ScandAsia January 2019

JAN 2019

BUSINESS

Nordic Innovation House

Hong Kong

COMMUNITY

Swedish Association Hua

Hin 10 years

INTERNATIONAL

Denmark’s new ambassador

to Vietnam

START-UPS

Helsinki promotes via

Singapore

Tracing explosives

in the Vietnamese soil

January 2019

10

HE Kim Højlund

Christensen

Denmark’s new Ambassador to Vietnam

ScandAsia

Community

28 Scandinavians at

International Thai Silk

Fashion Week

29 Sweden Vietnam Nobel

Gala

36 Swedish Lucia in Bangkok,

150 years anniversary

40 Swedish Association Hua

Hin 10 years

Norwegian People’s Aid

30

ScandAsia

Business

16 Finnish healthtech in

Singapore

Activities during SWITCH

23 Singapore FinTech Festival

Big Nordic participation, delegations

24 Helsinki City in Singapore

Promotes start-ups, businesses

26 SweCham China

Held Gala, turned 20 in 2018

Mr Christian

Bergenstråhle

Community Director, Nordic

Innovation House – Hong Kon

14

28

29

36

Ms Ghekhuoy Lim

Nordcham Cambodia

38

40

January 2019 • ScandAsia 5

Editorial

New Year’s resolution

A

New Year’s resolution is a tradition, most common

in the Western Hemisphere but also found in the

Eastern Hemisphere, in which a person resolves

to change an undesired trait or behavior, to accomplish a

personal goal or otherwise improve their life.

A new year’s resolution can be a powerful way to make

a change in your life – as long as you stick to it. To start,

you’ll reflect on your hopes for the year and pick one to

three goals to pursue. You’ll then develop a plan to prepare,

make progress, and eventually achieve your goals by year’s

end (or earlier).

My first New Yer’s resolution for ScandAsia is not so

much about changing something undesirable, but to work

harder to maintain the big jump in online readers of the

magazine that started in January 2018. Since then we have

not had a single issue that did not have over a thousand

readers on our platform issuu.com/scandasia - and as I

write this resolution, we just exceeded a total of 3 million

impressions. 3.006.913 to be precise!

My second resolution is, that I want to learn how to

show videos directly on the pages instead of only still

photograph. It would be an awesome experience that

would give the online magazine an added value and a

distinct advantage over the printed magazine. Next, I will

offer this to our advertisers. Many of them produce already

great video material for sharing on their video channels and

social media channels. And now on ScandAsia!

My third resolution is throughout 2019 to bring you

more content in the category “lifestyle”. Content about

living in Asia and all the opportunities it gives you to live

your life to the fullest. We are talking shopping, dining,

fitness, travel, hospitality. Next, I will combine this with my

second resolution, the one about telling it more with videos.

Imagine..

My last and most important resolution is to work hard to

find and inspire creative people among our readers across

East Asia to help find, write, present, and tell more stories

from wherever they live. I refuse to believe it when people

tell me, that nobody wants to contribute anymore - that we

all want only to consume. I know there are so many people

among us, who today spend their time and energy helping

each their communities in so many ways, sitting on boards,

being members of committees, making plans for events and

activities. We all appreciate the work you do for the benefit

of the rest of us. Why not take it a step further? Go wide.

Start sharing your ideas and adventures with other Nordic

expats across the region. It can be from your business life

- that story about your first cultural barrier and how you

got over it. Or it can be about your family life - that day

you suddenly realized how enriching it can be to live in a

relationship as an expat in a different culture.

I am hoping that at least one of you will think about this

and make it your own New Year’s resolution. Please send

me an email. Let’s together make it a Happy New Year!

Gregers Moller

Editor in Chief

ScandAsia is a printed magazine and online

media covering the people and businesses

of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland living

and working in China, Hong Kong, Thailand,

Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines,

Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.

Who should subscribe:

ScandAsia subscribers are typically Nordic

expats and companies from the Nordic

countries living in and active in Asia.

Another group of subscribers are Nordic

people living in the Nordic countries who

subscribe to ScandAsia for personal or

business reasons. We also have many Asian

subscribers, who for a wide range of reasons

are following the activities of

the Nordic expats and companies via a

subscription to ScandAsia.

The ScandAsia magazine is produced every

month and distributed to all print version

subscribers via postal services and to all

eMagazine subscribers via email. Subscribing

to the eMagazine is FREE - simply sign up

on the ScandAsia.com website.

Become a ScandAsia user/

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www.scandasia.com!

Publisher :

ScandAsia Publishing Co., Ltd.

211 Soi Prasert Manukitch 29

Prasert Manukitch Road

Bangkok 10230, Thailand

Tel. +66 2 943 7166-8

Fax: +66 2 943 7169

E-mail: news@scandasia.com

Editor-in-Chief :

Gregers A.W. Møller

gregers@scandmedia.com

Managing Editor:

Joakim Persson

Joakim@scandmedia.com

Advertising :

Finn Balslev

finn@scandmedia.com

Frank Leong

frank@scandasia.com

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Peerapol Meesuwan

Peerapol@scandmedia.com

Production Manager:

Sopida Yatprom

Printing :

Siam Print Co., Ltd.

6 ScandAsia • January 2019

News brief

Denmark-Vietnam bilateral celebration

On 22 November the 47th

anniversary of the bilateral

relationship between

Denmark and Vietnam was celebrated

with a mini concert hosted by H.E. Mr.

Kim Højlund Christensen - Ambassador

of Denmark to Vietnam.

On this occasion, the Vietnamese/

Danish talented pianist Tri Minh, the

multi awards Danish singer/songwriter

Michael Moller and singer Disa Jakobs

took the stage, offering guests a beautiful

journey of cultural exploration with

their “Red Helix” Project. The popular

Sol Art Children Choir also attended

this special event.

Denmark was one of the first

Western countries establishing

diplomatic relations with Vietnam. Since

1971, the two countries have enjoyed

a strong cooperation, which has grown

into a broad set of solid ties with a very

promising future.

Source: Embassy of Denmark in

Vietnam

Pär Kågeby, Swedish

embassy visited

schools

During November, Vice Consul Pär Kågeby visited two

Swedish schools situated on Koh Lanta island to learn

more about their work.

The two schools, Svenska Skolan Thailand and Lilla Svenska

Skolan, Koh Lanta - Thailand (little Swedish school), provide

education from pre-school up to high school. Since this

year, Lilla svenska skolan is also providing secondary school

education (gymnasieutbildning). Both schools have around 60

students each, divided into classes of around 12 students.

Source: Embassy of Sweden in Bangkok / Photo credit: Ulf Pettersson


Finland’s new

ambassador

to Indonesia

accredited

Ambassador of Finland to Indonesia Jari Sinkari

presented his credentials to the president of

the Republic of Indonesia Joko Widodo on 8

November in a ceremony held in the Presidential Palace.

The Embassy congratulated its ambassador for the

accreditation.

Source: Embassy of Finland in Jakarta

Vietnamese Prime Minister visits

Denmark, Royal Banquet

News brief

Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen

Xuan Phuc and his Spouse has

been to Denmark on an official

visit during 19 – 20 October.

The Vietnamese Government

chief was accompanied by Minister

of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh,

Minister of Agriculture and Rural

Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong,

Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien,

Deputy Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son,

and Deputy Minister of Public Security

Bui Van Nam.

This was the PM’s first official visit

to Denmark, also taking place on the

occasion of the 5thanniversary of

establishment of Viet Nam-Denmark

comprehensive partnership. The PM

attended the Viet Nam-Denmark

Business Conference among other

activities.

H.M. Queen Margrethe II hosted a

Royal Banquet which was also attended

by H.R.H. Crown Prince Frederik and

his wife, H.R.H. Crown Princess Mary.

Aside PM Phuc Korea’s President Moon,

other Heads of State and Government

and a number of top business leaders

were among the guests.

The Royal family has bonds to

Vietnam, as H.M. Queen Margrethe

II’s late husband, H.M. Prince Henrik

of Denmark, spent several years of his

childhood in Hanoi.

On the second day of his visit PM

Phuc also participated in the first global

Summit of Partnering for Green Growth

and the Global Goals 2030 (P4G),

where he delivered his remarks. The

first-ever global P4G Summit wrapped

up on Saturday in Copenhagen,

marking an important step when it

comes to achieving the Sustainable

Development Goals and delivering on

the Paris Climate Agreement through

P4G partnerships and networks.

Through P4G, Heads of State and

Government, leaders of international

organizations, top business

leaders, academia and civil society

representatives from 47 countries

got together to develop, accelerate

and scale up concrete market-driven

solutions within the five P4G SDG

sectors: food and agriculture, water,

energy, cities and circular economy. The

Summit participants will work together

to share knowledge and best practices

on public-private partnerships in order

to inspire actionable solutions and

replication to ensure a truly global

impact. In addition, new actors will

be brought into the partnership to

transform the challenges into market

opportunities for a sustainable economy.

The P4G will be a partner to the

UN Climate Summit in 2019. The next

P4G Summit will take place in 2020.

Sources: VGP News, Embassy of

Denmark in Vietnam


Business

Kim Højlund

Christensen

Denmark’s new Ambassador

to Vietnam


The Embassy of Denmark in Hanoi has welcomed

the new Danish Ambassador to Vietnam, His

Excellency Mr. Kim Højlund Christensen. The

Ambassador presented his credentials to the

Acting President of Vietnam Mdm Dang Thi

Ngoc Thinh on 16 October.

The new Danish Ambassador to Vietnam aims to

further strengthen the important bilateral relationship

between our two countries.

Ambassador Kim Højlund Christensen is a distinguished

career diplomat in the Danish Foreign Service. Prior to his

current post, he was the Danish Ambassador to Brazil as

well as non-resident Ambassador to Guyana and Suriname

from 2014 to 2018, and Danish Ambassador to Chile from

2006 to 2010. From 2004 to 2014 the ambassador also held

various positions in the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs

such as Head of the Department for Corporate Counselling

and Support (Inspector General), Head of the Trade Council

Quality Assurance Department and Department for Trade

Council Secretariat. He has been posted to Moscow and

Berlin during the 90s and early 2000s.

“This is a great time for me to be in Vietnam: our

two countries share a wide range of interests, including

strengthening our economic ties, especially within green

growth, food and agriculture, health and education. I am

very much looking forward to taking up my new position

here and to working hard together with Vietnamese

interlocutors to enhance our already extensive partnership,”

said Ambassador Kim Højlund Christensen.

One of his first tasks was to welcoming H.E. Prime

Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc to Copenhagen to attend the

first global Partnering for Green Growth and the Global

Goals 2030 (P4G) Summit, followed by an official visit to

Denmark.

“The Vietnamese Prime Minister’s visit is a tremendous

opportunity that will further advance our bilateral

partnership, while also strengthening our ties throughout

this dynamic region”, Kim Højlund Christensen said prior

to the visit.

Denmark has a longstanding and close relationship

with Vietnam. Formal diplomatic relations were established

in 1971 and are today underpinned by a Comprehensive

Partnership Agreement. Under the new direction of being

partners in quality growth, Denmark increasingly seeks

more measures to step up our strong ties by matching

modern Danish strengths and the Vietnamese agenda.

The two countries cooperate closely within areas such

as sustainable growth, food, agriculture, energy, healthcare

and education. New strategic co-operation agreements

between Danish and Vietnamese ministries in these key

areas have already been crafted and enacted. Denmark’s

trade and economic relationship with Vietnam has also

grown strongly. Denmark is now one of Vietnam’s top

trade partners per capita within the EU. Vietnam is an

important country for direct investment from Denmark.

Danish companies have actively been pursuing business

opportunities in Vietnam, especially within sectors such

as clean energy, logistics, food production and education.

Further growth in the flow of trade on both sides is

expected when the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between

the European Union and Vietnam comes into effect.

People-to-people interaction between Denmark

and Vietnam is also very significant. There has been

an increase in cultural co-operation between the two

countries with emphasis on creation, people’s access and

participation in arts and promotion of cultural diversity.

The Embassy’s Culture and Development Exchange Fund

has supported hundreds of successful projects and artists,

assisting Vietnam in creating a vibrant contemporary arts

scene.

Source: Embassy of Denmark, Vietnam


Business

Head of the largest Nordic

bank branch in Asia,

Jan Stjernström

retires after 40 years

in the business

Text and photo: Jonas Boje Andersen


It has been

a fantastic opportunity

to experience the

different environments

in the region

He has worked in over 50 different countries,

doing transactions, and his career has spanned

40 years in the banking business. Now, after

five years as the head of the largest Nordic

Bank branch in Asia, Jan Stjernström retires

from SEB Singapore.

Jan Stjernström is a passionate sailor and from his office

he can look down on Singapore’s Marina Bay, where he a

few years ago participated in a professional catamaran race.

As a young banker in 1984, the Swede travelled to

Southeast Asia and Singapore covering corporate clients

for Citibank. The goal was to establish relationships for

Citibank with Nordic clients in the region. 34 years later

after covering almost the entire world within his field, he

came back as the Managing Director of the SEB Singapore

Branch and he is now closing the circle. ScandAsia sat

down with a passionate traveller, who might be the most

international banker in the Nordics covering all continents

with an extensive career.

Mr Stjernström describes it as an amazing journey and

he does leave a lot behind when he is retiring in December

- from setting up the first foreign bank in Sweden with a

small team from Citibank in the 80s to being a member on

a number of business boards including as President of the

Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Singapore (SwedCham)

– and of course the career as Managing Director of SEB

Singapore.

The mild-mannered banker is overall positive about

the accomplishments of his team and the state of the

prosperous region: “Yes, we have managed well but the

environment has been very volatile over the last five years,”

Jan Stjernström says, as he points out how he especially

sees a positive shift in Malaysia given the political changes

which might give room for more long term investments.

One country he is especially focused on is Vietnam, which

he has seen develop faster in these five years than any other

country in the region.

“It’s a magnet for foreign direct investment right now and

there’s a lot of manufacturing opportunities.”

The key troubling aspect about South East Asia, that

comes to Stjernström’s mind, is the level of corruption

which hasn’t improved as much as he had expected with

Singapore being the absolute exception. This is also one of

the competitive challenges for Scandinavian companies due

to the high standards and zero tolerance for corruption

when doing business, Stjernström points out.

Even though Stjernström will be a missed talent in this

region, the timing is right, he believes, and soon he and

his wife will start a new life in Southern Europe. “Ingrid

and I have enjoyed it in Singapore. It has been a fantastic

opportunity to experience the different environments in

the region and we’ve certainly made use of this,” he says.

Working around the whole world in over 50 different

countries over the last 40 years, Stjernström and his wife

Ingrid Stjernström Roos, are not so keen on going back

full time to cold Sweden. The choice fell on sunny Portugal

which the couple will use as a base over the coming years

for more travelling. They both share a profound love for

travelling and with 75 countries visited during a busy career,

they will now be travelling at their own pace. Though

Sweden is still in their hearts and the summers will be spent

sailing in the ‘Stockholm Skärgård’ (a unique archipelago

in the world) and meeting with their five sons, family and

friends.


Business


- Hong Kong opened

Christian Bergenstråhle

appointed ‘Community Director’

By Joakim Persson

On 28 November a Nordic milestone of

sorts occurred in Hong when the Nordic

Innovation House - Hong Kong (NIH-HK)

was inaugurated! Its importance was also

acknowledged by the very fact that Mrs

Carrie Lam, Chief Executive of Hong Kong SAR graced the

opening with her attendance and opening address, along

with Nordic ministers!

Ms Anne Berner, Minister of Transport & Communications

and Nordic Cooperation of Finland; Ms Ann Linde, Minister

for EU Affairs and Trade of Sweden and Mr Dagfinn

Høybråten, Secretary General of the Nordic Council of

Ministers also gave speeches.

This opens a significant new avenue to connect Nordic

start-ups and entrepreneurs with Hong Kong and also to

serve as a gateway to the wider Chinese market. Innovation

and technology are areas where Nordic countries and

Hong Kong have converging interests and great potential

for cooperation.

Being the most open and international city in the

Greater Bay Area, Hong Kong has a unique position by


having its international know-how and at the same time

mainland China as its back-bone. The new Nordic initiative

will strive to encourage more Nordic Innovative start-ups

to use the Chinese market as their prototype test market

for demand in Asia, by leveraging resources from the area

to incubate innovation and technology.

The Nordics have a history of disruptive innovations

and setting new international standards, and hence in many

of the global innovative indexes, Nordic countries top the

rankings:

NIH-HK will target to bridge the Nordics’ outstanding

innovations in life science, clean-tech, ed-tech and smart city

to suit Hong Hong’s strategy of being a world-class innovation

hub and smart city. It will also open up opportunities for

social innovation and design.

Nordic Innovation is the organization behind it, which sits

under the Nordic Council of Ministers, to promote crossborder

innovation. In Hong Kong, four countries are founding

partners to the House. It’s the 4th Nordic Innovation House

after Silicon Valley, New York and Singapore.

Carrie Lam, Chief Executive of Hong Kong SAR

Christian Bergenstråhle, Community Director at Nordic

Innovation House - Hong Kong

Christian Bergenstråhle has been appointed as

Community Director of NIH-HK to spearhead the

initiative.

“I think it’s exciting first of all that they have picked

someone that does not come from the tech world (which

would probably have been most obvious, given that the

majority of start-ups are within that) but who can enter

with another perspective,” he tells ScandAsia.

Relating to this he also says: “Looking at start-ups it is

also my ambition to look more broadly at innovation; social

innovation and design, in order to always keep our eyes

and ears open, even if the large majority will focus on tech.”

“To succeed with this project has to do more with being

the man at the centre and having the ability to make the

connections, rather than possessing all the competence on

one’s own. It’s about getting to know those with the best

competence within each field to generate the prerequisites

for companies to succeed,” says Christian, who has been an

entrepreneur for about 15 years.

He has lived in Hong Kong since one year back and

before that travelled here frequently during five years,

more or less monthly. “And the reason I ended up here was

because I took part in Business of Design week in 2014, with

one of my projects involving art.”

So far Christian is the only employee but into 2019 the

plan is to recruit a person who can ensure local engagement

by being able to converse in both Cantonese and Mandarin

too. Then, long-term, the plan is to also have interns from

the various Nordic countries, in order to connect well there.

Prior to his new role he served customers in Sweden

from Hong Kong. “And I have experience in working with

everything from member organisations to sponsorships as

main focus area - which is about creating circumstances

where there are always several winners in collaboration. I

can draw a lot parallels to that as well.”

“I know Greater Bay well from the standpoint of an

incredibly expanding phase the whole area represents and

the whole strength within IoT etc. Initially our focus will be

on establishing an overview of the network here and then

in parallel start building the relations with the Nordics,”

Christian comments.

NIH-HK has a steering group consisting in representatives

of all the Nordic countries. “In my steering group

there are representatives from Business Finland, Business

Sweden, the Finnish and Swedish General Consulates,

Iceland’s embassy in Beijing and also Innovation Norway in

Beijing.”

The first event following the inauguration was arranged

with support from the Swedish company CellMark, as well

as the Swedish and Finnish Chambers of Commerce in

Hong Kong.

“I see this as one of the ways how we should operate;

in this case partnering with CellMark that invited, facilitated

and sponsored four start-ups to come here. And those four

have now become members, two from Sweden Finland

respectively, within medtech and cleantech.”

“In 2019 NIH-HK will have three main focus areas:

IoT – given the opportunities within that in Shenzhen;

Creative Industries, including gaming (which all the Nordic

countries are skilled at) and fashion tech; and then medtech.

So I am setting the agenda to do some things together with

partners and will then also do some things on our own,”

finishes Christian.

Photos: Nordic Innovation House - Hong Kong


Business

Ms Paula Parviainen, Ambassador, Embassy of Finland, Singapore, giving the opening remarks at the Finland-Singapore

HEALTHtech event

Finnish healthtech

solutions target

Singapore,

Southeast Asia

By Joakim Persson

Among the opportunities to meet Finnish

innovators during the Singapore Week of

Innovation & TeCHnology 2018, was at the

‘Finnish HealthTech Event’ (part of ‘Meet

Finland in Singapore’ Week).

The largest delegation of healthcare companies (10+)

from Finland to Singapore so far, including some of the

most innovative brands and start-ups, shared their latest

innovations there and had also come to Southeast Asia’s

regional hub in order to seek new strategic partnerships

and customers.

In a dialogue session Dr Patrick Tan, Precision Medicine

initiative, A*STAR / DukeNUS and Ms Meria Heikelä, National

Personalized Health Program, Finland also participated.

“Big data and analytics have presented Singapore and

Finland with many opportunities to deliver solutions

for personalised healthcare,” Meria Heikelä commented

following the session.

“In healthcare, there is increasing pressure to produce

services more cost-efficiently and offer more patientcentric

and tailored towards personalized care. We are

therefore very pleased to work with Singapore to create

solutions for personalized patient-centric care pathways

that consider the special needs of patients”

Personalized healthcare, digitalization, big data and

Artificial Intelligence (AI) are some of the new trends


Katarina Segerståhl, Aava

popping up when discussing about future of health.

The Health Ministry in Singapore has estimated that

30,000 more healthcare workers would be needed by

2020 to meet the demands of an ageing population and the

continued growth in medical services from medical tourism

and other evolving healthcare needs.

Smart tools and new technology will therefore be

needed to tackle the challenges in healthcare.

Several Finnish enabling and ready-to-market

technologies in health and wellness found ready demand

in Singapore as the country seeks to adopt Smart Health

solutions to deliver enhanced healthcare services more

effectively and efficiently to the public.

ScandAsia talked to three Finnish companies eyeing,

and creating, the new healthtech opportunities with their

respective tech breakthroughs.

Virta wellbeing by Aava Medical

Virta, a wellbeing unit of the Finnish 60-year-old company

Aava Medical Centre offers coaching services and group

trainings to assist individuals to find energy permanently.

Core to this is the ‘Virta 360’, which includes a personal

Wellbeing Test to provide each person with a holistic

picture of one’s wellbeing, from mental health to activity

and exercise.

Aava Medical has developed the service architecture

to match its own needs to provide holistic preventive care

and wellbeing.

“We are not measured by the amount of doctor visits

but we’re actually sustainably developing preventative

care, which hopefully reduces the doctor visits, and focus

investments on wellbeing and maintaining health,” says

Aava’s Chief Strategy Officer Katarina Segerståhl.

“We are now focusing on Virta wellbeing business

development, where we are developing these digital

solutions that actually prevent people from getting sick and

improve people’s lifestyles, so very much a different area of

practice than our traditional healthcare practice.”

Their strong conventional business is to take care of

the working population and private customers. Katarina

Segerstahl says that being fully family-owned the business

also have a very long perspective to developing solutions

for preventative health and this long-standing strategy is key

to success in the changing market situation.

“What’s also interesting about the index is that we

are the first point of leveraging objective and diagnostic

data also to show whether health behaviour are directing

that person further away or closer towards metabolic risk

factors, that indicates the risk of getting diabetes or other

chronic illnesses. So this is a kind of concrete tool that we

have developed in our own clinical practice and are also

leveraging with corporations.”

“The test tells me which areas I should focus on in

terms of health. We have a very holistic model, so also with

social and psychological models, not only physical health

and nutrition. There’s for example also financial well-being,

environmental factors. These are very important; if you live

in a much polluted environment vs. a different type. And we

can identify those different areas and their impact on your

overall health.”


Mr Jarkko Pyykkönen, Innovator, Near Real

“If we run the healthcare for example for a company we

can also compare an individual’s profile with a unit’s profile,

or the entire corporation’s profile.”

In Singapore Aava met a couple of companies to see

whether they could possibly co-develop these tools as part

of their services.

The health insurance sector is also one of their targets.

“We are learning about the Singapore market and Asia,

trying to identify partners for co-developing these services

and testing how they could benefit the local market here,”

says Katarina.

Near Real

Near Real enriches health care systems by secure video,

audio and chat features enabling health care professionals

to treat patients online, and charge customers.

“The main angle of the Near Real service is designed

to enrich any existing healthcare system so we are not

providing any new application for professionals but we are

enriching the existing ones,” says Jarkko Pyykkönen, Founder

and CEA at Near Real.

This approach is based on that doctors and nursing staff

don’t want to have yet another application but prefer to use

their preferred existing one.

“In Finland we a few players in the patient information

sector providing those services to hospitals in private and

public sector and once we have enriched the one source we

have hundreds of thousands of people using our service,”

he continues.

The skilled Near Real team has developed an API

(application programming interface), hiding all complexity

of secure video, so that it becomes easy to create patientspecific

appointments for whenever needed.

“The patient can save time and money and the doctor is

available regardless where the patient is and of course also

from the hospitals and doctors point of view it’s much more

efficient so that you are not restricted in terms of the area

you are operating but you can offer your services wherever

the patient is.”

“Finland with its long distances is a good example where

we have huge pool of doctors in the capital of Helsinki

but not in the north part of Finland. In Singapore, or other

places where distances are small, you can still have some

special areas that you don’t have available right now or you

would need to be in traffic jam for hours to see the doctor.

That’s the kind of main benefit we are offering.”

“We are looking at going to market in the Nordics and

then we are trying to select the market from Asean and the

US. Being a small start-up with limited resources Singapore

seems like one of the most interesting places to go to and

that is why we are here,” explains Jarkko.

“When you go to Singapore you need see it as part of

the whole of Asia, but you need to start somewhere. And

based on our studies, and guidelines we have got from

Business Finland Singapore is one good place to go to as

a start.”

In Singapore this new start-up met with government

representatives well as well as several private sector players.


Mr Markus Lind, Chief Sales Officer, Buddy Healthcare

Near Real is also part of iCory project, a co-creation

group of enterprises developing together the future hospital

solutions in Finland, including using machine learning and

robotics for personalisation. Funded by Business Finland

iCory is backed by a consortium comprising Finnish health

and wellness companies, universities and hospitals.

Buddy Healthcare

In the iCory ecosystem Buddy Healthcare, can also be found.

Buddy Healthcare provides of a mobile care coordination

and patient engagement platform that automates and

monitors clinical pathways for surgery and procedure

patients.

Represented this time by its Chief Sales Officer Markus

Lind this Finnish start-up was in Singapore to meet with

local health IT companies who had contacted them, to

discuss collaboration.

“Also, they have very interesting products that we try

to see if we could sell in Finland and Europe,” says Markus.

“At the moment we are active in Finland and in Central

Europe, we are now building a company in Germany. From

Singapore, we are looking for partner to work with us, local

presence and market knowledge is essential. Also, we are

looking innovative clinics/hospitals to start project with us”

“We try to find a company who can see that that our

platform supports their portfolio or knows that some

hospitals are requesting this kind of service and they can

fulfil the need.”

“Our software is care coordination and patient

engagement platform for patients but also for hospitals.

When a patient gets any indication to come to a hospital

– be it pre-operative visit, pre-evaluation visit, surgery

procedure etc. – patient normally receive lots of phone

calls and all information are handed in paper form. In our

platform, patients have care-related information in an

easy-to-use mobile application, instructions, questionnaires,

reminders, what you need to do before the visit etc. And

post care procedures, with all information how to heel your

wound, recovery training programme QOL questionnaires

etc. “

“Then, the hospital can on its dashboard see if the

steps the patient has taken or not and doctors can get

attentions from missed tasks and/or changes in care plan.

They can re-remind the patient, modify the care plan and

send messages through platform in this kind of cases. Most

of the patients follow their care planning, so our customers

have seen significant amount of reduced phone calls and

administrative work” Markus explains the solution.

“Hospitals also need to do a bit of changes in their

processes, when using our care coordination platform. We

can significantly reduce administrative work the nurses

are doing at the moment by digitalizing all pre- and postoperative

phases of care” he adds.

Its main differentiation is to not concentrate on any

particular disease but offers to set up any care guidance.

Buddy Healthcare has ongoing projects in 4 out of 5

Finniah university hospitals, and also in over 60 per cent of

central hospitals.


Advertorial

Cold Flood Prevention

- Danish innovation finds Southeast

Asian market via AndersenB2B

As Cold Flood Prevention (an innovative

alternative to the traditional use of sandbags)

is making inroads into Southeast Asia – it

already constitutes proof of concept that

the SME business networking and business

internationalisation platform AndersenB2B.com works

in action! Its mission is to strengthen the access to new

clients, markets and information and its approach enables

companies to connect across borders.

By being part of this platform and network Cold Flood

Prevention, a new Danish innovative SME, has managed

to find strong interest for its solution from prospects far

beyond the initial home market that is Scandinavia.

Consequently, its CEO Michael Cold, accompanied by

AndersenB2B’s CEO Lars Siggaard Andersen, have been

visiting countries in Southeast Asia, in particular Vietnam,

Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand to do field

demonstrations.

“The challenge is always when you have a person with

a brilliant idea and technology how you can spread the

word. Southeast Asia has tons of small companies, so does

Denmark and the rest of the Nordics. So how can we

get to know each other? This is where we work together

to communicate as much as possible on this platform,

and distribute information and put up videos. We allow

business owners like Michael to give some statements in

our newsletter and talk about, in his case, how he has been

in Southeast Asia looking for sales opportunities,” says Lars

Andersen, who is also behind well-established Andersen

Consult.


Lars says that their news send-outs also reach some

2,000 companies and government officials in Southeast

Asia.

“And seeing for example the Cold Flood Prevention

info they might take the product into consideration.’ Some

of these people contacted us wondering what it is about:

‘We have sandbags but your product also looks interesting;

can you come and give a demonstration?’ So being on

the platform is another way to spread the word; much

faster and economically than do your own marketing,” he

explains.

“And I think the most exciting part is that people from

out here are contacting us, asking for more details. So the

vehicle, the platform, is working in that way, a reversed way;

normally we would be going out communicating: ‘Why don’t

you look at our product?’”

So AndersenB2B is about: talking to companies based

on the actual market, meeting those people and discussing

about one’s product or service’s options; communicating.

The platform facilitates active networking in Denmark and

abroad to grow one’s business by communicating with

people knowing the market and perhaps having needs that

generates a match.

Then, one can also learn from peers what is required

on a certain market. For example, in Southeast Asia a lot of

patience and continued dialogue are needed.

‘‘In this part of the world we have to address the

public authorities again and again because they have

to feel safe, convinced. So we are doing a number of

demonstrations in Vietnam and we’re going to do it here in

Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka, and will

continue those so that we convince people that this is really

the technology to go for and stop using the sand bags. And

we will convince them, there is no doubt about it, they have

to use a product like this!” claims Lars.

“Michael’s product is quite unique and highly interesting

because it is climate-oriented. It’s an exciting product

because it’s – compared to many other technologies – easy

to use, understand and operate. It also has a long lifetime

span, and makes so much sense.”

Building 100 metres of flooding protection wall with

Cold Flood Prevention costs about Euro 33,500 while

sandbags costs about Euro 29,000. But second time around

the Danish solution will cost the user only about 500 euro.

One can use flooding water to fill up the barriers or use a

fire department’s water outlets, if access is available.

“We share the cost calculation system with clients so

they can put in their local costs and every time the result

is the same. Our solution is more expensive the first time,

second time using it costs close to nothing, and you have

up to 10 years use of our Cold Flood system, while you

have the same cost of sandbags every time because you

cannot re-use those. This is an amazing selling point,” says

Lars.

“Michael even gives 5 years warranty; he has that much

faith in his product, which also has a structure that it fits the

Asian climate.”

Michael Cold, Cold Flood Prevention


Michael Cold, Cold, together with CEO for AndersenB2B, Lars Siggaard Andersen

“If you have to protect something in a flooding zone you

can build it up using the flooding water to protect against

flooding. Everyone can accomplish it so it’s easy to put up

and take away again and use in another place,” explains

Michael.

A team of two can handle up to 50 metres per hour

ensuring a very fast response to the flood-exposed area.

When it takes 750 labour hours to set up a 100 m sandbag

dam and 300 labour hours to remove it, it only takes 4

labour hours to install the cold flood prevention system and

4 hours to remove it.

“This, paired with that you can have any form

measurement, mobility and flexibility are the two most

fantastic parts about this product,” Michael explains.

Among the versions is a lower barrier suitable for

restaurants so they can keep open without the

water from the stress entering their restuarants.

Other than that, typically critical infrastructure can be kept

going in critical spots; roads, schools, airports, hotels etc.

“We know for a fact that manufacturers have their

production materials destroyed by flooding water. Or,

they have to stop the production raise all products and

equipment high up from the ground until flooding has

gone again. We can however accommodate maintaining full

production also during flooding.”

Flooding is the single most common natural disaster in

the world as well as the disaster with the highest economic

and humanitarian impact. In Southeast Asia damages from

flooding amounts to $ 175 billion each year – and these

expenses will only continue to increase as the climate

changes, if traditional approaches remain the applied

solution to prevent flooding. Hence, Lars and Michael being

so expectant about the market potential.

Their direct target clients are public authorities,

disaster management systems, vulnerable SMEs and larger

corporations. ”But more also insurance companies should

take an interest in this product – they are the ones that have

to pay for all the insured losses.”

“Sometimes it is: out of eye out of mind. The public

sector sometimes think: ‘Maybe we will not have a flooding

next year!’ Our challenge is to tell them to prepare for next

time. It is almost as if governments and countries are getting

used to spending a percentage of BNP on cleaning up from

flooding every year. We say: we cannot remove that but we

can reduce it. And the environmental impact is incredible.”

“We are planning for the delivery of huge quantities

going forward. Right now we are convincing people, and we

will convince them; there is no doubt about it!”

www.andersenb2b.com

www.coldflood.com


Singapore FinTech Festival a big draw

also for the Nordics

Text and photos: Joakim Persson

Business

Singapore FinTech Festival 2018

included significant participation

from the Nordic countries. Both

Denmark and Sweden came with

delegations (Sweden also with two

days in Kuala Lumpur)

Business Swceden’s delegation came

mainly to explore the financial sector

here in Singapore and Malaysia. Swedish

and Danish start-ups participated

in a Nordic FinTech Investor Event

event. Each company was given two

minutes to do their pitch to invited

local investors.

The same night the joint organisers

held a networking gathering hosted

by the Swedish Ambassador Niclas

Kvarnström, at the Swedish Residency,

where it was evident by the high

number of attendees that people in the

financial sector had come from both far

and near and that the interest in Nordic

fintech innovations was very strong.

Speaking at the event Mr Sopnendu

Mohanty from the Monetary Authority

of Singapore said: “One thing I tell to

my people here: the reason you should

Magnus Grimeland, CEO, Antler

partner with Nordic countries when

it comes to fintech is the design part,

how to build a system which is really

human-centric. Second, we have same

constraints as you have, being small

and far away we really have to create

a perception of being bigger than what

we really are. These constraints drive

our thinking. So with that I think we

have a natural partnership and I believe

we can work together more.”

Introducing himself Sami

Jääskeläinen,Community Manager for

the brand new Nordic Innovation

House explained that facilitating

networking where one can make the

connections between local and regional

investors and Nordic start-ups.

“We are basically a community

platform accelerating high quality

Nordic start-ups on scale who are

coming to Singapore, and also using

this as a springboard when it comes to

expanding their business in this region.”

With a very strong Nordic-

Singaporean connection Magnus

Grimeland CEO of Antler, a a start-up

Sami Jääskeläinen,Community Manager,


generator and early-stage VC investor,

was also given the stage.

“We just launched Antler last year

which I think is a fantastic blend of

Singapore and the Nordic region. The

guy running Southeast Asia for us is

from Finland, our CMO is from Sweden,

we have a couple of Norwegians in

the leadership team, and our head of

partnerships is Singaporean, so we have

the Nordic-Singapore leadership team

and Singaporean-Nordic owners.”

“There interesting thing we also

do in Antler is to bring down Nordic

founders here and I think we will find

tremendous success in the region. We

are also in Stockholm and Oslo.”

“The reason why we are very excited

about Southeast Asia I think is manifold:

If you look at it from a global scale, this

is the fastest stably growing economy

in the world. You are also close to key

markets such as China and India - so

tremendous amount of opportunity in

terms of scale and growth. The second

thing is the significant amount of value

created in short time that shows a little

bit of the opportunities space.”

Other great reasons are that access

to talent (the best locals now wanting to

be entrepreneurs) and improvements

in the region in terms of ease of doing

business.

“If we can be of an helpful in anyway,

we are super happy to help anyone

considering expanding to here,” ended

Magnus.

Mr Sopnendu Mohanty, Monetary

Authority of Singapore


Business

Helsinki promotes

start-ups, business

investment in and via

Singapore

By Joakim Persson

Mr Tommo Koivusalo, Helsinki City


Following the ‘Meet Finland in Singapore’ week

during the Singapore Week of Innovation &

TeCHnology 2018 (SWITCH), and that included

Helsinki’s very own Slush tech start-up event (third

time), the Finnish organisers’ initial evaluation

was positive and upbeat. They said that the effort had

drummed up significant interest among the business and

investor community.

Networking events, dialogue and investor receptions as

well as the “Coolest tech hub” booth at SLUSH Singapore,

and the Finnish Singapore showcase at Techinnovation

2018 had all been successes.

It has opened up new Singapore-Finland collaboration

opportunities in healthtech, travel tech, edutech and Virtual

Reality and Augmented innovations.

The cities of Helsinki, Espoo and Turku participated in

the effort that brought in a total of 120 Finnish delegates

comprising innovators and tech companies to promote

awareness and business collaboration between Finland

and Singapore.

Some of the technologies come from start-ups within

the Helsinki-based iCory project, which is funded by

Business Finland and backed by a consortium comprising

Finnish health and wellness companies, universities and

hospitals.

Another example is Helsinki-headquartered VR

company, Zoan, that gave visitors a preview of Helsinki, its

digital buildings - i.e. apartments and commercial spaces

before they are built; and a virtual tour of Finland.

Helsinki, ‘the most functional and sustainable city in

the world’, provides a platform for entrepreneurship and

supports businesses to innovate and create new while

remaining sustainable. Joint efforts of the city, its citizens and

businesses are turning Helsinki into the world’s leading test

bed for solutions that tackle global problems.

One of Helsinki City’s six representatives in

Singapore, Tommo Koivusalo Head of Economic

development unit, NewCo Helsinki, explains why

Helsinki is engaging so strongly with Singapore.

“The unit I am heading is responsible for having as many

new businesses founded in Helsinki as possible. We’re also

responsible for helping start-ups to grow internationally,

and to build the start-up community, the ecosystem in

the Helsinki area, which means that we are naturally

very interested in the other best-in-class cities and their

communities. We try to interact and exchange talent, and

learn from each other,” says Tommo.

“And I see a lot of similarities between these two cities;

the level of technical skills and the level of ambition are

about the same. I’d say Singaporean people are better in

delivering right away, while in Finland we may take a little

bit longer time to get started but when we do we really

deliver.”

“We work closely with local Helsinki start-ups and also

financially help them to come here and do sales and find

investors and see what the competitors are doing.”

But it has to “work” in both ways to make sense in the

longer run: “It’s pretty O.K that we facilitate start-ups from

Helsinki going to Singapore and even staying and finding

customers and investors here. But we also want to see

traffic the other way around, so that investors and start-ups

from Asia come to Helsinki.”

Seeking partnerships is also on the agenda: We are

very interested in the good academic organisations here

and potential collaborations with those. The universities,

for example, have own entrepreneurship programmes,

excellent innovation programmes and departments.”

Slush Singapore is part of the reason why Helsinki

returns to Singapore: “The City of Helsinki and Slush have

a deal that it’s not only about Slush in Helsinki but also the

other Slush events taking place in Asia and we participate

in them all. But we see Singapore as a good benchmark and

reference case to Helsinki because of that the level and

quality of things here are high enough.”

Needless to say, Helsinki promotes itself very heavily at

the main annual Slush event back in Helsinki too.

“I would say that what we have done in Singapore last

year and this year shows that we really value Singapore

pretty high and for example our involvement in Slush

Shanghai was not this big.”

And, even more important, says Tommo, are the other

events arranged by Finland during SWITCH where startups

can meet investors and other players that can help

them and generate something.

“Last year there were many start-ups from Helsinki that

were able to find an investor or make a good deal here

in Singapore. Singapore is a capital-rich city, so there is a

mutual interest; we have good business ideas and start-up

teams. Singapore also has this but also capital.”

“And I do think we need to have consistency; it’s not

good to go to some place only once – to build successful

relations takes time. You have to have a longer perspective,

especially in Asia, and this is why we come here every year.”

The efforts in Singapore are also bearing fruit in terms of

Singapore coming to Helsinki. “There are things happening

at the grassroots level. But the way we see it you need have

to have both levels; the high level with the vision and citygovernment

level and the grass roots level. If you have both

you will be successful.”


Business

2018: SweCham China turned twenty,

held gala

The Swedish Chamber of

Commerce (SweCham) in China

on 20 October crowned a year

of celebrations will be a very special

Gala Dinner, held at the Wanda Vista

Hotel in Beijing.

SwedCham celebrated 20 years

in business with a Great Gatsby Gala.

Since the start in 1998 with only 30

companies, SwedCham has grown into

a community and a network, rich of

the common expertise of close to

300 companies. 200+ guests together

celebrated the achievements of the

past with an exhibition of 20 stars

that has contributed a little extra to

the Chamber, and a bright future;

enabled through the strong, dynamic

and rich network, inspiring and close

cooperation with other Chambers in

the region as well as within the Team

Sweden cooperation.


The gala was led by the Swedish

journalist and TV personality Ebba

Kleberg Von Sydow, who welcomed the

guests and spoke of her impressions

of the vibrant Beijing and SwedCham’s

accomplishments during the last 20

years. “Only 20 years old?” Ebba stated,

comparing SwedCham’s development

with Warren Buffets’ who twenty years

ago still was a salesman in Omaha, and

the same goes for Hilary Clinton, who

was about to finish law school as well

as Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos who still

was flipping burgers McDonalds.

To make the gala night extra special

the guests were also joined by Swedish

chef Benny Adler who had created an

exquisite Swedish Gala menu.. Benny

Adler is currently the head chef at

member company and Purveyor to

the Court, Rosers Hotel & Events, and

has previously been responsible for

the menu at the Swedish King’s 70th

birthday, as well as the Swedish Pavilion

at the Olympic Games in South Korea

last winter. During the evening the

guests could also enjoy beer from the

Beijing-based Swedish micro-brewery

Arrow Factory as well as chilled drinks

in an Absolut Vodka bar.

A lot of prestigious entertainment

entertained the guests during the

gala night; saxophone music during

the mingle, close up and stage magic

from Rock the magician, a surprise

flash mob from award winning Swedish

swing dance group the Harlem Hot

Shots and Swedish swing and jazz

legendries’ Movits! who jazzed it up on

the dance floor.

The speakers of the evening

Lars-Åke Severin, Chairman of the

Swedish Chamber in China; the

Ambassador of Sweden to China

and Mongolia, Anna Lindstedt; Kristian

Odebjer, Chairman of the Swedish

Chamber in Hong Kong; David Hallgren,

Trade Commissionaire of Sweden;

and (trough a sketch) Mats Harborn,

President of the European Chamber of

Commerce together with Tommy Liu

and Rolf Gren, founding fathers of the

Chamber, the speakers of the evening

conveyed their respective bithday

wishes and a positive vision for the

future of SwedCham.

Every year the Chamber awards two

people who have contributed a little

extra to the Chamber. This year Birgitta

Ed was awarded with the Chamber’s

Honorary Award, and Michelle Qin

was awarded as the Young Professional

of the year. In her speech, Michelle

spoke of the digital development that

China has gone through and how

Swedish brands can be agile and adapt

in this fast moving pace. “In only a few

weeks, Alibaba will kick off the famous

single day’s event and it is only 10

years ago that the mega shopping day

phenomena first started“, speaking of

the necessity to keep up with current

trends and sharing experiences amongst

professionals.

During the mingle Rock the magician

handed out golden tickets to some

guests that had the opportunity to be

a part of The Great Gatsby Raffle and

win fantastic prices, sponsored by our

member companies. Prices included

two free participations in the 17th

edition of Vasaloppet China sponsored

by Nordic Ways and ping pong blades

from Stiga Sports signed by legendary

J-O Waldner, Kong Linghui, Malong,

Xu xin, Fan Zhendong, Ma Long, Chen

Meng and Zhu Yuling, limited Edition

Karl Lagerfeldt champagne glasses

from New Wave Group, free floats at

the exquisite spa Floatasian in Shanghai

and free hotel nights at Wanda Vista

Beijing.

The Platinum Sponsors of the gala,

SEB, PSU Consulting and Celemi, as well

as Diamond Sponsors Rosers Hotel &

Event, Danske Bank, Elanders, STIGA

Sport and Gold Sponsor Fillidutt made

the celebration possible.

Source: Swedcham China


Community

Scandinavians at the catwalk at

International Thai Silk Fashion Week

Beautiful clothes made of Thai silk

and designed by designers from

48 different countries were shown

at the catwalk of the International Thai

Silk Fashion Week on 2 – 4 December.

From the Nordics, Denmark, Sweden

and Finland was represented and the

clothes were worn by the Scandinavian

Ambassadors or their partners.

Denmark was represented by the

young Danish designer Nickie Geneser

Bach, who is soon graduating with

her Bachelor in Fashion Design at VIA

Design in the city of Herning, Denmark.

Her ambition is to combine traditional

Thai style and Scandinavian design

tradition in the clothes.

“Being selected to represent

Denmark for this amazing event is an

incredibly exciting opportunity! Thai silk

is in many areas an overlooked material

in the global fashion image despite its

good qualities. It is therefore a very

exciting task to work with and show

a new interpretation of the material,”

Nickie Geneser Bach told the Embassy

of Denmark in Bangkok.

Designer Göran Alfredsson

represented Sweden. He bought his

first Thai silk in 1987 and today has a

house in Thailand.

The designer from Finland was

Emma Haikonen, who is specialised in

womenswear design.

International Thai Silk Fashion Week

is an event that focuses on Thailand’s

finest hand-woven silk. The tribute

to Thai silk was initiated by the Thai

Queen Mother Sirikit for the purpose

of spreading knowledge and use of Thai

silk in the global fashion world.


Sweden Vietnam Nobel Gala

Community

is one of the most

innovative countries in the

“Sweden

world. Together with Vietnam,

we have been working on Innovation,

Sustainability and Safety since 1969.

The dinner In the Spirit of Nobel that

took place paid tribute to Swedish

innovation and was also the start of

the commemoration of 50 years of

diplomatic relations between our two

countries,” reports the Embassy of

Sweden in Hanoi.

During the event, a Memorandum of

Understanding was signed between the

Ministry of Science and Technology and

Ericsson on establishing an Innovation

Centre for Internet of Things at Hoa

Lac IT Park in Hanoi. The guests also

experienced the Swedish tradition of

Lucia procession.

Source: Embassy of Sweden in Hanoi


Feature

Tracing explosives

in the Vietnamese soil


Jan Erik Støa (left) and Magnus Johansson (right) have been working for Norwegian People’s Aid in Cambodia and Laos since

2011 and now work together in Vietnam.

Many international aid

organisations have left the old

war-torn country infested with

explosive remnants in favour

of other urgent cases. But

one of the organisations still

standing strong in Vietnam, is

Norwegian People’s Aid with

two Scandinavians in charge.

By Jonas Boje Andersen and Lærke Weensgaard

Photos: Lærke Weensgaard

In a vast coastal area in the central and most narrow part

of Vietnam, the scorching hot November sun is beating

down in the early morning hours. A few farming houses

are spread across a landscape consisting of small trees,

bushes and sandy ground. Around this bushy landscape,

dozens of uniformed military-looking personnel are walking

meticulously around with metal detectors. They have been

sweeping the ground since dawn to avoid the worst part

of the afternoon sun. They are not here to uncover hidden

treasures but to find explosive remnants from the Vietnam

War. Their job might be dangerous, but the heat and their

time schedule do not allow them to wear an armoured suit.

With more than 400,000 tons of submunition dropped

by the United States some 40 years ago, Vietnam is still far

from being rid of so-called cluster munition. But many aid

organisations have left Vietnam in favour of pursuing more

urgent cases like Syria and Iraq. One organisation still far

from done in Vietnam is the Norwegian People’s Aid, also

called NPA.

“It’s naive to think Vietnam will be free for bombs in 100

years. By comparison, we still find bombs from World War

II in Europe, but we will need several years to clear the high

priority areas in Vietnam,” says Norwegian Jan Erik Støa,

Operation Manager for NPA in Vietnam.

NPA started their first mine action program in Cambodia

in 1992 and began supporting Vietnam with disposal of

unexploded ordnance in 2008. NPA is now one of Norway’s

largest NGOs with involvements in more than 400 projects

in 30 countries. Applying classic Scandinavian genderpolicies,

the NPA has been the first demining organisation in

Vietnam to have several all-female teams in their clearance

projects. Something that quickly caught the attention of not

only locals but also Vietnamese television, as recalled by the

Swedish Senior Technical Adviser, Magnus Johansson.

He talks as straightforward as he looks. Military sunglasses,

a big American Ford pick-up truck with the American and

Vietnamese flag side-by-side and with a military discipline

approach to his job. With 14 years of service as an Officer

in the Swedish Army and another 14 years in the business

of demining at many former battlefields around the world,

he is a man with a lot of experience. In many ways a lot like

his Norwegian co-worker Jan Erik Støa. 49-year old Jan Erik

Støa started in this line of business for the United Nations

in 2001 and a year later for NPA. The former soldiers met

in 2004 while being stationed in Sri-Lanka. After Sri-Lanka,

they went their separate ways and joined forces again in

2011 in Cambodia and Laos and have worked together

since then.

Disciplined work

Today, 50-year old Magnus Johansson is taking ScandAsia

out in the current NPA target field, the coastal area of

the Quang Tri province in central Vietnam. As a technical


It’s naive to think

Vietnam will be

free for bombs

in 100 years

advisor his job is, among other things, to make sure that the

local people are trained and equipped to deal with their

dangerous land with utmost caution.

“I’m very fond of being stationed in this part of the

world. The Vietnamese are competent and very easy to

work with. No drama with them,” he says.

Magnus Johansson and Jan Erik Strøa are both married,

respectively to a Thai and a Cambodian woman and both

have children. And they both share the same kind of

methodology to the work.

“You have to follow rules and be disciplined to work

here,” Magnus Johansson says, as the many NPA workers

sweeps the ground with their metal detectors producing

constant ‘bips’ indicating several unexploded remnants. He

adds that it is not a militaristic approach they are looking

for when employing workers, but that it does demand an

enormous discipline and thoroughness to avoid accidents.

Two years ago, they tragically had an accident. A freak

accident, Magnus Johansson explains. It was just a routine job

for Ngo Thien Khiet, one of the Vietnamese team leaders,

as he was called to inspect a newly discovered ordnance

by one of his subordinates. As he kneeled to inspect it, the

object blew up without even being touched. In their Toyota

Landcruiser ambulance, they rushed him to the nearest

hospital two hours away. But too late. The shattered pieces

of metal had caused lethal injury to his chest, and he died

before they reached the hospital.

Luckily, such accidents are extremely rare, and this is the

only accident NPA have had in Vietnam. Still, it is an inevitable

risk of demining. Now, NPA have employed Khiet’s son for

the same project as a form of compensation, as the father

was the family’s only source of income. It is estimated that

Vietnam has suffered around 50,000 casualties in the years

after the war due to explosive leftovers in the Vietnamese

soil.

Strategically important areas

It is not hard to imagine the battles that took place in this

beachy terrain during the Vietnam war with all the places

for people to take cover and the ditches to hide in. You can

almost see the American soldiers taking position while the

helicopters roar through the sky.

Quang Tri and neighbouring Hue were strategically

important places for the Viet Cong and the Americans,

as this was the border area between North and South

Vietnam. This was also the place in Vietnam that set the

stage for some of the fiercest battles during the war. It was

not guerrilla war but traditional battles that took place here.

That is also the reason why these provinces in particular

were so heavily bombarded, and therefore still to this day

demand attention if people are to live without fear of being

killed or maimed by the leftovers of the fighting.

According to the Vietnamese Government, Quang Tri is

the third worst area when it comes to explosive remnants.


If you ask Magnus Johansson, Jan Erik Støa and their team, it

is undoubtedly the worst affected province. That also means,

that they find all sorts of unexploded remnants.

This beachy area hides a lot of bombs fired from naval

battleships, but most of all the soil hides air-dropped

cluster munition also known as ‘bombies’. Usually, every

single container of bombies contained 600 small bomblets.

Around 40% of the munition in a container did not explode

when it was dropped, leaving some 240 unexploded

bomblets on the ground for each container. Especially in the

areas where NPA works, it is not landmines but bombies

they find, which are dropped in a pattern that makes them

easier to find than landmines.

“Those little bomblets look like small footballs which is

attractive for small children to kick at,” Magnus Johansson

explains. But it is also very easy for the farmers to accidentally

hack in the ground and set a bomblet off. Just a few days

before ScandAsia’s visit, NPA had a call from a woman

whose 10-year old daughter picked up a large unexploded

bomb and brought it to show her mom at their property.

NPA has secured the perimeter around it and is ready to

dispose it within a few days.

These hazardous situations are luckily more and more

rare in Vietnam, partly due to NPA’s risk education in the

provinces and partly due to new laws on sale of scrap metal.

Jan Erik Støa recounts how he has seen small children with

homemade metal detectors and old men stocking bomblets

on their freight bicycles to sell it at the local market as scrap

metal, when he started in Vietnam for NPA. The metal prices

were expensive, and it was something a lot of locals could

earn some extra money on.

Steps of NPA’s work

Biiiip. A worker with a metal detector stops. He moves the

metal detector around while listening to the sound. Some

places the sound fades off, but at one place it gets higher.

He places a red flag in the ground next to it and carefully

starts to remove the sand. In the ground, he finds a brown

and rusty hand grenade.

Prior to finding the hand grenade, a long and technical

process has taken place. Simplified, the whole process from

finding the areas with explosive objects to destroying them

can be boiled down to four steps:

Non-technical survey : NPA talks to the locals and find

out which areas might be contaminated.

Technical survey : NPA searches the areas that were

pointed out during the non-technical survey.

Maps : Based on the information from the surveys, NPA

creates detailed maps of the confirmed hazardous areas.

Clearance : Using the maps, NPA combs the areas and

detonate the bombies they find.


Those little bomblets

look like small footballs

which is attractive

for small children

to kick at

The three explosives are placed in the same hole while the

female mine clearer (above) prepares to detonate them .. as

seen in the big photo on the opposite page.

The non-technical survey starts when NPA begins to

work in an area that have not been searched for unexploded

remnants before. To get an idea about where to start, they

send small, mixed teams of men and women out to talk to

locals, who have encountered explosive objects.

Once they have an idea about which places can be

dangerous, they start the technical survey. It is a systematic

way of searching for bombies with metal detectors. In this

phase, the goal is not to find every single bombie. Instead,

they aim at finding the border of the contaminated area.

Once they can separate the contaminated area from the

non-contaminated area, they make a map to use in the

next phase.

Only now, they can start to remove the bomblets. In

this phase, the workers search every centimetre of the area

inside their new-found borders. They must find everything

down to 30 centimetre in the ground.

Almost every day, the teams find unexploded remnants.

“It is very rare that we have days where we don’t find

some,” says Jan Erik Støa.

Two weeks after ScandAsia’s visit, NPA destroyed an US

aircraft bomb weighing 340 kg. The bomb was found by a

farmer, when he was about to harvest his land.

On the day of ScandAsia’s visit the catch is smaller.

Besides the hand grenade, two more objects appear. Every

day ends with the team detonating what they have found

during the day.


10 years in Vietnam

The hand grenade is put in a hole with two other explosive

objects and sandbags are placed around the hole to control

the explosion. With microphones, they warn neighbours or

others passing by not to enter the area since they soon will

detonate the objects.

For an outsider, the upcoming explosion is exciting, but

for NPA’s employees it is just routine.

NPA has built up their work routines in Vietnam since

2008 when they came to the country. During those 10

years, the work has developed a lot.

The number of employees has grown from approximately

20 to 280. Among them is the very first female team in

Vietnam.

The actual clearance has only recently become a part

of NPA’s work in Vietnam. NPA started clearance in Hue

province in 2015 with Norwegian funds, and in October

2018 in Quang Tri, when NPA began to receive funding

from the United Kingdom. Before that, the clearance has

been done by the Vietnamese military or other international

NGOs.

Until NPA started to clear bombies, their work revolved

around making surveys. Their techniques have become

more and more effective over the years and especially

the technical survey has changed. When NPA first came

to Vietnam, they would search all parts of the areas they

suspected could be contaminated, wasting both time and

manpower. They changed to their current method, where

they search for the border of the contaminated areas and

sweep every centimetre during the clearance instead of

the survey.

In the ten-year range NPA has been in Vietnam, they

have destroyed around 76,000 items of cluster munition

and other remnants of war. The work might be moving

forward, but there is still a long way to go:

“If we continue to get the funding we need, we expect

to be able to leave Vietnam in 15 years. But we do struggle

to find enough money,” says Jan Erik Støa while addressing

that since the war, the Vietnamese Government have been

keener on prioritising funding’s in the tourist-sector and on

infrastructure than tracing explosive remnants.

Back in the field, the detonation is almost ready. An

explosive charge is connected to a remote control by a

long cable. With the remote control and the employees

on a safe distance, the only thing left to do is to push the

button on the remote control. It is done, and the rusty old

war remnants explode.


Community

Swedish Lucia Bangkok: photo expo,

150 years anniversary

By Joakim Persson


Sweden’s Embassy in Bangkok, with

Ambassador Staffan Herrström

and his spouse Karin Herrström

and the embassy team as hosts, on 13

December held a very special ‘Lucia’

Christmas celebration.

It was a warm and jolly evening

“to enjoy a tradition very close to the

hearts of us Swedes” – to quote the

Ambassador.

Invited V.I.Ps, Thais and Swedes then

were the first to experience the new

‘Neighbours From Afar’ photo exhibition,

displayed at the evening event

held at The Sukhothai in Bangkok,

paired with a Swedish smorgasbord of

Christmas food and warm mulled wine.

This exhibition highlights the 150

Years Anniversary of relations between

Sweden and Thailand, and the

unique people-to-people relationship

that binds the two countries together.

In the exhibition handpicked Swedes

and Thais that have in various ways

achieved something in their life, and in

the Sweden-Thailand context.

In his welcome speech Staffan

Herrström pointed to the tens of thou-

sands of Swedes and Thais visiting and

living in each other’s countries – representing

gamily ties, partnerships, friendships

and commitments.

The Ambassader described it as

“remarkable people-to-people relations.

Someone once said: ‘We are like

neighbours, apart from the geographical

distance’. So in that spirit we have

produced a photo exhibition highlighting

individuals, many of them here tonight

and in that spirit we have called it

‘Neighours From Afar’, because this is

what the simple world relations really

is all about. It’s about individuals, like

us, about human beings connecting to

each other.”

So aside the annual Lucia celebration

this evening was also held to commemorate

150 years of bilateral relations.

The ambassador described this

as “a close and multifaceted friendship

between Thailand and Sweden, between

our royal families, between Thais

and Swedes, all this is established by

the treaty 18th of May 1868. Swedish

companies have been investing and

committed to Thailand for well over a

century, many of you represent them

here tonight, with tens of thousands of

Thai employees and managers contributing

to these companies’ successes.”

The ambassador said that the public

will also get a chance to see the special

photo exhibition in January 2019 at

Bangkok Art & Cultural Center.

In his speech he also went on to

highlight the mutual challenges and

efforts that Sweden and Thailand are

facing.

“We also want to look forward, to

joined forces with Thailand in combating

major threats to the environment,

to humanity - to us all. The threats

against the ocean, and threats with so

many dimensions; one of them being

marine plastic litter.”

“At least 45 billion plastic bags are

consumed in Thailand yearly. All these

end up somewhere and they stay on

for centuries. Sweden and the whole

EU have taken and will take measures

to address this devastating pollution.

In the same spirit we are trying to do

more here and now at the embassy;

like partnering with Thailand when our

Ambassador for the Oceans, Helen

Ågren, and Thailand’s Minister for the

Environment attended a Swedish-hosted

event on this theme.”

“And we are providing new funding

through UN Environment to combat

marine litter in Southeast Asa. And we

will provide you with a reusable textile

bag when you leave tonight. Thai and

Swedes have a great history together;

let’s now join forces greening our joint

future.”

Photos: Embassy of Sweden, Bangkok

Swedish

Gala Dinner

Hong Kong

Swedcham and the Consulate

General of Sweden in Hong Kong

hosted the annual Gala Dinner

at the Asia Society Hong Kong Center

on 27 November. All guests enjoyed

an amazing five-course dinner and

entertainment inspired by Sweden and

Hong Kong.

The dinner was in connection with

the visit of a high level delegation from

Sweden. The Hon Mrs. Carrie Lam,

Chief Executive of HK SAR also attended

the dinner.

After a cocktail reception followed

a five-course dinner inspired by Nordic

and Asian flavors, composed by Michelin-star

chefs Alvin Leung, BO Inovation,

Hong Kong and Ebbe Vollmer,

Vollmers Malmö, Sweden.

Sources: Consulate General of Sweden in

Hong Kong, Swedcham Hong Kong


Community

Using a Cambodian

childhood and Danish

youth at NordCham

As a young teenager, Ghekhuoy

Lim from Cambodia moved to

Denmark and lived there for

seven years. The now 24-years

old Khmer woman has returned

to her home country and uses

her experiences from Denmark

at NordCham as a trainee. But

she does not want to stay in

neither Cambodia or Denmark –

she wants to visit new countries

and gain more knowledge.

By Lærke Weensgaard

The traffic was one of things that struck Ghekhuoy

Lim as a major difference between Denmark

and Cambodia, when she sat foot in

Copenhagen for the first time as a 13-years

old teenager. The traffic was well-organized and

most impressively there were bicycle lanes and sidewalks

almost anywhere. It was far from the streets of Cambodia

where you must search for sidewalks, definitely do not find

bicycle lanes and always have to keep an eye out for scooters

who might accidentally run you over.

“At first, I knew nothing about Denmark. I didn’t even

know where it was,” remembers 24-years old Ghekhuoy

Lim, who two years ago moved back to Phnom Phen, the

capital of Cambodia, after seven years in Copenhagen and

Køge.


She wants to work for embassies in different

countries. That also has roots in her childhood,

since some of her family worked at embassies.

Back in 2009, Ghekhuoy Lim’s mother chose to leave

Phenom Phen after her sister, who was based in Copenhagen,

encouraged her to move. It was getting to hard to live

in Cambodia and she believed her two young daughters

would be better of in the Nordics.

The Danish traffic might seemed impressive, but moving

more than 9,000 kilometers away was not easy: “It was a

whole new culture, the language was difficult and I missed

my grandparents,” Ghekhuoy Lim recalls.

She was enrolled into a class for foreign students to learn

Danish in Copenhagen. After three months, her teacher

found her language skills good enough to let her move into

a regular Danish school class.

Houy Lim Ghek tells her story to ScandAsia in English.

Even though she claims her Danish is rusty, she easily answers

unexpected questions in Danish and she pronounces

the name of her school, Hastrup skolen, as well as any Dane.

When she shifted into her new class, she noticed a difference

between Danish and Cambodian tweens: “In my

experience, teenagers in Denmark are more open-minded

and easy going.”

Trainee at NordCham

In order to study International relations and political science

at Paññāsāstra University of Cambodia in Phnom

Phen, Ghekhuoy Lim choose to move back to her home

country in 2016, while her family stayed in Denmark. She

was returning home, but just as leaving was hard, coming

back was difficult too: “It was hard to catch up with the

Cambodia society.”

Once again, the traffic was one of the things that stood

out to her when she came back: “I was used to go around

by bus, train or bicycle in Copenhagen. In Cambodia the

transportation makes it hard to go anywhere.”

Even though Denmark and Cambodia share few similarities,

she has put her Danish experiences to use. Four

months ago, she became a trainee at the Nordic Chamber

of Commerce in Cambodia, usually known as NordCham.

The chamber of commerce arranges events for their members

from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland.

Ghekhuoy Lim is no strange to the countries, since she has

visited all of them, expect from Iceland.

As a coordinator, it is her job to coordinate these events:

“I have learnt how to coordinate projects and preparing an

event for many people. It’s a good experience for me.”

Furthermore, she also likes to share information about

the Nordic countries. In her experience, few Cambodians

have knowledge about the Scandinavian countries, just

like herself before she moved there. “In general, I feel like

people in Cambodia maybe know France and Germany, but

besides that they don’t really know much about European

countries. Also, there are not so many Nordic companies

in Cambodia, so I think it is an interesting area to work

with,” she says.

New places bring new knowledge

Ghekhuoy Lim’s years in Denmark has left a positive impression

of the country that she calls small, but nice. She especially

thinks the Scandinavian welfare system holds value,

because it in general takes care if its people’s healthcare

and education.

Welfare system or not, Denmark cannot, after all, compete

with Cambodian food in her opinion. But she is not

planning on staying in Cambodia, but neither does she want

to return to Denmark. Not because she does not like the

countries, but because she wants to get new experiences:

“New places have different experiences, people and culture,”

she explains.

She wants to go to Europe to study her Master when

she finishes her studies in Cambodia in 2019.

Her interest in international relations started already

as a kid, when she watched diplomates on the news. That

created a childhood dream of one day becoming an Ambassador.

Today she is working towards another goal: She wants

for work for embassies in different countries. That also has

roots in her childhood, since some of her family worked at

embassies.

Both herself and her family thinks her hunt for new

knowledge and interest in international relations would

match well with a job on an embassy.

The dream of one day becoming an Ambassador still

lives though: “But right now I just concentrate on getting

experiences,” she says.


Community

Swedish Association

in Hua Hin celebrates

10 years

Photo: Jan Stoltz

By Joakim Persson

December to February is the peak period

for Scandinavian stays in Hua Hin (longstay

visitors and other tourists), while some

1500 Swedes also live there permanently.

The Swedish Association in Hua Hin,

which recently celebrated its ten years anniversary, is the

coordinator of lots of activities that many Swedes and other

Scandinavians engage themselves in when spending time in

the famous royal seaside resort.

Last time ScandAsia featured this association was back

in January 2013, then describing the influx of Swedes going

back all the way to the 2000s and a residential environment

being “very international”.

The association was started as a platform to network

and learn from each other. Ten years later, it presents living

proof that the community thrives, while we learn from

two Board members that the role of the association is

somewhat different these days.


Lasse Håkansson, Chairman of the Board and Sune

Westhed, Member of the Board meet up in downtown Hua

Hin just after their 10 Years gala dinner has taken place, held

on Tuesday 27 November, the very same date when the

association was formed exactly ten years ago.

From the successful celebration held at Dusit Thani Hotel

in Hua Hin they related that some 120 Swedes, Thai spouses,

girlfriends and wives, in addition to their Guest of Honour, the

Swedish Ambassador couple Staffan and Karin Herrström

from Bangkok, some embassy people including Sweden’s

Consul General Hua Hin and the Vice Consul from Bangkok,

and the new Swedish priest in Bangkok, Eric Stenberg.

There were friendly speeches, a delicious (mainly Thai)

food buffet and live entertainment by a duo from the

Philippines all night long.

The Dusit hotel has hosted many Swedish tourists

throughout the year and the Swedish consulate is also

based there since opening in 2012.

Sweden’s Ambassador to Thailand H.E. Staffan Herrström.

Photo: Lotta Robertsson.

Lasse Håkansson, Chairman of the Board Swe Association

Hua Hin. Photo: Jan Stoltz

Lasse and Sune are among those spending six months in

Thailand and the rest of the year back in Sweden.

We are about 3,000 Swedes doing that and the

population in Hua Hin is 100 000. The same amount are

Finns, and a bit fewer are Danes, But I think we Swedes are

the largest foreign population here,” says Lasse, including the

estimated permanent residents.

“I have only been here for four years and I have worked

in Bangkok once earlier. Then we often travelled to Hua Hin

on weekends, finding it to be a nice beach vacation resort.

I got hooked. I think that those who come to Hua Hin like

more the quiet setting,” he explains.

Sune, who has been coming to Hua Hin for twelve years.

With his Thai wife he owns a house outside town, to which

they return every year during the European winter.

“By coincidence we bought here. Then there were

already many Swedes and Europeans here, which I like.”

Lasse and Sune both also like the more genuine Thai

culture that they find there.

“We meld in well with the society here and you have

everything you yearn for in the form of restaurants, nightclubs,

shopping malls and even Swedish groceries! And since the

late King spent so much time here, this also meant that this

has been quieter than other destinations,” says Lasse, who

thinks there is more of everything.

And in addition to the today fourteen golf courses in the

area Lasse also highlights the new

True Arena Hua Hin, a premier sports complex.

“We must have on Thailand’s best sports facilities with

eight tennis courts, badminton courts, fitness equipment,

championship pools, two football grounds etc.”

“They are building a lot here, which surprises me as the

economy is not strong. So optimism is thriving here when it

comes to construction,” observes Sune.

The number of hotels has also increased, including

mixed-use large residential complexes.

Also, new international flights have started to come to

Hua Hin. AirAsia now fly there from Kuala Lumpur. The roads

between Hua Hin and Cha-Am have also been expanded,

as the two adjacent seaside towns are increasingly merging

into one.

“So quite a lot is happening! My experience is that with

increased infrastructure spending the society will also grow.

Cities and countries that do not spend on infrastructure

have difficulty in growing,” thinks Lasse.

One thing that has however not changed is all the red

tape when it comes to permits such as visa. Both Lasse and

Sune find it cumbersome and annoying.

Lasse thinks that other emerging countries may start to

compete strongly with Thailand because of this.

“In Vietnam it is also possible for foreigners to own land

and it’s probably over all twenty per cent cheaper to live

there compared to here. So there are other competitors

today than you had back then. Now many travel to Vietnam,”

says Lasse.


Per Kågeby, Embassy of Sweden Bangkok.

Photo: Jan Stoltz.

Sweden’s Honorary Consul in Hua Hin Victor Sukseree.

Photo: Lotta Robertsson.

It will be the next large tourist country!” agrees Sune.

Both also think there is a drop in visitor numbers to

Hua Hin.

“If you talk to business operators they say that the good

times are not what they used to be, with a shorter peak

season when they can make profit. And it’s shorter stays

than previously when almost everyone spent six months

here; now it is concentrated around December to March.

So less foreigners are coming here all in all. And Thailand has

become slightly more expensive and the Swedish currency

has been very low against the Thai baht for years now,”

Lasse concludes.

“I can see on the beaches that there are fewer tourists

here nowadays. And the Thais also say that,” says Sune.

All the many questions connecting to rules and

regulations were in fact initially a strong reason

for why the Swedish Association Hua Hin was

started in the first place. Says Lasse: “Things have changed

throughout the years. From what I have heard from those

active before is that nobody knew anything about visas,

what applied in Thai society and other practical know-how.

Those topics then united all those people into the Swedish

Association.”

“Nowadays, most are established so we do not have the

situation with settlers arriving like back then, so the needs

are a bit different. Aside the association, various networks

have been established around interests, such as bridge club,

chess, golf, book clubs, and even afternoon tea. The Swedish

Association does not play the same role these days. It’s

primary function is to moderate all these activities one

wants to engage in,” he explains.

“Here, five years from now, I think the largest population

of foreigners in Thailand will not be Swedes but Chinese. I

am noticing that on different areas here that Chinese are

very interested, and when the middle class there grows

just a few per cent you have tens of millions able to travel,

which were not there before. Russians is also a large group

but not here, where one will aim more for Chinese who

usually bring money,” predicts Lasse.

But the Nordics are not leaving. “The association has

developed over the years and it will have another role

going forward. Many have established themselves and

know much more now than when one first started to

arrive here. Now it is more about facilitating that one can

do the activities one wants and can stay up to date about

Thai visa rules that tend to change every year, and keeping

the community together,” says the Chairman.

“The Norwegians (more or less a golf association) and

the Finns also have many activities and we have started

collaboration the three of us, where we will invite each

other’s members to different activities.”

The nearest fun, joint event, as the Swedes told this to

ScandAsia, was a Finnish Karaoke night – with a promise

also for some Swedish songs.


Kenneth Radencrantz’ funeral

Community

singers Carry and Petra Persson,

coming from Switzerland.”

Kenneth Radencrantz passed away

on 29 November 2018. Born in 1935

in Skanör, Sweden, Kenneth lived and

worked in Thailand since 2001 where

he became partner and CEO of Q

Matic Asia. His wife Berit Radencrantz

soon became a leading figure in SWEA

and Kenneth joined the board of the

Thai-Swedish Chamber of Commerce.

He was elected as Chairman of the

Thai-Swedish Chamber of Commerce

in 2010, a position he held till 2014.

Kenneth Radencrantz’ funeral

took place on the 28th

December 2018. Agneta de

Bekassy was there among the many

friends and members of the family

who attended the ceremony.

“It was a beautiful ceremony in

Skanör’s old limestone church,” Agneta

reports.

“Opera singer Monica Einarsson

and pianist Christer Einarsson were

performing, followed by the opera

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ScandAsia January 2019

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