ScandAsia Thailand - February 2017

FEB 2017

Much more than cabinets

Swedish-Thai business celebrates 20 years BUSINESS

Axis Communications’ Asia success

PEOPLE

The Cabinet celebrates 20

COMMUNITY

Swedish Ambassador’s Chiang Mai visit

LIFESTYLE Chef Conny Andersson’s healthy holidays

In Celebration of International Women’s Day Bumrungrad International Hospital and Wanderlust Magazine present

THE PASSAGE OF

TIME Optimizing your Expat Life in Bangkok

Bangkok is a dynamic city, long loved by expats from all corners of the world. And times are changing. At “The Passage of Time,” learn about how shifts in culture and technology have presented new challenges — and opened new opportunities — for expat families in Thailand.

Hear from a panel of female expat leaders in the community on how you can optimize your expat life in Bangkok. You’ll meet new friends, too!

The helpful topics at this family-focused event will include:

Exploring exciting and rewarding opportunities as a trailing spouse T i p s o n m a i n t a i n i n g wo r k- l i f e b a l a n c e a n d h a p p i n e s s Medical info on female hormones and how to age with grace

WHEN: WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 2017 from 9:00 - 14:00 WHERE: BUMRUNGRAD INTERNATIONAL HOSPITAL, 21st floor 600 BAHT PER PERSON: Includes a refreshing, healthy boxed lunch from Tonic plus a one-year subscription to Wanderlust Magazine and raffle entry

For tickets contact

event@wanderlustmag.com All proceeds will go to Rak Jai Thai Foundation to support heart surgeries for underprivileged children in Thailand.

Limited space.

Please book your tickets by March 1, 2017

WANDERLUST

Bumrungrad International HOSPITAL

FEB 2017

Past Events

binets thanlecbraates 20 years more ce Much siness Thai bu

hSwedis

ESS BUSIN munications’ Axis Comess Asia succ

PEOPLE inet

The Cab 20 celebrates

UNITY COMMAmbassador’s SwedishMai visit Chiang

YLE LIFEST Conny

Chef n’s Andersso holidays healthy

Your FREE ScandAsia Magazine in Thailand Team Finland Thailand and companies agree on actions

T

ow a r d s t h e e n d o f 2 0 1 6 t h i r t y entrepreneurs and Team Finland network representatives gathered for an afternoon at the new residence of the Finnish Ambassador Satu Suikkari-Kleven in Bangkok. Their task was to identify concrete opportunities for business between Finland and Thailand, and they came up with an action plan for 2017.The group concluded that the most promising areas for collaborative business creation efforts are education, health and cleantech.

“Team Finland is the cooperation network of Finnish actors. This year in Thailand, it has identified promising education and learning related business oppor tunities. In addition, there is a growing middle class with increasing purchasing power for interesting lifestyle and design products.These leads as well as events and other Thailand specific Team Finland services can be found from our Embassy’s web site”, shares the Team Finland Thailand coordinator Katarina Tapio.

“ASEAN countries are right now promising growth markets. Finnish companies should really consider them as part of their innovation and growth strategy”, says Minh Lam from Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation. He leads an innovation program called BEAM - Business with Impact. BEAM encourages and funds innovation and business development projects of Finnish companies to grow their business in emerging markets.

Finland is known in Thailand for its education system. Thailand’s educator s are seeking cooperation and advice in the areas of teacher training, curriculum renewal, early childhood education and vocational training. They are interested in educational methodologies and digital learning solutions.

Within health-related business the topics are: healthcare tourism to Thailand, services for

elderly people and digital solutions for healthcare providers, and personal wellness. One of the health related needs common to all ASEAN countries is the solutions for food quality and food safety.

Environmentally friendly energy solutions are becoming more and more needed in Thailand.

People are increasingly interested in smart home solutions, better insulation of houses and other ways of saving energy. For energy production and distribution, turning waste to energy is becoming increasingly interesting, as well as solar energy and smart grids.

The following actions by Team Finland and Finnish companies in Thailand were agreed on for 2017: Join forces to organize Finland100 events to promote ever ything good about Finland.

Companies can host also separate events for their clients and partners in the margins of the Finland100-events.

Organize joint networking events with Thai partners, including representatives of Ministries and other officials at the residence of the Ambassador. Some of these events will focus on general issues of interest to all, and others on a particular sector or theme.

Organize regularly workshops for Team Finland and companies for the purposes of sharing info and experiences and to invite guests.

Team Finland services and activities inThailand are listed at the embassy website. Katarina Tapio, katarina.tapio@formin.fi, Coordinator of Team Finland network in Thailand Source: Embassy of Finland, Bangkok

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

We also publish a ScandAsia magazine in China, Singapore and the rest of South East Asia.

Please sign up for your own FREE copy: www.scandasia.com Publisher : 211 Soi Prasert Manukitch 29 Prasert Manukitch Road Chorakae Bua, Lad Prao Bangkok 10230, Thailand Tel. +66 2 943 7166- , Fax: +66 2 943 7169 E-mail: news@scandasia.com Editor-in-Chief : Gregers A.W. Møller gregers@scandmedia.com Managing Editor: Joakim Persson Joakim@scandmedia.com Journalist: Frederik Guy Hoff Sonne Advertising : Finn Balslev finn@scandmedia.com Joakim Persson Joakim@scandmedia.com Piyanan Kalikanon piyanan@scandmedia.com Nattapat Maesang nattapat@scandmedia.com Graphic Designer : Peerapol Meesuwan Peerapol@scandmedia.com Printing : Inthanon Interprint Co., Ltd.

Daily news and features here: www.scandasia.com

February 2017

ScandAsia Community

6 Six Senses Yao Noi 16 Agneta’s World Online services 18 Thai Language Corner

6

Mr. Conny Andersson

Swedish chef spearheads healthy cuisine

The Cabinet 20 years

10

ScandAsia Business

6 10

Mr. Janeric Hogane Celebrating 20 years in business

12 Maxxi/the Royals Sands Five-star resort homes in Cambodia

16

13 Business Sweden delegation Thai Industry 4.0

Mr. Magnus Zederfeldt

14

18

Axis Communication’s Asia success One-Stop Shop for all your editing, design, printing and digital printing needs

What we provide...

Publication

Brochures, Leaflets, Annual Reports, Calendars & Cards, Planners, etc...

Marketing Materials Roll-ups, Banners, CDs, Flags, etc...

Please contact

211 Soi Prasert - Manukitch 29,, Cho Chorakaebua, rakae Ladprao, Bangkok 10230, Thailand Tel:: +66 2943 7166-8 Fax T Tel Fax:: +66 2943 7169 website: www.scandmedia.com E-mail: patcharee.scandmedia@gmail.com, suchaya.scandmedia@gmail.com

4 ScandAsia.Thailand • February 2017

Ambassor visits Swedes and Diakonia in Chiang mai

S

weden’s Ambassador to Thailand, Mr Staffan Herrström is on a visit to the northern town of Chiang Mai. On 18 January the Ambassador met with Swedes in Chiang Mai. “Easy to understand why they have chosen to live in this lovely city.

This my second visit to Chiang Mai will most probably be followed by many more,” the ambassador wrote on Facebook.

Accompanied by his wife Karin Herrström the ambassador also paid a visit to Diakonia’s Chiang Mai office. Diakonia is an international development organization with Christian values that works together with local partner organizations for sustainable change for the most vulnerable people in the world.

Diakonia is one of the Swedish NGOs receiving the largest amount of public suppor t from Sida (Swedish International Development Authority).

In Asia, Diakonia cooperates with par tner organizations in Bangladesh, Myanmar/Bur ma, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Community

In 2016 Diakonia celebrated 50 years, have fought all those years “for human rights and for a better world for all people.”

“Many thanks to Ankin Ljungman, her colleagues and their par tner organisations. Extremely useful information - and great work, not least related to minorities and migrants!” commented Ambassador Herrström.

February 2017 • ScandAsia.Thailand 5

Community

Chef Conny Andersson enhances Six Senses’ healthy-driven concept

S

Photos and text: Joakim Persson candAsia met up in southern Thailand with Mr Conny Andersson, who can appropriately be seen as a ‘travelling chef ’, having been on assignments as a cook to far-flung corners of the world.

The setting and the timing could not have been more appropriate. We wanted to learn more about how he attended – during his stint at this resort – to the need for healthy and nutritious cuisine and the overall high expectations from the guests of Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas concerning the culinary experiences. And, as it turned out, his team was just about to launch the resort group’s new ‘Eat with Six Senses’ concept, via one of its resor ts, and for Conny again a relatively isolated setting.

Conny had previously joined the Thailandbased hospitality brand as the executive chef for Six Senses Qing Cheng Mountain, another of the group’s exotic destinations, in China.

In his latest posting overseeing on group level as well as on-site at Six Senses Yao Noi, Conny and his team was using this Phang Nga bay-based island property as the guinea pig for the brand’s launch of a new programme with a nutritional guideline connected to the food menus and to well-curated packages (including experts’ advice) concerning health, spa, nutrition and diet.

While Koh Yao Noi can be seen as remote

by Phuket standards, it is after all only a short land transfer, followed by a speed-boat ride, away from its international airport – to compare with chef Conny’s previous stints on Leeward Islands in the West Indies (Four Seasons Nevis, his career includes 18 years with the world-renowned Four Seasons brand), Bali and at The Datai on Langkawi. In Southeast Asia he had previously also been with The Grand Ho Tram Strip in southern Vietnam, so Six Senses marked his fourth time being posted or spending time in Southeast Asia.

The well-travelled Swede thinks it’s a fantastic thing to be able to travel while working – not an unusual attribute among chefs actually.

The setting for this particular resort comes as no surprise. With its strong local island culture and relatively intact nature, not to mention the property’s a stunning panorama view overlooking Phang Nga bay’s many small islands and carts, it’s an ideal setting for Six Senses’ concept of back-tonature luxury and genuine eco-friendliness. This island is in fact home to the in Thailand these days rarely found hornbills (their habitat shared with the resort’s visitors) – and islanders conducting local farming, including fish cage farming of red snapper, and fishermen conducting small-scale fishing.

6 ScandAsia.Thailand • February 2017

The resor t sources a lot of locally grown seasonal produce, delivered directly to the resort’s chefs as a ‘farm-to-table’ operation. That is in addition to on-site edible landscaping. One highlight for guests is that they can visit the freerange hen’s garden and pick organic eggs and hand over to the kitchen to be prepared for their own breakfast.

It is a delight for everyone to interact with these beautiful and happy-going hens that are very keen on coming up close as you enter their home. Aside the many human visitors, these hens are also entertained with jazz music!

As Conny and his colleague visited the gardens to harvest herbs and vegetables needed in the kitchen that day, he explained how they were about to share their new health and nutritional diet advice with their guests.

“The offers are presented differently and the menus are according to these programmes that we offer. So, upon arrival you’ll get a screening from a doctor to see what could be suitable, with a consultation on your food intake, and the head chef on site, so that you have a direct dialogue, and are in direct contact should there be anything you’d want more of or don’t like.

Then it becomes a very personal experience,”

he said. “And it’s not that we force anyone, it’s not as in a boot camp; you still have choices whether you want come on a detox, or simply sleep and eat well, drink right, and get the right nutrition for a fitness holiday. Should you still want a hamburger you can get one, but we have the offer to eat healthy, natural, organic food on our hotels.”

Conny described the Yao Noi proper ty as their “mother ship of Six Senses” that has operated for over 10 years and works very well, and thus constitutes a good place as a test bed for new projects of this kind. Conny is passionate about food, including how it keeps us healthy and thriving.

At Six Senses, star ted by the Swede Eva Malmström-Shivdasani and her husband Sonu, he could recognise himself in many things.

“Things are there for a reason, not only to look good; when it comes to furniture, food, drinks etc. thought has gone into it. It’s not only a bottle of wine or a plate of food in front of you but someone having thought a bit deeper about it, which one often does in Sweden,” thought Conny.

“In some way it felt quite natural to start working for Six Senses, perhaps just by being Swedish and having grown up in the countryside

and how we respect nature and produce and do not litter, make pickled and smoked food, homemade jam etc. And Six Senses goes about things in the same way - thinking natural.

Their concept’s philosophy provides as much dietary information as possible about each dish on the menu, directly underneath each item’s description, as a refinement of Six Senses’ already healthy-driven concept.

“We’re enhancing that even more by taking a few additional steps, and that is not only about having healthy food. Many times today when going to hotels one wants to learn something, so we want to share some knowledge with our guests. If staying with us for a week guests get a consultation, can learn cooking, and we many programmes. Also, when one leaves the hotel one wants bring something back home, so we share recipes and knowledge on what to eat once you have arrived back home. This gives guests an entirely different experience than an ordinary hotel,” said the Swedish chef.

On offer are the personalized Six Senses Integrated Wellness Programs, such as ‘100 % Full Potential’, ‘Sleep & Resilience’, ‘Cleanse & Detox’ and ‘Trim & Fitness’. Dishes corresponding with any of the wellness programs are marked as February 2017 • ScandAsia.Thailand 7

Community

such along with dietary specifications, including annotations such as gluten or lactose free.

Examples from the menu at The Living Room, the resor t’s cuisines-of-the-world restaurant: Tuna carpaccio, red onions, capes, avocado, and preserved lemon (100%, Trim, Sugar free, Gluten free, Lactose free); Pumpkin ravioli, grilles kale, burned butter and sage (vegetarian, sugar free); Pan-roasted sea bass, grilled asparagus and tomato basil relish (Trim, gluten free, sugar free, lactose free); Tandoori tiger prawns, south Indian potato and mint chutney (sleep, 100%, trim, sugar free, gluten free); Yum Ma Kue – Garden eggplant salad with herbs, avocado, prawns and boiled egg (Sleep, 100% gluten free); and Chef Alex Super wellness salad with raw veg and leaves, nuts and seeds (Detox, 100%, Trim, Sugar Free, Vegan, Gluten Free, Lactose Free).

“There’s always something healthy in each menu section and the breakfast buffet; like nut milk and hazel milk. You can discover things to bring with you back home and we are happy to share our knowledge. And now when looking at the menus and really being able to read what it is, it’s almost like we are sharing a recipe right there, I think people recognise this immediately,” Conny elaborated.

In launching the new programme Six Senses also make use of their Wellness Board, which includes well-renowned Dr. Steven Gundr y from New York and nutrition consultant Patrik Wallberg from Stockholm, Sweden.

Steven Gundry’s institutes have shown that feeding the body’s micro biome nutrient dense 8 ScandAsia.Thailand • February 2017

fibres and resistant starches dramatically improves overall health. Moreover, healthy gut bacteria have shown to improve mood and attitude. Dr. Gaundry has reviewed all menus and enhanced them so guests can enjoy the same great taste, but prepared in an even healthier fashion.

The first project Dr. Gundr y worked on, in tandem with Nutrition Consultant Patrick Wahlberg (who has been a project director for several spa and fitness openings around the globe) and Sophie Bohnstedt of Sophie’s Raw in Stockholm (adding two Swedes to the team), is the smoothie and juice menu.

Preparing the wonderful culinary experiences is so much more than simply combining ingredients.

“It’s a bit different concept than the other hotels; how we are thinking and how we are cooking. It’s an art form that combines taste and good looks added to our commitment to create dishes that are good for you – the art of wellness through food.”

“We’re setting up what one should purchase and avoid and tr y to assist all the hotels in the group in finding the right produce – and sometimes one simply cannot find organic on the market. In China, for instance, it has its challenges,” said Conny.

All natural and selected organic are their ingredients of choice – which can be challenging to say the least in Thailand, a countr y that according to its Agriculture Ministry imports 160 000 tonnes of farm chemicals a year, and where 70 chemical pesticides that are hazardous and not allowed in the west are being used. In the past

five years, the import of toxic farm substances have increased by 50 %, making Thailand the fifth biggest user of farm chemicals, according to the World Bank!

“We use natural fer tilisers and pesticides that we produce ourselves. And we work with an agricultural school from Krabi that assists us in running our farm. Many of the small farmers don’t have organic certification. So what we like is to support local farmers doing the right thing. That’s more important,” commented Conny.

Local Mozzarella and tomatoes grown in Phuket are sourced, along with also seasonal produce from around Yao Noi, as much as they can.

“Ideally everything could be sourced in the surroundings but one also has to import things, which is not our big priority, but a must sometimes.

When it comes to meat, one then has to ensue it is naturally fed, that the chicken is organic, fish comes from sustainable fishing, and so on. It’s a fine balance to thread, since many things are controversial when it comes to food. But one must make the right choices and do the right thing. This is always at the back of one’s mind.”

“Guests show great interest, and one can see that when our guests walk around in our gardens and they want to pick their own eggs in our hen garden for the breakfast, they get a kick out of that. And the more we see the guests’ interest, the more we are inspired to do.”

Footnote: Conny Andersson has left Six Senses Yao Noi but continues working with Six Senses in the capacity of consultancy.

Community

Finnish Christmas church service

A

t the Bangkok Finnish Christmas Church, the sympathetic and cordial Finnish priest Jyrki Markkanen created the merry and bright Christmas Mood!

Source: Embassy of Finland, Bangkok

February 2017 • ScandAsia.Thailand 9

Business

Much more than cabinets Swedish-Thai business celebrates 20 years Text & photos: Joakim Persson

A

fter 20 year s in business The Cabinet (equally representing a Hua Hin-based furniture store, a kitchen and interior designer etc.) have achieved more than even those who think they know this firm well could imagine!

Quite many years ago when Janeric Hogane introduced The Cabinet he talked of: ‘From bare shell to beer in the fridge’, referring to bare shell condos and houses.

The business have evolved with the times and today the are for instance doing good business by assisting residential Bangkok investors in their process of completely removing the interiors of older condominiums and refurbishing them – something that well represents Janeric’s first tagline.

And today their one-stop service has gone one step further: if a customer comes looking at kitchen designs but do not yet have the house, well then The Cabinet can build that house too!

And at the same high quality that permeates this business.

“We must help the customer out,” is Janeric’s natural response to such a situation, as he and Mrs Apinya Hogane reflects on the 20 years gone by.

And now they have recruited the budding talent Mr David Nilsson to help steer the business into the future.

10 ScandAsia.Thailand • February 2017

With Janeric being Swedish The Cabinet naturally stands for Trust, Quality and Service – and, needless to say, here this refers to genuine high quality and service, something they are very proud of being able to offer in a Thai setting. He highlighted their unique selling proposition, which is really core to their business success, when they held their 20 years anniversar y presentation at a Thai-Swedish Chamber of Commerce networking in 2016.

“With our focus on trust, quality and service it is very difficult to be the cheapest but our aim is to be the best,” Janeric said.

“We also service each other within the team, so that everyone have access to and get good and correct information.”

It is also a matter of having good products and following up well, he highlighted.

This approach have led to that they have built a very strong and positive reputation. Customers usually declined service agreements and trusted their good reputation.

A positive effect of this is also that they through word-of-mouth have continuously earned more business.

“Marketing is not something we are doing very much! Unfortunately,” adds Janeric.

Typically they are constantly too busy with sales, delivery and customer care to find the time needed for any focusing on marketing.

The Swedish restaurant Prime Steakhouse was designed by the Cabinet Up until 2008 they in fact grew the turnover by fifteen per cent yearly.

“We didn’t have a dip during the crisis in 2008, but the dip came in 2010. We delivered previous orders in 2009, which was a fantastic year for us. In 2010 everything decreased but has thereafter steadily climbed up again.”

There are some other connections to Sweden and the Nordics too that have contributed strongly to their sales. The most obvious one is the large population of people from the Nordic countries that keep on investing into residential homes in Prachuap Kirikhan province as well as Rayong.

The other ones go under the names of Black Mountain golf course and Logans Thailand. These two Swedish-owned and managed long-lasting developers in Thailand are big clients of The Cabinet. The most recent project for Logans is the delivery of the entire interiors for their brand new hotel in Mae Phim.

Black Mountain also keeps on growing its residential par t and The Cabinet has been a provider from day one.

90 per cent of The Cabinet’s customers are foreigners, with the remaining coming from Bangkok.

“We mostly work with international projects; having difficulty in getting through the door with Thai projects, which would be fun to do more.

We have a few such projects and those works well. But then you often have an owner with a European mind-set,” explains Janeric.

As for the Hua Hin scene he says that foreigners are absolutely still investing in real estate there, but mostly in new-build projects.

One milestone is when Apinya and Janeric set up their own factory production for built-in furniture.

“We used a subcontractor to produce the furniture for us during the first 3 years. And then we started our own factory,” says Apinya.

“Everything tailor-made we produce there, completely ready to install or to assemble on site. This should be compared to many build-in companies who move the whole factory to the customers’ premises.”

“We do about 800 kitchens per year,” says Janeric. “And also own design and lots of wardrobes and cabinets custom-made to the customer’s wishes.”

Their other big milestone, which was becoming a developer, also leads us back to an approach dear to them: quality.

“I wanted to make the perfect house for the customer. When we did the interior for customers and came into their houses we found so many problems! Then we had to fix this and that. And when we get the work to build a house I said to my people: ‘This is the dream come true

to build a house and we will not build in the same way as others!’ And then everyone in the team was very concentrated, as everything had to be clear and the end result 100 per cent perfect. And we achieved it and the owner of the project was very happy!” says Apinya.

And taking the step from interior designer to house construction and design was not big for The Cabinet.

“We already had the people with all the skills in-house.”

“We built houses with confidence, we had seen so many mistakes done by others and we did not need to repeat those. I think that if you have the right people around you this is achievable, and it’s fun to do it,” Janeric fills in.

In the first project they managed to build four houses in equally many months, and many readers will know that a house of lower standard can take a long time to build here and thus costs, in comparison, a lot of money.

Reflecting on their achievements Apinya says that she is done and thinks their baby has grown up as a business and reached well passed what she could have imagined.

“It’s already too big for me! I want to retire too. I did not think about that until this year. I want to continue two more years, to spend the time with our staff and let them grow in their roles of running the company by themselves in the future.

Then we’ll try to work a little bit less. I think it’s too much for Janeric also to continue like this.”

Janeric, on the other hand had had larger ambitions: “I thought we could grow much bigger – with a concept that is quite difficult though,” he admits. “You must find the right people to handle things; otherwise it would not have been a success.”

Looking back, Apinya and Janeric also share a really funny story.

They travelled to Bangkok to meet a customer and sign the contract and collect the deposit.

Janeric usually drives without his shoes and he had brought a pair with him into the car to change upon arrival. And when he so did something in the shoe bit him.

That something was a scorpion! Apinya said to Janeric they ought to go to the hospital right away. But, he insisted they go and sign the contract and collect the money first.

“I’m a Viking but that really hur t!” recalls Janeric.

The customer noticed that something was wrong: ‘Are you not O.K today?’ ‘Well, a scorpion bit med in the car!’‘Oh!!You must go to the hospital at once!!’ The customer signed the contract and gave them the cheque immediately and off they went for Janeric to get injections.

Today David Nilsson is the latest injection into the company.

“We believe in him a lot for the future. So we will see if we can retire soon!” smiles Janeric, “But, really, it’s important, because it’s not easy to find foreigners, and we would like to have a few Swedes who understand what we are doing.”

And David seems to be the man to take The Cabinet journey further : “Why stop with building some houses! Why not building a whole condominium project or hotel!” he exclaims as he has a potential such project in mind.

February 2017 • ScandAsia.Thailand 11

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 12 ScandAsia.Thailand • 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

Business

Swedish business solutions for Thai manufacturing towards Industry 4.0

I

Text & photos: Joakim Persson n November 2016 the Embassy of Sweden in Bangkok and Business Sweden brought a manufacturing delegation of Swedish companies to Thailand for the second year in a row.

This included, in connection to the Metalex Fair a seminar on the topic ‘Implementation of industry 4.0 in the Thai Manufacturing industry’, with the purpose to discuss the concept of Industry 4.0 and how it can benefit Thailand.

In his remarks H.E. Ambassador Mr Staffan Herrström told how he had noted, during the year since the last delegation, how various actors in Thai sectors have in common the interest in Swedish solutions in the broad area of innovation, digitalisation and sustainable development.

Sweden is happy to be able to facilitate that kind of interaction and co-operation.

“Thailand now wants to enhance their automotive and electronics manufacturing sectors, as well as use as a basis to develop new industries from, and to elevate the country to a new level in industrial development. As a global manufacturing leader Thailand now has the oppor tunity to further develop the manufacturing industry in a sustainable way focused on innovation to meet the new sustainable development goals,” the ambassador also pointed out.

Dr Chayo Trangadisaikul, Deputy Secretary General for Federation of Thai Industries (FTI), in his presentation, talked about changes in Thai manufacturing industry, how coordination and Industry 4.0 in particular can support Thailand’s growth, and finally how to promote it.

Dr Chayo said that in comparing with the successful digitalisation of the retail sector manufacturing is different.

“Ever manufacturing facility is different; unique in its way, in particular in Thailand where we did not start with a high level of coordination. We are relying somewhat, and in many cases, on manual work, or semi-automation process.”

Recently, FTI had conducted an industrial survey on Industry 4.0, categorising the level of industrial development into 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, and 4.0.

“The result is stunning. For the 2.0 category, which involves manufacturing that employs electric power, and some usage of conveyer system, there are 40 per cent of the respondents.

So 40 per cent in this country is starting with 2.0.

Then, in 2.5 – we define this as some use of mass production and with semi-automatic processes 35 per cent of the respondents fall in this category.

So we have the majority of manufacturing facilities in Thailand in 2.0 – 2.5, at 75 per cent!”

Panel discussion at Business Sweden manufacturing delegation to Thailand.

“To look on the brighter side we still have a lot of room in terms development and promotion of the Industry 4.0,” he continued. “We can lift those in 2.0, 2.5 into 3 - 3.5 and we are sure now that the manufactures already feel the heat of global and regional competition. And with the lack of labour in Thailand in terms of quantity and quality aspect of labour as well, wow the requirement for the manufacturing is doing it cheaper, faster and more efficient. Automation is the answer, and this is the point moving forward.”

The Doctor added that employees should not fee much concern regarding automation as replacement for human work, since Thailand experiences shortage of labour to begin with.

“On the other hand we feel very positive about retraining people, so they can feel capable of handling and controlling the automation process.”

FTI has launched Vision 2025, in order to try and lift the level of industrial development to 3.0 by the year 2020, and from 3.0 to 4.0 by 2025.

It includes steps conductive to achieving Industry 4.0: 1) Raising awareness among all stakeholders so they can rethink about productivity, efficiency and cost. 2) Improving access to new technology, partly by talking to the, in Thailand not yet mature, banking sector concerning making easier getting loans at reasonable conditions; and by trying to bring the cost of automation equipment down (reduced impor t duties on automation equipment. 3) Stimulate investment: “Right now in manufacturing sector most if not all are already aware of the threat of not being productive and efficient, and of not being able to come up with a very high quality product. Tax incentives and government policy is important in this regard.”

4) Promote the IoT: “Industry 4.0 has to be

connected directly to the consumers, suppliers, and all other aspects of a business.”

“We are going to try to do more with less but also, at the same time, doing the best,” Dr Chayo ended.

Among the company presentations Monitor ERP System’s representative Todd Abraham spoke about design principles of 4.0 inter-operability taking digital and interfacing it with the physical world to allow us to make faster core decisions.

Todd recommended breaking it down into what is the current status of one’s business today: “What can we do to make operational, simple efficiencies can help adding” Monitor ERP offers a completely integrated system, enabling a systemic point of view in terms of data collection, monitoring and reviewing. Also, from an industry 4.0 perspective some tools are included that help to take a step along the way towards that bigger vision.

Pontus Rosengren from Virtual Manufacturing, with its new approaches to help leading manufacturers to reach operational excellence faster, presented their method for surprise avoidance.

They use what is called digital factories for visualisation in the workplace.

“The value is that that team that will be working with you will have an understanding and will go in the same direction. We also think that you should make your mistakes in the digital factory rather than the real factory.”

But everything starts in the real world: “You need to collect your data, and then you need to your factory performance KPI so you can show it to those working on the factory floor. From that data you can start doing simulations and KPIs, based on which you start.”

February 2017 • ScandAsia.Thailand 13

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 sine 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 14 ScandAsia.Thailand • February 2017

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 Zeeland to India. Customers are in in all ver ticals (enduser segments) covering education, banking & finance, retail, transpor tation, 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 have entered, likeVietnam 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 Magus 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 are 95 people in this region.”

“We want to have own resources and exper tise on the markets to suppor t 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 entrepreneurs in their own respective markets.

Therefore we dedicate big resources to educate our employees how Axis is thinking and put up five-year plans so that everybody understands

where we are heading and have a platform to base decisions on in their daily operations.”

All employees get sent 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 and 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.

He says it’s all about the people in the end.

“Building that self-confidence in Asians to dare to make mistakes and just learning from them is a big challenge. When we have this many offices it becomes even more important. But, still, my recommendation from my years in Asia is: when you recruit, try to find the people who dare to step out of the box.”

Axis has come a long way with innovations and technology has since around 2005 – as processors has 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; with 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.

“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 delivers a detailed overview of narrow and deep areas, such as long corridors.

Axis’ innovation continues 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 - all such situations. 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 internet, with no need for an electricity grid connection at every place.

There you have lots of innovation.”

February 2017 • ScandAsia.Thailand 15

Agneta’s World

Shopping ONLINE

today a natural and timesaving procedure

D

o you have any idea about all products and ser vices you can order online nowadays?!

I didn’t, but after having done some research, I realized that you can get almost everything ordered and delivered at home, right to your door step. It’s amazing and interesting to read about all services, from the common flower delivery, parcel delivery, magazine delivery and of course food delivery, just to name a few.

If you have a pet, you can order a special taxi to pick them up, taking them to the vet or to the Pet SPA. You can also have someone coming to take your four legs friends out for the daily walks. Convenient, as the taxis, MRT and BTS don’t allow pets on board. The taxi drivers used to allow passengers with small pets, but those drivers have become very rare nowadays. I know, from experience, how much trouble I have to take my Whiskey & Bailey to Thong Loh’s vet from Asoke, waiting for taxis for

more than an hour and everyone, who bothers to stop, refusing to take my dogs along.

Eventually I have to opt for a Tuk Tuk, but to keep two wild and curious dogs calm in a Tuk Tuk is not the easiest thing to do. When arriving to the vet, I am more in need of treatment than the dogs are!

Shamu is a company delivering pet food and other pet products.

It is possible to have medicaments delivered home and other medical supplies.

That Ikea delivers your furniture home is well known, but also Index and other home stores offer delivery service.

At the same time you order your food – it might be from the classic stores like Villa Market, Foodland or Tops or from a specialized company like e.g ‘Adams Organic’ – you can also order your wine and craft beers.

If your thirst is urgent, ‘Pandoras’s box’ delivers alcohol in plastic bags to your doorstep and ‘Klink’, helps you out providing, within an hour, beers, wine and spirits. There is no

16 ScandAsia.Thailand • February 2017

need to go hungry and thirsty and no need cooking yourself if you don’t feel for it.

Most of us also get our water delivered home. I order from Chang and my neighbour from Nestle and there is also a Japanese mineral water that comes from Shinano in Japan, natural spring water, exclusive and probably very expensive. There are also many other brands.

If you feel for some cooking, but are not so experienced and want to improve, you can order a Thai Home Cooking Class.

After a “heavy weekend” with much alcohol and heavy food you might feel for a Detox? (has never happened to me) you can call and order a cold-pressed detox juice from the company ‘Detox Juice Drinks Bangkok’.

And here’s something for all bachelors: what about ‘Pure Bangkok Escorts’?

This company is advising men to book a girl, of course a neat, goodlooking girl, for comfor ting and wonderful company. They suggest

that this ser vice will make your bachelor parties something extra ordinary. Just check Buvado.com When I found this company and read their suggestion, I couldn’t stop thinking, what about the bachelorettes? Wouldn’t a neat, handsome man be as attractive on a hen-party? It’s still a man’s world…

I was interested in finding out about massages; if can you book a massage at your home or not? Well, these pages I could have studied for hours – and almost did. I can promise you, it was an interesting read and I learned a lot.

We already know that if you stay in a hotel, you can almost always get a massage in your room. There are more than 1007 massage parlors in Bangkok and many of them offer home service. Now you have to make up your mind and think about what kind of massage you would like to have…

Will you go for a Swedish, Deep tissue or an Aromatherapy massage or maybe you are looking for something a little more sensual?

It seems like Sukhumvit soi 22 have a lot of massage parlors offering whatever you ask for. Almost all of them offer a sensual relaxation experience in the comfort of your home!

How about trying the ‘Darling Massage packages’ on Sukhumvit soi 22 opposite Marvel Hotel? Maybe an excellent anniversar y gift for a long married couple? Here we women are also offered massages by stunning, looking male masseurs with magic hands, how does that sound?

Must be female owners...

If you are pregnant, you can order a Pregnancy massage with special educated therapists, not on Sukhumvit soi 22. Men can order a genital massage 24 hours a day from ‘Testical and Prostate Massage Bangkok’, incall and outcall.

From the parlor ‘By Expert Oil

By Feet’ you can tr y a tantra or tantric massage. Located also on Sukhumvit soi 22 (a magic soi that seems to offer everything). What does a Tantra massage offer? Well, I will get to that later…

On my soi, Sukhumvit soi 15, there should be a massage place called ‘Magic hands’ telling you: “It’s nice to be kneaded”. I have walked this soi up and down enough times that I would have seen this place – but not! It must be well hidden.

If you want waxing, body shave and massage at home or in a hotel, it’s also possible.

Let me come back to Tantra or Tantric massage. This is a massage procedure that is highly associated with a sensual touch. An erotic tantric massage, as the name suggests, is a type of massage that focuses on sexual pleasure.

Erotic tantric massage is all about

the use of sensors touch on the body’s most underestimated sexual organ, the skin, to enchant erotic stimulation.

The technique focuses on the many nerve endings that are found on the skin.

A common misunderstanding, regarding tantric massage is, that it involves sexual intercourse, this is not the case.

During tantric massage, both the therapist and client are totally nude.What are the benefits of erotic tantric massage? It says, that the sensual touch involved in this kind of massage, is very relaxing mentally, physically and even emotionally. It helps stimulating blood circulation and takes away tensions. It creates a “happy” mood in the body.

Experts say that tantric massage reduces blood pressure (might be better than ar tificial pills)? And it contributes to longevity significantly (maybe something for the Insurance companies to think about?)

It also says that it promotes good prostate health for men. The feeling of wellbeing promoted by this type of massage eliminates stress. My advice; if you feel burned out try Tantra and you will soon be “on fire” again! Personally I haven’t been feeling that stressed yet, but who knows what will come!

While searching for all home delivery offers, I also saw a note about The Cabin Bangkok. This is a specialist outpatient addiction treatment rehab. This center treats substance addictions like e.g. drugs and alcohol as well as process addictions like sex, internet and gambling.

The Cabin also specializes i n m e n t a l we l l n e s s o f fe r i n g

psychological services to treating clients with mental health issues, including anxiety as well as mood, personality and adjustment disorders.

These treatments are, of natural reasons, not delivered to your home.

I also found a company named Bria, Bangkok R.I.A Group. It’s a leading laboratory and healthcare service with professional specialists in many fields, might be good to know.

Now it’s time for me to use the Banana Bike, (motorbike taxi service Bangkok) and a trip to Healthland for a medical massage. As I, after 11 years of no skiing, of course fell on hard ice while trying to put on my cross country skis hurt my spine, so I’m in need of a massage and at Healthland I know what I will get.

Stay healthy and happy!

February 2017 • ScandAsia.Thailand 17

มุมภาษาไทย l mum pha:să: thai l Thai Language Corner

บันเทิง

banthoe:ng Entertainment

T

By Klavs Johansen (thai@snakthai.dk)

he word บันเทิง / banthoe:ng / is actually a verb meaning to have fun, to enjoy, to take pleasure (in), or to be happy. In Thai newspapers and other media it is the word associated with entertainment. The formal nominalized word is การบันเทิง / ka:n banthoe:ng /. As such it covers everything pop culture, pop music, soap operas, comedy, block buster movies, the stars of these genres and their private lives. It also increasingly covers the rich and wealthy as well as people in sports and fashion. It is safe to say that the subject is no smaller in Thailand than in the West.

Hence, we will this month have a look at some vocabulary that could be useful when consuming entertainment, keeping in mind that having fun provides the best basis for learning the language.

A fundamental form of entertainment is ดนตรี / dontri: / ~ music. Popular in Thailand is หมอลำ� / mŏr: lam /, a characteristic Northeastern Thai song and music style. Another style is ลูกทุ่ง / lû:k thûng / ~ Thai country music, and then, of course, there is ป๊อป / pórp / ~ pop, which covers Western as well as Thai pop, the latter being much like Western pop, but possibly incorporating elements of both หมอลำ� / mŏr: lam / and ลูกทุ่ง / lû:k thûng /.

A musician is นักดนตรี / nák dontri: /, while a band is วังดนตรี / wong dontri: / and to play music is เล่นดนตรี / lên dontri: /. Notice the prefix นัก / nák / which we will encounter several times in this month’s column. It refers to a person who is skilled at something. เพลง / phle:ng / is a song, ร้องเพลง / rór:ng phle:ng / to sing and นักร้อง / 18 ScandAsia.Thailand • February 2017

nák rór:ng / a singer. To listen to music is ฟังเพลง / fang phle:ng /, as in ไปฟังเพลงกันเถอะ / pai fang phle:ng kan thòe’ / ~ Let’s go listen to music!

The possibilities to do so are countless with scenes, เวที / we:thi: /, being part of ผับ / phàp / ~ clubs, restaurants, shopping centers and parks across the country. Alternatively, you may enjoy singing yourself, Asian style with a bunch of friends, at the local คาราโอเกะ / kha: ra: o: kè’ / ~ karaoke.

Another popular entertainment is ภาพยนตร์ / phâ:p pháyon / ~ motion pictures, or less formal หนัง / năng / ~ movies, where we have: โรงหนัง / ro:ng năng / ~ cinema, ฉายหนัง / chă:i năng / ~ to show a movie, and ไปดูหนัง / pai du: năng / ~ to go to the movies.

Two main genres are: หนังตลก / năng tàlòk / ~ comedies and หนังบู๊ / năng bú: / ~ action movies.

Both should be สนุ ก / sànùk / ~ fun, entertaining, and not ไม่สนุก / mâi sànùk / ~ no fun, or even น่าเบื่อ / nâ: bùea / ~ boring. These descriptive words will work not only for movies, but for all kinds of entertainment. Moreover, the action movies should be มันส์ / man / ~ thrilling and, hence, are also referred to as หนังมันส์ / năng man /. ละคร / lákhor:n / actually is theater, but today the word often refers to ละครทีวี / lákhor:n thi: wi: / ~ tv-series, soap operas.

To act is เล่นละคร / lên lákhor:n / or แสดง ละคร / sàdae:ng lákhorn / and we get นักแสดง / nák sàdae:ng / ~ actress or actor, with นางเอก / na:ng è:k / ~ leading actress, the heroine, and

พระเอก / phrá’ è:k / ~ leading actor, the hero.

Scene acting today is often comedy shows

ละครตลก / lákhor:n tàlòk / with ตลก / tàlòk / meaning funny or amusing. The comedians are known as ตัวตลก / tua tàlòk / or นักแสดงตลก / nák sàdae:ng tàlòk /. กีฬา / ki: la: / ~ sports is another entertainment

in Thailand as ever ywhere else. Besides the traditional Thai sports of มวยไทย / muai thai / ~ Thai boxing and ตะกร้อ / tàkrôr: / ~ sepak takraw, Thailand has done well on the international scene of sports like tennis, badminton, weight lifting and billiard, which has contributed to making these sports popular. And then, of course, there is football. From an entertainment point of view, much of it probably entails เล่นการพนัน / lên ka:n phánan / ~ gambling. We will not go further into sports here, but may make it the subject of a future column.

Whether popstars, movie stars or spor t stars, the famous, มีชื่อดัง / mi: chûe: dang /, enter tainers are referred to as ดารา / da:ra: / ~ stars. As mentioned, the group increasingly includes the rich and wealthy as well as the beautiful of the fashion industry, the latter being นางแบบ / na:ng bàe:p / or นายแบบ / na:i bàe:p /, female or male models, respectively. Some may even be ศิลปิน / sĭnlápin / ~ artists. Common for them all is that you will see them on the red carpet, พรมสีแดง / phrom sĭ: dae:ng /, in the entertainment news.

As for me, I’ll see you here next month or, in between, at the Thai Language Corner on Facebook!

t he

CABINET Interior Design Co., Ltd.

February 2017 • ScandAsia.Thailand 19