Dutch students in Singapore - Association of Dutch Businessmen

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Conference Calendar A selection of upcoming conferences in the region in December: Catalytic Reforming 1-3 December 2008 Kuala Lumpur Anti-Money Laundering & Fighting Terrorism Financing 2009 2 –3 December 2008 Singapore Corporate Social Responsibility Summit 2008 2-3 December 2008 Sydney Restructuring Manpower to Maintain Business Excellence 3 December 2008 Singapore 3 rd Annual China Gold & Precious Metals Summit 2008 3-5 December 2008 Shanghai 9 th AVCJ Private Equity & Venture Forum 3-5 December 2008 Mumbai Performance Management Excellence ’09 4 December 2008 Singapore Achieving Quality Internal Audit for Maximum Performance 4-5 December 2008 Hong Kong Mobile Backhaul Asia 2008 8-10 December 2008 Hong Kong Mezzanine & Leveraged Finance Asia Pacific 2008 9-10 December 2008 Hong Kong The Emissions Reduction Summit 9-10 December 2008 Melbourne GEO-CHIANGMAI Conference 10-12 December 2008 Chiang Mai SIGGRAPH Asia 2008 10-13 December 2008 Singapore The 2 nd annual China Coal Summit 2008 11-12 December 2008 Beijing Supply Chain Management and Logistics 14-16 December 2008 Dubai KPI and Performance Measurement for Public Sector 16-17 December 2008 Kuala Lumpur Bangalore HR Summit 2008 19-20 December 2008 Bangalore Log on to www.conferencebay.com for more information on these and many other events. And remember, you can make a bid and decide the price you’re willing to pay for any of the conferences listed on Conference Bay! 18 Vol.18 • No. 9 • November 2008
Column By… Richard Soemita Casual Friday’s Not sure if I’m the only one that is fashion conscious but things seem to go out of hand in Singapore when it comes to dressing for any occasion. Apart from my age I do not wear blue jeans full stop. But nowadays everyone seems to wear these on ‘casual Fridays’ in the business district! There is even a guy in our block who wears Bermuda shorts every day complete with boat shoes, but luckily with a proper long sleeves stripe shirt, which is not a Polo or…. shirt. I really must find out who he works for since there is no office of nowadays trendy Billabong or Quicksilver in the block, apart from banks and other obscure investment advisory firms. Judging from this daily Bermuda outfit I reckon he actually owns a bank and lives on a super yacht. Since that’s the outfit one will wear if you do owe a luxury boat. The other funny thing is that he is Chinese looking, has a banker’s hairstyle, has no obnoxious 6x6 and 3cm thick watch and talks Mandarin to his colleagues. Not sure how he travels to the office, but if I where to go in that outfit to the office I would take my private helicopter for people not to see the outfit. Unfortunately our building has no heli landing platform. As for the ladies, they are no better. The length of some of the dresses I have seen will make one glass eye pop out spontaneously and would make people wonder why you would run after a marble. Most of the Asian women can afford wearing these very short dresses given their fantastic figure and not too long body lengths. But Singapore firms must adapt some sort of a dress code for the office just like our American friends who at the other hand go overboard with this. I think that an average Singapore dress would be seen as provocation and therefore regarded as indirect sexual harassment. Don’t get me wrong. The whole outfit looks good but would be more suitable for a cocktail party. Visa versa they come dress too casual at a cocktail or wedding party and I have even spotted people with flip flops next to gala dresses in the Esplanade during a classical concert. Basically the Singapore woman dresses the wrong outfit at any occasion and has no concept when to wear what outfit. The same counts for wedding parties where 99% of the men do not wear a suite or wear a proper smoking when black-tie is required. The only person that makes up for dressing properly is the bride who changes her outfit several times during the evening, which makes me wonder what the purpose of that is. So basically I do not have a problem with our Bermuda friend’s outfit as long as he lives on his luxurious 50m super yacht. Just to show how different Singapore is from its neighbouring countries where most businessmen from Japan, HKG, Malaysia, even Indonesia wear suits for work or at least a tie that matches the shirt. The other day I was stopped by a Levi’s camera team outside the office on a Friday. One would wonder why the CBD area and not Orchard Road, but this proofs the amount of denim jeans that are being worn on a Friday. The Team could not really distinguish me and my friends kaki chino’s from denim jeans. Anyway, they informed us what they had in mind before the shooting. I would get a few questions without seeing these in advance and had to come with a spontaneous answer on camera. Their first question was what would come up to my mind when hearing the brand name Levi’s. My reply was instantly: the very cute ass of the girl that works next to our office. Believe it or not, at that moment the girl walks past us in her actual Levi’s and I pointed this out to the camera team. By this time the whole team followed ‘the Levis ass’ and later I found out that my interview was cut out and instead ‘the ass’ came up with my friend laughing hysterically on the background, still recovering from my reply! I just have to explain to you that initially it was not her ass that I first spotted a while ago, but the little red Levis tag on the back pocket since it is an old brand that I had not seen in ages. 19 Vol.18 • No. 9 • November 2008
Page 1 and 2: November 2008 MITA 373/03/2001 Dutc
Page 3 and 4: Prologue Dear Members, Last week I
Page 5 and 6: Review An impression of world-class
Page 7 and 8: Business Lexmar Engineering, the ma
Page 9 and 10: Business Urbanization in China Abou
Page 11 and 12: Interview which is headquartered in
Page 14 and 15: Singapore Dutch students in Singapo
Page 16 and 17: Singapore The threshold to study In
Page 18 and 19: Green Page Is Singapore’s high pr
Page 22 and 23: Business news Sources: Het Financie
Page 24 and 25: event agenda Rihanna! DATE : Thursd
Page 26 and 27: Association Info New Members Antoin

Dutch students in Singapore - Association of Dutch Businessmen

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