OCT 2016
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Sweden - Southeast Asia Business Summit BUSINESS
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SB Seating’s ergonomic furniture
Marcus Wallenberg at Swe-SEA Summit
Nordic Crayfish Party Manila
Vedel IT’s multicultural teams
16 OCT 20
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Coming Events
MASBA’s Networking Evening Where: Royal Selangor Golf Club, Jalan Kelab Golf, 55000 Kuala Lumpur When: Thursday 20 October, 7.00pm - 10.00 pm It is time for MASBA’s Networking Evening of the year together with the Embassy of Sweden. As the keynote speaker of the evening, MASBA is delighted to welcome Mr. Andrew Khoo Chin Hock, Member of The Bar Council Malaysia , who will talk about The Rule of Law in Malaysia - some contemporary changes. Ticket: RM100 members / RM150 non-members
mmit ess Su a Busin IT ast Asi Vedel IT’sural teams UNITY - Southe COMM multicult Crayfish Sweden dic Nor PEOPLE y Manila at ESS BUSIN
ing’s SB Seat ic furniture ergonom
erg Wallenb Marcus Summit Swe-SEA
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Business Megatrends 2016, Philippines seminar Where: Regus Eco Tower, Manila When: 27 October, 18:30 – 21:00 NordCham Philippines in partnership with Regus and BDO Unibank has the pleasure to invite to the Business Megatrends 2016. Join us for an evening with a powerful lineup of speakers talking about some of the most salient topics in business today: Managing a Mobile Workforce by Lars Wittig, Country Manager, Regus Philippines; Women in Business by Carol Dominguez, President & CEO, John Clements; Disruptive Business Models as Change Enablers by Hervé Alfieri, Managing Director, Tapp Commerce More information via nordcham.com.ph
MNBC Waterhole, Kuala Lumpur Where: Norwegian Ambassador’s residence in 23 Lingkungan U-Thant, Kuala Lumpur When: 17 November at 7pm
The next Water Hole Networking Event for the Malaysia Norway Business council takes place on Thursday 17 November at 7pm at the Norwegian Ambassador’s residence in 23 Lingkungan U-Thant. Members are most welcome to bring their guests.
Annual Norwegian Seafood Dinner Indonesia Where: TBA, Jakarta When: Friday 2 December 2016, 18.30 - 22.30 Indonesia Norway Business Council in collaboration with the Royal Norwegian Embassy, Norwegian Seafood Council and Innovation Norway invites you and your company to attend the Annual Norwegian Seafood Dinner.This event, taking place on Friday 2 December is the biggest Norwegian business event of the year with best Norwegian authentic seafood - fresh from Norway. Venue will be a five-star hotel in Jakarta.
Scandinavian Business Seating owns the brands HÅG of Norway, RH of Sweden and RBM of Denmark. Our mission is: “To make the World a Better Place to Sit” We achieve this by providing our customers with comfortable, ergonomic seating solutions that result in healthier, more productive workers. As Europe’s largest supplier of office chairs, Scandinavian Business Seating is proud to now offer the same high quality products to our clients here, both on and offshore, across the entire APAC region. Scandinavian Business Seating brings you the best office, HÅG work Capisco Puls meeting and executive chairs for all your employees. HÅG Capisco Puls is a modern and flexible office chair – the latest evolution in form, function Contact us: info-asia@sbseating.com and comfort. It’s an award winner in terms of design and the environment. It’s light and dynamic form makes it perfect for a new generation of users. Now available in 4 new colours inspired by the Scandinavian Nature! To try this chair in your office contact us: info-asia@sbseating.com *Terms & Conditions apply
October 2016
ScandAsia Community 16 New Swedish Ambassdor in Cambodia 16 Danish Walkathon for Cambodian orphans
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17 Nordic Crayfish Party Manila
Mr. Henrik Meltesen
Henrik and SB Seating offers Scandinavian ergonomic furniture
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10 Sweden - Southeast Asia Business Summit
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ScandAsia Business
Riku Mäkelä
Riku Mäkelä represents Team Finland in Southeast Asia
16
6 Denmark – Malaysia MoU
Denmark and Malaysia signed a MoU on agriculture collaboration
10 Sweden – Southeast Asia Business Summit
Minister of Enterprise & Innovation, Mikael Damberg attended the inaugural SwedenSEA Business Summit
18 NBCP becomes NordCham
NBCP in the Philippines has been renamed to the Nordic
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Mr. Mark Vedel
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4 ScandAsia.South East Asia • October 2016
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October 2016 • ScandAsia.South East Asia 5
Business
Denmark and Malaysia signs agriculture deal
O
n 22 September Minister for Agriculture & Agro-based Industries, Dato’ Sri Ahmad Shabery Cheek and his Danish counterpart, Minister Esben Lunde Larsen, finally signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MuO) on agricultural cooperation. The aim is to further promote and develop cooperation between the two nations in the field of agriculture on the basis of equality and mutual benefit. This is a big step for Malaysia towards becoming a modern dairy and poultry producing country,
writes the Embassy of Denmark in Kuala Lumpur Minister Lar sen was quoted in media: “Malaysia wants to be able to provide its very large food industry with fresh milk. And while we can export fresh milk all the way to Malaysia, we can sell knowledge about everything from stall facilities to the processing and transport of milk.” “We want a long-term co-operation with Malaysia, and we are now starting a partnership that I am sure both countries will benefit greatly from.”
The co-operation agreement between the two nations concerns the transpor tation and cooling of milk and overall hygiene standards, and a number of Danish companies have been invited to Malaysia next year to visit prospective co-operation partners and authorities. Aside from partnering up in the dairy arena, Denmark and Malaysia are also planning further co-operation regarding aquaculture and the development of stall facilities.
Marcus Wallenberg: potential to do more in Southeast Asia
T
he first ever Sweden-Southeast Asia Business Summit contained a number of prominent business representatives, not least Mr Marcus Wallenberg, Chairman of the Board, SEB, SAAB Group & Foundation Asset Management, and who has personal long experience of visiting and doing business in Southeast Asia. Mr Wallenberg is also a Board Member of Temasek Holdings in Singapore since 2008.
Mr Wallenberg’s keynote speech presided the ‘Economic and Political Outlook on Southeast Asia’ session, where he opened with the question: ’Why are we here?’ He said that Sweden’s businesses have been very successful in other regions in the world, and that Sweden is moving away from moving a lot of business onto global stage. “Here in Asean region demographics are moving in such as way that we know that markets will develop substantially. From Sweden we have not done enough in the Asian region. I have come to that insight. I have been travelling her since the mid 1980s, and Sweden, as nation, is not doing enough. We are not living up tot the potential.” Looking back he said that many Swedish companies arrived to Southeast Asia after the second world war and that there was been a lot of R&D and substantial investment in production here. “But I think this is only the start, we have much more potential to increase the capacity out here.” “I think globalization still has great potential but it is about doing things differently. Going forward I think technological development and movement of science will develop globally in a different way.”
6 ScandAsia.South East Asia • October 2016
Marcus Wallenberg anticipates focusing on new scientific areas and new science going forward. “We are now looking into a number of possibilities in the research and development side, within life sciences and forestry, as examples.” “We come from a country of very strong innovation skills. As a Swede to my fellow Swedes, thinking about this region: I think we are sometimes a bit hesitant to put our weight forward. Products don’t sell by themselves,” he told the government and business representatives. “Out here we have to be very astute in being strong in the markets, and be very active, and invest in this region in order to success. And we have to have established presence here, with production etc. and we must to have long-term commitment. In my humble opinion Asians want to see that kind of commitment.” “This summit is an excellent star t,” he continued. “While China previously grabbed all our attention, now with slow growth there we could do even more here for the long term. This is the time!”
October 2016 • ScandAsia.South East Asia 7
Business
Ergonomic seating solutions
from Scandinavia gains footing in SEA By Joakim Persson
H
u m a n s a r e b u i l t t o m ov e throughout the day, performing various tasks at various loads. We are not designed to sit still or be stagnant. Therefore, being stuck all day at office workstations is detrimental to our wellbeing, while movement and variation are therefore essential for staying healthy, productive and to prevent chronic back pain. This forms the basis for the innovative office chairs provided by the Nordic company Scandinavian Business Seating, SB Seating in short. They develop and produce Scandinavian office chairs for private and public office environments, chairs that are designed with people and their needs in focus. Hence, the chairs are designed to make sure you won’t have to sit in any unhealthy way. SBSeating’s products are deeply rooted in the Scandinavian design tradition and share the same values and a common identity. These also contribute to work performance improvements, based on its four brand’s common core values. Those are: the most environmentally sound products in the business, a balance between good ergonomics and aesthetics, human-centred functional design, and the right quality at the right price. “We have been pioneering most of the markets in Scandinavia when it comes to office furniture. And as we spend 5 per cent of our turnover on R&D, we are continuously improving our products.” With presence in Singapore, their Regional Sales Manager, Southeast Asia Henrik Meltesen, explains their differentiation and solutions further and how they are making inroads in Asia and also winning new multinational clients from this office. Henrik has been with Scandinavian Business Seating Asia for the past four years, and prior to that he was in the construction business in Thailand.
8 ScandAsia.South East Asia • October 2016
People know us for the ergonomics, and now we we’re becoming known for our visual design too. And customers can know from the delivered projects that the quality is very high
SB Seating’s brands represent strong entrepreneurial companies with long tradition and experience in the development, production and sale of office chairs. HÅG has existed since 1943, RBM since 1975 and RH since 1977. In addition to being a market leader in office chairs they have secured by far the largest market shares in the European market. “The brands complement each other. We do everything you need within a business setup such as canteen and meeting rooms and whether you are tall or short,” tells Henrik. “Everything must follow our four cornerstones.” Environment: Their products are tested in accordance with a number of international quality standards for functionality, dimensions, finish and durability – where they always excel. The group is also resolved to pioneer a sustainable development, with design and manufacturing according to five basic life cycle principles. Quality: Their goal is to deliver perfect products and constantly strive to offer their customers work chairs and office chairs with a quality above their expectations. “It must last for a longer period time; and that complements the environmental side; we’re the greenest office furniture manufacturer worldwide.” Visual Design: Form follows function, which is their key philosophy - because they always focus on the people using the products and adapt them to fit the human body. Ergonomics: Every person needs movement, support and variation to perform well. The chairs of one of their brands, HÅG, aim to change the concept of sitting, by enabling balanced sitting that keeps you moving. They follow the movement of one’s body without one even having to think about it, and encourage movement throughout the day. “We can definitely improve the life quality of
the people that uses the Capisco chair from HÅG. We work a lot together with chiropractors and physiotherapists and the people who look after health and safety in a company. For example they may tell that they have an employee with a bad back. They send him or her to us to find the right chair or solution or we are already working with the company and next time when they change furniture they’ll offer us to come along.” For instance, SB Seating recently spent a year, doing chair trials for a major client in Singapore in figuring out whether or not the Capisco chair was the right thing. “They bought height-adjustable tables and were not maximising their use. Employees could either work standing or sit in their regular office chairs. After the trial of the Capisco chairs, the employees learned that they could have a variation in sitting. It was no longer just standing or sitting at a low height. Instead they could sit up high and maintain a strong core position, which is only achievable with the Capisco chair”. With this kind of chair SB Seating has gained a lot of traction in Singapore. “People know us for the ergonomics, and now we’re becoming known for our visual design too. And customers can know from the delivered projects that the quality is very high. So we’re getting all the four cornerstones recognised within the market as we align ourselves with businesses. But we always start with the functionality part, because that’s the most essential element of the chair. As for the rest, people realise later on during daily use of our products.” The cornerstones relate to the wellbeing of the workers and when long-lasting the product is good for the environment as well. “As our products have ten-year warranty, with an expected lifespan of 15-20 years, we are not too worried about the price; it’s more the
functionality that we focus on. If you have a good ergonomic chair in your office your productivity level can go up something between 5 – 15 per cent. The fact that if the people who are the key business drivers in the business are provided with good ergonomic chairs that shows on the top and bottom line. So the break event point should really be within a few years.” Setting up in Singapore was initially to support the existing accounts from back home, which includes many Scandinavian firms such as DNV, Maersk, Statoil and Telenor. There are also Nordic firms and people who have been out here a long time who are not yet aware of their products. “We see a slight challenge in terms of cost in the market as well. There are some businesses that do come out here because Asia is cheaper to operate in. Their budget may allow only a cheaper chair locally, so that sometimes puts a stopper to even the Scandinavian companies. Luckily most say that they want comply also here with everything they do back home and want to be unified in how they appear globally.” Part of the efforts is to educate the market. When visiting workplaces SB Seating come across a lot of issues, which are the same regardless of geographic place. “The only difference is that in Nor thern Europe, in particular, we are more advanced in regulations towards the workers, whereas that is at very early stages out here,” says Henrik. The Singapore office also plays another significant role for SBSeating in making inroads internationally. “From Scandinavia you might not get that kind of opportunity and Asia is still the place where most things go on.”
October 2016 • ScandAsia.South East Asia 9
Business
Mikael Damberg, Sweden’s Minister of Enterprise & Innovation:
“Immense opportunities for trade with Southeast Asia.”
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here are great oppor tunities that the Sweden-Southeast Asia Business Summit, held for the very first time on 21-22 September in Singapore, can contribute to increased trade/ business and learning insights from one another. Mr Håkan Jevrell, Ambassador of Sweden to Singapore; Mrs Ylva Berg, CEO, Business Sweden – the Swedish Trade and Invest Council; and Mr Jan Djerf, President, Swedish Business Association of Singapore all gave their opening remarks in this spirit, pointing SEA as a huge, potential growth market for Swedish businesses. “Here at the summit I think we might share a common passion and that is for Swedish companies to expand in SEA and Singaporean companies to invest more in Sweden. At Business Sweden we do whatever it takes to open up global markets for Swedish businesses,” said Ylva Berg. In attendance was also Sweden’s Minister of Enterprise & Innovation Mikael Damberg, who in this opening speech pointed to the around 600 Swedish companies across business sectors ranging from service to manufacturing and retail that are already present in Southeast Asia and inventing tomorrow’s world. “The oppor tunities for trade between Sweden and Southeast Asia are immense. With a rapidly growing middle class and a population
of 650 million people, the growth of the region is one of the highest in the world. Southeast Asia has the third largest labour force, and it’s the fourth largest exporter in the world. The countries in the region plan to make significant investments in infrastructure in the near future, opening up interesting business opportunities,” said Minister Damberg and continued: “Not only is Southeast Asia described as a growth market, it is also critical part of world’s trade today.” “The purpose of the Sweden – Southeast Asia Business Summit is to provide a platform for Swedish businesses to get insights into the potential that the markets of Southeast Asia have to offer and to identify synergies between companies and across markets.” “In order to tackle major challenges of our time we need to promote even more of innovation.” The minister pointed to a few examples of Swedish innovations that have made a difference. The Innovation Union Scoreboard 2016, an index published by the European Commission, ranks Sweden as the leading countr y for innovation among EU member states. The reasons for this include a historic tradition of inventors, a social environment that encourages creativity, a commitment to gender equality and a strong belief in the individual. Close collaboration between research institutes and the private and public sectors is another key factor, setting the
10 ScandAsia.South East Asia • October 2016
foundation for Swedish global companies. “Sweden’s prosperity is built on innovative and successful export companies that time and again have managed to renew and reorganise production and products to keep pace with changing markets” “Continued success, however, require that our existing companies keep adopting, with continued investment. Our continued ability to change and adapt is crucial and therefore the Swedish government earlier in the year launched the Smart industry strategy,” announced the minister. “The capacity for innovation that the employees and companies in the industrial sector and the industry-related services possess still forms the bedrock of Sweden’s prosperity. This may seem obvious. But for too long, the Swedish industrial sector has been treated as a historical remnant on the path towards the post-industrial service society. And this has come at a cost. When the full impact of the financial crisis hit the economy, there was a lack of desire to mitigate the consequences and many jobs were lost in Sweden. There was significantly more resolute action in many of the countries with which we compete,” he previously has said about the strategy. “The Swedish industrial sector is faced with challenges. Digitalisation is pushing the industrial sector’s already high rate of transformation even further, paving the way for new business models
Smart industry a strategy for new industrialisation for Sweden
I
n 2016 the Swedish Government has taken action to strengthen the development of Swedish industry. Smart industry is a new industrialisation strategy that aims to strengthen the industrial sector’s competitiveness and reinforce Sweden’s position as an attractive location for industrial production. Sweden will become a world leader in the innovative and sustainable production of goods and services. Sweden’s industrial sector will increase its competitiveness and participation in global value chains, primarily in the high value-added segments.
Sweden’s prosperity is built on innovative and successful export companies that time and again have managed to renew and reorganise production and products to keep pace with changing markets
and making others redundant. For small companies in particular, it is an enormous challenge to keep up with the pace of technological development.” “The Government’s strategy for new industrialisation is to strengthen companies’ capacity for change and competitiveness. It is an important stage of the effort to benefit from the window of opportunity for new industrialisation that is now open to Sweden. Rapidly rising wage costs and problems with the environment, quality and long lead times in the former low-cost countries in Asia have made Swedish production of goods and services more competitive. At the same time, automation and digitalisation are bringing with them new opportunities for profitable and sustainable production in a completely new guise – connected, more automated and knowledgeintensive. Sweden now has the upper hand and it is high time that the industrial sector was prioritised.” At the summit’s Gala Dinner that Mikael Damberg co-hosted with Mrs Ylva Berg, the minister emphasised that Southeast Asia offers huge oppor tunities and that it is also about creating better lives for people living in this region. “I think we can do good things at the same time as we create better opportunities for people. That’s why I find that this meeting is so important and fruitful. It is the first time we have this kind of meeting in this region. It is also the starting point. This is actually the first phase of an intense period
of time when Sweden will have a lot of efforts into this region. I know there will be lots of MOUs and letter of intents signed this year with Southeast Asian states: energy, transport within Indonesia; followed by life sciences with Vietnam.” Sharing his initial assessment of the summit he said: “And I am totally convinced, after hearing of the advances, of investment, of creating the smart cities and nations in this region, that there are huge possibilities to work together, both on finding new partnerships but also finding new business opportunities.” “The export strategy puts an emphasis on emerging markets. We have to be stronger where the growth rate exists and where exciting things happen. And I see that Sweden now puts an extra effort on being here, seeing it and also understanding what needs to be done and I hope that this conference is a starting point. I know that several of my colleagues in the government will travel to this region in near time,” Mikael Damberg continued and mentioned upcoming delegations. “This is altogether a strategic choice for Sweden, to be more present here, to actually work with long-term relations, to build confidence for the future. I hope that you have found new par tners and new associates during these meetings,” said the minister as he concluded the summit’s first day with a Swedish toast.
There are four focus areas of particular importance: • Industr y 4.0 – Companies in the Swedish industrial sector are to be leaders of the digital transformation and in exploiting the potential of digitalisation. • Sustainable production – Increased resource efficiency, environmental considerations and a more sustainable production are to contribute to the industrial sector’s value creation, job creation and competitiveness. • Industrial skills boost – The system for supplying skills is to meet the industrial sector’s needs and promote its long-term development. • Test bed Sweden – Sweden is to lead research in areas that contribute to strengthening the industrial production of goods and services in Sweden. The strategy is described as an important stage of the effort to benefit from the window of opportunity for new industrialisation that is now open to Sweden. Digitalisation is changing ever ything. Digitalisation is resulting in enormous opportunities to develop a new, smarter and more sustainable industrial sector. “The digitalisation of the industrial sector’s production, products and capacity to transform enormous quantities of data into new businesses is completely vital to the industrial sector’s future competitiveness. But the perspective needs to be wider than this. This is because ever greater demands are simultaneously being placed on the long-term sustainability of production and the utilisation of resources. That is why Sweden’s strategy for new industrialisation aims beyond connected industry and also encompasses the ambition to cope with the demand for renewal that growing sustainability requirements are placing on the industrial sector and its products,” states Minister Mikael Damberg. In a concerted national effort Sweden will take action to facilitate structural transformation in the industrial sector.The tools will include laws and regulations, investments in enterprise, education and innovation, public procurement and opening up the public sector, providing testbeds and open data. The strategy is suppor ted by an action plan, which will be published on the Swedish Government website and updated continuously.
October 2016 • ScandAsia.South East Asia 11
Business
Riku Mäkelä
is Team Finland’s extra resource for SEA Photos and text by: Joakim Persson
A
sia can now benefit from an extra resource thanks to enhanced efficiency and coordination within the ‘Team Finland’ umbrella, where one of six persons spread out globally is placed in Singapore, And this resource is a Finn with relevant knowledge within the right fields of experience, namely Mr Riku Mäkelä, Trade and Innovation Affairs Counsellor at Embassy of Finland in Singapore.
The Team Finland concept was established some 3-4 years ago as a network model for connecting all public ser vices in Finland. It targets companies in order to assist them in internationalization, and also to targeted foreign companies interested in investing into Finland. Third, it should boost the Finnish brand abroad for travel and other services. Another important objective is to identify and seize the new opportunities arising globally. The Finnish government has allocated extra
12 ScandAsia.South East Asia • October 2016
funding to the concept, and its recent objective is to take Team Finland activities systematically to the next level and beyond.
Improved Coordination “We have looked for different ways of optimizing the resources and impact of the public support mechanisms and public services that we provide in Finland for innovators and for companies, and especially for companies looking for international business growth,” comments Riku.
“In Finland, like any other countr y there are within all sectors several agencies and government-funded activities doing similar things and it is a matter of maximising the impact of those activities by better coordination.” In a previous position where he reported only to Tekes (Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation) in Silicon Valley, Riku experienced first-hand the lack of information sharing and synchronisation. “There wasn’t much info flow between my work and other ministries and agencies in Finland. Since back then we have devised lots of mechanism for maximising the information flows and joint coordination and planning for different kind of services we see that Finnish companies or foreign investors might need.” Finland is looking for ways to do things more efficiently.
New posts in hotspots “One of the big things that we have initiated in 2016 is the new posts with specialists in foreign trade and innovation placed in six hotspots that we didn’t cover well enough earlier. So actually we didn’t have anybody looking after these trade connections or FDI or innovation connections between Singapore and Finland and actually Southeast Asia and Finland and also connecting to Europe. That role had been missing in many places and Singapore is the only additional post we added for Asia,” he explains further. It is a pilot until the end of 2018 to test how good this will work. Riku sits in an embassy, employed by MFA, but is dedicated to specific directions and purposes and suppor ted by three different organisations. He is part of three different teams. “Singapore is a great way to connect to investment flows, start-ups, growth companies, businesses in the region, and to connect them to Finland and the wider Europe,” he thinks. Riku’s region is primarily Southeast Asia but relating to investments linked to Singapore also includes China and India. He is however only one extra person at a small embassy, and will focus on a limited number of priority areas at any time. “We are very careful in our strategy where to put our focus and so on.”
Main areas of attention The Counsellor lists the main areas for now as being: - Singapore ICT Smar t Nation, especially healthcare and education-related, digital services and solutions. - Vietnam: “Finland is moving from official development aid-focused collaboration with Vietnam over forty years towards multiple kinds
of partnerships in all sectors. Within a few years we will finish our last big bilateral development aid projects and programmes. Mainly we are looking for bilateral and multilateral business collaborations, within innovation, education etc. Tekes (Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation) currently running one special programme for emerging countries is one example. I am supporting their BEAM programme from here.” - Third big focus area in 2016 is start-ups and investments. “One great activity in that sector is the Slush event in Singapore. That is the biggest effort so far between the Nordics and Singapore and SEA/Finland – Singapore within the start-up scene.” The Team Finland network is a par tner of Slush, and in that capacity co-organised the ‘Connecting Globalizers and Localizers’ matchmaking event. It aimed to connect growth stage companies looking to scale their solution globally (Globalizers) and serial entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs (Localizers) looking to adopt existing innovative solutions from another region to start a new business venture within their local and regional markets in SEA countries. The event adopted an alternative approach towards internationalization. By providing leading start-ups a platform to showcase their solutions.
Bottom up approach It turns out that Riku has a lot to say regarding start-ups within the areas of focus. He himself has background as an entrepreneur in the IT sector, before he landed his “dream job” at Tekes (which is all about innovation, business growth, turning ideas into businesses). “When Vietnam star ts doing something it happens fast,” he says when talking about its potential and the tipping point that is not yet there in terms of regulations and handling of foreign companies. “I was working there with start-ups for the last two years prior to Singapore. When we star ted suppor ting incubators and accelerators there we started to educate trainers for start-ups while not much was happening.Then we saw that it looked like an eco system for startups started to develop fast. Two years later there is almost too much happening.” “The most impor tant things happen through grassroots so that’s bottom up, and regulatory things and policies have to happen top down. But things star t to happen thanks to bottom up. That is for example why we did everything we could through local grassroots organisations, just like in Finland; the biggest boost I claim for the Finnish star t-up scene to evolve would not have happened without it was the Slush, the first star t-up event in Finland, which is entirely organized by entrepreneurs, volunteers, students and so on. And it also
accelerated the knowledge in the Finnish government and public sector for the need to suppor t bottom-up approaches.” “In Vietnam, there are plenty of really smart and passionate people and that’s number one for start-ups to succeed and we found plenty of them, which tells that there will be lots of successes coming.” For the start-up scene he thinks the tipping point in Vietnam will come no later than next year, while for foreign business in general it will take longer. “One of the factors in reaching that tipping point is the FTA with the EU. That will give a boost.” “A large number of Finnish companies have been looking actively towards Vietnam and a number are active already, with more than 100 are doing business in Vietnam but only a minority of them with own operations. There is lots of potential; the question is how to tap into that.” Clean-tech, energy and telecom (with different types of applications for mobile world) sector players from Finland are actively looking towards Vietnam, Riku has noted.
Team Finland ready to link He also finds Singapore’s start-up scene promising: “There are hundreds of start-ups in incubators and accelerators and so on in Singapore now and it will be highly interesting to follow and also connect Finnish and also Nordic start-ups and investors to the scene here and back to Finland and beyond.” Riku and the Finnish embassy’s task are to link Finnish companies, innovators and organisations to Southeast Asia, especially Singapore, and to link Singaporean/SEA companies, potential investors and travel business developers to Finland. “If anyone in Finland or in the Nordics, or in SEA, is interested in this breech between SEA and Singapore and Finland and through Finland to the EU we are happy to help. So we are a good first contact point; my task is to connect directly.” He is also confident that this pilot project will grow into an established format. “We believe we’ll continue and also expand these kinds of posts and mechanisms. We’ll see how it goes and it depends who will be in government, with the current one being highly proactive for international business support and investment to Finland.”
October 2016 • ScandAsia.South East Asia 13
Business
Multicultural IT teams is Malaysia’s unique strength Text and photos: Joakim Persson
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anish-owned Vedel IT offers IT offshore software development f r o m M a l ay s i a , w h e r e t h e oppor tunity to recruit globally and build multicultural teams form a unique and attractive combination. Scandinavian companies so far make up the bulk of Vedel IT’s clients. Founder Mark Vedel, with experience from IT systems implementation since 1989, came to Malaysia because his wife wanted to move back to her home country with the family. In the
process he came across a unique opportunity to offer highly skilled IT resources in a multicultural environment to clients. One of his flagship clients appreciate the large cultural diversity they can get in their team, giving more value in the creation of new software solutions compared to having a monoculture team consisting mainly of one or two nationalities. They obtain input from the different cultures perspective into their daily work - increasing the quality of the end product. Cost-difference also matters with it comes
14 ScandAsia.South East Asia • October 2016
to offshore development. As Mark Vedel was building up his business when the global financial crisis hit in 2008 it was an advantage having Dong Energy and SEB on board as clients. “I was luckily to have them as clients through the crisis; they were running on a different metrics than just cutting costs – they were so big. Dong energy was replacing external consultants with offshore teams. The offshore team was also better integrated in the company as the external consultants would come from different external companies and not always aligned with the companies’ goals. And because the technical level also was high in Malaysia the customer could replace three freelance consultants with two senior developers in Malaysia. The business case was needless to say quite good.” Today the demand is perhaps bigger than ever. “We experience an enormous increase in the demand for IT resources. We are inundated with requests from potential new customers, and sometimes must say no to taking in new customers.” Commenting on cost-savings for the clients using Vedel IT Mark says: “You save somewhere between fifty per cent to 2/3 of the cost depending on your type of company and what kind of salaries you need to pay. Some customers might view the cost saving as less, which can be for various reasons: they may be a very attractive company to work for, so they can hire people in Scandinavia at a lower salary point because it is considered so cool to work for the company. Think of companies like google. For these companies it is the access to talented resources that is the motivation to have a development team in Kuala Lumpur, rather than the cost savingss Vedel IT adds a fee to the client’s team members salaries for the ser vices to recruit the team, facilitate the office space, provide internet, social activities etc. – all these things that enable the customer to focus entirely on their software development work. It can also be a build-operate-transfer assignment, as was the case with DONG Energy. Vedel ITs customers in Kuala Lumpur include SEB Pension, Topdanmark, Sitecore, Lessor and TimeLog. The key to the whole attractive package is MSC Malaysia - the national ICT initiative designed to attract world-class technology companies to Malaysia. “As a shared service centre or as a technology
company you can apply for MSC status, which is core to our business: without it we could not do what we are doing! The most important benefit is the access to work permits for IT talent. So we can hire as many non-Malaysian technical people as we need.” “So when we are sourcing for customers we don’t have restrictions to which countries the candidates can come from. This gives us an unlimited ability to execute on the customer’s requirements for IT resources, which is the most impor tant thing for our customers,” explains Mark. If you need twenty-five developers you must have a robust mechanism to make sure you get those people; otherwise you can’t operate your business. “So the ability to execute is a very strong business driver for coming to Malaysia and with the MSC status we have an unshakeable ability to execute, because we can always find the people we need. If there’s a certain niche IT skill you need and if we can’t find people in Malaysian with these skills, we can always find lots of candidates from the region who has those skills. With hiring a senior IT developer from Syria, Vedel IT now has 21 different nationalities among our employees. With Malaysians being the largest group we also hire people from Iran, India, Pakistan Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Philippines.” It is easy to persuade skilled IT resources to move to Kuala Lumpur for work, says Mark, since they can have better living conditions for them and their families in Kuala Lumpur compared to what they experience in their home country. “Kuala Lumpur offers many advantages for the software developer considering moving here. It has a rich multicultural experience, it is clean and safe, it offers a good prospect for their future life as well as an international experience for them, so we can cherry-pick the very best IT resources from within the region. In contrast, if you set up a development centre in India, Ukraine or Philippines, you will only get Indian, Ukrainian and Philippine developers respectively.“ “A related benefit is that when you have a multi-national and multicultural team you avoid the typical cultural barriers that can occur between a Danish or Swedish organisation working with a fully Indian or fully Philippine team,” Mark points out. Good infrastructure and reasonable cost of doing business are other key benefits. “Kuala
As a shared service centre or as a technology company you can apply for MSC status, which is core to our business: without it we could not do what we are doing! The most important benefit is the access to work permits for IT talent. So we can hire as many non-Malaysian technical people as we need.
Lumpur is the location of choice if you want one corporate centre for Asia or South East Asia. It also helps that Vedel IT has established a very strong brand name in the job market by now. You have to be able to recruit the top IT Talent and a good reputation helps a lot. We guarantee our customers that we continue requiting until we have built the team they need.” “As for the future, information technology is becoming a core area for many businesses. You
cannot think of any bank, insurance company, telecom, transport, or pharmaceutical business where information technology is not absolutely central – if not the central component of business development.” “The integration of business information is just continuing. So the need for IT will grow and grow. And the bottleneck in this process is to get the talented resources to work for you. And Kuala Lumpur offers an unlimited source of that.”
October 2016 • ScandAsia.South East Asia 15
Community
Vietnamese art and photos on display in Oslo
New Swedish Ambassador to Cambodia
O
n 1 September 2016, Maria Sargren assumed her new post as the Swedish Ambassador to Cambodia. To obtain her new position, she left her previous job as Minister Counsellor at the Permanent Representation in Brussels. Before that, she has also worked at the United Nations in New York, at the representation in Geneva, at the embassy in Harare and as a national expert at the European Commission in Brussels.
I
n celebration of the 45th anniversar y of Vietnam-Norway diplomatic ties, Vietnamese art performances and photo exhibitions were held in the capital of Norway, Oslo. Tone Skogen, State Secretar y of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stated that the countries cooperation in field like climate change, gender equality and culture.
Representatives from the Norwegian Government, organisations and diplomats attended the performances of artists from the Viet Nam Contemporary Art Theatre.
second largest city, Battambang. In SOS Children’s Village, the orphans get a family, and more specifically, the help provides scholarships for 130 children at risk so that they have access to education. On Sunday 11 September 2016, the people of Copenhagen walked for 800.000 DKK, and that amount will only rise as the people of Odense, Aalborg and Kolding will do the same on 24 September, 1 and 15 October.
Since the first ECCO Walkathon in 2000, 460.000 people have raised money by walking all over the world. Together they have walked the equivalent of 10 times around the globe and collected 30 million DKK for different charitable causes. Last year alone, the Danes walked for 1,410,000 DKK.
Danes march for Cambodian orphans By Maria Jønsson
I
n September and October, several thousand Danes join the ECCO Walkathon in four different Danish cities. For every kilometre the Danes walk, ECCO donates 7,50 DKK for a good cause.This year, the Danes could choose between supporting SOS Children’s Village in Cambodia or the Danish Heart Foundation’s preventive health activities. SOS Children’s Villages will use their share of the money to help children at risk in Cambodia’s
16 ScandAsia.South East Asia • October 2016
Community
Nordic Crayfish Party Manila 2016
T
he traditional crayfish party was a night filled with fun, endless singalongs, stage performances, raffle draws and a live band providing non-stop entertainment throughout the night. Hundreds of guests celebrated this Nordic tradition in Eurovision style and all for a good cause! In addition to the main event, a Travelmart was put up by Wayfair Tours, Tourism Promotions Board of Philippines (TBP) and Department of Tourism (DOT) to showcase the beauty of the Philippines. Truly, this is the best party in town! This FUNdraiser is for the benefit of Chosen Children Village Foundation, a home for mentally
and physically challenged children located in Silang, Cavite. NordCham (Nordic Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines) thanks all their event par tners, media and sponsors: BDO, David’s Salon, Säntis, Tara Event Management, Forth & Tay, Qatar Airways, ANC, Business Mirror, Transas, Arla, Atmosphere, Cricket, JEC, Jotun, Nordea, Proscenium by Rockwell Land, Regus, Volvo, AmCham, Pacific Cross, Boracay Grand Vista, The District Boracay, Bellevue Resorts, Bluewater Resor ts, Magallanes Square, Costa Pacifica, Wayfair Tours, DOT, and TBP.
Source: Nordic Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines Photos: Harvey Tapan of Third Eye Visual Creative Services
October 2016 • ScandAsia.South East Asia 17
Business
NBCP becomes NordCham Philippines
S
ince 1 September 2016 the former Nordic Business Council Philippines carries the new name Nordic Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, or NordCham Philippines for short, as business organisation in the Philippines. The new name, logo, and website of the NordCham Philippines was unveiled on that date to the media, members and guests at the BDO Corporate Center in Manila, hosted by premium member, BDO Unibank. At the launch event global keynote speaker, Fredrik Härén had been invited for a speech on inspiring creativity. Intended for Nordic-Philippine trade and investment promotion NordCham Philippines is the largest Nordic chamber of commerce in Asia. “Since we established in late 2012, we have grown from zero to 100 members, becoming the largest Nordic Chamber of Commerce in Asia. Our member companies include major multinationals, SMEs, and startups, representing industries such as ICT, energy, clean technologies, maritime, logistics, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and financial and corporate services. As a recent trend, we are delighted to see more and more Filipino businesses joining our membership,” Mr Joona Selin, Executive Director commented the rebranding. NordCham is also strengthening its structure for Nordic-Philippine trade and investment promotion activities by introducing an advisory
board as a new organizational body. The advisory board is composed of resident and nonresident ambassador s of Nordic countries in the Philippines, as well as prominent Filipino business people with connections to the Nordic countries. As another addition to the mix of its activities, NordCham will have a heavier focus on CSR. One example of this is the traditional Crayfish Party on September 24, which is organized for the benefit of the Chosen Children Village - a home for mentally and physically handicapped children. While NordCham members have invested in the billion-dollar scale in the Philippines, NordCham President Mr. Bo Lundqvist anticipated more investments to come: “The continued growth of the Philippine economy, and the opportunities it opens up for business, direct investment, and employment, is exciting to us all. NordCham actively participates in this growth by promoting the Philippines as a business destination, and by continuing to help Nordic business successfully establishing business links with the Philippines.” Referring to the 10-point agenda of the new Administration under President Duter te, Mr Lundqvist continued: “We see it as an agenda in which we would like to participate actively. Our Nordic countries have long been advocates for open trade and open economies. We are excited to see this development take place, together with changes towards ease of doing business, these are
18 ScandAsia.South East Asia • October 2016
some of the key building blocks of the economic agenda of the new administration.” “In par ticular, we see infr astr ucture , renewable energy and ICT as areas where the Nordic countries have world-leading innovation and technology to offer to the Philippines. We also believe we have both the experience, and a working model of good governance, health care, education and social security which the Philippines could take inspiration and learning from, as the roadmap is being crafted.” In conclusion, Mr. Lundqvist added: “We are bullish on the growth prospects of the Philippine economy under the new administration, and we see several areas for continued and strengthened Nordic-Philippine cooperation under the new NordCham structure and its activities.” NordCham Philippines (formerly Nordic Business Council Philippines) was established in late 2012 to bring together the Nordic-Philippine business community. The organization promotes and facilitates trade, commerce, industry, and investment between the Philippines and the Nordic (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden) and Baltic (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) countries. Total trade between the Philippines and the Nordic and Baltic region reached € 515 million in 2014. Expor ts from the Nordic and Baltic countries to the Philippines totaled € 319 million, while imports were at € 196 million.
October 2016 • ScandAsia.South East Asia 19
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