Sept06 latest - Association of Dutch Businessmen

September 2006 

MITA 373/03/2001 

World Press Photo 

in Singapore 

•Business profile: Elsevier 

Yannis Kontos, Greece, Polaris Images, 

•Interview: Pim Kraan 

Boy helps his father to dress, Sierra Leone

PROLOGUE 

For our members who spent their summer holidays in Europe; a warm welcome back 

home, and for sure you all enjoyed tropical temperatures for some weeks during your 

vacation. Guess you really missed that noisy airconditioning in your sweet Singapore 

home. For those who stayed put or traveled around the region (like myself); hopefully 

you realize in what an amazing and interesting region we all work and live. 

Frans van de Bospoort 

Let me, on behalf of the Board of the ADB, please take this opportunity to welcome 

Mr Pim Kraan of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Mr Pim Kraan will act 

as intermediary between the Embassy and the ADB, and we sincerely hope that the 

pleasant and fruitful cooperation will continue. We refer to the interview with Mr Pim 

Kraan in this issue of the ADB Magazine. 

The 15 th anniversary of our traditional Black Tie Dinner and Dance was an enormous 

success. Almost 150 members and their spouses attended the well organized party at 

“The Arches” at Sentosa. This was an absolute all time high number of guests and one 

could sense an exotic buzz in the air. Chef Kenny Yeo didn’t fail to prove that he once 

ruled in one of the finest Singaporean dining outlets and we were pleased the way he 

treated our (spoiled) taste buds. After the five course treat, the crowd was in for some 

exercise and our DJ (did we see a familiar face over there?) spinned the night away 

into the late wee hours. 

A big token of appreciation for the Dutch banking community in Singapore; ABN AMRO 

Bank, Fortis Bank, ING Bank, NIBC Bank and Rabobank, your kind attribution was most 

appreciated! 

The bubbles during the reception were kindly offered by the Embassy of the Kingdom of 

the Netherlands, and again, we would like to express our gratitude for this tasteful gesture. 

Talking about the buzz, the ADB welcomed 81 new members this year already, which is 

nearly equal to the number of new members for the whole of 2005! No wonder that the 

ADB is such a popular organization; interesting speakers during our regular network 

evenings and well attended social events such as the “summer BBQ” and “Black Tie 

Dinner and Dance” should be part of everybody’s C.V. 

By the time you will read this prologue, Singapore will be (even more) flooded with 

bankers from all over the world to attend the IMF/WB meetings. The ADB Board tries 

to invite one of the financial VIP’s, to give a presentation for our ADB network event 

in September. We will keep you updated! 


Vice President 

Ivo Rutten 

Annabelle Deken 

Wim Samlal 

Edward Tonino 

Remco Muzerie 

Freddy Meindertsma 

Bas Fransen 

1 

Vol.16 • No. 7 • September 2006

A monthly publication of the 

Association of Dutch Businessmen 

ADB BOARD 

Ivo Rutten 


Annabelle Deken 

Wim Samlal 

Edward Tonino 

Remco Muzerie 

Freddy Meindertsma 

Bas Fransen 

President 

Vice-President 

Honorary Secretary 

Honorary Treasurer 

Member 

Member 

Member 

Member 

Contents Michael 

Appleton, USA, 

New York Daily News 

Hurricane Katrina 

aftermath, New Orleans 

PROLOGUE 1 

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE 

Wieteke Dijkxhoorn 

Jeroen de Koning 

Debby Reemers 

Lineke van Nederpelt 

Barry Doesburg 

Wil Kolen 

Way Ying Lee 

SECRETARIAT 

Lineke van Nederpelt 

Mailing Address: 

c/o 22 Camden Park, Singapore 299814 

Telephone: 9101 6201 

email: adb@pacific.net.sg 

Website : www.adb.org.sg 

Email : webmaster@adb.org.sg 

Editorial contributions for the next issue may 

be sent or handed over to the ADB Secretariat, 

before or on the day of the monthly ADB 

meeting. The contents of this magazine are partly 

based on information received from third parties. 

The Committee does not take responsibility 

for the correctness of the articles. 

Designed by Jennifer Phua 

Printed by Khoo Sun Printing Pte Ltd 

MITA 373/03/2001 

Membership fee is S$ 100 per calendar year. 

For registration, please see the website 

www.adb.org.sg/en_member_signup.htm. 

Membership is renewed automatically effective the 

first month of the new calendar year. 

Make your cheque payable to “Assocation of Dutch 

Businessmen” and send to ADB, c/o 22 Camden Park, 

Singapore 299814. 

Termination of membership must be received by 

ADB Secretariat in writing before 1 January, otherwise 

you will be charged for the full amount for the following 

calendar year. 

Please notify the ADB secretariat of any changes in 

employer, (email) addresses or any other personal 

particulars that might be of interest to the ADB 

administration. 

REVIEW 

Dinner & Dance 2006 3 

BUSINESS 

Negotiating in China 5 

Non Solus 9 

Bridging the gap between yourself and 

your Singaporean staff 10 

WEB WIZARDS 

Learning English online special 13 

Interview with Pim Kraan, 16 August 2006 14 

SINGAPORE 

Delft Hydraulics in Singapore 16 

World Press Photo Exhibition back in Singapore 18 

MONEY 

The psychology of Investing 22 

BUSINESS NEWS 25 

DUTCH NEWS 26 

EMBASSY INFO 27 

BIZZ AGENDA 27 

ASSOCIATION INFO 28 

2 


REVIEW 

Dinner & Dance 2006 

By Lineke van Nederpelt 

The Lustrum Black Tie Dinner & Dance 2006 was 

held at a stunning location, The Arches, at Sentosa. 

The attendance was overwhelming with 146 

people enjoying this special event. 

A big thanks to our sponsors: ABN AMRO Bank, 

Fortis Bank, ING Bank, NIBC Bank, Rabobank. 

Also we would like to thank the Embassy of 

the Kingdom of the Netherlands for offering the 

welcome drink. 

President’s speech Ivo rutten 

Marijke den Ouden, Dorien Knaap, Marleen 

Keunen, Lineke van Nederpelt, Rosalien Schmeetz, 

Carmen Samlal, Anouk Haaxma, Mylene van Thiel 

Robbert Jan Voogt, Bas Fransen, 

Anton Timpers, Guido Nieuwenhuyzen 

Anton Timpers, Paul Peeters, 

Philippe and Louise Wits 

Tjebbe Smit, Marc Bekkers, 

Bert Stegink 

Werner van Eck, Way Ying Lee, 

Pim en Reineke Kraan 

Freddy Meindertsma, Guido 

and Sonja Pans 

Bas Fransen as D.J. 

Birgit Leenaars, Annabelle 

Deken, Marianne Doele 

Frans van de Bospoort, 

Remco and Margo Muzerie 

Menno Douwes Dekker, 

Andrew Baartscheer 

Boudewijn and 

Jiska Pesch 

3 


REVIEW 

Paul and Vera Govaart Siep and Tineke Hiemstra Rutger van Thiel, Arjenne Plaizier, Bart Schmeetz 

Gene Kwee, Mirjam Bout 

Esther Tamboer and 

Marc Bekkers 

Hendrik ten Hoeve, Marjolein 

de Jongh, Patricia Butin Bik 

Marcel Aggenbach and 

Emilyn Papiona 

Bert and Karin Hazelaar, Jeroen and 

Marleen Keunen 

Eduard and Marleen Holtz, Bart Kooijmans 

and Mariëlle Klein 

Dorien Knaap, Leo Brons, Mylene van Thiel, 

Otto Jan van Diepen 

Leonie Baartscheer, Rob and Betty van 

Zwieteren, Jaap and Natasha Bierman, 

Menno Douwes Dekker 

Marianne Doele, Olaf Kwakman, Edward 

Tonino, Marijke den Ouden, Jiska Pesch 

Barbara Voskamp, Frank Bomers, Maria and 

Hein Jan Smit, Rob de Louw 

Our sponsors: 

For all pictures: see www.adb.org.sg 

4 


BUSINESS 

Negotiating in China 

When U.S. and Chinese businesspeople sit at the negotiating table, 

frustration is often the result. This Harvard Business Review excerpt 

summarizes the historical and cultural disconnects. 

by John L. Graham and N. Mark Lam 

In preparing for a business trip to China, most 

Westerners like to arm themselves with a handy, 

one-page list of etiquette how-tos. “Carry a 

boatload of business cards,” tipsters say. “Bring 

your own interpreter.” “Speak in short sentences.” 

“Wear a conservative suit.” Such advice can help 

get you in the door and even through the first series 

of business transactions. But it won’t sustain the 

kind of prolonged, year-in, year-out associations 

that Chinese and Western businesses can now 

achieve. 

Indeed, our work with dozens of companies and 

thousands of American and Chinese executives over 

the past twenty years has demonstrated to us that 

a superficial obedience to the rules of etiquette 

gets you only so far. In fact, we have witnessed 

breakdowns between American and Chinese 

businesspeople time and time again. The root 

cause: a failure on the American side to understand 

the much broader context of Chinese culture and 

values, a problem that too often leaves Western 

negotiators both flummoxed and flailing. 

The challenge of mutual understanding is 

great; American and Chinese approaches often 

appear incompatible. All too often, Americans see 

Chinese negotiators as inefficient, indirect, and 

even dishonest, while the Chinese see American 

negotiators as aggressive, impersonal, and 

excitable. Such differences have deep cultural 

origins. Yet those who know how to navigate 

these differences can develop thriving, mutually 

profitable, and satisfying business relationships. 

The roots of Chinese culture 

Four thick threads of culture have bound the 

Chinese people together for some 5,000 years, and 

these show through in Chinese business negotiations. 

The first thread is agrarianism. In contrast to 

the U.S. population, which is mostly urban, twothirds 

of the Chinese people still live in rural areas, 

laboring primarily in rice or wheat cultivation. 

Traditional Chinese agriculture is peasant farming. 

It is communal, not individualistic; survival depends 

on group cooperation and harmony. Loyalty and 

obedience to familial hierarchy binds laboring 

groups together. Many of China’s city dwellers were 

born and raised in the country and have retained 

their agrarian values. Just as the most urbane 

Americans are influenced by the country’s cowboy 

roots—“shoot first and ask questions later,” “lay 

your cards on the table,” and so on—the most 

modern Chinese are affected by millennia of 

living close to the soil. 

Before the 1980s, agrarian values trumped 

business values. When during the Cultural 

Revolution Mao Tse-tung sent bureaucrats and 

students to be “reeducated” by the peasantry, 

he was reflecting the deep-seated belief in the 

virtues of rural life. Indeed, Chinese philosopher 

Fung Yu-lan explains in his works that Chinese 

sages historically distinguished between the “root” 

(agriculture) and the “branch” (commerce). Social 

and economic theories and policies tended to 

favor the root and slight the branch. People who 

dealt with the branch—merchants—were therefore 

looked down upon. 

The second thread is morality. The writings of 

Confucius served as the foundation of Chinese 

education for some 2,000 years. During those two 

millennia, knowledge of Confucian texts was the 

primary requisite for appointment to government 

offices. Confucius maintained that a society 

organized under a benevolent moral code would 

be prosperous and politically stable and therefore 

safe from attack. He also taught reverence for 

scholarship and kinship. Confucius defined five 

cardinal relationships: between ruler and ruled, 

husband and wife, parents and children, older and 

younger brothers, and friend and friend. Except 

for the last, all the relationships were 

strictly hierarchical. The ruled—wives, 

children, and younger brothers— 

were counseled to trade 

5 


BUSINESS 

obedience and loyalty for the 

benevolence of their rulers—husbands, 

parents, and older brothers. Rigorous 

adherence to these hierarchical 

relationships yielded social harmony, 

the antidote for the violence and 

civil war of Confucius’s time. 

For a taste of the importance of 

hierarchy in Chinese society, consider 

what happened to Cheng Han-cheng and 

his wife. According to Chinese scholar Daulin 

Hsu, in 1865 Cheng’s wife had the insolence to 

beat her mother-in-law. This was regarded as such 

a heinous crime that, among other punishments, 

Cheng and his wife were both skinned alive, their 

flesh displayed at the gates of various cities, 

and their bones burned to ashes. Neighbors and 

extended family members were also punished. This 

is, of course, an extreme example—but the story 

is oft told, even in today’s China. And it underscores 

why it is so easy for casual Westerners to slight 

their authority-revering Chinese counterparts. 

Roughly contemporary with 

Confucius was Lao Tsu, the 

inspiration for Taoism, whose 

fundamental notions involve 

the relationship of yin (the 

feminine, dark, and passive 

force) to yang (the masculine, 

light, and active force). The two 

forces oppose and complement 

one another simultaneously. They 

cannot be separated but must 

be considered as a whole. The implications of 

the collision and collusion of yin and yang are 

pervasive, affecting every aspect of life from 

traditional medicine to economic cycles. According 

to Lao Tsu, the key to life was to find the Tao— 

“the way” between the two forces, the middle 

ground, a compromise. Both Lao Tsu and Confucius 

were less concerned about finding the truth and 

more concerned about finding the way. 

These moral values express themselves in the 

Chinese negotiating style. Chinese negotiators 

are more concerned with the means than the end, 

with the process more than the goal. The best 

compromises are derived only through the ritual 

back-and-forth of haggling. This process cannot 

be cut short. And a compromise allows the two 

sides to hold equally valid positions. While 

Americans tend to believe that the truth, as they 

see it, is worth arguing over and even getting 

angry about, the Chinese believe that the way is 

hard to find and so rely on haggling to settle 

differences. 

The third cultural thread is the Chinese 

pictographic language. Just as Western children 

learn to read Roman letters and numbers at an 

early age, Chinese children learn to memorize 

thousands of pictorial characters. Because, in 

Chinese, words are pictures rather than sequences 

of letters, Chinese thinking tends toward a more 

holistic processing of information. Michael Harris 

Bond, a psychology professor at the Chinese 

University of Hong Kong, found that Chinese 

children are better at seeing the big picture, while 

American children have an easier time focusing 

on the details. 

The fourth thread is the Chinese people’s 

wariness of foreigners, which has been learned 

the hard way—from the country’s long and violent 

history of attacks from all points of the compass. 

So, too, has China fallen victim to internal 

squabbling, civil wars, and the ebb and flow of 

empires. The combination yields cynicism about 

the rule of law and rules in general. It can be said 

that the Chinese trust in only two things: their 

families and their bank accounts ... 

The eight elements 

The cultural influences outlined above have given 

rise to a clearly defined set of elements that 

6 


BUSINESS 

underpins the Chinese negotiation style. Most 

American businesspeople we have worked with 

often find those elements mysterious and 

confusing. But if Americans ignore them at any 

time during the negotiation process, the deal can 

easily fall apart. 

Following are the eight important elements 

of the Chinese negotiation style in the order most 

Westerners will encounter them: 

Guanxi (Personal Connections) 

While Americans put a premium on networking, 

information, and institutions, the Chinese place a 

premium on individuals’ social capital within their 

group of friends, relatives, and close associates. 

Zhongjian Ren (The Intermediary) 

Business deals for Americans in China don’t have 

a chance without the zhongjian ren, the 

intermediary. In the United States, we tend to 

trust others until or unless we’re given reason not 

to. In China, suspicion and distrust characterize 

all meetings with strangers. 

Shehui Dengji (Social Status) 

American-style, “just call me Mary” casualness 

does not play well in a country where the Confucian 

values of obedience and deference to one’s 

superiors remain strong. The formality goes much 

deeper, however—unfathomably so, to many 

Westerners. 

Renji Hexie (Interpersonal Harmony) 

The Chinese sayings, “A man without a smile 

should not open a shop.” and “Sweet temper and 

friendliness produce money.” speak volumes about 

the importance of harmonious relations between 

business partners. 

Zhengti Guannian (Holistic Thinking) 

The Chinese think in terms of the whole while 

Americans think sequentially and individualistically, 

breaking up complex negotiation tasks into a 

series of smaller issues: price, quantity, warranty, 

delivery, and so forth. Chinese negotiators tend 

to talk about those issues all at once, skipping 

among them, and, from the Americans’ point of 

view, seemingly never settling anything. 

Jiejian (Thrift) 

China’s long history of economic and political 

instability has taught its people to save their 

money, a practice known as jiejian. The focus on 

savings results, in business negotiations, in a lot 

of bargaining over price—usually through haggling. 

Chinese negotiators will pad their offers with 

more room to maneuver than most Americans 

are used to, and they will make concessions on 

price with great reluctance and only after lengthy 

discussions. 

Mianzi (“Face” or Social Capital) 

In Chinese business culture, a person’s reputation 

and social standing rest on saving face. If 

Westerners cause the Chinese embarrassment or 

loss of composure, even unintentionally, it can be 

disastrous for business negotiations. 

Chiku Nailao (Endurance, Relentlessness, or 

Eating Bitterness and Enduring Labor) 

The Chinese are famous for their work ethic. But 

they take diligence one step further—to endurance. 

Where Americans place high value on talent as a 

key to success, the Chinese see chiku nailao as 

much more important and honorable. 

Excerpted with permission from “The Chinese 

Negotiation,” Harvard Business Review, Vol. 81, 

No. 10, October 2003. 

John L. Graham is a professor of international 

business at the Graduate School of Management 

at the University of California, Irvine. 

N. Mark Lam is an attorney and business adviser 

specializing in East–West negotiations. 

Graham and Lam are coauthors of Red China, 

Green China, from Rowman & Littlefield. 

The View from Both Sides 

American 

Chinese 

The basic cultural values and ways of thinking 

individualist 

collectivist 

egalitarian 

hierarchical 

information oriented 

relationship oriented 

reductionist 

holistic 

sequential 

circular 

seeks the truth 

seeks the way 

the argument culture 

the haggling culture 

How they approach the negotiation process 

nontask sounding 

quick meetings 

long courting process 

informal 

formal 

make cold calls 

draw on intermediaries 

information exchange 

full authority 

limited authority 

direct 

indirect 

proposals first 

explanations first 

means of persuasion 

aggressive 

questioning 

impatient 

enduring 

terms of agreement 

forging a “good deal” 

forging a longterm relationship 

7 


BUSINESS 

Non Solus 

Pascal van den Nieuwendijk, 

Managing Director Asia Pacific, Elsevier 

Whereas historians have recorded science and 

medicine’s key moments of progress — from 

Galileo’s revelations to Fleming’s discovery of 

penicillin to the recent identification of SARS as 

a Corona virus — few are unaware of the role that 

publishers have played in the history of science. 

Given that 2005 marks the 125 th birthday of 

Elsevier and the 425 th anniversary of the publishing 

house of Elzevir from which the modern company 

takes its name, the time seems right to inform you 

on the myriad ways in which Elsevier has played a 

role in the history of science over the last 125 years. 

In that time Elsevier has evolved from a small 

Dutch publishing house devoted to the spread of 

classical scholarship to an international multimedia 

publishing company that currently provides over 

20,000 Scientific journal titles and products to 

science and healthcare communities worldwide. 

The original House of Elzevir was founded 

in 1580 in Leiden by Lowys (Louis) Elzevir, after 

William the Silent established the first Dutch 

university there in 1575. Elsevier’s history is one 

of a series of collaborations in the effort to advance 

science and health. The results of the collaboration 

between Elsevier and the eclectic group of 

scientific visionaries that it has published — ranging 

from Jules Verne to Stephen W. Hawking — are 

obvious. Less obvious, but no less important are 

the cumulative efforts of the men and women who 

have dedicated their lives to disseminating and 

using scientific and medical knowledge: the editors, 

the printers, the librarians, the nurses, the doctors, 

the engineers, the information specialists, and the 

business people who coordinate the effort. 

As the company moves forward into the new 

millennium, its founding motto seems more apt 

than ever: Non Solus (not alone). 

Today, one can argue, Elsevier is considered 

as one of the largest true Internet Companies 

in the world. Researchers and scientist around 

the world submit their scientific articles through 

Elsevier’s electronic submission system pursuing 

publication in one of the 1800 Scientific, Technical 

or Medical journals. Once these minutes of science 

have been accepted and peer reviewed by the 

scientific community, the article is published online 

as well in the printed version; ready to be used by 

12 million scientist and students around the world. 

The last 10 years, the scientific publishing 

industry have seen greater and more radical 

changes than in the previous 450 years since 

Every publisher in the 16 th and 17 th century had their own imprint; a 

trademark demonstrating the publishers’ work. Elsevier’s imprint, ‘a 

scholar picking the fruits from the tree of wisdom’, was first used in 1620. 

Guttenberg printed the first book. In less than 10 

years time, complete book and journal archives 

ranging back to the 17 th century have been digitized 

and made electronically searchable within 

milliseconds leaving printed material on the brink 

of extinction. 

Singapore is one of Elsevier’s three main 

regional sales offices in the world serving thousands 

of universities, hospitals, corporates and other 

research institutes from Pakistan to Fiji. With a 

team of 140 staff, the Singapore office and local 

offices in Asia Pacific market and support its 

flagship products ‘sciencedirect.com’ and the 

newly developed “google” for scientist, researchers 

and students ‘Scopus.com’. 

Galileo’s last and greatest work, published 

in 1638 by Elzevir, Discorsi e Dimostrazioni 

Matematiche is considered the first 

important discussion of modern physics. 

The use of the word “Elzevir” as a noun 

describing a “pocket-book” sized collector’s 

edition of the classics became quite 

commonplace in the educated circles of the 

late nineteenth century. 

9 


BUSINESS 

Bridging the gap between 

yourself and your Singaporean staff 

by Dr Marc van Loo 

Listening to (expatriate) managers and business owners talking to each 

other, or talking to me in my role as leadership consultant, it is perfectly 

clear there is a serious problem understanding local work ethics and/or 

how to deal with it. While few managers complain about their staff’s 

willingness to work hard, there are many complaints on employees’ 

perceived lack of willingness to take ownership, responsibility and 

initiative, and their alleged lack of ability to think creatively and 

critically, “out of the box”. 

In this article, I will argue that, while these 

perceptions have a basis in fact, they can be 

addressed by a manager who understands their 

origins and who is willing to act as a teacher. 

To begin with some history, most countries 

in the region decided some time ago that they 

wanted to build up a highly-educated population 

to stimulate economic development. The way that 

large parts of Asia, including Singapore, decided 

to achieve this objective is by adopting rigorous 

educational standards, against which everyone 

would be measured. The idea was that those who 

do well in the system should receive extra training 

and benefits (including automatic entry in the 

job-market in the earlier stages of development), 

as these people would be the front-runners in 

ensuring the country’s progress. 

This policy initiated a rat-race to achieve ‘the 

highest standard’ which has seen few winners 

and many losers. Unlike in most western systems, 

the system leaves very little room to stimulate 

and encourage students’ individual strengths, as 

everyone is held to the same standard. Since all 

parents want their students to attain the highest 

standards, there is typically disappointment with 

the 70% or so who do not qualify for junior college 

(called JC here, the entry point to university). But 

even for the “lucky” 30%, there is no peace: society 

looks at which particular JC the students go to, as 

some are considered ‘lousy’ and others ‘good’. And 

even if you are in a “good” JC, you will once again 

be ranked within your own school and pushed to 

attain the highest standard within the school. It 

is no surprise that this system generates people 

with low self-esteem. 

The central standards Singapore has adopted 

have by now generated their own dynamics. 

Parents are paranoid that their children lose out 

on opportunities and thus insist on across-the-board 

‘fairness’ which makes it even more difficult for a 

teacher to cater to students individually. Every 

teacher is expected to provide the students with 

identical opportunities. Thus, those tests and 

exams ‘that count’ are supposed to be given at 

the same time across the entire year. There is only 

one standard that matters and that is passing the 

final exam. The British A-level system adopted in 

Singapore is generally recognized to be a poor 

education system, in which success can be secured 

by practicing past papers (rather than gaining real 

understanding that allows a student to generate 

new knowledge). The educational focus in 

Singapore is hence sharply defined: pass the exam 

through endless practice of past papers. This 

system leaves no room for argument or personal 

opinion, and it does not demand creativity nor 

critical insight. Worse: not only does the system 

not encourage critical thinking, it tends to 

discourage it, as criticism of a teacher or superior 

is often portrayed as contrary to Asian values. 

Make no mistake about it. All Singaporeans 

know that this lack of critical feedback to the top 

is unproductive. Everyone has personal experience 

with the endless meetings where staff is forced to 

listen to their superiors talking nonsense for hours 

in a row. But rather than raising criticism (which is 

– often wrongly! – perceived to be against your best 

interest) everyone will keep mum, hoping that the 

meeting will end faster that way. The basis for this 

behavior is laid at school. Starting with the schoolsystem, 

society has conferred a high premium on 

following transparent protocols and procedures 

(also since this is viewed as an integral part of 

Singapore’s prided meritocracy). As long as you can 

follow a protocol, no-one can blame you, even if 

the protocol is obviously flawed. On the plus side, 

this has led to a generally extremely effective 

public service, which is magnificently swift in 

dealing with standard requests. But the system 

breaks down whenever you have an unusual 

request, not covered in the procedures. In that 

case the employee will generally not move forward 

unless clearance has been obtained from a superior. 

If your request is sufficiently complex, you can be 

in for a long wait unless you push through straight 

to the top. This system obviously places an 

enormous strain on the bosses, who are swamped 

with trivial issues not covered in procedures on 

which their feedback is needed. 

10 


BUSINESS 

While local bosses are often intensely 

frustrated with this as well, it is hard for them to 

see a way out, because there is no tradition in 

education that teaches people to make their own 

judgments and decisions. The whole concept of 

on-the-job-training is virtually non-existent here. 

Half an hour or less instruction is often regarded 

as sufficient for someone to start a new job. If the 

new staff gets stuck, they will ask someone else 

for the standard procedure, and if that doesn’t 

exist, they will pass the request on to a superior. 

To put things in international perspective, the 

system-centered model embraced by Singapore 

stands in stark contrast to the model of most 

Western countries and that of for instance the 

International Baccalaureate (“the IB” as it is 

popularly known), which increasingly emphasize 

the need to ‘put the student in the centre’. These 

systems set out to engage the student and connect 

the lesson material to the student’s personal 

experience. This involves a great deal of teacher 

autonomy: individual teachers can decide on their 

own lesson plans, the materials they use, the tests 

they set, and how they assess the students. The 

world’s most successful national education system 

is Finland’s, whose system that went furthest in 

this direction. This system has made the teacher 

fully autonomous. It has further introduced an 

assessment system where individual teachers 

measure progress relative to the individual 

student’s starting point. Its curriculum involves 

a great deal of problem solving as opposed to 

rote learning. 

There is an oft-repeated public misperception 

that the Asian insistence on high standards, while 

admittedly very stressful for the students, has 

at least produced people with superior skills in 

mathematics and science. The evidence, however, 

points to the contrary. Science and mathematics 

are based on the scientific method, in which 

constructive skepticism and criticism plays the 

key role next to unrestrained imagination, two 

areas that are emphatically not developed by the 

local system. Consequently, Asia underperforms 

in the area of scientific research, and foreign 

visiting scientists are often taken aback by the low 

standards of instruction at the national universities 

here. In a recently published ranking, it also 

transpired that private entrepreneurship in 

Singapore is extremely low compared to other 

countries (Singapore ranked 29 in a survey of 30 

countries). 

% 

100 

Societal Values: Asians and Americans 

90 

80 

70 

71 

82 

78 

85 

74 

60 

59 

59 

56 

52 

29 

50 

40 

30 

42 

37 

48 

27 

32 

49 

44 

29 

39 

47 

28 

20 

11 

10 

0 

Respect authority 

Majority decision 

11 

7 

7 

Harmony 

Orderly society 

Rights of Society 

Personal freedom 

New ideas 

Indiv. rights 

Consensus 

10 

4 

0 

Official account 

Private decisions 

Think for oneself 

Free expression 

Open debate 

Asians 

Americans 

Respondents asked to choose up to six of 14 values. Percentage of those values ending in top six are shown. 

Some of the differences in values are real 

David Hitchcock, Asian Values and the United States: How Much Conflict?, Washington, D.C.: The Center for Strategic and 

International Studies, 1994. 

11 


BUSINESS 

You will need to set aside a good deal of time to 

convince your staff that you appreciate it when you 

receive critical feedback, and that you do not see a 

mistake as a mortal sin, but rather as a learning 

opportunity for the future. Just saying this once or twice 

or even more often is not enough. You will need to act 

as a real trainer and educator. 

To conclude this long introduction, the 

problems are real and only partly based on a 

cultural misunderstanding. But that does not 

mean they cannot be addressed. In my personal 

experience as coordinator of Critical Thinking at 

Nanyang University and as a corporate trainer, I 

find that Singaporeans are extremely open to 

change, far more so than western students, who 

often falsely believe that in the area of behavior 

and personal opinions, there is little they can learn. 

But your personnel need to be fully clear on your 

expectations, and you will need to spend real time 

spelling out exactly what these are. You need to 

pepper these explanations with plenty of concrete 

examples of what you regard as desirable work 

behavior, as well of those where you feel the 

wrong principles were at work. Do not presume 

that saying for instance ‘I want you to take 

initiative’ is enough. For people who have no prior 

Dr Marc van Loo is owner and founder of LooLa Adventure Resort, 

http://loola.net, one of the region’s foremost experiential learning 

centers, and he helps Singapore-based companies and schools coping 

with change http://ib-help.com 

reference to this kind of request such a directive 

is meaningless. Some local institutions have begun 

to address this area of concern. SMU university for 

instance has decided to make ‘speaking out’ a 

formal part of the assessment, and the results 

show it: SMU students are now noticeable for their 

ability to provide critical feedback, even in the 

face of strong opposition. Likewise, Temasek 

Polytechnic has embraced a novel technique, 

pioneered by the university of Eindhoven, called 

Problem-Based Learning. Again, the results are very 

clear: Temasek’s students are very articulate, often 

much more so than their peers from university. 

You will need to set aside a good deal of time 

to convince your staff that you appreciate it when 

you receive critical feedback, and that you do not 

see a mistake as a mortal sin, but rather as a 

learning opportunity for the future. Just saying this 

once or twice or even more often is not enough. 

You will need to act as a real trainer and educator. 

Remember that your staff will generally be very 

quick to say they understand, but this does not 

mean anything (this is as true for your domestic 

helper as it is for most personnel in the office). 

Initially you will have to test this understanding, 

until your staff understands that not understanding 

you is not a problem, and that you really prefer an 

honest answer. Do not be afraid or embarrassed to 

set little tests, such as ‘summarize what I just said’ 

or ‘give me an example of what I just said’. Unlike 

many Westerners, few Singaporeans will take 

offense at this, especially if you can keep it light 

with a big smile (but you must insist!); in fact most 

people vastly prefer such clear instructions rather 

than having to go around work without clear 

protocols and being not sure of what you want. Of 

course you need to be very consistent. If you want 

to teach your staff to take decisions on their own 

and not come to you for every small matter, you 

will have to curb your criticism when they do so 

but make an unwelcome decision. In that case, 

you will have to act again as a teacher, showing 

your appreciation that your staff has taken 

initiative, while calmly explaining why you do not 

agree with the particular decision made. Acting 

like this ensures that your staff understands that 

you see this mistake as a learning opportunity. 

Once your personnel understand that you are 

serious and consistent in your expectations, they 

will rise to the occasion, and they will quickly 

inform one another. In this respect Singaporeans 

are the same as everyone else: they like to take 

pride in their work and they like to take ownership 

over their decisions. You just have to help letting 

them know that they can really do so, and that 

you are ready to help them achieve that. 

12 


WEB WIZARDS 

Learning English online special 

http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/ 

http://www.eslcafe.com/ 

This internationally well known English learning site was created 

by Dave Sperling in 1996 as a support to his ESL (English as a 

Second Language) classes in California. It is intended to help 

both ESL students and teachers. It offers sections on idiom, 

phrasal verbs, pronounciation, a help section, a very active 

forum where you can ask your questions on the English language. 

There’s nothing fancy about the look and feel of this site. 

But it is simple, fast, highly functional and highly interactive 

in keeping with the meeting place concept that has proven so 

successful. The help centre was one of the first sections of the 

site to open and it is still one of the most popular. Discussion 

forums are another popular feature that keeps people coming 

again and again. Dave Sperling has a team of volunteers – all 

teachers from around the world – to answer the questions 

which are largely about English grammar. It is the job centre 

which “pays the rent”. At present, there are two boards – one 

international and one specifically for Korea whose language 

schools have traditionally been among Dave’s best clients. 

Powered by the British Council this is quite a comprehensive 

website with a range of different target groups. Learn English 

is not designed for complete beginners in English or very 

advanced learners, but every learner in between should be 

able to find something they can understand and practise. You 

can test your grammar, vocabulary, reading and listening skills. 

The tests only consist of 9 questions though, and apart from 

their final verdict on your general level, no feedback is given 

at all. Apart from the section for adults, it has a section for 

children with games, songs and stories and several extras, like 

options to print flash cards. Quite peculiar but interesting is 

the section on military English which is supported by the British 

Ministry of Defense to support peace keeping operations. This 

offers a games section with games like: ‘Capture!: Can you run 

a covert operation?’ and ‘Scenario: For if you find yourself cut 

off in enemy territory’ but also tests your knowledge on 

international flags, maritime vocabulary and the NATO alphabet. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/index.shtml 

This web site also helps both teacher and student to broaden their 

knowledge on the English language. Throughout the site you will find 

short courses, quizzes, grammar, vocabulary, audio and video. The 

grammar and vocabulary section explains hundreds of common questions 

on grammar categorized in categories like ‘confusing words and 

expressions’, ‘conjunctions and clauses’, ‘verbs and tenses’ etc. In the 

section ‘Watch and listen’ you can listen to over a hundred excerpts 

each with a list that explains difficult words, downloads of the script 

and a comprehension or vocabulary quiz. These excerpts are divided 

in 6 categories like ‘london life’ with topics like ‘the smoking ban’, 

‘Japanese Londoners’, and ‘Margaret Thatcher’ and the category ‘The 

Blue Plaque’ which is about famous persons. The web site does not 

have too clear a structure, but contains a lot of interesting information 

is interactive with lots of downloads and exercises, and is updated 

every week. Definitely worth browsing. 

13 


Interview with Pim Kraan, 16 August 2006 

By Way Ying Lee 

The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands has a new 

employee: Pim Kraan, Counsellor/Deputy Head of Mission. He 

has taken over the position of Marcel van der Kolk, who after 

several years in Singapore has gone to the Permanent Mission 

to the European Council in Strassbourg. 

On Wednesday the 16 th of August we met Pim Kraan in his 

office on Orchard Road in the Liat Towers. Despite the fact 

that he has just arrived and had hardly any time to settle in, 

or to speak at length with the Ambassador (his Excellency 

Mr. Chris C. Sanders whom he is replacing already during his 

absence), Pim Kraan was looking very relaxed and he told us 

all about his fascinating career, about development and 

security politics of the Netherlands and more. Read all about 

it in the following interview. 

You have a very nice office up here? 

Yes, it has the best view I ever had. (red.: The office is at the 

13 th floor and has a clear view over a part of Orchard Road and 

we recognise the typical Chinese roof of the Marriot Hotel.) 

To readers of the ADB magazine it would be nice 

to get to know you a little bit. Can you tell us about 

yourself? 

Ten days ago my wife, Reineke, and I arrived in Singapore. We 

got married last April and our first child is on its way. Right 

now we are living in that serviced apartment (red.: Pim Kraan 

points out one of the tall buildings he can see from his office) 

and are busy looking for a house. 

Even though we love to travel and have seen many countries 

(nb last year September I proposed to Reineke on a hill top 

in Zimbabwe), we have never been to Singapore. I did travel 

however in many countries in the region like Vietnam, Myanmar, 

Laos, Thailand and China. 

One of my other hobbies is photography. Many pictures of 

mine of the numerous trips over the globe are now at sea in 

the container with our furniture and other belongings. 

If you have never been to Singapore before, why 

did you choose to live and work here? 

Even though we had never been here, we pretty much knew 

what we could expect. Singapore is known for its 

safety, cleanliness and excellent medical facilities 

of course. And besides being a large and modern 

city, it is also very green. As parents-to-be we 

feel that these things are very important. 

What does an Embassy 

Counsellor do? 

In general I am responsible 

for the supervision of 

the Embassies various 

sections, like the 

chancery where visa, passports and other official documents 

are being issued, as well as the administration and finance 

sections. And I am head of the economics department within 

the Embassy. The Embassy provides assistance to companies 

both in Singapore and in the Netherlands for market access and 

sales. Sometimes, companies in Holland just want to find out 

what the conditions are for production or regional sales, or they 

are looking for associate business partners. Often we only have 

to give the names of companies in the required target group. 

But we also try to stimulate the development of bilateral 

cooperation in certain fields, like research and development, 

bio-tech, water management etc. 

If the Ambassador is out of the country or otherwise is not 

available for certain duties, I will be replacing him. But of 

course, I am still new on the block and still fully occupied 

finding my way. 

It is said that Singapore is the place for Ambassadors 

to end their career since their retirement in fact 

starts here. Do you think working at the Embassy 

based in Singapore is an easy job? 

(Laughing) Of course it makes a difference to be working in a 

place like Singapore compared to, for instance, London or 

Beijing. If I were to go to London I would probably not be the 

deputy head of mission, but I would be first secretary or so. 

That has to do most with the size of the Embassy, rather than 

the post being easy or not. For an Ambassador every posting 

has its own challenges and difficulties and working in Asia -as 

you all know- is different from Europe or Africa. So it’s hard 

to compare. But Singapore is a much wanted and rather 

comfortable posting, I would say. 

Is it your ambition to become an Ambassador? 

For many years I have been in a different line of work. The last 

10 years at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague. This is 

my first experience in this particular setting. I am anxious to 

learn all there is to know about this job as Counsellor and am 

very interested in Dutch trade with Singapore. So I have time 

and we’ll see what the next 4 years will bring. And after that… 

nobody knows! Although I do have ambitions, that is not what 

is on my mind right now. 

Can you tell us about your previous professional life? 

I have been working for a number of companies, among them: 

Philips in Apeldoorn (the Netherlands) and a small scale company 

selling fasteners, like screws, nuts and bolts. I studied an MBA 

Business Administration and in 1990 decided to work for the 

emergency aid organisation Doctors without Borders (Médécins 

sans Frontières (MSF)). For about 4 years I worked in war torn 

and disaster areas. I started in Turkey and Iraq during the 1 st 

Golf war, went to Liberia, Bangladesh, Mexico, Azerbaidjan, 

Ivory Coast, Uganda, Angola and Rwanda. 

As a logistician and coordinator I was responsible for the 

technical and operational support of medical programmes, and 

later on the overall management. At some point I joined the 

Belgian counterpart of the organization, because at their 

activities in Ruanda during the genocide, all Belgian and 

14 


French staff had to leave the country for security reasons and 

because of my Dutch nationality, it was convenient that I took 

over the management of the entire operation. That was a 

particularly difficult time. 

It was there during my last posting in Ruanda that I met Jan 

Pronk (red.: former Minister for Development Cooperation). That 

was in 1994. We met in Uganda and spoke at length about the 

situation in Ruanda. Both in humanitarian, political terms and 

with regard to human rights. After that encounter he and I stayed 

in touch. When a posting in The Hague (the Netherlands) came 

up 2 years later, I applied and became Policy Advisor in the 

Humanitarian Aid Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 

2000 I became Emergency Aid Expert in the same division and 

in 2003 I was promoted to the position of Deputy Division Head. 

In these positions, I had to decide what the best way was to 

provide aid to the needy in each and every emergency situation 

where the Kingdom of the Netherlands was expected to provide 

aid. Sometimes that required innovative thinking. For instance: 

when a request came for helicopters from Mozambique during 

the disastrous floods in 2000, we couldn’t make use of the Dutch 

military helicopter fleet, because it simply would take too long 

to get them there into operation. We found the solution in quickly 

donating money to a neighbouring country that was already 

providing air rescue services, so they could buy the necessary 

fuel for their helicopters and finish the rescue within 48 hours. 

We (red.: Ministry of Foreign Affairs) basically answer all relevant 

requests for emergency assistance, but every time it is a 

challenge to look for the best solution, not the most obvious. 

The budget for humanitarian aid is about €240 million 

this year, like last year, and that is mainly because of large 

scale sudden-onset disasters like the Tsunami, the earthquakes 

in Pakistan and Java, flooding in Surinam, food shortages 

throughout Africa, etc, etc. 

In the Netherlands we hear many complaints about 

the fact that the Netherlands contributes relatively 

a large sum to development cooperation compared 

to other (larger) countries. Do you think one is too 

negative about this subject? 

Yes, some parties use this subject for their gain in the political 

arena and influence the media. But that’s the way it works in 

politics. I personally don’t mind, because I know that we are 

doing the right thing. Maybe it sounds like a lot, but I do not 

think that 0.8% of Gross National Product is a lot, compared to 

the 99,2 % that’s spend on other things in the national budget. 

Besides that, I strongly believe that, if we make sure we 

contribute the right way, we all benefit; not only the recipient 

countries, but ourselves as well. Because poverty, conflicts, 

disasters and the exclusion of big groups of people from the 

global economy are real sources of, for instance, terrorism. 

Development Cooperation can also have a direct and positive 

impact on global stability and so on the investment climate for 

(Dutch) companies. That’s why the Dutch minister for Dev Co 

and Defence are working so closely together. 

Furthermore it is important to know, that even though 

for instance humanitarian aid can cost a lot of money, the 

spin-off can be even greater. A recent example is the hurricane 

catastrophe in New Orleans: our Ministry of Transport, Public 

Works and Water Management was asked by my former division 

to send an emergency pumping unit and specialised personnel 

(by the way, governments all over the world acknowledge the 

expertise and specific skills of this Ministry and seek their help 

in all kind of water related problems). Thanks to their actions 

Dutch companies got a direct spin-off of $30 million worth of 

contracts, and more is expected! That was not foreseen when 

we decided to provide the aid. 

As you will have noticed, I like to think out of the box and 

explore ways of cooperation between actors, to the benefit of 

all involved. An attitude that could assist me in my position 

as economic counsellor. 

Returning to Singapore, in a few weeks the IMF/WB 

annual meeting will be held in Singapore. Is the 

Dutch embassy involved in this event? 

Yes, however not directly. This event is organised by the 

International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. These 

institutions, together with the authorities here, are responsible 

for the invitations, the hotel reservations, traffic, security, 

everything. Of course we will be involved with the Dutch 

delegation among whom Minister Zalm of Finance, Minister van 

Ardenne of Development Cooperation and Mr. Wellink (director 

of the Dutch National Bank). 

Finally Mr. Kraan, how do you see the future of the 

Dutch community and yourself in Singapore? 

Well, for me it is a little early to say too much on this subject, 

but economically spoken a growth is expected. Several years 

ago a number of companies decided to move to China in order 

not to miss out on ‘the action of the world biggest market’. In 

their hurry to be part of all this, there were companies who 

didn’t take the time to investigate whether it would be the 

best for the company to be located in China, or if f.i. Vietnam 

was a better place for their product or production. Some have 

already returned to Singapore and others may follow. 

As for myself, I am looking forward to meeting as many of 

the ADB members I can, to get to know them and their 

businesses, as well as the colleagues of the other Embassies 

and the Singaporeans that I will be both professionally and 

privately involved with. Me and my wife are very much looking 

forward to our time in Singapore. 

15 


SINGAPORE 

Delft Hydraulics in Singapore 

Introduction 

Delft Hydraulics is a leading water and 

environmental research and specialist consultancy 

institute that has established a foothold worldwide 

in water management and related fields. Some 

of Delft’s recent major projects include the 

development of flood simulation models for 

Hurricane Katrina in the US as well as hydrodynamic, 

morphological and environmental studies related 

to Venice Lagoon (Italy), the flood barrier near 

St. Petersburg (Russia) and the Palm Islands, 

among others. 

By Tjitte Nauta 

WL | Delft Hydraulics 

Established in 1927 and based in Delft, Delft Hydraulics is an independent 

institute for specialised advice and applied water related research. Our 

350 qualified employees provide consultancy services to Dutch and 

foreign clients ranging from policy support to design and technical 

assistance in areas such as offshore regions, coasts, harbours, estuaries, 

rivers and canals as well as industrial flow processes. Delft Hydraulics 

also develops high-end software products that are sold and applied 

worldwide. Clients include national and regional government, district 

water boards, multi-lateral financial managers and commercial interests 

including engineering firms, contractors and industry. 

Experience in Singapore 

Delft Hydraulics has been providing professional 

services to a range of government authorities in 

Singapore. We are particularly proud of the good 

working relationship with Housing and Development 

Board (HDB) related to assisting their Research & 

Planning Department for various investigations 

related to existing and planned land reclamation 

projects. 

This relationship also led to establishment 

of stronger ties with a number of academic and 

professional institutions in Singapore, such as 

with Tropical Marine Science Institute of National 

University Singapore and Surbana International 

Consultants. These agreements were forged 

in order to promote scientific and technical 

cooperation as well as to identify joint commercial 

opportunities. As a result, the international 

expertise of Delft Hydraulics has got synergetically 

combined with the experience, expertise and local 

knowledge of engineers and scientists in Singapore. 

Most of the studies undertaken by Delft 

Hydraulics in Singapore are related to impact 

assessments upon hydrodynamics, water quality, 

navigation, hydrology and ecology. Due to the 

multidisciplinary nature of these studies it has 

Lay-out of a detailed computer model grid 

established to perform studies on water 

movements surrounding Singapore 

also been necessary to facilitate workshops and 

discussions with representatives of related agencies 

like Public Utilities Board (PUB), Maritime & Port 

Authority (MPA), National Environment Agency 

(NEA), National Parks Board (NParks), Agri-food and 

Veterinary Authority (AVA), Ministry of National 

Development (MND), Attorney General’s Chambers 

(AGC), and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). This 

has proved invaluable for incorporating the 

interests of the Government of Singapore and other 

local stakeholders into a well-balanced framework 

for analysis of potential impacts and investigation 

of possible mitigatory measures where necessary. 

Delft Hydraulics and Marina Bay 

More recently, Delft Hydraulics has started 

working directly for PUB Singapore. PUB is 

statutory board responsible for Singapore’s water 

supply, management of water catchment and 

sewerage in an integrated fashion. 

By commission of the PUB, WL | Delft Hydraulics 

is developing a water quality management plan for 

Marina Bay / Reservoir, which will shortly be closed 

off from the sea by the construction of a barrage. 

Located in the Central Business District of the city 

of Singapore, the new reservoir will not only play 

an important role in the drinking water supply and 

flood control, but will also be used for recreational 

purposes. 

By performing water quality assessment and 

modelling studies, Delft Hydraulics will map out 

the transition process from an estuarine into 

a freshwater system. Within the study Delft 

Hydraulics will create a framework for an 

operational water quality management system. 

16 


SINGAPORE 

Catchment of Marina Bay (10,000 ha or 1/6 of Singapore) 

Using this innovative and advanced system, water 

managers will be able to intervene more efficiently 

in order to maintain the required water quality. 

With the development of such a dynamic 

model, it will be possible to simulate the conditions 

of the Marina Reservoir even before the barrage is 

completed. This will in turn allow PUB to predict 

the behaviour of the water under different 

scenarios and varying conditions, in order to help 

plan and take any necessary measures in advance. 

The project will have a duration of 2.5 years 

and the project costs are expected to total 2.4 

million euro. Both the National University of 

Singapore (NUS) and the Tropical Marine Science 

Institute (TMSI) are cooperating with Delft 

Hydraulics on monitoring related aspects of the 

Marina Reservoir project. 

Centre of Excellence for Water 

Knowledge 

Through an initiative of the National Research 

Foundation in Singapore, WL | Delft Hydraulics 

has been asked to act as a strategic partner for 

innovative research in the field of water and the 

environment. To this end, Delft Hydraulics has 

signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the 

Public Utilities Board (PUB) in Singapore and the 

National University of Singapore. This collaboration 

will focus on the development of knowledge 

and the exchange of knowledge in the fields of 

water management, hydraulic engineering and 

the urban water cycle. 

The centre aims to embark in cutting edge 

research to serve the needs not only of Singapore 

but more importantly of the region and beyond. 

The Memorandum of Understanding marked the 

start of a Delft-Singapore alliance, paving the 

way for collaboration in multi-institutional and 

interdisciplinary research, information exchange and 

technology transfer related to water management, 

hydraulic engineering and urban water cycles. 

Specifically, the centre will engage in: 

• Applied R&D in collaboration with Research 

Institutes from both the Netherlands and 

Singapore; 

• Fundamental R&D activities encompassing 

post-doctoral, Ph.D. and M.Sc. level research; 

• Development of professional training courses for 

local and regional utilities/industry in the form 

of executive programmes and short courses. 

The Centre will also provide a platform for 

other Dutch Research Institutes and Universities 

to collaborate with Singapore Universities and 

research institutes. 

Branch office 

As a result of its increased activities Delft Hydraulics 

has decided to strengthen its local presence and 

set up a branch office in Singapore. 

Contact and Additional Information 

Mr. Tony Minns – Regional Manager (Tony.Minns@wldelft.nl) 

Mr. Tjitte Nauta – Project Manager Marina Bay (Tjitte.Nauta@wldelft.nl) 

Mr. Vladan Babovic –Singapore Representative (Babovic@wldelft.nl) 

Ms. Visnja Coric – Singapore Office Manager (Visnja.Coric@wldelft.nl) 

Website: www.wldelft.nl 

17 


SINGAPORE 

World Press Photo Exhibition back 

After a successful exhibition in Singapore in 

2002, The World Press Photo Exhibition will 

be back in September! These prize-winning 

photos capture the most powerful, moving and 

sometimes disturbing events of the year 2005. 

The World Press Photo Exhibition is the result 

of the largest and most prestigious annual press 

photography contest in the world. The World Press 

Photo of the Year (the main overall prize) is often 

referred to as the ‘Oscar of Photography’. After 

the contest, the prize-winning photographs are 

assembled into a travelling exhibition. The World 

Press Photo Exhibition exists just over 50 years 

and it has come to be regarded as the most 

prestigious award for photojournalism in the 

world. The travelling exhibition is visited by 

over 2 million people in about 50 countries. 

World Press Photo’s mission is to encourage high 

professional standards in photojournalism and 

to promote a free and unrestricted exchange 

of information. The exhibition aims to support 

professional press photography on a wide 

international scale. Promotional activities include 

an annual contest, exhibitions, the stimulation of 

photojournalism through educational programs, 

and creating greater visibility for press photography 

through a variety of publications. 

World Press Photo Foundation 

To get a better insight into some aspects of 

the exhibition, I spoke with Michiel Munneke, 

Managing Director, and Marc Prüst, Head of 

Exhibitions at the World Press Photo Foundation. 

Who decides who will be the chairman of the 

jury? Michiel Munneke: “The chairperson of the 

World Press Photo jury is decided upon by a small 

committee that consults former jury members and 

the secretary of the jury. The chairperson must 

have served on a World Press Photo jury before 

and must have an outstanding reputation within 

the international photojournalistic community.” 

What are the criteria for the jury to decide what 

photographs will win? Michiel Munneke explained: 

“The jury has basically two sets of values to judge 

press photography: values related to the visual 

art (dealing primarily with the visual element - 

the aestatics - of the image) and journalistic 

values that focus on the content. Does the 

photograph have a clear structure and a strong 

Did you know? 

• World Press Photo Foundation is based in Amsterdam 

• 4,448 Professional photographers (122 countries) submitted photographs 

for the ‘06 contest 

• With a record number of entries: 83,044 images 

• 96% of all images are submitted in digital format 

• The exhibition consists of approximately 200 photographs 

• Prizes are awarded in 10 theme categories 

(Spot News, General News, People in the News, Sports Action, Sports 

Features, Contemporary Issues, Daily Life, Portraits, Arts and 

Entertainment and Nature) 

• The exhibition travels to over 50 countries around the world & is visited 

by 2 million people. 

Edmond Terakopian, United Kingdom, 

Press Association 

London underground bomb attack survivor, London 

18 


SINGAPORE 

in Singapore 

By 

Sascha Roosen 

composition? Is the cropping and 

use of colour adequate? Does it 

have any stopping power, is the 

eye being seduced by beauty or 

any other visual quality? And on the 

journalistic side is the message clear 

and relevant? Does it come across?” 

Another question I asked both men 

was why the premier award, the 

World Press Photo of the Year, is 

usually of a dramatic event? Is this 

done on purpose to attract a larger 

audience? Michiel indicates that this 

is not the case, but that the World 

Press Photo of the Year is chosen, 

because of its photographic merits 

and journalistic value! Marc adds 

that the overall winning award is 

presented to the photographer 

whose image, which is selected from 

all entries, represents an event, 

situation or issue of great journalistic importance 

in that year and demonstrates an outstanding 

level of visual perception and creativity. It is 

up to the jury to decide what image fits this 

description best. 

To get a better idea about some of the logistics of 

their programs, I asked why the exhibition is still 

not seen in every country of the world? Marc Prüst, 

Head of Exhibitions: “The exhibition can be seen 

at more then 90 venues in more then 50 countries 

this year. All continents (except Antarctica) will 

be hosting the exhibition. Mainly in countries with 

less developed economies it is more challenging 

to show the exhibition. World Press Photo asks 

for a rental fee for the exhibition in order to cover 

the costs it makes for production and shipment 

of the materials. In general this rental fee has to 

be raised locally which makes it difficult to show 

the exhibition in certain regions. Thanks to the 

support of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign 

Affairs, World Press Photo is able to organise 

educational programs in the countries with less 

developed media structures. Furthermore, as 

part of these programs, the annual exhibition is 

also shown.” 

Does the exhibition stimulate photographers 

worldwide to upgrade their own quality? 

According to Marc, “The exhibition allows the 

Finbarr O’Reilly, Canada, Reuters 

World Press Photo of the Year 

Mother and child at emergency feeding center, Tahoua, Niger 

visitors to see a varied collection of photography 

of high quality. By seeing these images, visitors 

might get a better understanding of what is 

possible within the world of photography, and 

what are some of the developments within 

photojournalism. However, ultimately, it is up to 

the individual photographer to develop himself 

and to find the right stories.” 

Asked about the workshop & educational programs 

which are organised by the world Press Photo, 

Marc Prüst explained. “The goals of the World 

Press Photo seminar programs are twofold. On 

the one hand they concern the training of local 

photojournalists; on the other the goal is to 

strengthen the local training capacity of the local 

organisation in the field of photojournalism. This 

means that for each seminar World Press Photo 

tries to identify a professional and dedicated 

local organisation that has a sustainable mode of 

operation. These organisations must have shown 

interest in support of the (photo) journalistic 

community through previously organized 

programs. Furthermore they must have a clear 

and specific interest in further developing their 

training activities in the field of photojournalism. 

It is important to note that the local organisations 

that World Press Photo cooperates with remain 

totally independent. They do not become the local 

agents or representatives for the Foundation. 

19 


SINGAPORE 

Pål Hermansen, Norway, for Orion Forlag/Getty Images 

Polar bear, Svalbard 

Kieran Dodds, United Kingdom, Evening Times/The Herald 

Fruit bats, Kasanka National Park, Zambia 

A question that has intrigued me for some time is 

why Singaporean photographers hardly ever win 

a prize? According to Marc is it hard to give specific 

reasons why photographers from certain countries 

do not win prizes in contests like World Press 

Photo. “Obviously, World Press Photo is a contest 

for which photographers or editors have to enter 

work. Work that is not entered cannot win prizes. 

However, as the jury sees the images without 

knowledge of the name of the photographer, there 

is no reason why photographers from Singapore 

cannot win.” 

Asked what his favourite photograph is, Michiel 

Munneke replied: “There is no single image I 

consider my favourite. In general I am intrigued 

by photographs that trigger my imagination and 

teach me something. Or photographs that raise 

questions instead of answering them. In this year’s 

contest I am extremely moved by the series of 

photographs of a young Hungarian photographer 

Tamas Deszo who paints the life of ordinary 

Romanian people. His intimate photo essay won 

2nd prize in the daily life category”. Come check 

this out for yourself at the exhibition. 

Local support of exhibition 

World Press Photo receives support from the Dutch 

Postcode Lottery and is sponsored worldwide by 

Canon and TNT. The exhibition in Singapore was 

made possible with local support from Rabobank 

International & Lee Foundation. Asked why the 

Rabobank wants to sponsor such an event, Mr. 

Fergus Murphy, Head of Asia Region, commented: 

“The Rabobank is proud to bring the World 

Press Photo to Singapore. As a socially responsible 

and involved bank, Rabobank is committed to 

contribute to achieving these goals. It is put into 

practice by Rabobank’s funding and sponsoring 

activities, our support of volunteer work and 

alliances with other organisations in the 

Netherlands and abroad. We are extremely 

happy as main local sponsor to play our role in 

encouraging as many people as possible to enjoy 

art and culture. Since its establishment, we have 

always been a bank of and for the people and 

therefore, Rabobank’s support of the World Press 

Photo contributes to bringing people closer to 

art and culture and confirms Rabobank’s leading 

and (culturally) involved image’. 

Date : 8 – 28 September 2006 

Time : 10 am - 9 pm (daily) 

Location : National Library 

100 Victoria Street 

Level 7 and 8 

The Promenade 

Admission : Free 

Co-organised by: Roosen Eventures and Embassy 

of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. If you want 

to buy a 2006 World Press Photo Yearbook, 

please call: 6465 7592. 

For more information: www.worldpressphoto.com 

20 


MONEY 

The psychology of Investing 

Jeroen is Managing Director 

of Blue Anchor Consulting, 

a Financial Consulting, 

Advice and Intermediation 

Firm and can be reached at 

jeroen.thijs@gmail.com 

Recently I came across the following quote 

“Neither basic value nor news events provide the genuine catalysts for market movements. Rather, 

price changes are psychological in nature, the predictable result of large numbers of buyer’s and 

seller’s predispositions toward those values and news events.” 

This makes a lot of sense to me. I have always questioned the basic economic theory regarding the 

valuation of individual stocks. Perhaps over the longer term there is something like a fair value of a 

company’s stock given its earning potential discounted at the relevant risk adjusted rate. But if we all 

agree that a stock should be valued at a certain price, or at least a price within a certain range, how 

could we explain the extreme volatility? Does the value of the underlying business and business potential 

change every hour, day, week? Obviously not. The reason that stock prices move is that buyers and 

sellers of that stock continuously adjust to the expected value of a business given new company specific 

and general market events. Rarely does a daily or even monthly move in a specific stock price relate to 

a fundamental change in the underlying business of that company. 

This is where it gets tricky. The long term investor can only be successful if he ignores the volatility 

of a stock or sector and only takes decisions with respect to his portfolio when a change in fundamentals 

of the individual stock or sector gives him a reason to do so. In other words, it pays to ignore the noise. 

Unfortunately, even though many investors claim that they are long-term investors, their actual 

behaviour is often not in line with that statement. 

Let me give you an example. After long deliberation, a client agreed to invest part of his portfolio 

in a precious metals fund with a 5-year investment horizon. Unfortunately, the investment was effected 

at an intermediate peak in the current precious metals bull market and the fund went down by over 

10% the next couple of days. The client got pretty nervous and was on the phone with his advisor daily 

to check the performance. He even considered taking his loss and walk away. The agreed 5-year 

investment was quickly forgotten. 

Our brain is hard-wired to focus on the short term. Although traditional economists argue that 

money has no direct utility, rather it is held to have indirect utility (i.e. it can be used to purchase 

other goods, which do provide utility), neuroscientists have found that the brain does anticipate 

money rewards just the same as other ‘rewards’ such as drugs and alcohol. In other words, when we 

decide to part with our cash in order to invest, we expect instant gratification in terms of the price 

of the asset to rise straight away. 

This is just one of the many psychological issues that we encounter in investing. As I am personally a 

much more active investor than average (some call it trading), I have experienced and am still experiencing 

many cognitive biases that are affecting my ultimate return. I have a come across over 25 cognitive 

biases over the past couple of years, but let me share a few of the most pervasive ones with you. I am 

pretty convinced that many have experienced some or all of them during their own investing career. 

Confirmation bias 

This represents the tendency for people to seek out information that supports something that they 

already believe and, potentially more damaging, ignore or undervalue information that contradicts this 

belief. This is very pervasive in human beings and extremely difficult to control or counteract. If you are 

a strong believer that the current geopolitical tensions in the world, coupled with inflation potentially 

spiralling out of control will have a devastating effect on the stock markets for the years to come, then 

22 


MONEY 

you will most likely read a lot of articles that confirms this view. If you accidentally come across evidence 

that contradicts this view, then you will hold it to a much higher standard of proof and seek out a 

rationalisation from one of your sources that you already agree with. This kind of behaviour can be very 

expensive, as the market really does not care about your view. You might be right, but as John Maynard 

Keynes famously mentioned, you can be right longer than you can remain solvent. The right and only 

way to invest is to form an opinion and then seek out all the information you can find to contradict 

that opinion. If after that research you are still convinced that you are right, then you might well be. 

Herd bias 

As the name implies, herd bias is the tendency of people to believe in a certain stock or market trend, 

simply because other people, especially peers, do even in the presence of contradictory evidence. 

There are an abundant number of examples in history confirming this bias, such as the Dutch tulip 

mania, the railway boom and the internet boom. Behavioural finance specialists give various reasons for 

this behaviour. One is that people don’t trust their own judgement and look for guidance from others 

and so-called specialists. A More powerful reason might be that people feel much less bad about a wrong 

decision if the reference group suffers the same fate (i.e. massive losses). Realising this bias can greatly 

help your investment results albeit not that simple. For instance, if you did not believe the recent internet 

hype and did not invest, eventually you would have been vindicated. However, you would have had to 

endure great psychological abuse for more than 2 years as you would not have been part of the ‘in’-crowd 

and saw peers amass great sums of (temporary) wealth. It is not easy to be rational in such an environment. 

Anchoring 

This is the common human tendency for people to rely heavily on one piece of information when making 

a decision. In investing this usually refers to the current price of a stock or price development over the 

very recent history. Especially stock analysts are very good at that. They rarely like to make bold 

predictions but heavily rely on recent data to extrapolate into the future. If a stock is currently trading 

around $100 and I would ask you to predict the possible price of that stock in a year’s time, the answer 

would very likely be close to that $100. Depending on the recently observed volatility you might answer 

within a range of $80-$120. Would it surprise you if a year later this particular stock would trade at $5? 

If you were ever invested during the technology boom, then you know very well that this is not an 

exaggeration. Another very dangerous result of the anchoring bias is the fact that we have been in a 

long-term bull market in stocks. Most investors have not experienced very long and damaging bear 

markets. We might well be in one now, but most investors don’t see it given the very powerful bear 

market rallies, such as the one we have had over the past 3 years. When some analysts tout that the 

Dow Jones Industrial might well go down to 5000 over the next couple of years, most of us think that 

this is just impossible given the fact that the DJI is now around 11,000. 

Overconfidence 

This bias speaks for itself. If you have had a string of good results, you might attribute these wins to 

skill and become overconfident. This might lead to overtrading, taking on higher risks and eventually 

be susceptible to big losses. 

Can we learn from our biases? 

Now that we know and understand our biases, we can learn from them and become much better investors, 

right? Well, not necessarily. There is abundant research that we fail to learn form our past failures and 

tend to make the same mistakes over and over again. 

A good example is a simple investment game devised by Bechara et al. Each player gets $20. They 

have to make a decision on each round of the game, either to invest $1 or not to invest. If the player 

decides to invest, he has got to hand over $1 and the game master will toss a coin. If it is heads, the 

player wins $2.50, tails, he loses the coin. Overall 20 rounds are played. 

After playing 50 games (50 times 20 rounds) with a group of people, the results were that there was 

no evidence of learning as the game went on. If players learnt over time, they would have worked out 

that it was optimal to invest in all rounds as the expected value of 20 rounds is 20*(50%*$2.50+50%*$0)=$25. 

However as the game went on, players actually stopped playing earlier, becoming worse as time went on. 

According to behavioural psychlogists, the major reason that we don’t learn from our mistakes is 

due to the self-attribution bias. This is the tendency for good outcomes to be attributed to skill 

and adverse outcomes to sheer bad luck. This mechanism prevents us from recognizing mistakes 

as mistakes, and hence often prevents us from learning from these errors. An ex Goldman Sachs trader 

The long term 

investor 

can only be 

successful 

if he ignores 

the volatility 

of a stock or 

sector and only 

takes decisions 

with respect to 

his portfolio 

when a change 

in fundamentals 

of the 

individual 

stock or sector 

gives him a 

reason to do 

so. In other 

words, it pays 

to ignore the 

noise. 

23 


MONEY 

is a bit more explicit. He calls the investor’s brain a ‘lizard’ brain, “a brain that was designed to help 

our ancestors hunt for food, daily survival stuff. But by its very nature, investing requires us to be 

forward looking, to anticipate events. Our lizard brains, however, are designed to look backward. 

Thus the lizard brain causes us to be optimistic at market peaks (after rises) and to be pessimistic at 

market bottoms (after falls).” 

Given the fact that the biases are strongly present in our investing and also given the fact that we 

don’t really seem to learn from them, i.e. we tend to make the same mistakes over and over again, it is 

no surprise that the average investor loses in the markets. The smart money, i.e. the large professional 

investors, probably make most of their money by exploiting the amateur investor and his biases. It takes 

significant discipline to trade the markets. You need to be unemotional in your buy and sell activities. 

How often have you taken a profit too quickly, only to see the stock rise another 50% over the next 

couple of months? Equally, how often have you failed to take losses early on in the hope that your 

position would recover, only to experience losses that were unimaginable? My recommendation would 

be that most if us are better of by leaving investment decisions to the professionals and stop looking 

at the value of our portfolio on a daily basis. Readjust your portfolio when a fundamental shift in the 

underlying business, sector or economy gives you a reason to do so. These shifts occur a lot less often 

than you might think. 

Disclaimer: All statements and expressions are the opinion of the writer and are not meant to be 

investment advice or solicitation or recommendation to establish market positions. It is strongly 

advised that readers conduct their own thorough research relevant to decisions and verify facts 

from various independent sources. 

24 


BUSINESS NEWS 

Source: Het Financieele Dagblad 

Value Getronics now 

below Ordina after 

stock price dive 

Getronics lost 355 million euro in market 

value in two trading days at Euronext 

Amsterdam, just below the total market 

value of Unit 4 Agresso. Before the dive 

Getronics was worth 973 million euro, 

now only 618 million at the lowest point 

of the day (3 rd of August). 

With this Getronics now is valued less 

than Ordina, the IT-company with which it 

battled for PinkRoccade in 2004. Ordina is 

now valued at 620 million euro and gained 

15,7% this year where Getronics lost 55,8%. 

Getronics stock reached its lowest level 

since 2003 at 5,02 euro and lost 36,5% 

in two trading days. In two days 39 million 

shares or 30% of all shares Getronics, 

changed ownership. 

After publication of the quarterly 

results, which signaled a higher dept and 

capital flow, as well as lower than expected 

results and expectations, a number of 

securities institutions have downgraded 

the stock. 

Credit assessment bureau Moody’s has 

lowered Getronics credit rating to B2 and 

announced it would possibly lower it again. 

The company now is only two steps away 

from the ‘default’ category. 

For the 100 million convertible bonds 

for 2008, Moody’s has lowered the rating 

from B3 to Caa1, the highest rate in the 

‘default’ category. This category is 

understood to mean there is a direct risk 

that the company that was granted the 

loan will not be able to repay the loan or 

settle the interest payments. 

By lowering the rating it will be more 

expensive for Getronics to borrow. In some 

cases the ‘default’ rating means that banks 

can claim their loans or make additional 

demands in terms of pledge, depending 

on the contract. 

Results below expectations 

Getronics posted a net loss of 41 million 

euro in the first half of this year. This is 

attributed to the 57 million euro book value 

loss on the Italian activities. Last year a 

net loss of 14 million euro was posted in 

the same period due to take over cost for 

Pink Roccade. 

The company earnings (ebita) came to 

34 million euro. Revenue amounted to 1.342 

million euro. The ebitae-margin was 2,5%. 

According to Getronics lower profitability 

was partly caused by continuing price 

pressure, a higher use of external contractors 

and some poor performing contracts. Further 

more, the company suffered from the loss 

of substantial parts of two large contracts 

in North-America. 

Heineken falls out of world brands 

top 100 

Heineken has fallen from the top-100 of 

most valuable brands in the world. Last 

year the beer brewer just stayed in at 

the number 100 spot. 

This follows from a list published by 

American business magazine Business Week. 

Bank insurance company ING and Philips 

– the best ranked Dutch brand – stay in the 

top 100 through better achievements this 

year compared to last year. Philips even 

rose from spot 53 to 48 and is one of the 

bigger gainers in the list. The company now 

has a brand value of $ 6.7 billion. 

‘Stimulated by the success of its 

medical systems, and high tech consumer 

electronics, Philips’ focus on cutting edge 

and user friendly products is paying of’, 

according to the researchers. ‘Last year 

Philips kept focusing on the main brand, 

with more emphasis on the Philips name 

in product brands like Norelco (shavers 

in the US) and Sonicare (electronic 

toothbrushes).’ 

According to Andrea Ragnetti, ‘chief 

marketing officer’ with Philips, the strong 

rise in the ranking proves ‘that our brand 

promise “sense and simplicity” is bringing 

about a change in how the world sees and 

experiences Philips.’ 

In comparison to competitors, Philips’ 

brand value still has some way to improve. 

The Samsung brand is worth $ 16 billion, 

Sony accounts to $ 11.7 billion and Siemens 

is attributed a value of $ 7.8 billion. 

Next to Philips, ING performed better 

then last year. The bank/insurer now ranks 

Train travelers can watch television on 

all intercity’s of Dutch Rail. In December 

the NS, together with telecom company 

KPN, wants to equip the first trains with 

television. In total there are over 1200 

carriages to be equipped with both 

television and wireless internet. 

This was announced by both companies. 

A spokesperson of NS said that the contract 

details would still have to be negotiated 

with KPN. 

Travelers will get up-to-date travel 

info on intercity’s in the near future like 

arrival times and transfer possibilities. 

News, updated throughout the journey, 

and entertainment will also be offered. 

NS and KPN decided to introduce train 

television in the intercity’s after a 

successful trail earlier this year. Passengers 

85 th , two spots up from last year. The 

financial institution owes this ascend to 

its ‘no-nonsense’ approach. According to 

Business Week and Interbrand, it will 

prove to be difficult for ING to keep up this 

image as financial products become more 

complex. 

The value of Dutch-British company 

Shell stayed approximately the same and 

ranks 89 th . 

Coca Cola is the most valuable brand 

of 2006. The soft drink producer tops the 

BusinessWeek/Interbrand ranking with a 

value of 67 billion dollar. Software maker 

Microsoft and computer company IBM rank 

second and third, just like last year. 

Internet company Google is the fastest 

riser on the 24 th spot. According to Business 

Week, its brand value increased 46% last 

year, thanks to its ‘do no evil’ strategy. 

Brand value is measured according a 

model that amongst others calculates what 

part of the company revenue and earnings 

is directly related to the brand. 

Ranking: 

1. Coca-Cola $ 67 mrd 

2. Microsoft $ 57 mrd 

3. IBM $ 56 mrd 

4. GE $ 49 mrd 

5. Intel $ 32 mrd 

48. Philips $ 6,7 mrd 

85. ING $ 3,5 mrd 

89. Shell $ 3,2 mrd 

NS and KPN equip intercity’s with internet and tv 

on the Haarlem – Maastricht section were 

very positive about the service according 

to NS. In addition, many commuters plan 

to use internet on the train in the future. 

During the trail RTL Netherlands 

provided the news programs but from 

now on this will be done by KPN. 

The company also plans to broadcast 

commuter oriented programs. The 

agreement with NS fits KPN’s objective 

to do more in internet and television. 

Recently the company started with 

internet television. 

NS promises not to increase the price 

of train tickets to make the tv-channel 

profitable. ‘We are going to do this in a 

cost-effective way’, according to the 

spokesperson. One way to do this is though 

commercials that bring in money. 

25 


DUTCH NEWS 

August 15 th 2006, Source: RADIO NEDERLAND WERELDOMROEP (RNW) 

Netherlands doing most to help world’s poor nations 

The Netherlands scores well when it 

comes to combating poverty in the 

world. The country now holds the 

number one position on a list which is 

published each year by the US-based 

Center for Global Development. This 

think-tank in Washington D.C. examines 

the degree to which the world’s 21 

richest nations are contributing to the 

development of the world’s poorest 

countries. Last year, Denmark held the 

number one spot, with the Netherlands 

coming in second. Japan has been at the 

bottom of the list now for four years. 

The Center for Global Development 

(CGD) takes each of the 21 rich nations 

and looks at their provision of 

development aid by examining seven 

separate elements. These include trade, 

investments and technology, migration, 

the environment and security. 

The Netherlands does well in the 

field of security because it makes 

both financial and material (personnel 

and hardware) contributions to various 

peacekeeping forces. 

The Netherlands also scores highly in 

terms of investment and the environment. 

On the environment, the country has 

done well by reducing its greenhouse 

gas emissions, although when calculated 

per head of population these are still 

very high. 

There are, however, several points 

on which the CGD says the Netherlands 

could do better. The organisation says 

the country should have more foreign 

students and could also take more 

immigrants from developing nations. 

The Netherlands could also do more 

to encourage technological research 

and development. 

Amsterdam’s red lights 

about to dim? 

Many visitors and local residents regard 

Amsterdam’s Red Light district as an 

essential part of the city. Some people are 

even proud of it, arguing that it reflects 

the liberal nature of the Dutch capital, but 

the city council has recently modified its 

attitude towards the area. A large number 

of entrepreneurs in the sex industry have 

just been informed that their operating 

licences will not be renewed, following 

investigations into their integrity which 

have shown they’re too closely connected 

with the world of crime. No fewer than 

37 entrepreneurs have been told by 

Amsterdam city council that they will not 

obtain a new licence to continue their 

activities in the city’s Red Light district. 

The ultimate consequence of the city’s 

new policy could be that the sex industry 

in the area will shrink dramatically, or even 

disappear altogether. The 37 entrepreneurs 

who will not be getting the licences they 

need are in fact responsible for running 

more than half the ‘windows’ (prostitutes 

sit in red-lit windows to attract customers) 

in the area. Amsterdam’s council says 

it was high time for such measures. Ten 

years ago, a parliamentary inquiry 

concluded that the capital’s Red Light area 

was basically in the hands of some 16 

individuals ‘with backgrounds or contacts 

in serious crime.’ 

The council’s final decisions are not 

expected to be taken until the beginning 

of October. 

Dutch football 

legend dies 

Footballer Faas Wilkes has died at the age 

of 82. In the late 1940s, Wilkes was the 

first Dutch footballer to move to a foreign 

team for a substantial transfer fee. 

Faas Wilkes began his career playing 

for Xerxes in his hometown of Rotterdam 

but reached his peak between 1949 and 

1956 at the Italian clubs Internazionale 

and Torino, and for the Spanish club 

Valencia. He returned to Xerxes at the 

end of his career at the age of 40. 

In his 38 matches for the Dutch 

national team, Faas Wilkes scored a 

total of 35 goals, which made him the 

Netherlands’ top scorer for decades. 

Exodus at the Buitenhof 

August 15th saw the latest member of 

the exodus of the Dutch government. 

Parliamentary chairman Frans Weisglas 

has announced “with pain in his heart” 

that he is leaving politics. He will not 

be a candidate for the Liberal Party VVD 

at the general election in November. 

Weisglas has been a Member of Parliament 

(MP) for 24 years, and chairman of the 

parliament for the last few years. Three 

days earlier Hans Hoogervorst Minister of 

Health (VVD) stated he will leave politics 

after the elections. Minister Veerman of 

Dutch foreign ministry 

brings in mediator in 

kidnapping case 

The foreign ministry plans to bring in 

a mediator to negotiate the return of 

two Dutch children from Syria to the 

Netherlands. The children, who are 10 and 

13 years old, took refuge in the Dutch 

embassy in Damascus six weeks ago. 

The ministry says they were kidnapped 

by their Syrian father in 2004 and taken 

to Damascus without the permission of 

their Dutch mother. 

The father says the children came 

to Syria with him of their own free will 

and accuses the Dutch embassy staff of 

kidnapping them. The ministry hopes that 

an outside mediator with experience of 

such cases will be better able to convince 

the father that his children should be 

allowed to return to their mother in the 

Netherlands. 

Agriculture (CDA) and state secretaries 

Clemence Ross (Health, CDA) and Melanie 

Schultz van Haegen (Transport, VVD) will 

not return to the Binnenhof either. 

Minister of Transport Karla Peijs (CDA) will 

only be available as a member of the 

Senate. The ministers De Geus, Bot, Van 

Ardenne en Dekker indicated to be 

available to fulfil the function of minister, 

but will not take seat in the House of 

Representatives. 

26 


EMBASSY INFO 

Announcement 

The Royal Netherlands Embassy wishes to announce that as of 24 July 2006 the name 

has been changed to: 

Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands 

New passphoto criteria 

for Dutch passport 

application 

Starting on 26 August 2006, a chip will be inserted in all travel documents. The chip 

contains a reproduction of your passport photo in colour in the technical format 

prescribed by the European Union, as well as your name, date of birth, sex, the 

document number of your travel document, your personal identification number 

(SoFi number) and the date your document expires. The contents of the chip can be 

checked electronically, and that will make your document more secure. 

The chip and information it contains are a new authenticity feature. By storing 

your photo in the chip, it becomes possible to verify that the person using your travel 

document is in fact the legitimate passport holder. It is therefore important that 

you submit a good quality photo that is a good likeness of yourself. Be sure to tell 

your photographer that you want the photograph for a travel document. 

The most important criteria for the new passport photo are: 

1. Quality : colour photo, minimum resolution 400 dpi 

2. Background : light grey (not white) 

3. Positions : head positioned directly facing camera 

4. Facial expression : neutral, mouth closed 

5. Lighting : evenly illuminated 

6. Glasses : must not obscure eyes 

7. Head and face : head uncovered 

8. Framing : head centered within frame 

9. Photo size : format: 35 x 45mm 

For more information: www.paspoortinformatie.nl or visit the website of the Embassy: 

www.mfa.nl/sin 

BIZZ AGENDA 

SRIC 2006 

The Singapore Retail Industry 

Conference 

27-29 Sep 

Suntec Singapore, Level 208-209 

www.retail.org.sg/PDF/SRIC2006 

 

ARTSingapore 2006 

Contemporary art fair 

28 Sep – 2 Oct 

Suntec Singapore, Hall 602 

www.artsingapore.net 

 

Women Expo 

29 Sep – 1 Oct 

Singapore Expo Hall 

www.womenexpo.com.sg 

HOSPIMedica ASIA 2006 

International Exhibition on Hospital, 

Diagnostic, Pharmaceutical, Medical & 

Rehabilitation Equipment & Supplies 

10-12 Oct 

Suntec Singapore, Halls 601-603 

www.hospimedica-asia.com 

 

OS+H Asia 2006 

The Occupational Safety + Health Exhibition 

for Asia 

10-12 Oct 

Suntec Singapore 

www.osha-singapore.com 

GlobalTRONICS 2006 

Full spectrum of products and 

technologies for PCB assembly 

and SMT technology, testing and 

measurement, component technology, 

manufacturing services, embedded 

solutions and optoelectronics 

10-13 Oct 

Suntec Singapore, Halls 401-404 

www.globaltronics.com.sg 

27 


ASSOCIATION INFO 

New Members 

Barbara Voskamp, Loyens & Loeff 

Neslihan Atillaoglu, NUS & Philips 

Hans van der Vlugt, DVB Group Merchant Bank 

Matthew Hoyle, Matthew Hoyle International 

Marcel Aggenbach, Nokia 

Rob de Louw, Oce 

Roel van Leeuwen, Suntec Integrated Media 

Laura Vermeulen, Ernst & Young 

Pim Kraan, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands 

Mariëlle Klein 

Bart Rademaker, Givaudan Flavors 

Lennard Hoornik, Sony Ericsson 

Jaap Bierman, Shell 

Maarten Garvelink, Shell 

Bert van der Toorn, ING Bank 

Marianne Doele 

Vladan Babovic, WL/Delft Hydraulics 

Ronald Dalderup, The 5th Element Marketing 

Hans Reinigert, SvitzerWijsmuller 

Philippe Wits, Fortis Bank 

Hans Grisel, ING Bank 

Louis Teunissen, SAP Asia 

Leaving Members 

Theo Ocks, Novotel 

Geert van de Ven, Norske Skog PanAsia 

Douglas van der Wiel, Oiltanking 

Raymond Timmerman, KLM 

September event 

Info on September event will be announced 

to you by email soonest. 

Rectification: 

In the July/August edition of the ADB Magazine the author of the 

article “The sport of kings is alive in Singapore” was not Wil Kolen, 

but Roshni Pannirselvam. We apologize for this mistake. We will 

take care that it will not happen again in the future. 

Internship & Job Seekers 

Name : Wiebe Helder 

Age : 21 

Tel. no. office : +65 9120 7801 

Email-address : wiebe.helder@wanadoo.nl 

Study: HES Amsterdam School of Business, Amsterdam 

Specialization: Asian Trade Management 

Working experience: 

• 2004-2005 Amsterdam Trade Bank, Amsterdam; Customer 

Relation Officer Savings & Deposits Department 

• 2004 - Property-NL, Amsterdam; Project Manager 

- HES Amsterdam School of Business, Amsterdam 

Organizational committee International Trade 

Seminar 2004 

• 2003 Amsterdam Trade Bank, Amsterdam; Administrative Staff 

Looking for: I have just finished an exchange programme with the 

Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in May 2006 and am now 

looking at an internship in Singapore for a period of at least 5 months. 

Living in Singapore at the moment, I am also immediately available. 

The main objective of my internship will be an introduction to 

the Asian corporate culture, which I will apply internal and external 

analysis. With a great personal interest in the Asian culture and 

business environment, I have some marketing experience in some 

of my past job capacities and I am energetic, enthusiastic and 

always willing to learn, living by the rule that life is a constant 

learning experience. 

Name : Martijn Sanders 

Age : 30 

Tel. no. office : +31 6 46 603 860 

Tel. no. home : +31 492 541118 

Email-address : m.sanders@chello.nl 

Study: • Bachelor degree in Higher Computer Sciences at Hogeschool 

Eindhoven, Netherlands, including ‘Best Thesis 1999’ award; 

• Bachelor degree in Environmental Engineering at Hogeschool 

‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. 

Working experience: As a senior software engineer, my main 

responsibilities are designing and developing applications, coaching 

junior software engineers and evaluating new technologies. I am 

also the main responsible person for our technical communication 

with overseas partners and subcontractors. Experienced in Oracle, 

Java, XML and a multitude of other technologies for both financial 

and technical systems. 

• 2005 - present Senior Software Engineer, Bergson Technical 

Automation. 

• 1999 - 2005 Senior Software Engineer, Philips Pension Fund. 

Please contact me for more details or my complete resume. 

Looking for: A challenging job opportunity as a senior software 

engineer in Singapore, preferably in a Java environment. Besides 

technical expertise, I will be of value to your company by my 

motivation, communicative abilities and can-do state of mind. I’m 

also a highly adaptive and flexible, while not losing sight of reality. 

Name : Sigrid Dumoulin 

Age : 37 

Tel. no : 6739 1129 (o) / 6762 3635 (h) 

Email-address : sdumoulin@yahoo.com 

Study : Business Administration, University of Nijmegen 

Working experience: Assistant cultural affairs & secretary, Embassy 

of the Kingdom of the Netherlands 

– PR & promotion of the Netherlands and Singapore (education, 

tourism, policy & cultural matters); 

– Coordinating visits, official receptions & functions; 

– Managing cultural activities (EU Film Festival, performances of 

Dutch artists in Singapore); 

– Webmaster, office automation. 

Looking for: A nice job to start my eleventh year in Singapore 

with a new challenge. 

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29

Sept06 latest - Association of Dutch Businessmen

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