ScandAsia South East Asia - February 2017

FEB 2017

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Hans Ola Urstad Norway’s ambassador to Malaysia BUSINESS

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Your FREE ScandAsia Magazine Presidential Award to Norwegian in Philippines

E

rlend Johannesen, founder of StreetLight Philippines, was among 23 distinguished and outstanding overseas Filipinos and foreignbased organizations from 11 countries winning the Presidential Awards for Filipino Individuals and Organizations Overseas (PAFIOO) 2016.

They were honoured by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte honoured during the Awarding Ceremonies on Monday 19 December at the Malacañan Palace.

Johannesen is known for his commitment to help the impoverished children of Tacloban City. Although quite young, he has nonetheless dedicated the past 12 years rescuing orphans and street children from drugs, crime, starvation and prostitution, writes the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Manila.

“For more than a decade now, Streetlight Philippines has offered a shelter and safe haven to children where they are guided and educated.

Norwegian Parliamentarians and the Embassy paid a visit to StreetLight Philippines in 2015 and were able to witness how Johannesen and his team stood firm in re-establishing their centre after it was damaged by super typhoon Haiyan.”

“The NGO today has a school, orphanage, computer centre and library because of the efforts of Johannesen in collaborating with other organizations that were willing to help get the operations of the centre going again and reach out to more children in the streets.”

‘This is a highly-deserved award for Mr. Johannesen as he continues to be a big brother to the children of Leyte. He is an inspiration to youth who are seeking to make a difference in the world’, said Ambassador Erik Førner.

The Presidential Awards is a biennial search for overseas-based individuals and organizations which have dedicated their work in the service of Filipinos, selflessly supported relief, rehabilitation and development programs in the home country, or who have excelled in their field or profession.

The awardees were thoroughly screened from a total of 103 nominations from 22 countries by four

different committees from the Philippine Diplomatic Posts, inter-agency technical committee, multi-sectoral executive committee, to the Office of the President.

In offering his snappiest salute to the awardees for their accomplishments and assistance to their fellow Filipinos and to the Filipino community, the President echoed one of his favourite quotes by Stephen Grellet in appreciation of the collective accomplishments by the Presidential Awardees: “I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”

The Presidential Awards have four categories – Lingkod sa Kapwa Pilipino (LINKAPIL), Kaanib ng Bayan Award, Banaag Award, and Pamana ng Pilipino Award Erlend E. Johannesen was one of the Kaanib ng Bayan Award winners, which is conferred on foreign individuals or organizations for their exceptional or significant contribution to Philippine reconstruction, progress and development, or have significantly benefited a sector or community in the Philippines, or advanced the cause of overseas Filipino communities.

A first in the 25-year history of the awards system since its inception, the Norwegian also delivered the response speech on behalf of this year’s PAFIOO awardees. According to Mr. Johannesen “the Filipino culture is truly the most remarkable, beautiful culture there is. The world has so much to learn from it.”

“Where the Filipino spirit prevails, so will hope,” Johannesen added.

The Presidential Awards is organized by the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (www.cfo.gov.ph), an agency under the Office of the President tasked to promote and uphold the interests, rights and welfare of overseas Filipinos, as well as to maintain strong and mutually beneficial ties between overseas Filipinos throughout the world and the motherland.

This is the second time that a Norwegian has been conferred with the Kaanib ng Bayan Award under the Presidential Award. The Ma’Ma Children’s Center of Norway was awarded in 2006.

ScandAsia is the only magazine that covers all the Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish residents in South East Asia.

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February 2017

ScandAsia Stories

10

H.E. Hans Ola Urstad

3 Presidential Award to Norwegian 8 The Royals Sands / Maxxi 9 Sweden continues Mekong River Commission support

Norway’s Ambassador reflects on Malaysia

Norway’s Ambassador to Malaysia

10

ScandAsia Business

3

12

Ms. Vivianne Gillman

6 Danish Energy Efficiency Partners

First Melaka milestone achieved

Business Sweden in Mekong region busier than ever

8

7 Tetra Pak Vietnam

Builds new factory in Ho Chi Minh City

15 Axis Communications 32 years of Internet of Things

18 Finnish-Vietnamese elderly care Delegation visits Vietnam

9

Mr. Magnus Zederfeldt

15

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Danish energy efficiency achievements in Melaka

D

anish Energy Efficiency Par tners Sdn Bhd. (DEEP) has received the prestigious Melaka Green Awards 2016 and a milestone has been reached in January 2017 as the retrofitting of three out of planned nine buildings in the state of Melaka has been completed.

Deep was awarded the Melaka Green Awards for 2016 under the International Collaboration Category in recognition of thier energy efficiency retrofitting initiatives to promote green practices in the state of Melaka. The Chief Minister of Melaka,YAB Datuk Seri Ir. Haji Idris bin Haji Haron presented the award.

The Chief Minister of Melaka, federal ministry officials, DEEP and the Embassy of Denmark in Kuala Lumpur celebrated the completed retrofitting of the first three state-owned buildings with a 35% saving of energy consumption. This also marked the launch of phase 2, which includes another six buildings.

Deep is highly committed to support the Malaysian State of Melaka in achieving energy cost savings in state-owned buildings by installing and financing energy efficient technologies and services. In the process, they work very closely with their stakeholders in Melaka at every stage of design, procurement, installation and monitoring of the energy saving in the selected buildings. The programme initiated by Deep will be a showcase for large-scale adoption and implementation of energy efficiency in existing buildings by a City or a State.

Denmark’s Ambassador Nicolai Ruge told the audience how they had just visited the Putra Specialist Hospital and been briefed about the hospital’s energy efficiency retrofitting project.

“It is my first time to see first-hand the various energy efficiency components put in place and also learn of the 45% savings in electricity bill which the hospital expects from this exercise.This is certainly very encouraging for other buildings to follow suit.”

“Melaka has come a long way since embarking on your green journey in early 2010. You are one

of the first states in Malaysia to have a formalised green city action plan and also to set up the Melaka Green Technology Corporation – also known as MGTC – to spearhead these plans.

Denmark is very fortunate to have played a part in some of the initiatives in the years following on that,” continued the Ambassador.

The ambassador then looked back how it had all started.The concept comprises the full project cycle for the implementation of energy- and water efficiency in buildings, from the initial audits, through design, finance, procurement, installation and monitoring.

“This is where Deep differs, in offering the total one-stop-shop facility from audit to retrofit designing, recommendation and procurement of equipment as well as provide advance finance of the capital expenditure for the project. For the customer, all you will need is to pay Deep, not from extra budget, but from the savings of your electricity bills. This means you will even have additional ‘income’ even after the payment. Indeed a win-win concept for all.” ”For today’s event, it is ver y timely to congratulate this public-private par tnership between state of Melaka and Deep for the success of retrofitting the 3 buildings, which also include your office, Chief Minister, and to take this further by formalizing Phase 2 of the project for the next six buildings.

He also said the embassy looked forward to working closely with Deep to encourage more states and industries to learn and take on the offer for positive energy savings.

They are in earnest discussion with Songkla, Thailand.

D e e p ’s M a n a g i n g D i r e c t o r M o r t e n Sondergaard, in his speech, pointed to the benefits of renewables and energy efficiency. Studies show that such investments generate far more jobs than oil and coal.

“A ringgit, a dollar or a Danish crown invested in Energy Efficiency (EE) buys seven times more energy solution than a similar invested in nuclear

6 ScandAsia.South East Asia • February 2017

power or fossil fuel.”

He fur ther more pointed to that at international level buildings consume 40% of the world’s energy consumption, while producing 50% of carbon dioxide emissions.

“Compared too many other topics energy efficiency is an easy topic to discuss and promote, because everyone agrees that energy savings and improving energy productivity is a good thing.

It’s also something everyone can take action on.

Governments, policy makers, companies, and individuals can all take steps to use energy more responsibly and efficiently.”

“But - it’s much more complicated to implement and realize the savings; hence, the basis for the formation of Deep and as a measure of success, we are here today at completion of Phase 1 of the project and looking forward towards not only to Phase 2 which already is under preparations, but also Phase 3 which will be the outstanding state buildings in Melaka – more than 60 buildings.”

Morten encourage looking at this in a holistic way: “Many EE measures are the small and tiresome solutions that add up to big energy savings. This is what we have to do.“ “And the reason for the creation of Deep and its model is this: “The benefits from taking these kinds of actions are often spread over time, while the cost is upfront. In other cases, both the costs and benefits are so low they lead to inaction. This is exactly the dilemma DEEP has managed to overcome – taking care of entire solutions.”

“A major challenge we are facing is financing and investment. We must admit that despite all of our progress and effor ts, current levels of investment in energy efficiency are too low in relation to the national policy objectives.”

The Deep model, including financial capabilities, can make retrofit projects easier to capitalize, less risky for building owners and lenders and mutually beneficial for owners and tenants.

Business

Tetra Pak builds new factory near Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

T

etr a Pak, the wor ld’s leading food processing and packaging solutions company has announced it will expand it regional manufacturing footprint in the AsiaPacific with a US$110 million factory in Vietnam.

The decision is based on increasing in Thailand as well as the Asia-Pacific and demand for liquid dairy and beverages packed in cartons.

Tetr a Pak’s state-of-the-ar t regional manufacturing facility will be situated near Ho Chi Minh City,Vietnam, to serve customers across the region.

2016 saw increasing consumption volumes in liquid dairy and fruit-based beverages. In Thailand, the overall consumption is 3.6 billion litres which equates to ~ 50 litres per capita consumption.

The same development is reflected across AsiaPacific with the total packed beverages intake at 70 billion litres across ASEAN, South Asia, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand. Additionally, over the next three years, these markets are likely to grow at a healthy 5.6% per annum, with products packed in Tetra Pak cartons projected to grow at a much faster rate as compared to other packaging formats such as glass bottles and cans.

“Tetra Pak has been present in the region for decades, with our first factory set up in Gotemba, Japan in 1971” said Mr. Michael Zacka, Regional Vice President, Tetra Pak South Asia, East Asia and Oceania. “Over the years, we have seen substantial growth of our products, driven by

a wide portfolio and a number of innovations that we have introduced in the market. Hence our investment in a new plant, which will be our fourth Packaging Material factory in the region, providing us expansive coverage and scale. This decision is a strong reflection of our commitment to the region and our firm belief in its future potential” The factor y, expected to commercialize operations in Q1 2019, will have an expandable production capacity of approximately 20 Billion packs per annum, across a variety of packaging, including Tetra Brik Aseptic, one of the most popular formats among Thai customers for the past 30 years. It will primarily serve customers based in ASEAN, Australia and New Zealand.

With a strong focus on sustainability, the site

will adopt a host of global best practices to minimize the environmental footprint, including the utilization of a high proportion of renewable energy sources.

“For Thailand, this regional factor y will represent multiple benefits which include consistent supply, reduced lead times, enhanced quality, efficiency and flexibility for our Thai customers. Having a factory of this calibre and capacity so close to Thailand is hugely beneficial and also represents Tetra Pak’s long-term investment in Asia,” says Mr. Henrik Hauggaard, Managing Director of Tetra Pak (Thailand) Ltd. and Cluster Leader Sales Management of Tetra Pak South Asia, East Asia & Oceania.

In Asean Tetra Pak also has a long-standing production facility in Singapore.

February 2017 • ScandAsia.South East Asia 7

A new and innovative approach to build a resort.

T

o the naked eye the stunning villas of The Royals Sands may look like any other luxurious 5-star resort but Thai Swedishowned, Maxxi Factor y, used a new and innovative approach to build the villas. Maxxi Factory are prefabricating components of the villas before assembling them on the site.

“What makes this technique unique is that a 5-star resort normally has at least a 3 years production plan but our villas are all set up and ready to be moved into within a year” Emma Johansson, the director of Maxxi Factory, says, and explains that the company has a slogan saying ‘9 turnkey ready homes assembled in 3 weeks or less’ The production of the prefab houses start at Maxxi’s factory in Thailand. The villa’s walls, floor, roof truss are all premade in the factor y to ensure that weather conditions neither delay nor harm the production.

“We are building villas not only fast using minimal labour but we’re also offering quality and punctuality” Emma Johansson states.

Once the premade parts are done, they will be loaded on a truck and transported to the construction site to be assembled.

“In the morning I will walk onto the 8 ScandAsia.South East Asia • February 2017

construction site and see a house with no walls, by the end of the day all the walls are up and we’re onto the next step”, Eric Johansson, Founder of Maxxi Factory, tells us.

The next step then will be for Maxxi’s installation team to focus on the interior wor k. The interior wor k consists of plumbing, electrical connections, Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) furniture and kitchen fittings.

Another distinctive technique that Maxxi uses is the way they build their furniture. They build their furniture with EPS. For the villas on The Royal Sands they made the couch, bed and even Jacuzzi from EPS. This meant that their furniture weighed almost to nothing compared to regular furniture. Despite the light weight of the products the durability is high and quality is impeccable.This technique can be used to make all sorts of furniture.

As Maxxi has slowly emerged to the market in Cambodia and they are looking forward to more projects not only in Cambodia but other countries in Asia as they believe this technique will be able to offer homes to the public faster and better.

If you’d like to see the progress on The Royal Sands project, you can visit Maxxi’s Youtube Channel: youtube.com/MaxxiBP

Finnish education in the spotlight in Kuala Lumpur

B Sweden continues Mekong River Commission support

O

n 25 November Sweden signed an agreement on continued suppor t to Mekong River Commission (MRC) for more sustainable development of the Mekong basin. Sweden emphasized the impor tance of gender integration and anticorruption awareness during the 23rd MRC council meeting.

The Government of Sweden has gr anted SEK 49 million (equivalent to USD 5.3 million) to MRC to implement its strategic work on four key results areas, contributing to the MRC basket fund for implementation of the MRC Strategic Plan 2016-2020.

Anne-Charlotte Malm, Head of Development Cooperation, Embassy of Sweden to Thailand and Pham Tuan Phan, Chief Executive Officer of the MRC Secretariat, signed the financial agreement on 23 November on the occasion of the 23rd MRC Council meeting in Pakse, Lao PDR. “Sweden has been a l o n g s t a n d i n g d e ve l o p m e n t par tner of the MRC since the establishment of the Mekong River Commission in 1995. In the last 21 years, the incessant support for institutional component contr ibuted significantly to organizational reform and smooth operation of the MRC Secretariat.

We are glad to continuing our good cooper ation with the Government of Sweden and other partners in the upcoming years” said Pham Tuan Phan.

The four key result areas in focus include: strengthening regional cooperation; improving monitoring and communication of conditions in the basin; enhancing national plans and projects; and turning the MRC into a leaner, more effective river basin organisation. Strengthening gender mainstreaming as cross cutting issue will also be one of focuses for cooperation between the MRC Secretariat and the Embassy of Sweden to Thailand.

Sweden has contributed so far more than USD 31 million to the MRC for activities related to environment protection, climate change adaptation, basin planning, fisheries management, flood mitigation, and institutional support.

The MRC is the inter gover nmental body responsible for cooperation on the sustainable management of the Mekong Basin whose member s include Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Viet Nam. It serves as a regional platform for water diplomacy as well as a knowledge hub of water resources management for the sustainable development of the region. It is not a supra-national or regulatory body.

ETT Asia education leadership summit was or ganized in Kuala Lumpur 15-16 November. Renowned Finnish education expert Pasi Sahlberg was the keynote speaker on the first day of the conference. He shared his interpretation of Finland´s notable success in inter national PISA rankings.

Five key traits of the Finnish system were highlighted: 1) equity – access to education for all, 2) collaboration, 3) creativity – give teacher s cer tain autonomy to find best teaching practices, 4) Trust-based responsibility and 5) professionalism – being a teacher is a very coveted profession in Finland.

The Finnish system prefers learning through play instead of rigorous tests from early on.

Another Finn, Saku Tuominen, presented the HundrED education

Business

innovation project at the summit.

The project seeks to publish 100 Finnish and 100 global education innovation practices during next year. HundrED is a part of Finland’s 100th anniversary celebrations of 2017.

In connection with the summit, an exhibition of education providers was organized. A few Finnish e-learning companies set up their booth to market their ser vices.

Finnish education export is growing and the booming gaming industry in Finland contributes to this.

A Finnish educational star tup company, Kokoa Agency, was rewarded with an education innovation award. Teachers and former learning unit designers at Rovio, the company that developed the Angry Birds game, founded the company.

February 2017 • ScandAsia.South East Asia 9

Business

Norwegian Ambassador on Malaysian strengths H.E. Hans Ola Urstad enco companies to look outside

H

By Maria Jønsson Photos: Royal Norwegian Embassy, Kuala Lumpur .E. Hans Ola Urstad was appointed the Norwegian Ambassador in Malaysia in 2012. Before coming to Malaysia, Hans Ola Urstad was already an experienced diplomat.

He has been working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 1980, and besides assignments as Consul General in San Francisco and Ambassador in Belgrade, he was appointed Head of the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) Mission to Serbia and Montenegro in 2006.

From 2012, he became the Ambassador to Norway in Kuala Lumpur, and from 2014, he received accreditation to Brunei. According to the Ambassador himself, the main focus is on Malaysia, since Norwegian business in Brunei is limited. In Malaysia, however, he explains that there is a quite vibrant network of Norwegian industries.

A focus on business

As every other embassy, the Norwegian Embassy

in Kuala Lumpur deals with a lot of different issues. For the 65-year-old diplomat, however, the most important one seems to be creating a good environment for the Norwegian businesses in Malaysia.

“It is a mixed picture, but the main reason for being here is of course to try and support the Norwegian businesses as much as possible,” he explains, “and to work as closely as possible with these companies, also with the help from Innovation Norway with whom we are working very closely.”

Furthermore, he explains that the embassy also has other very impor tant work such as political and economical reporting, consular issues and so on – but with the main focus on the Norwegian businesses in the country.

Malaysian strengths

Hans Ola Urstad sees a lot of advantages in starting or expanding your business or investing in especially this par ticular South East Asian country.

10 ScandAsia.South East Asia • February 2017

“Norwegian companies have ver y good business here, partly due to the stabile conditions we have in Malaysia,” he says, “and we have seen that most companies stay here.”

He lists strengths such as Malaysia not being as expensive to start up in as some of its neighbouring countries. Also the ease of doing business in Malaysia is mentioned by the Ambassador. Here, Malaysia ranks among the highest in the world.

“There are different organisations here that will help you if you want to invest or start up a business in Malaysia – especially Malaysia Investment Development Authority (MIDA) and Invest KL,” Hans Ola Urstad says.

The annual social event

But of course, no business without pleasure.

And surely, you can see the pleasure in Hans Ola Urstad’s eyes when he starts talking about Norway’s biggest social event in the capital of Malaysia; the Norwegian Seafood Gala Dinner.This annual dinner is always a huge success amongst

Photo: Royal Norwegian Embassy, Kuala Lumpur

Photo: Royal Norwegian Embassy, Kuala Lumpur

ourages Norwegian e Kuala Lumpur Norwegians in Malaysia as well as Malaysians invited. This year, being the 20th year in a row, was no exception; 665 participants from close to 30 different companies – with more than 70 dishes, 24 different desserts, and entertainment

by Norwegian Harding Fiddle.

“We are very proud of this amazing event; it markets Norwegian seafood in a fantastic way,” the Ambassador says.

Growth in export

And exactly fish exports have, according to Hans Ola Urstad, become an incredibly impor tant factor in the Norwegian economy in general.

Norwegian seafood has become very popular in Malaysia, particularly their salmon and sea trout.

“Norway’s export is very large in both salmon and sea trout, and we export a lot to this entire region – and our seafood export to Malaysia is actually rising,” the Ambassador says, explaining that especially the Norwegian sea trout it getting very popular in Malaysia, which is the reason behind the growth at the moment.

“It is actually marketed as salmon here, as they do not know the difference – and, to be honest, the difference between the two isn’t huge.”

According to Hans Ola Urstad, Norway’s general expor t to Malaysia is twice as big as their import. But, as he explains, the NorwegianMalaysian trade is still not very large.

“The ser vice sector here is much more important to Norway – and especially through Norwegian Telenor who has invested in the local telecom provider in Malaysia, Digi, and by owning 49 percent, that makes them the major owner,” he says.

Photo: Royal Norwegian Embassy, Kuala Lumpur

wants to encourage Norwegian businesses to try to look outside the Malaysian capital when it comes to expanding their business and investing in Malaysia. For example, he sees Penang in the northwest of Malaysia as a business destination worth looking into.

“I think of Penang as a very good business destination – I see it as very open to trade; it’s a region in Malaysia that exports more than any other on a comparative basis. It has a very broad and outward-reaching type of industry,” he says, concluding that Penang is where it is almost ideal to start up an industry or invest, due to its very open, international culture.

Think outside Kuala Lumpur

Most of the Norwegian companies in Malaysia can be found in and around Kuala Lumpur, which Hans Ola Urstad believes to be because of people’s lack of awareness towards other parts of the country – mainly because they see it as too far away from Kuala Lumpur where everything is centred. But the Norwegian Ambassador February 2017 • ScandAsia.South East Asia 11

Business

A

t last, ScandAsia has caught hold of a Trade Commissioner to learn more about Business Sweden (since the organisation was changed and renamed) and their activities, scope of work, clients and the development for Swedish business and trade in and with Southeast Asia. And who could then be a more ideal spokesperson than the Country Manager for Thailand and Vietnam, incl. Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos (Mekong region)!

Meet Vivianne Gillman, based in Bangkok since Februar y 2015, who actually opted to leave New York City for Southeast Asia as an irresistible next career step.

“I was asked if I would be interested in coming here, while I still had a few years left on my US contract. Being the Head of the New York office was very exciting, as a very dynamic and ripe market with many Swedish companies already established and many others on their way. But it was difficult to say no to Southeast Asia; there are few markets growing as fast as this one right now.”

And this growth has had a positive impact on Business Sweden’s operations in the five countries Vivianne is in charge of.

Vietnam on top

Business Sweden in Southeast Asia busier than ever Vivianne Gillman oversees the Mekong region

By Joakim Persson

“We have seen vast changes only during the period I’ve here. And we are experiencing incredible demand and interest, especially in Myanmar and Vietnam and still with plenty of interest for Thailand, the most mature market of these.”

In late 2016 Business Sweden actually had quite many assignments in Thailand assisting companies in establishing presence.

“Even if we are seeing less demand in the more aggressive growth strategies. it’s interesting to see that many companies are making the decision to establish legal presence at this moment. This often means they already acted on the market for some time, or that there is some other strong incentive to invest,” Vivianne elaborates on Thailand. “So that’s a positive sign in an economy that does not have as strong growth as some of the other markets.”

“Of the five Vietnam is the market with the absolutely highest demand with regards to the Swedish companies contacting us, At one point we had to put new assignments on hold as we simply did not have capacity to take on more.”

So Vivianne’s team is overloaded with work.

As we meet they have already employed nine more people since she arrived – and need to hire even more.

Commenting on what sor t of talent they hire she says that one must understand both Sweden as well as the local market, but also being able to navigate in two worlds.

“This can sometimes be difficult, but this is also what makes us unique - being internationalization exper ts who combine analytical skills with government access.”

What makes organisations grow

Vivianne’s career within the organisation started as Head of the New York office back in January 2012, when it was still called Swedish Trade Council, and continued on the same position as 12 ScandAsia.South East Asia • February 2017

it became Business Sweden (the Swedish Trade and Invest Council) in January 2013.

Employees at Business Sweden work for the Swedish state, repor ting to the Ministr y of Foreign Affairs and the Swedish industr y.

Through an or ganisation called Sver iges Allmänna Utrikeshandelsförening (Swedish Foreign Trade Association), the organisation is indirectly owned by businesses.

Vivanne has a double Masters degree from Stockholm University; in Business Administration and Economics as well as Systems Development and Software Engineering. She also fur thered her studies in New York with a course in Venture Capital and Private Equity.

“For me that’s a red thread - to understand what makes different organisations to grow is very interesting,” she comments on that course.

“And I think start-ups in general do not have this large structure to carry around like large corporations have, but you find a lot of driving force in these companies. I worked quite a lot with start-ups in New York and we did a few activities towards those to meet other potential investors and other players on the market etc.”

“Also here in Southeast Asia I can use the knowledge in the sense we are working with mergers and acquisitions. Then it’s more about larger corporations, but all the same about understanding what makes a company attractive, valuation-wise. So when looking at various ways to enter markets here it is not unusual at all to start by acquiring up companies.”

corporations and as these markets are hard to navigate Business Sweden’s role becomes valuable. When we do business delegations, for example, we typically involve both the private and public sector,” explains Vivianne,.”

“You often have governments or stateowned companies as buyer s, and often development banks joining as stakeholders.

This makes the region interesting, but also quite challenging. This is one of the ways in which we can support teh companies,” smiles the Country Manager. “There is a lot of potential but it is a bit challenging, especially when it comes to navigating the government jungle.”

Business Sweden in Southeast Asia is concentrated on supporting and advising Swedish companies who want to establish or grow their business in these markets. And currently many companies are asking for assistance.

“To a large extent we work with regional management, usually based in Singapore , Shanghai or so, who need assistance with market entry. That is the normal need for Myanmar, and also Laos, as an example of a white spot market still for many companies.”

“We also do many assignments for companies who have been on a market for a long time, such as in Thailand, but the market has changed and they need assistance to find new revenue streams, such as new customer groups.”

Vivianne says that to grow sales revenue on international markets are very grateful tasks to work on, compared to when she was a strategy consultant, which involved issues such as costcutting, re-organisation etc.

“In assisting companies on market entrance and market growth we do whatever it takes, almost.”

Business Sweden as such is quite complicated to understand.

It requires some time; there are not that many organisations that operate as ours, having such strong connection to the state while having a private side as well.

Innovation and sustainability

Prior to her New York appointment Vivianne worked as a strategy and management consultant back in Sweden with Connecta between 2007 and 2011. There she also spearheaded the internal CSR and sustainability efforts, but also advised the non-profit sector and companies on sustainability – how they could integrate their sustainability strategies within their business strategy.

“We worked towards the head offices but it was often with an international scope as so many Swedish companies are spread throughout the world.”

Sustainability is also par t of the DNA when it comes to promoting Sweden and Swedish companies internationally as attractive, innovative and competitive business partners.

At a minister-lead delegation to Indonesia and Vietnam in November innovation and sustainability were the two themes.

“That is often how we want to profile our Swedish companies, most have that as their unique selling point, which often also mean higher prices, and that’s something that most of them have in common, where we assist together to convey the benefits of these innovative solutions that can lead to higher effectiveness, and productivity. So the total cost is actually lower even if the initial price tags is higher than average. That message applies for many companies and sustainability is another factor coming up on the agenda more and more in Southeast Asia,” she comments.

Why companies need us

In Southeast Asia they work quite a lot with large February 2017 • ScandAsia.South East Asia 13

Business

To a large extent we work with regional management, usually based in Singapore, Shanghai or so, who need assistance with a start-up. That is the normal need for Myanmar, and also Laos, as an example of a white spot market still for many companies.

In terms of areas of activities and being available Business Sweden produces and publishes market repor ts, arranges seminars to share information and replies to queries – all assignments from the Swedish state. Then, where most resources are spent, is on serving the individual companies with advisory services.

“Usually that we assist in evaluating whether a market is attractive or not, how to enter or how to grow, and third being these delegations.”

“Market analysis is our core competence and what we are doing on a daily basis, and mostly for individual companies,” she adds.

Gazelle companies and start-ups

Collaborations within Team Sweden are also important.

“When it comes to delegations we work very closely also with the Swedish embassies, so most delegations are lead by our Ambassador or by someone from Sweden; a state secretary or

minister. We invite relevant companies, so there is always a combination of interest and what is in focus from back home.”

“We all have a lot of dialogue with our colleagues in the other markets as well, in par ticular as many are looking at targeting Southeast Asia as a whole and which countries to prioritise first and where to invest the most resources and so on.”

“What is important to emphasize, where we ourselves prioritise our resources, that it does not only mean large corporations but might just as well be Gazelle companies, interesting start-ups or those being best in class within their sector. Somewhere we want to prioritise helping those companies that best benefit Sweden.”

Minimising corruption

In assisting companies Business Sweden also encounters corruption, described by Vivianne as a “large challenge all over Southeast Asia”.

14 ScandAsia.South East Asia • February 2017

“What we assist with is that par tly we can par take in various meetings with public companies, government organisations or other to show that Sweden thinks this deal is important and interesting and that we are monitoring it in order also to minimise the risk for corruption factors being brought to the table. And we frequently assist in finding local partners. That is very difficult to do 100 per cent but then conduct certain due diligence, and it depends a bit on the company how deep we should dig.”

“When it comes to acquisitions we do commercial due diligence, e.g. looking at that that business, customers and business connects.”

Going forward, Vivianne says that Business Sweden believes there are significant growth opportunities for Swedish companies and that Sweden has not reached any ceiling on yet.

Swedish companies selling solutions to the manufacturing industry, including industrial equipment that assists the local industry, are among the strengths.

“The strongest BNP driver on most markets are manufacturing, so they need to improve as stronger manufacturing hubs as the main driver for a market to thrive. Here the Swedish companies can enter and develop the local manufacturing sector.”

Infrastructure, including both transportation and energy, is another focus area.

“Looking at a market like Vietnam both Norway and Denmark have significantly higher export than Sweden today, despite them being smaller economies than ours. And we are seeing the same tendency in Myanmar. But we could do even more and especially in Southeast Asia we could do much more.”

Business

32 years of Internet of Things: Axis Communications

I

By Joakim Persson

t is sometimes interesting to get a slightly longer, historic perspective, in this ever-increasingly digital world, and Axis Communications, a Swedish IT company, represents this well.

The example concerns ‘Internet of Things’ (or IoT), a buzzword and relatively recent concept.

“IoT, to get things to function over a network, we’ve been doing for 32 years. Within Internet Security of Things, as we call it today, we give everything an IP address, be it a camera, speaker or a door locker. With our network knowledge being one of our core technologies our first innovation was to come up with a box that could connect all the printers on the market to an IBM computer,” says Magnus Zederfeldt, Regional Director South Asia Pacific That represents interconnection of computing devices prior to the Internet era.

“Then we invented the first digital surveillance camera 20 years ago and we have since then developed a very deep knowledge about camera technology.”

Axis Communications pioneered the networking surveillance market with the launch of the world’s first network camera in 1996. Now a global market leader in network video solutions,

Axis with its extensive experience and innovative network video solutions is driving the ongoing shift from analogue to digital video surveillance.

This has also opened up significantly to new and increased business, by being able to fulfil various needs in ways previously not possible.

Axis, now selling in more than 70 countries, in South Asia Pacific has around 7000 resellers, stretching all the way from New Zealand to India. Customers are in in all verticals (end-user segments) covering education, banking & finance, retail, transportation, government and industrial.

Axis’ end users range from large multinational corporations to small-to-midsize enterprises.

“This region incorporates everything from Australia’s ver y mature market to Myanmar where we have just set up our first distribution, starting from scratch, and all countries in between.

That’s also what is exciting in this region that we have this wide span,” says Magnus at the regional headquarter in Singapore.

“In per cent we are growing the most in the markets where we have entered relatively recently, like Vietnam and Philippines. But of course if you take markets like Thailand, Singapore and Australia, we are growing but from a mature market level.”

He also explains that their worldwide strategy is to be local and have local resources. So Magnus is actually their only expat out of around 2600 employees worldwide. And even his assignment is temporary: “I’m here on contract and one of my tasks is to find a local regional manager.”

“I have been here for a bit over two years, and I have worked for Axis for 8 years and 2+ of those here in charge of the region. We have opened here 20 years ago, so we have been here for fairly long and today we have 95 people in this region.”

“We want to have our own resources and expertise on the markets to support our resellers. So from the beginning we were a few in Singapore selling to distributors and resellers around all the countries. This local presence is par t of our strategy to be the global market leader.”

“It’s a challenge to put two men in the Philippines, for instance, and to steer it. But we think it is worthwhile even though losing a bit of control but also getting a completely different closeness to the market.”

Axis is a value-driven and not a process-driven company at the core:“When you have many small offices in this way you cannot effectively run them in a process but one must get all to be

February 2017 • ScandAsia.South East Asia 15

Business

It’s a challenge to put two men in the Philippines, for instance, and to steer it. But we think it is worthwhile even though losing a bit of control but also getting a completely different closeness to the market.

entrepreneurs in their own respective markets.

Therefore we dedicate big resources to educate our employees how Axis thinks and put up fiveyear plans so that everybody understands where we are heading and have a platform to base decisions on, in their daily operations.”

They send all employees to Sweden for training and within each function there are either regional or global meetings held annually.

“They meet others with the same tasks to discuss best practices, experiences and to learn.

It is a way to manage the business, to understand what the expectations and the framework consist in. but also to give people the self-confidence to act on their own and take decisions,” explains Magnus.

Last year, he was also honoured to present Axis’ success at the Sweden-Southeast Asia Business Summit, where he pointed out three things: Fist, being local: “When you are out here the expectation is that we should open offices in a lot of countries.That makes the whole difference; you are not in Europe just because you’re in Sweden, every country is different.”

Second, trust the Swedish value proposition: “I don’t agree that Swedish companies need to

develop products for this market. We have it in our DNA to deliver quality and the best service.

I am talking about 3-5 years, while my customers talk about two weeks. I think if we say we need 3 year warranty our engineers in Sweden design it for at least nine! If you’re not resilient to the everyday request to lower your price in this part of the region then you’re going get into problems, so it’s an everyday fight to educate your staff and your resellers giving them the confidence to sell that premium product with premium value. We ask ourselves: Are our customers really asking for cheaper products or maybe they need our help to see why they should invest in quality.”

Third, recruit people that share your values: “It’s all about people in the end. And as we talk about culture there are so many similarities between Swedish and Asian cultures in general; we are considerate and don’t necessarily like conflict. We are also fairly family-oriented so I think Swedish companies have it quite easy to make friends and relations in Asia. And be responsive! There is this confusion about this most shameful thing in the world: to be wrong.

Building that self-confidence to dare to make mistakes and to learn from them, and dare to step out of the box, is a big challenge.”

16 ScandAsia.South East Asia • February 2017

Axis has come a long way with innovations and technology since around 2005 – as processors have become stronger, Internet grown faster etc.

– caught up to enable the digital camera to fully be utilized and be part of further innovations.

“There are so many advantages with digitalisation. A digital camera also has a brain, so it is a very intelligent video; which is a sensor that should give an alert. But, of course, in order to create that brain one must have some image data to analyse. It’s about software, as it’s a combination of optic and sensor but also what you do with the information. The other aspect is that a digital image has much higher quality than analogue.”

Today the expectations are different. And while people equals surveillance cameras with monitoring people, Magnus says that is just a small fraction of the market.

“We listen to consumers problems, and often we have a solution we’ve already done somewhere else. So therefore our marketing today is focused on different verticals where we, instead of selling products in different categories, try to sell solutions that meet the needs and solve problems; be it shops, hotels or airports.”

It’s all about obtaining the information proactively from a smart sensor.

Business

Third from left: Magnus Zederfedlt, Axis Communications “The camer a can tell the mar keting depar tment for a store where you have the most frequented spots in the store and at what times of the day so they run campaigns and set prices based on that. And if there are parts of the store where not many move they can go in and redesign the store.”

In a hotel, as another example, other needs and challenges must be met. There is often a need for cameras to protect guests without being invasive of their privacy and that can fit in perfectly with modern architecture, and deliver a detailed overview of narrow and deep areas, such as long corridors.

Axis’ innovations continue to meet such needs.

“A sur veillance camera must be able to handle that the sun rises, shines straight into the lens, for instance, and also darkness. So quite advanced camera technique is required to be able to handle all kinds of situations and problem scenarios. You want to have the information you are looking for at all times.”

“The other thing is the continued development of products to fit into various environments.”

A lot of the growth in the region happens as countries invest in the increasingly networked

infrastructure that forms the fabric of the modern society (monitoring of traffic and counting cars etc.), in par ticular when emerging economies are leapfrogging in their security infrastructure implementations of network-based surveillance.

“Anything from wireless transmissions in city surveillance to putting cameras all over the city running on power over the ethernet with no need for an electricity grid connection at every place.. There you have lots of innovation.”

The fact that Canon is today Axis’ majority owner is a strong indicator of the Swedish company’s significance, and something Magnus thinks makes good sense: “We are best-in-class worldwide on designing surveillance cameras and have all the software and technology required for those challenges. Canon are the world leader in sensors and optics so those are two central parts of the products that we do not produce ourselves, so it is a good match. It feels like a good owner to have.”

February 2017 • ScandAsia.South East Asia 17

Business

Finnish-Vietnamese co-operation in elderly care takes off

H

Text and pictures: Heta Hytönen olistic solutions in elderly care, covering remote population areas are increasingly in demand in the rapidly ageing Asian countries.

Heta Hytönen, from FinlandCare program writes about Vietnamese-Finnish cooperation within elderly care and a delegation visit to Vietnam.

“Many South-East Asian countries are openminded when it comes to co-operating with Nordic healthcare ser vice providers. Large infrastructural and financial reforms are taking place in the area, which opens doors for those brave enough and equipped to grab them.”

From ”Nuoc Phan Lan” co-operation to care collaboration in Vietnam

Vietnamese-Finnish cooperation goes back decades, where Finnish water expertise has paved the way for other Finnish competence areas such as green technologies, healthcare education and solutions.

“Approximately 10 % out of a population of 96 million in Vietnam is now over 60 years old.

Vietnam is one of the most drastically ageing countries in the world. In the capital Hanoi there are only five nursing homes covering a total population of seven million people; the need for care homes is tangible.

The 60+ market is expected to rise rapidly when the upper middle class citizens will retire. As the central family takes the lion’s share in taking care of their elderly, services and applications for remote care is estimated to become increasingly important.

The Ministry of Health in Vietnam has decided to focus on the problem at hand and renew the

entire elderly care system. Money is allocated to these projects from the government, international funding agencies, as well as private investments.

‘In a nutshell, Vietnamese health officials are looking for high-quality elderly care services, rehabilitative technologies and healthcare engineering, as well as hospital management,’ states Ms. Do Hoang Anh, the managing director of OriHome, one of the first elderly care homes in Hanoi.

“Vietnamese Ministry of Health is looking for concepts around focal themes: elderly care, rehabilitation, hygiene“, Do Hoang Anh adds. In her opinion, with so few care homes the market is wide open for new providers to mould the modus operandi nation-wide.

Finland a tempting technical partner for Vietnam

Vietnam is open for all kinds of par tnerships regarding Finland, be they financial, technical or educational. There are several high-level decisionmakers who have expressed their interest in collaborating with Finnish companies in reforming the Vietnamese elderly care sector.

Professor Pham Thang, a revered Vietnamese gerontologist (elderly care specialist) and director of the National Gerontology Institute in Hanoi visited Finland to meet FinlandCare rehabilitation and elderly care companies, to see what Finland has to offer.

“Ministry of Health is finally getting an elderly care department. We want to do a pilot project hopefully in 2017, where elderly care services and facilities are renewed. A basic service package will hopefully be developed with foreign partners”, states Professor Pham Thang.

18 ScandAsia.South East Asia • February 2017

Joint offerings and devotion needed from the Finnish side

German and US providers have an undeniable foothold especially in the Asian healthcare technology industry. However, Finns are extremely equipped to form clusters around integral themes for hospitals, and this kind of well-round process thinking is what we should cherish and invest in.

Finns are good in seeing the big picture.

“What we need is constant and devoted co-operation from Finnish companies that are equipped to come here more than once.

Sporadic one-time visits gain little. Rule of thumb in this business is patience “, says Ilkka-Pekka Similä, the Finnish Ambassador for Vietnam.

Also, the Head of Region India & APAC of Finpro, Mr. Juha Miikkulainen stresses the importance of co-operation between companies and internationalization organizations such as Finpro when entering the market area. Currently for example FinlandCare is active in the area.

Miikkulainen encourages more companies to get involved in the growing APAC region healthcare markets and get Finnish SME’s acquainted with Team Finland’s resources globally.”

February 2017 • ScandAsia.South East Asia 19

Celebrating 60 years

of British international education

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These enrich learning, bolster personal and social development and promote the important attributes of open-mindedness, inquiry and informed risk-taking in our students.

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