little, Too Late: The Quest to Resolve Sovereign Debt Crises (New York: Columbia University Press, 2016) 5 Ibid. 6 Prachi Mishra, “Emigration and Brain Drain: Evidence from the Caribbean,” IMF Working Paper WP/06/25 (January 2006) 7 OECD, “Foreign Direct Investment for Development: Maximising Benefits, Minimising Costs” (2002) 5 8 Theodore Moran, Holger Gorg, Adnan Seric, and Christine Krieger-Boden, “Attracting Quality Foreign Direct Investment in Developing Countries” International Growth Centre (October 2017) 9 “Fourth Annual Report on the Individual Investor Programme of the Government of Malta” Office of the Regulator, Individual Investor Programme (November 2017) 10 Government of Malta, Finance Department, Budget 2019. 22 October 2018. mfin.gov.mt/en/The-Budget/Pages/The-Budget2019-G5J3D1.aspx 11 ‘Fifth Annual Report on the Individual Investor Programme of the Government of Malta’, Office of the Regulator, Individual Investor Program (October 2018) 12 X Xu, A El-Ashram, J Gold, ‘Too Much of a Good Thing?: Prudent Management of Inflows Under Economic Citizenship Programs’ IMF Working Paper WP/15/93 (May 2015) 7 13 JC Okwuokei and B van Selm, ‘Debt Restructuring in the Caribbean: The Recent Experience’ in, (ed) Trevor Alleyne, Inci Otker, Uma Ramakrishnan, and Krishna Srinivasan (Washington DC: International Monetary Fund, 2017) 165 14 J Gold, A Myrvoda, ‘Managing Economic Citizenship Program Inflows: Reducing Risk and Maximizing Benefits’, 131 15 ‘PM: CIP could make up 25 per cent of govt’s revenue’, Antigua Observer (Antigua and Barbuda), 18 June 2015, antiguaobserver.com/pm-cip-could-make-up-25-per-cent-ofgovts-revenue/ 16 J Gold, A Myrvoda, ‘Managing Economic Citizenship Program Inflows’, in Unleashing Growth and Strengthening Resilience, 132 17 J Gold, A El-Ashram, ‘A Passport of Convenience’, 52 no 4, (December 2015) 48 18 Bipartisan Policy Center, ‘EB-5 Program: Successes, Challenges and Opportunities for States and Localities’, (September 2015)
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Portugal’s Attractive Tax Regime for Newcomers Rosa Freitas Soares, Partner, Deloitte, Portugal
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ortugal has an efficient and favorable tax regime applicable to individuals who move to the country and who have not lived there during the five years preceding their move. The non-habitual resident (NHR) regime, created in 2009, is in fact a special tax regime that may apply for a 10-year period for individuals who become Portuguese tax residents. It provides for several exemptions from Portuguese personal income tax in relation to certain categories of income from a foreign source (for example employment income, pensions, dividends, interest, royalties, rentals, and capital gains on the sale of property) and a flat rate of 20% for Portuguesesource employment and self-employment income deriving from qualifying high-value-added professions (for example doctors, engineers, university professors, computer programmers, and artists). The requirements for becoming an NHR are straight forward and objective (thus involving minimal paperwork) and the likelihood of enjoying a very efficient tax position for the duration of this special tax regime has attracted to Portugal thousands of individuals from all over the world, especially in the past five years. In addition to the NHR regime, Portugal grants an exemption from gift and inheritance tax to beneficiaries in the direct family line (parents, children, and spouses), and this tax does not apply to foreign assets and transactions carried out external to Portuguese territory. Furthermore, there is no wealth tax in Portugal. In order to initiate the NHR process, one must first obtain a Portuguese taxpayer number first as a non-resident. This
tax number can be used to rent or acquire a house (the purchase of a house in Portugal is not a mandatory requirement for the NHR status) or open a bank account in Portugal. If a visa is required to live in Portugal, this should be obtained prior to registering as tax resident. The NHR regime combines perfectly with the visa program or any other type of permanent visa. Once a visa (if required) and a Portuguese tax address (that of the rented or acquired house) is obtained, it is possible to apply for NHR status on the tax authorities’ website. This should be granted within a matter of days, and the status backdates to the first day of tax residence. Portugal follows the concept of partial-year tax residence, meaning that in the first year of residence, the tax reporting period in Portugal applies from the first day of tax residence to 31 December of that year (the tax year corresponds to the calendar year). Tax returns are mandatorily filed in the year following that to which the income relates, between April and June. It is possible to leave the NHR regime at any time; the only requirement is to give up Portuguese tax residence and register this update with the tax authorities. There are no penalties or clawbacks envisaged for early leavers of this regime. Finally, the NHR regime has survived national governments from different political parties and is viewed as a respectable tax regime as it does not cover general income from listed tax havens and grants its beneficiaries access to the relevant tax treaties signed by Portugal (including the possibility of obtaining tax residence certificates and reduced treaty rates on dividends, interest, and royalties).
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Europe’s Migration Lessons for Japan Irina Angelescu, International Affairs Specialist, USA wants to address its migration challenges as well as the challenges of a shrinking population, it needs to look beyond the migration crisis.
Japan’s Pressing Need for Migrants A glance at Japan’s demographic trends underlines the urgency of the migration issue. With approximately 25% of its population over the age of 65, the country is experiencing one of the fastest rates of aging in the world. And with birth rates below replacement levels, the longest life expectancy in the world, and a baby boomer generation that is reaching retirement age, Japan is also facing challenges to its pension and healthcare systems. In the Japanese construction sector for example, one-third of workers are older than 55, and only 11% are younger than 29. According to a report the Migration Policy Institute
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apan is in the process of changing its famously restrictive immigration laws. In late 2018, Japanese lawmakers held an extraordinary session of the Diet to discuss the topic, the aim being to bring in foreign workers to address the most severe national labor shortage in four decades while causing minimal disruption to society. This may prove difficult: in 2017, legal foreign residents comprised only 1.95% of the country’s population. What lessons can Europe — a continent with a long history of immigration — teach Japan? In light of the much-publicized migration crisis in Europe, many Japanese see the European experience as a cautionary tale rather than a model to emulate. Indeed, for those who oppose immigration, the rise in social unrest and populism in Europe that followed the migration crisis vindicates their stance. However, they have adopted a reductive view of a complex phenomenon. If Japan genuinely
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published in 2017, “immigrants would need to make up at least 10% of the overall population” to address these challenges effectively. Until recently, Japan preferred to appeal to highly skilled immigrants and to use artificial intelligence to mitigate its labor shortage. Launched in 2012, the country’s Highly Skilled Foreign Professionals visa initiative is partly modeled on the Australian and Canadian points systems. Last year, Japan adopted measures to offer permanent residence to some highly skilled workers in as little as one year. Despite these efforts, the 2017 edition of the IMD World Talent Ranking listed Japan as the least attractive of 11 Asian nations as a destination for highly skilled workers. This suggests that there is a need for broader reforms.
Lessons from Europe In this context, careful analysis of the European experience provides some helpful lessons. The first — and far from surprising — lesson is that boosting immigration helps offset the challenges of aging and shrinking populations. The EU projection is that European countries’ acceptance of migrants should help them maintain their current population size throughout this century. Many Western European states have fertility rates below replacement level among native-born citizens but, unlike Japan, they have used immigration to make up the difference. In contrast, the populations of countries in Central and Eastern Europe — which generally experience high rates of emigration and very low rates of immigration — have shrunk in recent years. The second lesson is that immigration may well have improved Europe’s competitiveness and economic growth. The World Economic Forum’s annual Global Competitiveness Report consistently places European countries with high rates of immigration — including Switzerland, which has a foreign-born population of almost 25% — near the top of its rankings and, in some cases, above Japan. Despite the disruption caused by the financial and migration crises, the Eurozone has experienced positive (if modest) economic growth since 2015. The most economically successful European countries have actively courted foreign workers, offering both competitive salaries and optimal living conditions, including housing, language classes, and other benefits. A third lesson is that the gains discussed above will be sustainable only if the government implements effective integration policies in collaboration with civil society.
Here, countries in Western Europe are by no means perfect, but in the Center for Global Development’s 2016 ranking of states’ immigration policies, they performed better than Japan. Integration is a multi-faceted process that requires effort from both sides: immigrants working to integrate into the host society, and that society reaching out to accept them. According to Harvard University’s recent study of perceptions of immigration in Western Europe and the USA, most people exaggerate the size and impact of the immigrant population in their country. Those who know immigrants, however, are a notable exception. These findings suggest that governments need actively to encourage open public dialogue on immigration and interactions with immigrants in host societies. The native populations’ investment in the process should accompany policies that help immigrants find jobs, enter the housing market, and learn the local language. Another integral part of a successful integration policy is a healthy system of naturalization. Here, Japan remains one of the few countries to implement a restrictive jus sanguinis policy (one based on parents’ nationality). Germany revised its jus sanguinis law in 2000 to make it easier for foreign residents to acquire citizenship. As a consequence, while Japan naturalizes approximately 1,000 people every year, Germany naturalized 112,211 in 2017.
A New Japan? Japan’s recent measures to boost labor immigration suggest that it is undertaking a series of ad hoc measures rather than implementing a coherent strategy. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s February 2018 statement that his government “has no intention of adopting a so-called immigration policy” supports this view. While it is right to proceed cautiously, Japan would benefit from an open public dialogue on immigration and national identity, given many Japanese citizens’ perception of the country as culturally and ethnically homogeneous. Japan needs to resist the temptation to view Europe as merely an example of the negative socio-political consequences of immigration. By learning from the European experience, the country can enjoy the positive aspects of immigration. Moreover, Europe and Japan could both benefit from direct consultations with each other on the issue, using the forums for cooperation they created under their recent Strategic Partnership Agreement. This article was originally published on the European Council on Foreign Relation’s website.
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rom rewarding soldiers to attracting talent and investors, states have, since ancient times, capitalized on the fact that their citizenship is a ‘good’ that is in demand. Ethnic considerations, close historical and linguistic ties, and special merit or achievement frequently drive policies in immigration and citizenship law and often constitute the grounds for facilitated naturalization. Consider in this regard just a few of the numerous examples testifying to the ethnic ideology behind many states’ provision of facilitated naturalization: Germany’s policy of granting immediate citizenship to repatriates; the Spanish laws granting citizenship to descendants of those who fled during the Franco regime and to descendants of Sephardic Jews who were expelled during the 15thcentury Inquisition; the Israeli ‘Law of Return’, which encourages the immigration of Jews to Israel and bestows citizenship upon their ‘return’ to Israel regardless of their age, skill set, or economic status; the preferential treatment of Macedonians in Bulgaria for the purpose of citizenship; and the provision of Hungarian passports to hundreds of thousands of Serbians and Romanians. In Croatia, a country with a large diaspora both in Europe and overseas (predominantly in the USA but also in Australia and New Zealand), it is possible to regain citizenship immediately if Croatian descent can be demonstrated. Relative to its size, Ireland has experienced one of the largest mass emigrations in history and the country now has a very generous principle of descent in place, one of the most liberal in the world, which allows anyone with at least one grandparent born in Ireland to regain Irish citizenship. Much like ethnicity and descent, military service frequently gives access to privileged naturalization. This is the case with the recruitment of foreign military personnel, for example, where citizenship is provided in return for soldiers’ commitment. This practice has occurred throughout history and it occurs in the present day in France through the French Foreign Legion, and in the USA through the USA Army. Qualified members of the USA Armed Forces can be exempt from certain naturalization requirements, including the requirement of residence and physical presence in the country under Sections 328 and 329 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. This extraordinary naturalization option serves as an incentive and a reward for performing military service and risking one’s life.
Another example of facilitated naturalization is the recruitment of elite foreign athletes for national teams in the Olympic Games or in other world sporting championships. These foreign athletes gain not only the privilege of competing for a given state in international games but also actual citizenship rights in that state in return for their efforts. As famously named by Ayelet Shachar, such “Olympic citizenship” is focused on the “spread of the talent-for-citizenship exchange”, be it in sports, culture, science, or other fields. As an illustration of this widespread practice, the French sports paper L’Équipe gave the following account of the quarter-final of the European Table Tennis Championships in October 2013: “In the women’s singles, two-time European champion Li Jiao of the Netherlands (2007 and 2011), lost to Portugal’s Fu Yu. In the semi-finals, Fu Yu will meet Sweden’s Li Fen.” Top foreign athletes who are of special interest to Germany are preferred for naturalization based on an administrative directive, yet a maximum of only 10 top athletes per year have been admitted in recent times. Other countries are more lenient: at the World Athletics Championships in 2005, for instance, Qatar was represented by almost a dozen elite athletes born in Kenya and naturalized in Qatar. The USA, more than any other country in the world, has gone out of its way to perfect
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Facilitated Naturalization
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the technique of attracting accomplished athletes by passport for filming in the country, and Afghan refugee offering them citizenship in return for their pursuit of Farhad Nouri was offered Serbian citizenship because of Olympic medals. Shortly before the 2006 Winter his skillful drawings — a privilege not extended to the many Olympics, President Bush signed a bill that granted other refugees living in the country. The list of grounds citizenship to foreigners with extraordinary ability, and examples is non-exhaustive, since the discretion of allowing, among others, Russian ice dancer Maxim states in the field of citizenship law is virtually plenary, an Zavozin to represent the USA. Zavozin thereafter became extreme example being the conferral of Saudi Arabian a Hungarian citizen, just in time to represent Hungary citizenship to a robot in 2017. at the Winter Olympics in 2010. Iceland naturalized the In line with the above expressions of facilitated natuformer world chess champion Bobby Fischer in 2005, ralization, citizenship can also perform the function of helping him escape custody and recruiting overseas investors, who possible extradition in Japan are granted citizenship in exchange after USA authorities revoked for their significant foreign direct From rewarding soldiers the American passport he was investment in (or other economic to attracting talent and using to travel from Japan back contribution to) the country. Into Iceland. vestors are often given an easier investors, states have, since Other talents, statuses, and path to citizenship than other cansources of fame can also form the didates for naturalization. Appliancient times, capitalized on basis for facilitated naturalization. cants who pay do not have to wait the fact that their citizenship In Denmark — a country that for years to be granted citizenship, has one of the most restrictive although, crucially, they do need is a ‘good’ that is in demand naturalization regimes in place to be suitably qualified and undertoday and that, as of 2000, go strict due diligence checks. ‘First naturalizes only people who come first served’ is effectively speak Danish and know the history and values of Denmark displaced by the ethics of the market: ‘You get what you — the Australian bride of Crown Prince Frederik, Mary pay for’. Ius doni, the acquisition of citizenship by investDonaldson, received Danish citizenship as an engagement ment, is essentially, then, a fast-track procedure for gaingift in 2003. More recently, a young Malian migrant who ing citizenship, a form of facilitated naturalization that rescued a child dangling from a balcony was promised is based on the ability and willingness to contribute French citizenship, Ralph Fiennes received a Serbian economically.
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What Type of Art Is Popular with Collectors Today? Ahmed Elgammal, Director, Art and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Rutgers University, USA Doug Woodham, Managing Partner, Art Fiduciary Advisors, USA
Above: British visual artist David Shrigley’s work was the art piece posted most frequently on Instagram by guests attending Frieze London and Frieze Masters 2018
preferences for different types of art by analyzing the Instagram posts of fairgoers. Instagram is a daily (maybe hourly) obsession for many art lovers. From Cindy Sherman’s selfies to Brett Gorvy’s stream of beautiful images, frequently accompanied by delicious insider gossip and music tracks, Instagram serves up endless visual images to half a billion people around the world who use this forum daily. These posts are a treasure-trove of information that can be used to identify artworks that intrigue, shock, or inspire people. But, rather than simply counting the number of ‘likes’ an image receives, we believe a better measurement of a work’s impact is to assess how people react to the art they viscerally connect with when seeing it in person. To that end, we have been aggregating Instagram posts by visitors to the world’s top art fairs, using the data to create refined measures of popularity that we can compare over time. This article is focused on such results from the 2018 Frieze Week in London, UK, and the June edition of Art Basel in Basel, Switzerland. There were noticeable differences among fairgoers’ favorites. At Frieze, the 10 most Instagrammed works were by mid-career and older artists, who tended to eschew abstraction in favor of text-based or figurative work that could easily fit into a city-sized apartment or suburban home. These artists were almost evenly split between men and women, showcasing the rising role and importance of female artists. But at Art Basel, the most Instagrammed works tended to be huge, conceptually laden installations suitable for acquisition only by extremely wealthy collectors with their own private exhibition spaces to fill or perhaps an institution looking to provide visitors with an immersive experience.
Top Artworks During Frieze London and Frieze Masters 2018 Frieze London, the fair devoted to contemporary art, and Frieze Masters, which includes art from ancient
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ooden crates being screwed open, nails being tapped into freshly built walls, and gallery directors instructing installers are the sounds heard in the anxious days before art fairs open to VIPs and the public. Collectors, curators, and the culturally aware will soon be critiquing the works and sharing their views on social media. Art fairs — especially the heavily attended events promoted by Frieze and Art Basel — have become laboratories where it’s possible to measure taste
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times to the late 20 th century, reported record attendance last year. The most Instagrammed work across both fairs was by David Shrigley, the Turner Prize-nominated artist best known for his sardonic works that riff on life’s absurdities. At Frieze London, his mock shopfront with large-scale neon panels, a two-screen digital animation, a sound piece, and a series of works on paper drew fairgoers with its colorful neon signs of deadpan messages rendered in the artist’s handwriting. His most popular sign in the group crisply stated in blue neon “MY ARTWORK IS TERRIBLE AND I AM A VERY BAD PERSON” — a charming statement of self-deprecation in the middle of the fair! Like Shrigley, three other artists on the top-10 list created text-based art: Tracey Emin with a neon piece, Jeppe Hein with handwritten messages on a two-way mirror, and Tim Etchells with an outdoor sculpture that spelled out the title of the piece (‘Everything Is Lost’, 2018) in metal letters. The literalness of these artworks, which avoid metaphor or embellishment, may be what made them so appealing to Frieze Instagrammers. Similarly, abstraction was in short supply among the top 10 images, except for a stunning piece by Rana Begum that played with seriality, color, and perception. Fairgoers seemed to prefer artworks with specific and seemingly known intent over works with illusive meaning. Additionally — with the exception of the second most popular work, a large-scale installation by Tatiana Trouvé comprising a large bronze tree trunk, a water element, and concrete slabs — each of the top 10 Frieze artworks could be reasonably installed in someone’s home — a feature of the fair at large which was lamented by some. The houseability of the art was in sharp contrast to the most Instagrammed works from Art Basel. Lastly, social justice is a frequent theme of artistic production and art criticism. Yet works exploring this were largely absent from the list of Frieze’s 10 most Instagrammed artworks, with the possible exception of a sculpture by Josh Kline featuring a curled-up mannequin lying on the floor in a plastic bag, entitled ‘Dave/Journalist’ (2016). Fairgoers may have wanted a respite from the world at large or found the social justice–inspired works at the fair not compelling enough to share with friends.
Top Artworks During Art Basel in Basel 2018 Nearly 95,000 visitors attended the most recent incarnation of Art Basel in Basel — an extraordinary figure given that the town has only 170,000 inhabitants. Widely viewed as
Above: Robert Longo’s ‘Death Star’ (2018)
the most important fair in the world, it offers attendees a standard art fair experience of gallery booths in a conference center plus an exhibition of gargantuan artworks in the fair’s Unlimited sector. This part of the fair is a showcase for the unlimited ambition of artists, both living and deceased, who play with scale, motion, sound, and/or group experiences; it is a high-end shopping bazaar for those with the means and desire to own fantastical and outsized objects. Museum directors and trustees are often seen prowling Unlimited in pursuit of immersive, Instagram-worthy pieces and installations that, if acquired, could draw audiences to their institutions. Eight of the ten most Instagrammed works at Art Basel this year were from Unlimited. The most Instagrammed work was a sculpture by Robert Longo of a mysterious orb, nearly 6-and-a-half ft in diameter, suspended in a darkened room; it comprised 40,000 bullets, which approximates the number of people killed annually by guns in the USA. To support efforts to reduce gun violence, the artist announced that 20% of the proceeds from the sale of the sculpture would be donated to Everytown for Gun Safety. The exceptions were Alberto Giacometti sculptures exhibited at Fondation Beyeler as part of a blockbuster show devoted to him and Francis Bacon. No works from the main fair made the top 10 list.
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Above: Volocopter believes that it is “reinventing urban mobility” with its ambition to build “the first manned, fully electric, and safe VTOL in the world”, claiming that its solution will resolve “increasing mobility issues” worldwide. Volocopter presented its eVTOL in June 2018 at Centrum für Büroautomation, Informationstechnologie und Telekommunikation (or Center for Office Automation, Information Technology, and Telecommunication), widely regarded as Europe’s leading computer expo
F
lying cars have long been a staple of science fiction and captured the popular imagination, becoming the ultimate symbol of the future. With more than 70 manufacturers, including the likes of Boeing and Airbus, developing personal aerial mobility vehicles, that future is almost upon us. While there is work to be done and no VTOL or eVTOL has yet been certified for commercial flight, it seems that within the next 10 years a number of personal aerial mobility options will hit the market.
What Is eVTOL? As it turns out, ‘flying cars’ is a bit of a misnomer, as the technology has more in common with drones and helicopters than with cars — although there are some, like the Terrafugia Transition, that are designed to switch between road use and flight mode. The acronym VTOL refers to aircraft capable of vertical take-off and landing, whereas eVTOL refers to such vehicles that are powered by electricity. VTOL aircraft offer the
advantage of being able to take off and land virtually anywhere and are capable of executing maneuvers that are not possible for conventional planes. The concept of vertical flight is hardly new. Sketches by Leonardo da Vinci dating back to the 1480s depict a machine resembling a helicopter, and the first rudimentary quadcopter took brief flight in 1907, followed by a series of more practical helicopter designs in the 1930s and 1940s. VTOL and eVTOL encompass a wide range of aircraft and can be broadly categorized into two groups: rotorcraft, also known as ‘rotary wing aircraft’ (including helicopters, quadcopters, and gyrocopters) and ‘powered lift aircraft’ such as Harrier jets, which redirect thrust from the engine to become airborne vertically. VTOL and eVTOL pose a number of benefits, including decongesting road traffic thereby reducing the strain on public transport networks, decreasing vehicle emissions, and cutting travel times. Should VTOL and eVTOL take off in the near future, urban skyports or ‘vertipads’ atop
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The Future of Personal Air Travel and eVTOL
buildings — and, in the case of ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs), on private estates and yachts — will reduce journeys to airports to an elevator ride to the top floor or a quick stroll across the garden.
The Perks of Personal Air Travel For high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) and UHNWIs in particular, personal air travel options such as private jets and helicopters offer a number of benefits over commercial air travel choices. In addition to offering greater comfort, privacy, and security, they grant travelers a higher degree of flexibility and control over their flight schedules; as well as mitigating stress in the event of meetings running late, they also allow passengers to conduct business and meetings in-flight. Another major benefit is that private jets — privately owned or not — travel to many destinations and airfields not served by commercial airlines. However, the most appealing benefit of personal travel options is how much time they save in reduced boarding times and the ability to bypass airport security and luggage checking. eVTOL craft will offer these benefits and more, given their versatility, simplicity, potentially low upkeep, and the sustainability that comes with being powered by electricity.
The VTOL and eVTOL Landscape
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The VTOL and eVTOL landscape is fairly crowded, with more than 70 urban air mobility (UAM) manufacturers worldwide according to an October 2018 Booz Allen Hamilton report commissioned by NASA. As of September 2018, over USD 1 billion has been invested in this market, and the combined airport shuttle and air taxi markets have a projected total addressable market of over USD 500 billion. Ride-hailing company Uber’s ambitious Elevate program, announced in 2016, hopes to make accessible urban aerial mobility a reality in the near future. To this end, it hosts an annual Uber Elevate Summit, bringing together VTOL and eVTOL manufacturers, policymakers, investors, and government representatives with the aim of expediting progress to make urban aerial ride hailing a reality. A luxury version catering specifically to HNW and UHNW individuals will soon follow. The VTOL and eVTOL landscape encompasses wellestablished aircraft and helicopter manufacturers like Airbus, Boeing, Embraer, and Bell, a number of startups such as Lilium, Ehang, and Aurora, as well as several automotive brands of the likes of Aston Martin and RollsRoyce. These are in various stages of development, with
some having progressed to flight testing and others still creating prototypes and preliminary designs. TransportUp.com, a platform dedicated to tracking developments in the VTOL space, lists the following 15 companies (in no particular order) as the world’s top eVTOL, flying car, and flying taxi projects to watch: Airbus Vahana, Aston Martin Volante, Aurora eVTOL, Bell Air Taxi, Ehang 184, EmbraerX, Joby Aviation S4 BlackFly, Karem Butterfly, Kitty Hawk Cora, Kitty Hawk Flyer, Lilium Jet, Pipistrel eVTOL, Volocopter 2X, Workhorse SureFly. Of these 15, just under half have begun flight testing: Airbus Vahana, Ehang 184, Lilium Jet, the Kitty Hawk Cora and Flyer, Volocopter 2X, and the Workhorse Surefly.
Featured Aircraft: The Lilium Jet German startup Lilium has created the world’s first completely electric vertical take-off and landing jet, which won the 2018 Early Stage Company of the Year Cleantech 100 award. The Lilium Jet is a fixed-wing transition aircraft featuring 12 flaps, each of which sports three electric jet engines. The flaps are in a vertical position at takeoff and tilt into a horizontal position in flight, directing the thrust provided by the engines as needed. Its sleek design makes the jet highly aerodynamic, giving it greater speed than rotorcraft such as quadcopters, which have greater air drag. Lilium aims to complete its first manned flight test in 2019 and to enter the air taxi market by 2025. The Jet will reportedly be able to carry up to five passengers and have a range of 300 km and a speed of 300 km/h, making “less noise than a motorbike”, as per Lilium’s website. The
Above: In August 2018 ride-hailing service Uber unveiled a scaled model of its electric vertical take-off and landing jet. The company’s Uber Air service is set to launch demonstration flights in 2020, with commercial flights anticipated around 2023
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Featured Aircraft: The Ehang 184 The Ehang 184 is the product of Chinese drone manufacturer Ehang. The autonomous 184 has undergone a number of successful test flights — some under extreme flying conditions, including a typhoon! The company has hosted a number of public flight demonstrations but, while popular in China, has not received as much international attention as other eVTOL models. The Ehang 184 is a single-passenger quadcopter resembling a large drone. It currently has a flight time of 25 minutes, a top speed of 100 km/h and a payload of approximately 100 kg. The company has fostered a good relationship with both local and national Chinese governments, which bodes well for its future efforts to achieve certification and regulatory compliance. Considering the booming Chinese demand for on-demand transport services — particularly electric vehicles — Ehang is poised to have a substantial impact on the transport landscape in China alone.
Featured Aircraft: The Airbus Vahana and CityAirbus European aeronautics company Airbus SE is developing two eVTOL models, namely the Airbus Vahana, which took to the skies for its first test flight in January 2018, and the
Above: CEO of Lilium Aviation Daniel Wiegand (far left) presenting his company’s flying taxi prototype at a Digital Summit of the Federal Government event in Germany in December 2018
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CityAirbus, which is still in the prototype development phase but is scheduled to launch by 2023. The single-passenger Vahana features both rotors and wing panels, whereas the CityAirbus will seat up to four passengers and features eight fixed-pitch propellers powered by direct-drive engines as well as eight 100 kW electric motors. Both models are intended for short-range urban transportation with full automation and sense-andavoid technology.
The Future of eVTOL eVTOL or urban aerial mobility vehicles still face a number of challenges before anyone will be able to summon an eVTOL through the Uber app. Planning and constructing vertipads and charging infrastructure are the least of these. For one thing, they face the same regulatory challenges as other aircraft, particularly in terms of air traffic control and flight standards as well as considerations such as noise levels and environmental impact, in addition to local restrictions regarding flight altitude and considerations such as privacy. Add to this the fact that autonomous vehicles still face a number of legal and technical barriers and the fact that it will take time for passengers to come to trust autonomous vehicles, particularly in the air. Another significant barrier to development is that, currently, the battery technology required to sustain long flights simply does not exist. The batteries used in Teslas, for example, are far too heavy. While hybrid aircraft and fuel-powered VTOLs may serve for the moment, the ultimate goal is for these vehicles to be emission free. The batteries currently in use simply do not have the capacity by weight to support long flights or heavy payloads, and they take too long to recharge. This in itself presents a problem, considering that international aviation regulation dictates that aircraft have a fuel reserve of 30 minutes. It is possible that shortdistance urban aerial mobility vehicles may be regulated differently from conventional aircraft, and the same may apply even to long-range eVTOLs if the vertiports are a few minutes apart — but much remains to be seen, particularly considering how much research and development is taking place in the battery space at present. With a number of eVTOL companies setting their sights on launching commercially by 2023–2025, it seems reasonable to expect eVTOL to become a reality within the next 10 years.
IMAGE: Daniel Karmann/Picture Alliance/ Getty Images
company plans to offer a ride-hailing service similar to Uber’s, allowing users to book a flight on demand through an app. It seems that for the immediate future the Lilium Jet will come equipped with a human pilot.
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Above: When the Ashmolean opened in Broad Street, Oxford in the UK, it was immediately open to the public, which was unusual in the 17th century. The advent of the 19th century saw a burgeoning interest in natural science and a second museum opened — the University of the Natural Sciences. In 1894, the Ashmolean relocated to Beaumont Street and combined with the university art galleries to form the current Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology
Museums of the World Ashmolean Museum — Oxford, UK Ranked the oldest university museum in the world, Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum was founded in 1683, but the Ashmolean has an even older history, dating back to 1634. John Tradescent and his son, two gardeners employed by the Earl of Salisbury, had traversed the world collecting artifacts that were displayed in a museum called The Ark, in Lambeth in London. The contents — exotic plant specimens and geological, zoological (including the last known dodo), and man-made objects — were taken over by Elias Ashmole, who in 1677 handed over his collections to the university, stating: “I, Elias Ashmole, out of my affection to this sort of Learning…have amass’d together
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n modern times, linking business interests with those of science and art and developing new museums, often designed by high-profile architects, has encouraged tourism and boosted the economy of the cities where they are located. Impressions of museums being fusty dark buildings housing indeterminate items under glass are a thing of the past; in the 21st century, the lines between art and science, art gallery and museum, are blurring. It is a challenge to find words that describe adequately the elaborate architecture and jaw-dropping engineering feats of the world’s new museums. Nonetheless, one should applaud the interests and foresight of the early collectors who set the wheels in motion centuries ago.
Above: In the 1930s, over 2,000 paintings were secretly auctioned or sold abroad from the State Hermitage Museum in Russia, including works by Raphael, Titian, Van Eyck, and Botticelli. In 1941, before the Siege of Leningrad, several collections were evacuated to Sverlovsk and returned when the museum reopened in 1945
great variety of natural Concrets & Bodies, & bestowed them on the University of Oxford.”
State Hermitage Museum — Saint Petersburg, Russia
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Another of the world’s oldest and also largest collections of art is found in the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. The museum complex consists of six buildings including the Winter Palace — once the residence of Russian emperors. The art museum was begun in 1764 when Catherine the Great purchased an extensive collection of Dutch and Flemish paintings, many of which are still there. Over time, she amassed thousands of artworks and became celebrated in Europe as a patron of the arts. She commissioned additional buildings to create the museum complex, which was not open to the public but housed the imperial family and those who worked there. Initially the buildings were used to showcase Russian wealth and for events, ceremonies, and masquerades for government and state officials and the nobility. After the 1917 revolution, the Winter Palace and Imperial Hermitage were taken over by the state. Private art works and collections were nationalized and shared among state museums.
Tokyo National Museum — Tokyo, Japan Built on a hillside in Ueno Park and surrounded by Japanese gardens, tea houses, and cafes, the Tokyo National Museum consists of several buildings, each dedicated to different
fields of interest. Comprehensive collections of antique statues, maps, ceramics, and scrolls are displayed in the central building, the Honkan, built in 1938. Flanking this is the Hyokeikan, the oldest building in the complex, built in 1909 in celebration of the marriage of the then crown prince. On the other side of the Honkan is the Asian gallery, the Toyokan, which houses artifacts from China, Korea, and Southeast Asia, as well as from India and Egypt. In 1993, the Heiseikan was built to house Japanese cultural exhibits and large-scale special items. The newest of the buildings is the Horyuji Homotsukan, designed by the minimalist architect Taniguchi Yoshiro (the son of the older Taniguchi Yoshiro), where small religious statues and objects are displayed. Last is the Kuroda Memorial Hall, which was built from funds donated by Kuroda Suki, a Japanese artist considered in Japan to be the father of modern Western-style painting.
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao — Bilbao, Spain Building the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao 20 years ago heralded the revitalization of the Spanish city. Bilbao is an industrial city in one of the largest iron mining areas in Spain and was not considered a tourist destination, indeed locating the museum there elicited some criticism. However, the success of the project has been immense, as the distinct design of the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum (known locally as ‘el Goog’) has attracted millions of visitors from across the globe since it opened its doors, generating significant economic growth and activity in
Above: The impressive exterior of the Guggenheim Museum, Spain, houses three levels and 20 galleries of contemporary and modern art. A construct of glass curtain walls, the museum contains large volumes in curved whorls, while ascending structures of steel reflect the industry of the city
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Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa — Cape Town, South Africa A similar injection of upliftment to an industrial area can be seen in the placement of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA) in Cape Town. The Zeitz MOCAA is a non-profit museum that collects, preserves, researches, and exhibits 21st-century art from Africa and its diaspora, the result of a partnership between the V&A Waterfront and German businessman Jochen Zeitz. The recent transformation of decommissioned silos to accommodate the Zeitz MOCAA has been a resounding success. While on the outside the silos remain intact, inside the building they have been hollowed out, creating a cathedral-like effect that is the result of the sliced-open silo interiors.
galleries give the impression that the building is afloat. Located in the Saadiyat Cultural District, the museum is the result of a collaboration with France and was designed by architect Jean Nouvel. The main idea behind the collections and exhibits is the interconnectedness of humanity, finding the connections between east and west, north and south. Works range from prehistoric artifacts to modern art.
Opening Soon: The Shed — New York, USA The museum sector will embrace some appealing new additions this year, one example being the much-anticipated The Shed in New York, which is described as “a new arts center for the 21st century”. The Shed has a retractable shell structure that is uniquely designed to enable the venue to accommodate the ambitious works it will host, be they large-scale theater productions, innovative installations, or cultural events. Below: The hollowing out of Zeitz MOCAA’s silos creates a grand and spacious environment that complements the visitor viewing experience
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the previously economically depressed area. Although the architect, Frank Gehry, is said not to consider himself as belonging to any particular movement, the building has been lauded as a fine example of deconstructivism, thanks to its capricious curves. The exterior was described as “a fantastic dream ship of undulating form in a cloak of titanium” by The New Yorker critic, Calvin Tomkins.
Louvre Abu Dhabi — Abu Dhabi, UAE The Louvre Abu Dhabi opened in November 2017 and is hailed as being the first universal museum in the Arab world. An astonishing feat of engineering, its enormous floating dome is a construction of eight layers of aluminum stars of varying size, which lets in sunlight through perforations, giving a dappled effect as when sunlight passes through date palm fronds. Tidal pools inside the
Above: Designed by Pritzker prize-winning architect Jean Nouvel, Louvre Abu Dhabi was intended to be “an archipelago out at sea”. The museum’s dome is a design feat on its own, weighing 7,500 tonnes (the same as France’s Eiffel Tower) and boasting a diameter of 180 m. The museum’s ‘micro-city’ complex comprises 55 buildings, with 23 of these housing galleries
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Asia’s Most Future-Ready Cities
T
he planet is urbanizing at an unprecedented rate, generating enormous social, economic, and climatic stress. If sustainable urbanization is one of the paramount challenges of the 21st century, then Asia is ground zero for determining whether humanity can succeed. Just under half of all Asians live in cities, compared to roughly 82% of Americans and 74% of Europeans. Asians are on the move. Asia’s megacities have already reached a scale that is unimaginable in the West, where the largest metropolis rarely exceeds 10 million residents. By contrast, Asia’s mammoth cities are sprawling archipelagos spanning vast areas, home to upwards of 60 million people. The question is whether they are ready to benefit from the coming urban population boom. The pace of Asia’s urban population growth is astounding. The UN estimates that well over half of Asia’s 4.5 billion residents will live in cities by 2026.
Some will move to megacities — Asia will be home to 60% of the world’s megacities by 2025. Yet while the spectacular expansion of metropolises such as Dhaka, New Delhi, Shanghai, and Tokyo is mesmerizing, most Asians are not moving to megacities. In fact, many large cities are experiencing population decline. Instead, Asia’s shift toward cities is driven in large part by a fast-paced rural-to-urban migration: the reclassification of rural areas into urban zones accounts for 80% of urban growth in China and 67% in Indonesia over the past three decades. Collectively, Asian cities experience nearly one million new arrivals every week, about two-thirds of the global total. For the most part, Asia’s remarkable city growth has been good for its residents. Many large Asian cities are becoming richer and consolidating their position as the world’s new economic center of gravity. With some
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Dr. Parag Khanna, Author of The Future is Asian; Founder and Managing Partner, FutureMap, Singapore Dr. Robert Muggah, Co-Founder and Research Director, Igarapé Institute, Brazil
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Top Megacities by Population 2030
Top Countries by Megacity Count 2030
1. Jakarta, Indonesia
1. China
2. Tokyo, Japan
2. India
3. Karachi, Pakistan
3. USA
4. Manila, Philippines
4. Japan
5. Cairo, Egypt
5. Brazil
Above: By 2030, Asia will account for the largest number of megacities across all regions, followed by the Americas, Middle East and Africa, and Europe (Source: Euromonitor International, 2018)
exceptions, the overall quality of life for many Asian city dwellers is improving. Even so, urbanization trends in the region are diverse and uneven, with sprawl, congestion, unemployment, and slums emerging as critical impediments. Large pockets of poverty and concentrated disadvantage persist, weighing on Asia’s potential. Asia can avoid the rear-view mirror trap — the failure to anticipate future expansion — but only if it squarely faces up to the demographic, social, and environmental challenges on the road ahead. Asia’s urban landscape is of course incredibly diverse. Some countries such as China and Japan have amassed the necessary wealth and capacity to deal with a halfcentury of accelerated urbanization, with decent infrastructure, housing, utilities, and services to show for it. But all is not necessarily well. Chinese cities are approaching peak population expansion, and many Japanese cities have already flatlined, with a number of them facing declining populations. While comparatively well-off, urban populations in both countries are facing serious challenges stemming from pollution, water stress, extreme heat, faltering service delivery, segregation, and aging populations. South and Southeast Asian cities have a combined population of more than 2.5 billion, eclipsing that of China. India’s urban population will soar to 416 million
people by 2050 (compared to 255 million new city dwellers in China). The fastest urban population expansion is set to occur in secondary cities of Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. These regions with their young populations will launch Asia’s next growth wave. But while their infrastructure is adequate, and there is boundless investment on the way, the social and environmental risks are mounting. So, how do Asia’s diverse cities stack up in terms of their preparedness for the future? We identified a subset of East, Central, South, and Southeast Asian cities according to their geographic and population size and per capita wealth. We then cross-referenced these same cities according to existing rankings of their relative levels of fragility and adaptivity to technological change. Urban fragility is a composite measure of a city’s exposure to cumulative climate and anthropogenic risks. A city’s technological adaptivity is associated with the quality and coverage of its digital, physical, and socio-economic assets. Cities that rank high on our list are more agile and prepared than the rest. Establishing measures of a city’s agility is crucial for urban authorities, business, and civic groups to anticipate and navigate the disruptive impact of technological change. To be sure, Asian cities are facing looming labor automation and job displacement in traditional
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employment sectors such as industrial factory work. These pressures will be amplified by the rapid automation of agriculture-intensive sectors in rural areas. The transition into urban services economies sustained by digital connectivity will be crucial to maintain high employment and rising wages, as will the adoption of new skills to thrive in tomorrow’s digital economy. Asian cities also need to cope with the multiple stresses of overpopulation, inequality, insecurity, and environmental threats that are crucial benchmarks of urban sustainability. Asia’s cities simply cannot afford to paper over gaping deficits in affordable housing, inadequate water and sanitation provision, rising air pollution, urban heat islands, extreme weather events, and other challenges often treated as unavoidable externalities of city growth. The question is whether Asian cities are willing and able to balance their massive population growth and infrastructure needs while also harnessing new technologies and limiting their carbon footprints. More to the point, can they do this quickly? Not surprisingly, some cities are more prepared than others. We find that coastal Chinese cities registering significant wealth are also facing systemic vulnerabilities such as diminishing water supplies and rising sea levels (Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenzhen). We also identified South Asian megacities that are emerging as major economic hubs but are far behind in overall capacity to take advantage of the digital revolution (Bangalore, Chennai, Dhaka, Hyderabad, Karachi, Kolkata, Mumbai, and New Delhi). Several Southeast Asian cities are well situated when it comes to their technological preparedness but are facing above-average fragility risks (Bangkok, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, and Manila). Grouping cities geographically captures the similarity of their economic, political, and cultural profiles, underlining the potential for intra- and inter-regional learning and problem solving. There is considerable evidence of Asian cities developing Asian solutions to their challenges. Consider Shanghai: It has long suffered from acute air pollution but has scaled up ambitious programs to produce clean energy and promote electric vehicles. Shenzhen is seeking to balance its scale with livability through new building regulations, carbon trading schemes, and electric cars. In Guangzhou, which has suffered from land and water shortages caused by overdevelopment, new construction in fertile areas is being dramatically
curtailed. Air pollution was reduced by 42% between 2012 and 2016. These three cities and many others are benefiting from new national regulations to curb industrial pollution of the air, land, and riverways. South Asia’s teeming megacities face challenges on an even greater scale than China’s but without the infrastructure base, financial resources, or political will to cope. In Karachi, Pakistan’s commercial hub that accounts for roughly a third of the country’s GDP, the neglect of utilities for decades has contributed to a solid waste and sewage crisis. The federal government has only just started to invest in desalination and water supply projects and an integrated public transport system to ease congestion. India’s megacities suffer from notoriously poor urban planning and decaying infrastructure, including inadequate drainage. Mumbai recently launched new zoning laws to increase the stock of affordable housing, while New Delhi — which faces record levels of smog — is building more public transport and reducing diesel vehicle numbers. Both New Delhi and Chennai face acute water shortages, which the latter is addressing through new water recycling programs.
Above: According to Euromonitor International, by 2030 Jakarta will be the largest megacity, and with a population of over 35 million Jakarta’s expected population surge will transpose Tokyo’s present status
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Current Megacities: Breakdown by Countries/Regions
Europe • Istanbul • London • Moscow • Paris Americas • Buenos Aires • Lima • Los Angeles • Mexico City • New York • Rio de Janeiro • São Paulo
Africa and the Middle East • Cairo • Lagos • Tehran
China • Beijing • Guangzhou • Shanghai • Tianjin • Wuhan
India • Bangalore • Delhi • Kolkata • Mumbai
Remaining Asia Pacific • Bangkok • • Dhaka • • Ho Chi Minh City • • Jakarta • • Karachi
Manila Osaka Seoul Tokyo
(Sources: Robert Muggah and Euromonitor International, 2018)
India’s tech hubs of Bangalore and Hyderabad have grown so quickly that they too have sacrificed natural habitats and vegetation for poorly planned built-up areas. Without massive investments in basic water supply and sanitation, public transportation, and distributed housing, these new engines of India’s tech sector will sputter. Southeast Asian cities are rapidly growing without commensurate investment in strengthening their adaptive capacity. The approach taken in Manila has been to push for rapid conversion of former defense and industrial facilities such as New Clark City, employing sustainable building codes and an internet of things focus in the process. Bangkok’s excessive groundwater pumping has accelerated the city’s subsidence rate to up to 3 cm per year, with the threat to the city’s foundations amplified by rising sea levels (which also pose a grave threat to Jakarta) and volatile flooding. While Jakarta is investing in sea barriers to slow the rising tide, Bangkok is working to retrofit its dilapidated water infrastructure to promote efficiency and conservation.
Even a cursory review of Asia’s largest megacities reveals a number of hard truths and constructive recommendations. First, Asia’s inhabitants are not turning away from urbanization despite myriad existential risks. This means federal, state, and municipal authorities need to plan for long-term demographic realities — empowering cities with the necessary autonomy and discretion to plan for the future. Second, Asia’s cities need to place ecological priorities front and center in order to protect their vulnerable populations and build resilience against environmental volatility. This will require significantly greater commitments of public and private resources toward new project pipelines and stricter regulations to ensure sustainable infrastructure development. Third, Asian cities need to adopt smarter technologies as they move forward. The use of green building materials, the deployment of 3D printed construction methods, the installation of environmental sensor networks, and investments in integrated public transport and renewable energy are all available at ever lower cost. The good news? Sustainable urban innovation is achievable even for humanity’s largest urban clusters.
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Treating Arthritis of the Knee Dr. Andreas Krüger, Specialist: Orthopedic Surgery and Traumatology, B3 – Praxis am Bahnhofplatz, Switzerland
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rthritis is a state of health in which one’s body joints are damaged by inflammation of the bone or joint. This can cause pain, swelling, and stiffness and one may experience pain when attempting to move. The most common places that arthritis occurs are in the hips and knees and in the shoulders of sportswomen and sportsmen. In this article, we focus on the knee.
Anatomy of the Knee Joint The knee joint occurs where the end of the femur (the thigh bone), the top of the tibia (the main lower leg bone), and the patella (the kneecap) meet. The ends of the bones are covered by a smooth layer of articular cartilage that allows them to glide with little resistance. Two cartilages — the lateral and medial meniscus — act as shock absorbers within the knee joint, and two ligaments within the knee — the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments — contribute to its stability.
Arthritis of the Knee Arthritis of the knee occurs with the degeneration of the articular cartilage of the femur, tibia, or patella. It is more common in women and is characterized by pain in the front of the knee (behind the kneecap) that typically worsens when walking on inclined terrain, ascending and descending stairs, kneeling, squatting, and rising from a seated position. People who have had an injury to their knee, damaging the meniscus or cruciate ligament, may also develop arthritis. Because of the loss of the gliding surfaces of the bones of the knee joint, arthritis sufferers may battle stiff knees and limited mobility, sometimes feeling a catching or clicking in the knees. Since the cartilage wears away on one side of the knee joint, a person may become knock-kneed or bow-legged.
Treatment Individualized treatment consisting of non-operative or operative methods, or both, will help to manage the problem depending on the severity of the arthritis and the patient’s activity level and functional demand. • Non-operative: The first line of treatment includes
•
activity modification, anti-inflammatory medication such as ibuprofen, paracetamol, and Cox-2 inhibitors, and weight loss. Physical therapy to strengthen the muscles around the knee may help as the muscles will then absorb some of the shock imparted to the joint. This is particularly true for arthritis of the kneecap (patellofemoral arthritis). Braces designed to place transfer load to a less arthritic part of the knee may also provide relief from pain. Injections of medication or the latest biological treatment — platelet-rich plasma or stem cells from adipose tissue — into the knee joint may also alleviate joint pain, reduce disability, and increase regeneration. Operative: The type of surgery required depends on one’s age and anatomy and the underlying condition. Surgical options to treat arthritis include an osteotomy and knee replacement surgery. An osteotomy is a viable alternative for patients under the age of 60 and if the arthritis is limited to one area of the knee joint. The knee is realigned so that weight is taken off the arthritic area. Knee replacement surgery involves resurfacing the knee by inserting a prosthetic joint that replaces the ends of the bones, like capping a tooth. The prosthetic component is usually made of metal and plastic surfaces designed to glide smoothly over one another. The latest improvement is a patient-specific, 3D-fitted implant to reconstruct the joint individually.
Prevention Leading physicians in sports medicine recommend a combination of training and pause strategy to reduce the risk of overuse injuries and achieve compensation. When optimizing performance, sufficient vitamin D, calcium, and collagen are crucial. A mix of essential amino acids, such as L-lysin, L-methionin, and L-threonin, is a prerequisite for fast regeneration after exercise. Natural antioxidants in turn bind free radicals in the tissues during oxidative stress, and fluids and electrolytes such as sodium and magnesium may be beneficial.
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Plant-Based Protein: Better for the Earth, Better for Us
IMAGE: Shutterstock
Bruce Friedrich, Executive Director, The Good Food Institute, USA
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rotein is necessary for good health: it aids growth and development, repairs tissue damage, and keeps our cells functioning. Protein fuels our immune system and is a component part of our hormones, neurotransmitters, and enzymes. In the past, getting a sufficient amount of protein was a significant challenge; however, in today’s developed world, it is now more important to get the right kind of protein.
When people think of protein, they usually think of animal meat, eggs, and dairy, but what many don’t realize is that these sources of protein come with many downsides. For example, feeding our crops to animals and then eating a part of the animal is inherently inefficient. According to the World Resource Institute, it takes nine calories of crops to obtain just one calorie of chicken meat. That’s 800% in food waste, as if we had nine plates
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Trends in High Total Cholesterol among Adults Aged 20 Years and Over in the USA, 1996–2016
Percentage of Population
20%
10%
0% 1999–2000
2001–2002
2003–2004
2005–2006
2007–2008
2009–2010
2011–2012
2013–2014
2015–2016
Time Period Above: Total cholesterol levels have remained high in the first two decades of the 21st century. A plant-based diet is effective in reducing this worrisome incidence of cholesterol (Source: Adapted from Statista)
of food ready to feed our growing population but then Insoluble fiber travels through your digestive tract intact threw eight of them away. If we are growing nine times and keeps things moving along. more calories than people are consuming, we are using Fiber can help you avoid minor health problems such as that much more land, water, fertilizer, pesticides, and hemorrhoids and constipation. Fiber can also play a role herbicides. It also means we are using that much more in preventing major diseases like colon cancer and heart fossil fuel to plant, harvest, and ship the extra crops, disease. A study in the journal Stroke found that increasing and then we are using even more fossil fuel to run fiber intake by 7 g a day can reduce the risk of stroke by industrial animal farms and still more to ship the animals 7%. Researchers at Yale University found that preto slaughterhouses. menopausal women who eat 6 g or more of soluble fiber With regard to our health, meat, eggs, and dairy have daily lower their odds of breast cancer by 62% compared specific downsides. In addition to to women who eat less than 4 g a day. protein, animal products include In his book Proteinaholic: How Our saturated fat and cholesterol. They Obsession With Meat Is Killing Us and Fiber can also play may also be tainted with hormones, What We Can Do About It, Dr. Garth pathogens, antibiotics, and other Davis notes that people who eat the a role in preventing contaminants. Animal products are most animal protein are “the most major diseases like colon also entirely without fiber. Many overweight and sick”. This is backed people in the developed world are up by a review by the peer-reviewed cancer and heart disease fiber-deficient, in part because of journal Nutrition, which looked at 32 a heavy reliance on animal products studies — 21 clinical and 11 reviews for protein. — and found that high meat intake was clearly associated People who don’t eat meat are often asked, “Where with bone deterioration, kidney disorders, increased do you get your protein?” But no one ever asks, “Where cancer risk, liver disease, and heart disease. do you get your fiber?” even though a fiber-deficient diet It is not clear yet whether the harm from excessive has been linked to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, meat consumption is a result of the fat and cholesterol and other chronic diseases. Getting both kinds of fiber in meat, eggs, and dairy, or the lack of fiber and other — soluble and insoluble — is necessary for optimal health. key nutrients. Regardless, relying on animal products to Soluble fiber can dissolve in water and helps with meet our protein needs is clearly not wise given the cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and glucose levels. increased risk of cancer, heart disease, obesity, and other
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diseases. Knowing this, we can we optimize our protein intake while avoiding disease, hormones, antibiotics, and contamination. For over a decade, longevity researcher Dan Buettner analyzed the world’s healthiest and happiest people. From this research, he identified five Blue Zones where people live especially long and healthy lives. Buettner wrote three New York Times bestsellers about these areas. His research showed two dietary factors: all of these populations’ diets consisted of at least 90% plant foods and included a cup or more of beans every day. Beans are packed with protein but are without the saturated fat, cholesterol, toxins, and other harmful ingredients often found in animal meat, eggs, and dairy. Low on the glycemic index, beans are associated with lower cholesterol, balanced blood sugar, and digestive regularity. Fascinatingly, beans are found in the diets of people around the world. In Latin America, black beans are served with corn, while in the Middle East, hummus is served with bread. And of course, there are plenty of soy products in the daily fare all across Asia.
After reviewing every study of diet and cancer ever done, the American Institute for Cancer Research recommended that we eat beans at every meal. As Dr. Michael Greger summarized in his bestselling book How Not To Die: “Not every day or every week: Every meal!” Beans and legumes also help us maintain a healthy weight. For example, scientists found that, with calories held steady, adding three cups of legumes per week more than tripled average weight loss. That is only about one half-cup serving per day. The same was found in another study where participants took in exactly the same number of calories, but those participants who were consuming beans lost significantly more weight. Whole beans aren’t the only source of healthy, satisfying, clean protein. It seems that every week more plant-based meat alternatives come onto the market. These products are made from beans, peas, soy, and other healthy sources of protein, allowing us to share our familiar dishes with friends and family but without any of the disadvantages of animal products.
Blue Zones — Longevity Hotspots
Loma Linda, USA Population: 24,197 (2017)
Nicoya, Costa Rica Population: 24,946 (2013)
Sardinia, Italy Population: 1.7 million (2017)
Okinawa, Japan Population: 1.4 million (2012) Icaria, Greece Population: 8,423 (2011)
Above: According to longevity researcher Dan Buettner, people living in the above places tend to live especially long and healthy lives thanks, largely, to a plant-based diet
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Portugal Is Thriving
Web Summit Deal In October 2018, Web Summit CEO Paddy Cosgrave announced a EUR 110 million deal with Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa that cements Lisbon as the Web Summit’s host city for the next 10 years. The deal includes significant venue expansions, with the Altice Arena and Feira Internacional de Lisboa (FIL) slated to double in size within the next three years to accommodate the projected growth of the conference.
Inc. magazine describes Web Summit as “the largest technology conference in the world” while Forbes describes the Dublin-based company’s event as “the best tech conference on the planet”. The conference attracts more than 2,500 international journalists each year, representing publications such as Bloomberg, Financial Times, CNN, the Wall Street Journal, CNBC, and Forbes, among others. Lisbon’s Mayor, Fernando Medina, said: “This 10-year agreement with Web Summit will decisively make Lisbon a key capital for innovation, entrepreneurship, and talent. I am confident the next few years will bring a sharp rise in IT investment and employment in Lisbon. We are thrilled to continue to write this story together with Web Summit.” Lisbon has hosted Web Summit since 2016 and this announcement is a testament to the city’s recent development and international popularity, given that more than 20 cities across Europe competed for the tender.
Tourism and the World Travel Awards Portugal’s tourism industry has blossomed in recent years, and the number of tourists has increased each year since 2014. In 2017, the number of foreign visitors to Portugal
Above: Portugal recently sealed an agreement with the organizers of Web Summit to host the annual event for the next 10 years, outperforming 20 other European cities that had tendered for the deal. Web Summit is arguably the largest technology conference in the world. The 2019 edition will be held from 4 to 7 November and will feature speakers of the likes of Tony Blair and António Guterres, the Secretary-General of the UN
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IMAGE: Web Summit
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ortugal is having its time in the sun. The southwestern European country — which, incidentally, enjoys an average of 2,799 hours of sunshine per year — is experiencing a surge in popularity among tourists and investors alike. Following its economic crisis in 2011, the Portuguese government took decisive steps to boost foreign investment, including the introduction of a number of tax breaks and a residence-by-investment program that have been resoundingly successful. The Wall Street Journal recently described Portugal as “one of Europe’s hottest stars, with tech startups mushrooming and investment pouring in”. Here are a few highlights (and reasons to visit or invest in Portugal).
FEATURES
IMAGES: World Travel Awards; Time Out Market
IMAGE: Web Summit
Above: The 25th Annual World Travel Awards’ gala dinner was held in Lisbon on 1 December 2018. Portugal received an impressive 16 awards on the evening
hit a record 12.7 million people — up nearly 12% from 2016. The bulk of these tourists are American, in part due to a massive increase in the number of direct flights between the USA and Portugal. Portugal’s national carrier, TAP Air Portugal, doubled its flights from the USA in 2017 from 2016 and offers free one-to-five-night stopovers in Lisbon or Porto on its long-haul flights, enticing travelers to explore the cities. Portugal’s shining performance at the 2018 World Travel Awards held in Lisbon hardly came as a surprise. The country received sixteen ‘Best in World’ category awards and eight ‘Best European’ awards, and it was named the ‘World’s Leading Destination’ for the second year running. Turismo de Portugal also took the award for ‘World’s Leading Tourist Board’. The archipelago of Madeira won the award for ‘World’s Leading Island Destination’ while Lisbon was dubbed ‘World’s Best City Destination’ as well as ‘Best City Break Destination’. The Algarve was lauded with ‘Best Fine Dining Hotel’ and ‘World’s Leading Luxury Leisure Resort’ for the Vila Joya resort in Albufeira and the Conrad Algarve luxury hotel in Quinta do Lago, respectively. Lisbon’s art scene is fast becoming one of the most vibrant in Europe, with local and international artists, curators, and dealers alike taking advantage of affordable property prices to establish new galleries and art fairs. This has made the city a beacon for creatives and art buyers from around the world, while giving it a chic, bohemian allure akin to that of Paris in the 19th century. Portugal’s geographic diversity, relatively small size, and affordability make it an appealing destination, allowing visitors to explore and sample its variety in terms of natural beauty, heritage sites, traditions, and food.
Above: Considered to be Lisbon’s biggest and oldest market, Time Out Market is a favorite among locals and tourists alike and is appreciated for its modern take on the traditional market experience
Time Out Market Another of Lisbon’s key attractions is its Time Out Market, located at the Mercado da Ribeira, Lisbon’s biggest and oldest market. The Time Out Market is a curated marketplace that showcases the best Lisbon has to offer in terms of culinary delights, bars, live entertainment, and vendors selected by the editorial team at Time Out Portugal. The market strives to make high-quality fine dining affordable and accessible, and includes twenty-four restaurants, eight bars, numerous shops, a cooking school, and a live music venue, as well as a selection of the city’s longest-established and best market vendors selling fresh produce, fish, meat, flowers, and local delicacies such as grilled Atlantic sardines and pasteis de nata. Time Out Group is a global media company whose content focuses on bringing cities to life for locals and visitors alike through culinary and cultural recommendations. It launched its first Time Out Market in 2014 in Lisbon, and the market made short work of becoming the city’s most popular attraction, drawing 3.6 million visitors in 2017.
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Above: Borobudur Temple was built in the 8th and 9th centuries but underwent restoration in the 1970s with aid from UNESCO, the oversight body for World Heritage Sites
Design Works of Wonder
Borobudur Temple The largest Buddhist temple in the world , Borobodur stands proudly in the Kedu Valley of Java, Indonesia. It is one of the esteemed UNESCO World Heritage Sites and has over one million international visitors each year. The site itself is made up of five square levels depicting stories from the sutras of ancient poets and three circular levels that are decorated with seventy-two stone domes, or stupas. Within each stupa is a carved statue of a buddha, visible through the patterned openings around
the top of each dome. These openings are said to reveal the site’s true relationship with light and all its complexities, as the sun rises and sets to reveal different features of the buddha inside. The site has also been described as a three-dimensional mandala that pilgrims can use for meditation and prayer as they walk up the monument. It is a marvel of design that embodies the nuances of the Buddhist faith, and most notably, its important concept of the path.
Statue of Unity Standing at 182 m (597 ft), the Statue of Unity in the Gujarat region of India is twice the height of the Statue of Liberty and more than a third taller than the Spring Temple Buddha in China, making it the newest and tallest statue in the world. The Statue of Unity was erected to honor India’s first Deputy Prime Minister, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who played an integral role in India’s transition from English rule to independence.
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IMAGE: Shutterstock
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he seven natural wonders of the world have long amazed us with their sheer scale and enigmatic beauty. However, where nature has taken millennia to forge wonders, we global citizens have been hard at work designing and building our own equally impressive buildings, bridges, and cities to make sense of our world, to attempt to reach the heights of the sky, or from which to look down on the beautiful countryside.
ago (8,000 BCE). The Great Wall of China itself cuts through the northernmost point of the province, making it a crossroads of political and traditional transformation. At the other end of China’s timeline we find the longest glass-bottom suspension bridge in the world. While it is not as high as Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon in Hunan province, the Hongyagu glass-bottomed bridge does take the prize for length at 488 m (1,601 ft). The construction of the bridge includes 1,077 individual glass panes of 4 cm thickness. It is also unique as it joins two peaks in the mountainous region, and it claims to have the most transparent glass, providing an unparalleled view of the valley below. Above: India’s Statue of Unity, which is said to be visible from space, was built by a team of some 250 engineers and 3,000 laborers who worked for almost four years. The project reportedly cost over USD 400 million
Neuschwanstein Castle Not often is a military fortification built with an appreciation for aesthetics, but Neuschwanstein Castle in the far south of Germany is a remarkable estate that captures the beauty and power of the Romantic era. Walt Disney himself was so impressed by the appearance of this castle that it is said to have inspired Disney’s iconic Cinderella Castle we know today. The design of Neuschwanstein Castle itself was heavily influenced by the Romanesque tastes of its benefactor, The Fairy Tale King (Ludwig II of Bavaria), who oversaw construction from the beginning until his death in 1886. The castle boasts a brilliant limestone facade, an imposing gatehouse, and a rich interior decorated with complex artworks inspired by Wagner and theater culture — all built at the foot of the Ammergebirge nature reserve. Sadly, the project was left unfinished, and we can only wonder how much more extravagant this castle might have been had the King lived to see his vision through to completion.
Jeddah Tower Anticipated to be the tallest building in the world by 2020, Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia will rise to an impressive 1 km (or 3,280 ft) on the Jeddah skyline. This will dramatically surpass Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, which currently stands as the world’s tallest building at 829.8 m (2,722 ft). Jeddah Tower aims to outshine the Burj Khalifa in as many ways as possible, for example in the observation deck that will be constructed at 663.8 m (2,178 ft), which is 108.15 m (355 ft) higher than the Burj Khalifa’s 555.65 m (1,823 ft) deck. It has to date cost USD 1.4 billion in construction, which is a small part of the greater vision that Jeddah is realizing. The tower itself will be the centerpiece of a new economic district that promotes both commercial and private residences, hotels, conference venues, and even an observatory.
Hebei Province
IMAGES: Shutterstock
IMAGE: Shutterstock
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China is a country that has arguably one of the richest cultural histories, both ancient and modern. Take, for example, the thousands of years of political and architectural depth contained in Hebei province juxtaposed with the ultra-modern Hongyagu suspension bridge. In Hebei, you will find Qing-dynasty temples and palaces, with some archaeological findings dating back as far as 10,000 years
Above: Germany’s Fairytale Castle, as Neuschwanstein Castle is affectionately known (although its direct translation is ‘new swan castle’), is one of the country’s top tourist destinations
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Emerging Expat Hubs Malte Zeeck, Founder and Co-CEO, InterNations, Germany
IMAGE: Shutterstock
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ith an estimated 50 to 60 million expats across the globe, expats make up a growing share of the population of certain countries. To gain a greater understanding of their motivations and needs, InterNations, the world’s largest community for expats, annually conducts the Expat Insider survey: in 2018, for the fifth year in a row, the survey provided valuable insights into the lives of those who work and live abroad. In addition to general information on expats and their demographics as well as considerations and reasons for moving abroad, the survey helps understand the key attracting features of expat destinations. More than 18,000 survey respondents shared their personal opinions about life abroad, making Expat Insider 2018 one of the most extensive reports on expat life. Wealth — what one has accumulated but also the sum of one’s knowledge, talent, and connections — has traditionally been a buffer against chaos as well as a path to further success. Yet even wealthy individuals and families, if they are not globally connected, will remain limited by the particular context, policies, and resources of their birth citizenship. These factors can hinder their ability to respond to new threats or opportunities or to access the global
travel, culture, and residence options that appeal to them. Traditionally, the term ‘expat’ has been used to describe skilled professionals and executives sent abroad by their employer. With the increasing globalization of the world’s travel destinations and working habits, we think that this narrow perspective no longer adequately represents the
Planned Length of Stay
Less than 6 months 6 months–1 year 1–3 years 3–5 years Longer than 5 years Possibly forever Undecided
Level of Education
No university degree High school graduate Vocational training Bachelor’s degree Postgraduate degree PhD
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Family Status
No dependent children abroad With dependent children abroad
Relationship Status
In a relationship Single
diversity of expats and the reasons behind their decision to move abroad. Therefore, InterNations uses the term ‘expat’ in a much broader sense, describing any person who lives outside their native country, normally on a temporary basis; no restrictions are made in terms of employment, origin, or residence. Other institutions, such as Finaccord, go further by adding a time restriction — the person should live abroad for a minimum of twelve months and a maximum of five years. Over the past five years of the Expat Insider survey, the gender split has remained fairly equal, with women representing just over half of expats (51% in 2018 versus 53% in 2014). The average age among survey respondents is 44.2 years, and expats tend to be highly educated: 7% have a PhD, and more than two in five (41%) have completed a postgraduate/master’s degree (or similar). This is closely followed by more than one-third (34%) with a bachelor’s degree as their highest level of education. In 2018, a better quality of life (28%), finding a job abroad on their own (24%), and the simple enjoyment of life abroad (23%) remained the most common reasons for moving abroad (multiple answers were possible). However, the desire to live in a particular country has lost in importance, dropping from being one of the most common reasons in 2014 (22%) to a share of 14% in 2018. Likewise, the share of expats moving abroad because of being sent by their employer has also seen a slight decrease from 16% in 2014 to 13%. Love, on the other hand, has gained traction in its importance in expats’ lives. While in 2014 just 14% stated to have moved for love (or wanted to live in their partner’s home country), a larger 17% gave this as one of their reasons for moving in 2018. In addition,
Gender
Male Female
Age Groups
25 and Below 26–30 31–35 36–40 41–50 51 and Above
financial motivators have become more prominent: as opposed to just 10% that moved for financial reasons in 2014, 16% of expats named the lower cost of living or financial reasons as one of their motivations in 2018. Thus, it seems that expats are becoming more pragmatic about where they move, leaving them also less particular about their new destination. In 2018, InterNations presented a comprehensive expat typology based on the primary motivations for moving abroad and categorized expats into common groups: finding a new job and the search for a better quality of life were found to be the most important reasons for expatriation. The three most common types of expats are the Go-Getter (21%), the Optimizer (16%), and the Romantic (12%).
The Go-Getter Making up the largest share of expats (21%), Go-Getters move abroad for work-related reasons and dedicate a significant amount of time to their jobs. In fact, 93% of them work full time (vs. 84% globally), and they spend an average of 44.7 hours per week at their jobs (vs. 44.0 hours globally in full-time positions). Close to three in five Go-Getters (58%) found a job abroad on their own, while 31% were recruited by a local company, and 10% planned to start their own business abroad. An Italian Go-Getter reports being happy about the “better career opportunities” in the USA and also mentions the fact that she makes “more money [here] than [she would] be making for the same job in Italy” as a positive factor of living abroad. The top industries for Go-Getters are education (16%), IT (12%), and manufacturing and engineering (9%).
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The Optimizer The Go-Getter is closely followed by the Optimizer (16%), the second most common type of expat. Optimizers move abroad in search of a better life: 60% of them move in search of a better quality of life, 28% for financial reasons, and 12% for political, religious, or safety reasons. They value a good work–life balance and find it easy to settle in their new destination. A Spanish Optimizer living in Germany emphasized the “work–life balance. The Germans have it pretty clear that we do not live to work but work to have a good life”, while an Optimizer from Ireland living in Switzerland liked that the “quality of life is generally very good, people put (their) focus on health and happiness rather than work”.
The Romantic The Romantic (12%) includes all expats who move for love to live in their partner’s home country. A British expat living in Bahrain explains the key benefits of the Romantic’s move abroad: “I have more time with my partner and more opportunities to do things as a family.” A Romantic from Mongolia stated that their partner was the “best thing” about life in the Czech Republic. Romantics find it easy to make local friends, since 38% describe their social circle as consisting of mainly local residents — this is twice the global share (19%) and also the largest share among all expat types. However, their career situations are less favorable: more than one-third of Romantics (34%) are dissatisfied with their career prospects, compared to onequarter of all expats (25%). A Brazilian expat in Australia reported having to “step down in order to get a job”. Though there have been some constant top performers over the years there have also been changes among the best-rated expat destinations in the world. With countries such as Bahrain and Portugal gaining ground in the Expat Insider survey, it is interesting to take a look at what makes them popular among expats.
Bahrain: Friendly Locals Who Speak English Starting off at just 48th out of 61 countries in 2014, Bahrain came 1st in 2017 (out of 65) as well as in 2018 (out of 68). Over the years, the country has seen improvements across all areas and expats continue to appreciate the lack of a language barrier: in 2018, more than nine in ten (94%) stated that it is easy to live in Bahrain without speaking the local language (versus 46% globally), and 72% say that it is no problem at all (versus 17% globally). Combined with the feeling of
being at home in the country (1st out of 68), it might be no surprise that 88% of expats in Bahrain are generally happy with their lives (versus 76% globally). An Indian expat in Bahrain explained: “I don’t feel like an expat, I feel at home.” Lastly, Bahrain also boasts favorable working conditions: expats are very satisfied with their work–life balance (77% versus 61% globally), career prospects (70% versus 55% globally), and job security (70% versus 59% globally).
Portugal: Inviting Weather and People Portugal’s mild winters and sunny summer climate appear to be attractive to more than holidaymakers. The European country ranks 6th in the Expat Insider 2018 survey thanks to its high quality of life (2nd). In fact 28% of expats in Portugal name the search for a better quality of life as their most important reason for moving. This makes it a popular destination among Optimizers, together with destinations such as Costa Rica, Cyprus, Ecuador, and Mexico. “The weather certainly plays a big part in my well-being”, stated an expat from the UK, who added: “The local Portuguese could not be friendlier or more accommodating.” Close to two-thirds of expats (64%) find it easy to make local friends in Portugal (versus 45% of expats worldwide), and almost four in five (79%) are generally satisfied with the local social and leisure activities. Maybe this also contributes to Portugal’s high ranking for ease of settling in (5th) — more than four in five (82%) feel at home in the local culture, compared to just three in five (60%) globally.
Israel: Healthy and Happy Families In the Expat Insider survey, Israel has seen a steady rise from 50th out of 61 countries in 2014 to 22nd out of 68 in 2018. This has been helped by large improvements in the Quality of Life (28th to 10th) and Working Abroad (40th to 22nd) indices. In 2018, nine in ten expats (90%) rated the quality of healthcare positively in Israel (versus 67% globally), and a similar share (87%) said it was affordable (versus 59% globally). Expats seem to have great leisure activities at their disposal — 87% regard this factor favorably (versus 75% globally), and 54% give the available leisure options the best rating (versus 37% globally). What is more, Israel ranks 6th out of 50 countries in terms of family life. Almost all expat parents in Israel (96%) reported being satisfied with their family life abroad (versus 79% globally), and nine in ten (90%) rated their children’s general well-being positively (versus 81% globally), with an American expat emphasizing that Israel is a “great place to raise kids”.
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Global Citizen
Simon Anholt “We need to change the culture of governance worldwide, from one that’s always been fundamentally competitive, to one that’s fundamentally collaborative”
S
imon Anholt is a singular visionary; an independent policy advisor with optimism and great heart. His childhood dream was to be a pop star or a novelist, and preferably both. Although today he is delightfully flippant about leaving a legacy, saying “Of course I hope to make things a little better for those who come after me but I don’t particularly care whether I’m remembered or not after I’m gone”, by a gentle stretch of the imagination you could say that he has practically realized his boyhood aspirations of fame and literary achievement.
Among his many other impressive accomplishments, his two main TED talks were rated the third and sixth most inspiring TED talks of all time by TED viewers, and he has written and published five books on cultures, countries, and globalization, with a further book currently being written. When asked how much he values the success of his TED talks, both personally and professionally, Simon says: “A great deal. Sharing my thoughts with lots of people around the world is the most important thing for me.”
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IMAGE: Supplied
Above: Simon Anholt, who has decades of experience working with presidents and prime ministers, is the co-founder of The Good Country, an ambitious — and important — tool that measures how countries are doing at harmonizing their sovereign and international responsibilities
IMAGE: Supplied
GLOBAL LIFE
Although England is his birthplace, Simon grew up in the Netherlands until the age of five. His family then relocated to the UK countryside and, to this day, country walks, music, and literature are the pastimes he enjoys most when not hard at work on uplifting the world for the benefit of humanity. His mother was an academic who spoke Swedish and Finnish, while his father was a market research director who spoke German, French, and Italian (the latter two were also spoken fluently by his mother), and as a child, Simon was often in the company of people from far flung places who spoke an assortment of languages. These early experiences have molded him and today Simon says “I feel connected to everywhere I’ve ever been, and, strangely, to even more places I haven’t been!” — the hallmark of a true global citizen. Perhaps it was growing up in a plurilingual environment that provided the inspiration for his ultimate achievement — the Good Country; it certainly piqued his interest in all things foreign. After boarding school Simon completed an MA at Oxford University and a postgraduate course in Strategic Studies at the Royal College of Defence Studies, UK. It was Simon’s paper on ‘Nation Brands of the 21st Century’, published in the Journal of Brand Management in 1998, that captured the attention of the media and public relations practitioners alike and came to shape the next stage of his life. He is accredited with being the founder of the concepts of nation brands and place brands, seeing them as being “simply another manifestation of how obsessed countries have become with their competitive edge, instead of focusing their energies on the system of which they are a part, and on which we all utterly depend”. Instead, Simon prefers to focus on collaboration and cohesion rather than competition and division, believing that “we need to change the culture of governance worldwide, from one that’s always been fundamentally collaborative, to one that’s fundamentally cooperative”. He goes on to say that “cultural change, on this scale, is actually easier than systemic change, because it starts from the bottom rather than the top. Once the culture changes, the systems have to change in order to accommodate the new behaviors”. Between 2000 and 2012, Simon traversed the globe, advising the leaders of more than 50 countries about how they could engage more productively with the rest of the international community, and he came to realize that their ability to cooperate and collaborate with other countries to tackle the grand challenges of our age were more often than not obstructed by the national interest.
Encouragingly, this work also revealed to him that “the vast majority of politicians in conventional political systems are admirable people trying their very hardest to do increasingly difficult jobs. The big hurdle they face is finding ways to harmonize domestic and international responsibilities and to demonstrate as well as convey to their own populations that this is not only possible but necessary and beneficial”. Enter the Good Country Index. Launched in 2014, the aim of the Good Country Index is to measure just this — how successful countries are at harmonizing their domestic and international responsibilities. The results, however, were disappointing as, according to Simon, “almost none of them did this consistently”, so in 2016, he and Madeline Hung decided that a new kind of country was needed in order to model the behaviors that no traditional countries seemed capable of sustaining. This led to Simon and co-founder Madeline launching the Good Country in September 2018. He describes the Good Country as “a territory-free nation with (ultimately) many millions of citizens from all around the world, whose purpose is to make the world work better”. Anybody, anywhere can sign up to become a citizen of the Good Country, and even more inspiring is that Simon and his colleague Robert Govers used the World Values Survey to estimate that “around 700 million adults share the Good Country’s basic values: feeling that one is a citizen of the world first, and a citizen of one’s own nation second; feeling that global problems are at least as important, if not more so, than domestic ones; a natural curiosity about other cultures and races; an instinctive feeling that prejudice is wrong; a tendency to look at individuals rather than group them”. The Good Country’s intention is “to start building a new culture in the international community, where cooperation and collaboration are more highly prized (and more imaginatively and courageously practiced) than competition — by voters as well as by governments”. Although Simon says his plan is “to get the population of the Good Country to our interim target of 700 million, and then go and live in a cave”, we certainly hope that he changes his mind. His belief that many people desire more connection with the international community, despite what many politicians claim, was recently borne out by a 2019 poll for the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting, which showed remarkable support globally for international collaboration, immigration, and the personal benefits from globalization. The tide is turning and the world undoubtedly needs more committed, active, proactive global citizens like Simon Anholt.
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GLOBAL LIFE
Property
L
isbon is fast becoming one of Europe’s leading cities that epitomize high-quality living. Renowned not only for its natural beauty but also for its diverse and friendly people, Lisbon offers magnificent accommodation and a safe and thriving environment for singles and families alike. At the heart of the Great Lisbon area is Belas Clube de Campo, a residential golf complex situated in the Serra da Carregueira Forest Park that is easily redefining private estate living, with its Lisbon Green Valley phase setting new standards for convenient comfort. Lisbon Green Valley is a high-end residential area that offers three different property enterprises: apartments
for modern living, townhouses for more traditional households, and plots for those who prefer to design and build their perfect home. Each property at Lisbon Green Valley has been designed for comfort but also, importantly, follows strict energy sustainability and efficiency regulations to ensure an environmentally friendly community that works in harmony with its natural surroundings. Each apartment, with the choice of one-, two-, or three-bedroom units, is designed with an indoor parking space and balconies for unobstructed views of the stunning Sintra Mountains landscape. The ground floor units each have a private garden with a jacuzzi.
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IMAGE: Belas Clube de Campo
Lisbon Green Valley • Lisbon
IMAGE: Belas Clube de Campo
IMAGE: Belas Clube de Campo
GLOBAL LIFE
If your family is large, or enjoys more privacy, Lisbon Green Valley’s four-bedroom townhouses are contemporary homes designed for relaxation. Each townhouse has two suites and a home office as well as a garage and storage areas. Outside you will find a private garden and swimming pool that have unparalleled views of the surroundings. If you are interested in fulfilling your own designer dreams, there are plots of 600 m2–1,600 m2 that can be built up with design or contracting assistance from the André Jordan Group. Belas Clube de Campo provides every facility that a resident could need: there is a grocery store that is stocked with fresh produce daily, a relaxing cafeteria area, and a hair salon. For relaxation and fitness there is the health club and spa where residents can work out, take a sauna, or treat themselves to a massage. The estate is bordered by a 1,000 ha forest boasting several hiking and bicycle trails that nature lovers can enjoy. For the less rustic, there is an 18-hole championship golf course, complete with a clubhouse that has a restaurant, a bar, indoor and outdoor seating, a conference room, and a ballroom.
At Belas Clube de Campo, children are taken care of in every possible way, from the school that offers classes from kindergarten to secondary level, to the kids club house that offers lessons in sports such as football, golf, and tennis. In case of medical needs, there is a health clinic equipped with senior residences. Security is provided 24 hours a day, with various fixed and mobile stations throughout the estate. If there is anything that the Belas Clube de Campo cannot provide for residents, Lisbon city center is just 15 minutes away. Belas Clube de Campo and the Lisbon Green Valley are developed by the André Jordan Group, which has more than 50 years of experience in building high-quality living. Apartments, townhouses, and plots range between EUR 400,000 and EUR 2 million.
Above and opposite page: Just a short drive away from central Lisbon is the stunning and serene Lisbon Green Valley, an exclusive, family-centric development set in the lush grounds of the Belas Clube de Campo residential complex, which is home to one of Portugal’s most distinguished golfing grounds. In addition, the development is well recognized for its environment-centric philosophy and commitment to sustainability and efficiency
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Above and opposite page: Cheval Blanc Courcheval in Jardin Alpin is the quintessence of French Alpine hospitality and is the ideal hideout for skiing enthusiasts. The luxury hotel is home to the only three-Michelin-starred fine-dining restaurant in Courchevel — Le 1947 at Cheval Blanc
Marco Polo
P
erched at the top of Courchevel 1850, the exquisite Cheval Blanc Courchevel is the premier residence in the French Alps. The intimate maison, located in the prestigious Jardin Alpin, offers an unrivaled highaltitude retreat that combines pleasure, comfort, and modernity with the splendorous slopes of the breathtaking French mountain scene right on the guests’ doorstep.
The resort comprises 165 lifts and offers direct access to the ski runs of Les Trois Vallées, the largest continuously skiable area in the world. While its appeal for those seeking an adrenaline-filled experience is clearly evident, Cheval Blanc Courchevel further exceeds expectations with a trifecta of world-acclaimed cuisine, lavish spa and relaxation amenities, and unrivaled service.
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IMAGE: Cheval Blanc Courchevel
Cheval Blanc Courchevel • Courchevel
IMAGES: Cheval Blanc Courchevel
IMAGE: Cheval Blanc Courchevel
GLOBAL LIFE
Those seeking the quaint charm of traditional wooden cottages might be somewhat disappointed by Cheval Blanc Courchevel; the exquisite ski boutique is anything but old-fashioned. The use of bold design, color, and architecture challenges preconceived notions of mountain residences, while original artworks further highlight the unique personality of each of the residence’s 36 rooms and suites. Cheval Blanc Courchevel is made to measure with an elegant contrast between sensual materials like leather, fur, and cashmere against the robust metals of brass, steel, and bronze. Acclaimed interior designer Sybille de Margerie makes use of seemingly typical décor elements to highlight the alpine location, but it is the eclectic style in which the elements have been fashioned and positioned that truly gives the maison its unique personality and sense of place. The novelty is further amplified by a serious art collection and design by heavyweights such as Lars Zech, Macduff Everton, and Gilles Hoang. Luxury and convenience are delivered in equal measure in each room at Cheval Blanc Courchevel. Bathrooms have a private chromotherapy hammam, delicate cedar-scented candles, a bluetooth sound system, an iPad, and a minibar stocked with only the finest champagne. Despite its dapper, daring coat, Cheval Blanc Courchevel is, at its core, still very much a dedicated ski resort offering guests the latest and most advanced equipment, skis, and boots — even a distinctive pair of Cheval Blanc skis created
in partnership with Lacroix Skis. There is meticulous attention to detail, with each guest room assigned a dedicated flag next to prepared and ready ski equipment. The ski service team is on hand to provide maps of the slopes, treats, and small heaters. The maison also gives guests the opportunity to sharpen their skiing skills through private training sessions with an expert ski coach. Off the slopes, guests are treated to the ultimate luxury experience with specifically designed Guerlain treatments and massages, while Salon Orchidée offers a range of treatments entirely dedicated to the exceptional Orchidée Impériale anti-aging range. For those who prefer retail therapy, there is the in-house Louis Vuitton boutique that offers an exclusive range. Le 1947 at Cheval Blanc is the epitome of culinary prestige, boasting three Michelin stars and offering diners a remarkable gastronomic experience. Other dining options include La Table de Partage’s private dining room and the contemporary-styled brasserie Le Triptyque, not forgetting the authentic Mongolian cigar yurt. Cheval Blanc Courchevel overflows with specialty services and amenities, but it is the attention to detail and genuine care that set it apart from other high-end alpine residences. From the staff member who warms up your ski boots before you head out to the slopes, to those who take note of your flavor preferences, and add personal touches to your special celebrations, the experience is truly priceless.
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GLOBAL LIFE
Culinaria
I
n a digitized world where cars are driving themselves and drones are delivering online retail orders it should come as no surprise that automation has spilled over into the culinary industry too. A first of its kind, the recently launched Spyce in downtown Boston is operated by a robotic kitchen. The brainchild of four MIT graduates, Michael Farid, Kale Rogers, Luke Schlueter, and Brady Knight (known as the Spyce Boys), the restaurant offers a range of bowl meals inspired by Latin, Mediterranean, and Asian cuisine. Spyce enforces a sustainable food philosophy, ensuring that the majority of ingredients are locally sourced with vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options available to patrons. Bowls are prepared in three minutes or less, and all options consist of fewer than 800 calories. The establishment charges just USD 7.50 for its bowls, a price point that it believes can be directly attributed to the robots preparing the meals (the robots are able to make about 150 meals each hour). The savings on appointing staff to prepare the meals are directly passed on to the patrons, ensuring a dining experience that is both technologically advanced and budget friendly. While the novelty of a robot preparing meals is a major drawcard, the restaurant’s appeal is further bolstered by the quality of its food. Each meal is made with precision as the robots are programmed to ensure accuracy and consistency of sizes, amounts, and cooking time. The restaurant has a guide who takes diners to a touchscreen counter where they can place their orders, which are then sent to the kitchen. The robotic back of house is completely visible to patrons, so guests can watch how their food is prepared and get a glimpse into the future dining experience. The technology powering the kitchen was invented by Nicola Tesla and uses seven woks heated by induction to prepare all the bowls. This method of food preparation is highly efficient and accurate and uses substantially less energy than other cooking methods. Once the bowl has been made by the robots, human employees add the finishing touches before serving the final product.
Spyce does well to dismiss any concerns about the lack of chef expertise. All the robots execute the exact recipes of culinary directory chef Daniel Boulud, of Bar Boulud fame. The Michelin-starred chef is also a member of Spyce’s advisory board, having agreed to be a part of the establishment after seeing the impressive skills of the culinary robots. The restaurant will soon be expanding to the USA’s East Coast following a USD 21 million funding injection from consumer investors like Collaborative Fund and Khosla Ventures, as well as celebrity chefs Thomas Keller, Jérôme Bocuse, and Gavin Kaysen, furthering the Spyce Boys’ ambition of providing “culinary excellence elevated by technology”.
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IMAGES: Spyce
Spyce • Boston
GLOBAL LIFE
Medicus
Prof. Dr. Andreas Michalsen
IMAGE: Anja Lehmann
IMAGES: Spyce
T
he science of healing has undergone radical changes throughout the centuries. As humans have evolved with increased knowledge, so has modern science. The discipline of medicine is no different. The advent of medical technology has given us instruments such as the stethoscope, heart monitor, and MRI scanner, as well as more advanced innovations such as electronic health records, genome-based personalized medicine, and nanomedicine. However, with medicine largely taking a futuristic approach, the value of natural medicinal systems is increasingly underrated. Prof. Dr. Andreas Michalsen is challenging this status quo. According to Michalsen, the future of medicine lies in prioritizing natural medicine alongside conventional methods. Trained in conventional medicine and employed as chief physician at the Emmanuel Hospital in Berlin, Germany, Michalsen has built a career by exploring how the defined science of natural medicine can complement traditional medicine. Today, he is a highly respected expert in the field of naturopathy and is also Professor of Clinical Naturopathy at the acclaimed Charité — Universitätsmedizin Berlin. Natural medicine can be defined as any system of medicine that supplements and enhances the body’s natural capacity to heal by restoring its internal balance without synthetic drugs or chemicals. The various disciplines of natural medicine, or traditional healing, are diverse in foundations, philosophies, and methodologies; however, they equally recognize not only the physical needs and structures of the body but also the core psychological and spiritual nature of each individual. Traditional treatment ranges from medicinal herbs and plants, to healthy nutrition and physical exercises. Michalsen earned his first degree in 1989 from Freie Universität Berlin. Since then, he has received training in mind–body medicine at Harvard Medical School and has been closely affiliated with the Prevention and Lifestyle Modification program at Stanford University. His repertoire of extensive qualifications also extends to balneology and
acupuncture. He has been the senior doctor and head of the Department of Internal and Integrative Medicine at Kliniken Essen-Mitte, which in 1999 was one of the first hospitals to specialize in this field. Having authored books on natural healing — including Heilen mit der Kraft der Natur (Healing with the Power of Nature) and Mit Ernährung heilen: Besser essen – einfach fasten – länger leben (Healing with Nutrition: Eat better, fast simply, live longer), Michalsen believes that natural medicine broadens the options of healing available and, when used in tandem with conventional therapies, increases the body’s ability to recover sooner. Despite the common misconception that naturopathy consists of home remedies with no scientific basis, Michalsen states that “modern natural medicine is scientifically sound and it is the only answer to the rising number of chronic conditions”. Michalsen has authored over 200 scientific publications on mind–body medicine, yoga, meditation, nutrition, fasting, health-promoting lifestyle, and evidencebased naturopathy. He has also presented widely on the topic of traditional medicine and science, speaking at the annual World Food Convention and presenting on ‘Clinical Research on Fasting and Scientific Evidence’ at the international congress of the Medical Association of Fasting and Nutrition. A testament to his long-standing commitment to scientific research and advancing the careers of young doctors, in 2006 Michalsen became the chairman of the board of the Karl und Veronica Carstens Foundation that funds doctoral students nearing the conclusion of their PhD studies whose research interests align traditional healing knowledge with state-of-the-art research using innovative approaches. Supported by a fast-growing global trend toward all things being natural, organic, and environmentally sustainable, Michalsen couldn’t be rediscovering the potential of natural medicine at a more pertinent time, when our bodies, and indeed our planet, need it most.
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GLOBAL LIFE
Books
Nationalism
Rabindranath Tagore BiblioLife
forth, such as separating people both economically and educationally across different social strata. He sees a disconnection between the stories told about free countries and those who live these lives daily. It is his plight for the average person that makes Tagore’s argument all the more compelling. He does not simply seek to reform a parliamentary system or instate a different form of governance — he seeks to build unity from chaos and bring disparate heads to the same table for discussion. Tagore’s approach is in many respects similar to a humanist approach to politics: a cautious and conscientious appreciation for the complexity of individual and cultural differences. In this way, we might call Tagore a true patriot but never a nationalist. His love for the people of India and the rest of the world is delivered in this calculated and rational treatise, but between the lines we can also feel the depth of emotion in his poetic mastery. Rabindranath Tagore’s Nationalism was certainly ahead of its time (the book was originally published in 1917), and his insights may prove useful once more in the current surge of nationalist populism in Western politics.
In the so-called free countries, the majority of the people are not free; they are driven by the minority to a goal which is not even known to them
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IMAGE: BiblioLife
A
t times we read historical texts to contextualize their period, to paint a brighter picture of that time, but when we look to Rabindranath Tagore’s Nationalism, what we find within has become a familiar trope in politics. Tagore dissects the very ideas of nation and nationalist identity as if he were a metaphysician: words are his tools, and the Indian people his patient. Through his arguments Tagore shows that with the advent of Indian independence from Britain, Indian and other Asian peoples should not take on Western nationalism without serious amendments. That is, they should critically evaluate which parts of nationalism are helpful and which parts are not, discarding those that would do more harm than good. After all, there are significant cultural differences between regions, and to apply a blanket set of laws or regulations across these divides would only invite conflict. Although he tries not to become bogged down in the emotional complexity of human life, Tagore weaves a powerful prose narrative inspired by the central tenet of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (the world is one family)”. Tagore laments the obstacles that nationalism has brought
Unelected Power: The Quest for Legitimacy in Central Banking and the Regulatory State
Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World
Invisible Countries: Journeys to the Edge of Nationhood
Samuel Moyn
Joshua Keating
Paul Tucker
Harvard University Press
Yale University Press
In Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World, Samuel Moyn presents a central thesis that feels both long overdue and presently insistent. Simply put, his thesis is that when inequality is addressed, discussions of wealth and power distribution are suddenly hushed. There is an increasing disparity between our principles of human rights and their practical implementation, and Moyn opens up history from biblical times onward to pinpoint exactly how we have allowed power structures to remain where other inequalities are no longer tolerated. In particular, Moyn examines the economic inequality that exists in supposedly equal nations, and how global markets have continued to take precedence over lasting redress. This incisive political discussion ranges from ancient philosophy to world wars and will certainly cause readers to rethink the way we care for, or neglect, those who have been left without the means to care for themselves.
Who decides when a country is in fact a country? This exact question is taken to task by Joshua Keating in his debut book Invisible Countries: Journeys to the Edge of Nationhood. Keating draws on a wide range of historical precedent, personal interviews, and politics to present a convincing argument that our modern maps may still be subject to change. We are offered examples of countries that are still trying their utmost to distinguish themselves as independent powers from their otherwise majority neighbors. Keating recounts the struggle of Somaliland, an area between Somalia and Ethiopia that underwent British and Italian colonial rule, experienced brief liberation, and endured a bloody civil war before professing itself an independent country. Invisible Countries offers many such examples not simply to raise our sympathies but to highlight a complex process that most seem to have taken for granted. Keating’s debut is an impressive piece of both investigative and humanist writing.
Princeton University Press
IMAGES: Princeton University Press; Harvard University Press; Yale University Press
IMAGE: BiblioLife
GLOBAL LIFE
Paul Tucker’s Unelected Power: The Quest for Legitimacy in Central Banking and the Regulatory State is a thorough investigation into the power that technocrats, independent agencies, bankers, and other bodies have held since the 2008 global financial crisis. Without election by the public, these players have each gained significant influence in policy-making, market distribution, and even foreign relations. While it might be easier to fearmonger a way into unsettling our understanding of power distribution, Tucker chooses a far more measured approach, offering instead a more detailed and comprehensive play-by-play account of how these institutions and individuals gained their power. More importantly, we are advised not to remove this power but to recognize those who have it and hold them socially accountable for it. Tucker’s approachable writing style weaves a compelling narrative that takes us on a journey through many different nations such as France, Germany, the UK, and the USA.
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Reflections
Epicurus
Some definitions of Epicureanism view it as the hedonistic pursuit of pleasure; however, it appears Epicurus understood that happiness was to be gained by avoiding pain rather than by actively striving for pleasure. To this end, he believed humans should seek to eliminate experiences that might cause pain. He posited two kinds of pleasure: kinetic or moving pleasure, for instance that experienced during an activity such as eating, and static pleasure, such as the satisfaction felt after having eaten. He felt the latter was the better as it frees humans from the pain of need and the desire for more. Furthermore, he theorized that static happiness is prevented by anxiety about the future and the fear of pain and death. Epicurus identified three types of desire: the necessary desire for food and shelter, the unnecessary desire for lavish food and luxurious accommodation, and the vain desire for fame, power, and wealth. He maintained that the goal of happiness can be achieved only by not holding on to unnecessary desires that cannot be fulfilled. Epicurus valued friendship above all other relationships, considering it to be more important than sex or marriage. In today’s consumerist, nowist culture, over two millennia since Epicurus lived, we would do well to reflect on whether the constant gratification of our desires has induced feelings of mental clarity, peace of mind, and pain-free happiness.
He who has peace of mind disturbs neither himself nor another.
IMAGE: wikimedia.org
E
picurus was born on the island of Samos in the latter part of the Hellenistic period and would have been schooled in geometry, dialectic, and rhetoric. Although his many influences included Democritus and Aristotle, he claimed to be self-taught. He believed in the gods but doubted that their interest was piqued by human activities. According to Epicurus, the goal of human life was to attain tranquility and happiness (ataraxia), best found in the absence of fear (aponia), physical pain, and mental disturbance. He maintained that the best way to avoid these hindrances to contentment was to overcome fear, and chiefly fear of death. The soul he saw as non-rational and as being distributed throughout the body in an atomic state and the vehicle of pain and pleasure. Since the soul did not survive the body, Epicurus averred there could be neither punishment after death nor regret for lost life. He felt the mind was rational and that positive and negative experiences emerged from the rational mind. The most prominent feature of the mind — fear of death — he dismissed as irrelevant. His argument was that while we are alive we do not know death and after death we do not exist, therefore death should not be feared. Perturbation caused by fear, he said, was worse than physical pain, and he believed that freedom from perturbation and pain is the only way to experience complete happiness.
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Revi
IMAGE: wikimedia.org
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2019/03/01 14:56
OPINIONS | Global Passports and the Dilution of Citizenship
If there had to be only one Tonda Chronor
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