dragon news - no. 4, 2013

M e M b e r M aga z i n e fo r t h e Sw e d i S h C h a M b e rS o f C oMM e rC e i n h o n g Ko n g a n d C h i n a

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China’s food safety concerns

are creating great opportunities

for foreign firms. But Sweden’s food and beverage exports lag far behind other

Scandinavian countries such as Denmark and Norway.

Foreign appetite forChina’s food market

No.042013

22Ola RollénMeasuring the world

24Aron

Fredrikssonbringing

Scandinavian fashion to

China

30Kristoffer

LuczakKing of the

kitchen

6

10

ADVERTISERS

APC Logistics page 35, Asia Perspective page 21, Bamboo page 25

B&B Tools page 55, Bureau Veritas page 15, Business Sweden page 51

Finnair page 2, Environmental Air of Sweden (EAS) page 49, Ericsson page 19

Executive Homes page 53, Geodis Wilson page 17, Handelsbanken page 56

Hellström page 49, Iggesund Paperboard page 37, IKEA page 27

Johnny’s Photo & Video Supply page 50, Mannheimer Swartling pages 28-29

Nordea page 45, Primasia page 47, Radisson Blu page 9

Scandinavian Furniture page 47, Scania page 45, Scan Global Logistics page 53

SEB page 5, Sigtuna Boarding School page 52, Swedbank page 41

Vinge page 33, Volvo page 39

Thank you!

APC Logisticsfor your immense generosity shipping and distributing Dragon News in China, hong Kong, asia and Sweden.

Iggesund Paperboardfor being the proud sponsor for the paperboard cover sheet of Dragon News magazine in 2012. Cover printed on invercote® Creato 220gsm.

The Swedish Chambers of Commerce in Hong Kong and China

Publisherthe Swedish Chambers of Commercein hong Kong and ChinaFor advertising inquiries, please contact respective chamber’s officethe opinions expressed in articles in Dragon News are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher.

Editorial management, design and printingbamboo business Communications Ltdtel: +852 2838 4553fax: +852 2873 3329www.bambooinasia.com [email protected] director: Johnny Chandesigner: Victor daienglish editor: Chris taylor

Cover photo: iStockphoto

INQUIRIESSwedish Chamber of Commerce in hong Kongroom 2503, 25/f, bea harbour View Centre56, gloucester road, wanchai, hong Kongtel: +852 2525 0349e-mail: [email protected]: www.swedcham.com.hkgeneral Manager: eva KarlbergMarketing Manager: emma Cosmofinance Manager: anna Mackel

INQUIRIESSwedish Chamber of Commerce in Chinaroom 313, radisson blu hotel6a, east beisanhuan road, Chaoyang districtbeijing 100028, People’s republic of Chinatel: +86 10 5922 3388, ext 313fax: +86 10 6464 1271e-mail: [email protected]: www.swedishchamber.com.cngeneral Manager: Yvonne Chenoffice Manager beijing: Karin rooswebmaster: Jaycee Yangfinance assistant: Klara wang

Shanghai Contactoffice Manager Shanghai: Johanna Pollnowevent Manager: emma gunterberg Sachstel: +86 21 6217 1271fax: +86 21 6217 0562Mobile: +86 1368 179 7675e-mail: [email protected]

Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong Swedish Chamber of Commerce in China

CONTENTS No.042013

4

8

36

40

22

editorial

Snippets

Spotlight on the SwedCham board

Swedish companies still positive on China

Cover story: foreign appetite for China’s food market

10

6 opinion: Kristina Sandklef

22 executive talk: ola rollén

feature: Kristoffer Luczak - king of the kitchen

30

Chamber activities in Shanghai34

24 Young Professional interview: aron fredriksson

32 Chamber activities in beijing

42 new members

52 after hours

30

38 Strengthening Chinese leadership skills

54 the chamber and i: Members pick their favourite restaurants

DRAGONNEWS • NO.04/2013 3

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Dear Reader,

Food is one of the basic necessities in life, as well as being a source also of joy and a reason for social gatherings. Scandals involving food are therefore something that touch on deep feelings, and they are of great concern. One wonder what people are thinking when they pour melamine into milk, knowing that is dangerous, or drench vegetables in formalde-hyde so that the greens look greener before being sold at high prices even after having been transported on a lorry for too long.

Some time ago there was a CNN report on Chinese farmers living next to a chemical plant that had polluted the soil surrounding the factory. One farmer was asked whether he was worried about the rice he was growing there. His answer was a staggering: “Yes, we are very concerned, but as we don’t eat the rice our-selves, we sell it, we think the situation is OK.”

Meanwhile, a river was filled with dead pig carcasses as a result of the authorities’ crackdown on illegal sale of pork from diseased pigs. Before the crackdown the meat was sold in the streets of Shanghai and other nearby cit-ies. The examples are many, and each of them demonstrates greed and lack of even a limited concern about other people’s health.

When IKEA responded to public concern about their meatballs by saying their Chinese

EDITORIAL

Food – a question of health, ethics and economy

products were actually produced in Fujian Province, it is not certain that they provided more comfort to the public than if they had actually said they contained horsemeat and been produced in Europe.

Food safety is not only a Chinese prob-lem, but China has a relatively high number of food-safety related scandals and food safety is very high on the agenda of common people in China. It is telling that demand for foreign milk powder for babies, as opposed to milk powder produced in China, is so high that restrictions have been introduced in Hong Kong limiting the amount of cans each main-land Chinese traveller can take out of Hong Kong to protect supply to local customers.

The callousness of certain producers and some responses from the public is an expres-sion of a short-term perspective prevailing in China today. In a society where development has been rapid and economic progress para-mount in recent decades, other values have had to take the back-seat. There is a profound lack of trust in society.

One problem is what people do know-ingly, but an even higher risk is perhaps the not so obvious effects on animals and crops that are raised and grown on polluted soil and in polluted waters. Health effects might only show up much later.

Food as a resource will globally be-come a huge issue in a decade or two. Food prices are expected to rise, which will hit the poorest people the most. Social unrest is most likely to follow. Food safety, as well as related economical, environmental and ethical issues should top the agenda for politicians around the world.

But, what can individuals and compa-nies do about it. One answer is to demand and deliver high standard products that are produced in an ethical and sustainable way. This is a way of securing long-term health, profitability and a way to look after the generations to come. Evidence of the importance of ethics and sustainability was recently seen in China’s angora-fur sector. That “industry” will now suffer dearly due to the methods used to obtain the fur – simply tearing it off tied up rabbits screaming in agony. Anyone who has seen the YouTube clips would ever dream of buying a coat that included any angora.

Soon, most Swedes will gather together for Julbord – a smorgasbord filled with all the specialities of the season. Let’s pray that the Julbord stay healthy and affordable for many more generations to come! And with this Christmas prayer, we would like to wish all our readers a God Jul och Gott Nytt År.

When it’s time to do business, we’re exceptionally open.

Every business has a different story and a different goal. We understand that. Over many years in this market of unique opportunities, we’ve developed the local knowledge, resources and connections needed to turn ambitions into reality. That’s why we’re one of the most well-established northern European banks in the region. For corporates, financial institutions and private banking clients, we’re ready to listen and cater to your needs – in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore and New Delhi. Discover more at www.sebgroup.com/asia

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Katarina NilssonChairman

Swedish Chamber ofCommerce in China

Ulf OhrlingChairman

Swedish Chamber ofCommerce in Hong Kong

4 DRAGONNEWS • NO.04/2013

China has to provide food for 20 per

cent of the world’s population with only

8 per cent of the world’s farmland.

With increasing urbanisation, and an

increased demand for meat and dairy, future food supply could face a rocky

road, predicts analyst Kristina Sandklef of

East Capital.

teXt: Kristina Sandklef, east Capital, [email protected]

November and early De-cember 2013, many China analysts have been focusing on interpreting the new reform

agenda, which was published after the Third Plenum of the 18th Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee (CCPCC). Many parallels have been drawn to the eco-nomic reforms launched by Deng Xiaoping at the Third Plenum of the 11th CCPCC in 1978, which launched the rapid economic growth we have seen in China for the past three decades.

At the 1978 plenum, the focus was on creating a socialist market economy, but also on opening up China for foreign investors, allowing private entrepreneurs to do busi-ness, and reforming agriculture to make it more efficient. The latter meant that farmers were de-collectivised and received the right to lease land for cultivation, though it was regulated under the so-called “household responsibility system”, which allowed them to cultivate what they wanted as long as they produced specific quantities of grains to be sold to the government at a fixed price.

This was probably the reform that had the largest impact on the Chinese popula-

In

Agriculture is crucial in China’s

food supply

Kristina Sandklef is a macro-econo-mist focused on asia at east Capital, an asset management company spe-cialising in emerging and frontier mar-kets. She started studying Chinese and asian studies at Lund University in 1990 and worked as a consumer market researcher at ericsson for nine years, three years as a China analyst for the Swedish armed forces and joined east Capital in 2011.

China’s food-safety issues will be tough to solve as long as it is

possible to cheat and bribe.”

34%the percentage of the working population in

2012 that are farmers. in 1978, the percentage

was 71 per cent.

development to become more efficient in order to minimise food wasted due to lack of inefficient storage facilities and poor trans-portation. According to the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation, one third of the food produced globally is wasted, with India and China being the worst culprits.

In order to increase agricultural produc-tion, China is very interested in genetically modified (GM) foods, but there is also a lot of criticism of GM products in China. Last year, a scandal erupted in Hunan Province after news came out that school children in rural areas had been fed with GM golden rice with added A-vitamin in school without their parents’ knowledge. Given the importance of food for many Chinese – for example, in traditional Chinese medicine – GM food

products could face similar problems in China that they are facing in other countries. Likewise, increased use of pesticides and fertilisers might appear to be a quick fix, but today many Chinese farmers already use too much of them, resulting in poisonous fruit and vegetables, and lakes overgrown with algae.

Another major problem that needs to be solved is water supply. Northern China already suffers from water shortages, often leading to droughts. This is a problem the Chinese gov-ernment is prioritising by investing hundreds of billions RMB in water-works infrastructure during the current Five-Year Plan.

Lastly, the large question of food safety needs to be solved. China’s new leaders have promised to get tougher on cheating food producers, and food safety is paramount in the minds of most Chinese these days in the wake of scandals involving tainted dairy products, meat products compromised by hormones and antibiotics, pesticides in wine, fake eggs, rat meat sold as lamb, and gutter oil. From a broad perspective, China’s food-safety issues will be tough to solve as long as it is possible to cheat and bribe, but solving them is essential if China wants to remain self-sufficient in food production and not become a net food importer. b

tion, which at that time was largely rural, with 71 per cent of the working population working the fields. By 2012, in contrast, only 34 per cent of the working population was farmers.

In today’s reform programme, besides the proposed land reforms and reforms of the hukou system, there is actually little focus on agriculture – only some fluffy talk about mod-ernising the sector and establishing new forms of agricultural operating systems. However, if the proposed land reforms are implemented, it would mean that the rural population will be able to use their leasing rights as collateral for loans, and that they would also be able to sell the leasing rights to others, which could create larger farms.

Land reform is a sensitive issue in China, as the Communist Party came into power by abolishing land ownership and executing hundreds of thousands of landlords. Today, local governments get a large share of their revenues from land sales, and land disputes have become the most common reason for the approximately 180,000 mass incidents taking place annually in China.

For China to be able to pursue land re-forms, the country needs to change its tax sys-

tem so that local governments are less depend-ent on land sales to balance their budget. On the other hand, land is the safety net for the rural population within the hukou system, and when 20 million migrant workers lost their jobs in the export industry in 2008/2009, many of them returned home to their plots of land and lived on subsistence farming until they found new jobs.

Although agricultural reforms are not the focus of the latest round of reforms, agricul-ture is crucial in terms of China’s food supply. Today, China has to provide food for 20 per cent of the world’s population with only 8 per cent of the world’s farmland. China is already a large importer of grains, and as urbanisation gathers pace and farmland per capita falls, coupled with the increased demand for meat and dairy products that comes with higher income levels, along with other emerging markets’ increased demand for food, future food supply face a rocky road.

This is a likely reason why we read so much about China leasing land for cultivation of grains in Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and this autumn also Ukraine. It is also not surprising that China has a comprehensive grain security policy that requires the country to be self-sufficient in grain production until 2020, and also aims to achieve more efficient agricultural production.

One way of solving this problem, accord-ing to the 12th Five-Year Plan, is to modernise the agricultural production and build a new socialist countryside with better infrastructure, creating “a civilised rural society”, to quote the People’s Daily. Part of this project will be to create larger farms from today’s small plots for more efficient cultivation, an aim that has made the Swedish experience of land consolidation in the 18th and 19th centuries an interesting case study for Chinese researchers.

In consolidating land into larger farms, there will also be a focus on creating non-agricultural jobs in the agricultural service sectors, such as logistics, transportation and processing. Today, these services need further

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6 DRAGONNEWS • NO.04/2013 DRAGONNEWS • NO.04/2013 7

“Right now, almost all of the beef jerky on the market in Fujian [Province] is fake.” Yao Yuancheng, general manager of Longhai Yuancheng Food Company, to a reporter who revealed that most of the province’s beef jerky, or dried beef strips, is made from pork, processed into a beef-like substance using beef extract and illegal chemicals.

QU

OT

E

FO O d SA F E T y S N i p p E TS

did you know …n … that the number of law suits over food safety cases has grown rapidly in China over the past three years, with 1,533 criminal cases related to the production and sale of uncertified food tried nationwide and 2,088 people sentenced between 2010 and 2012, according to the Supreme Peo-ple’s Court, reports China Daily.

Food safety to be tackled with ‘iron fist’n Premier Li Keqiang has promised to tackle pollution and food safety problems in China with an “iron fist and firm resolution”.

“we will upgrade China’s economic de-velopment model to enable people to enjoy clean air, safe drinking water and food,” Li said at a press conference after the closing meeting of the first session of the 12th national People’s Congress (nPC) in beijing on 17 March, 2013.

Li said that the food safety issue is of utmost importance as it is directly related to people’s health and life quality.

“the government should resolutely crack down on fake and substandard food products, and make those unscrupulous producers pay high prices,” the premier said according to the Xinhua news agency.

he promised that the government would push forward with scientific develop-ment and deal with environment and food safety issues in a more transparent way.

A paradise for infant formula producersn in 2008, China surpassed the US to become the world’s largest market for formula milk for babies. the London-based market intelligence firm euromonitor expects sales of infant formula in China to double from US$12 billion in 2012 to US$25 billion in 2017.

Sales of formula milk in the US are declining be-cause of a falling birth rate and a rise in breastfeeding. as a result, manufacturers of infant formula are turn-ing their attention to developing countries, especially China, where they can charge a premium since the domestic brands are still struggling with the bad repu-tation caused by the melamine scandal in 2008.

old traditions also help to create a big market for formula milk in China, where new mothers are sup-posed to rest for the first month after delivery, while the relatives take care of feeding the new-borns. infant formula is, for this reason, much preferred over breast-feeding – and also because formula helps babies to sleep longer.

China also has the world’s second highest rate of caesarean sections – at 46 per cent of all deliveries – which leads more mothers to use formula milk. Mothers fear drugs used in the operation will affect their breast milk. there is also a common belief that China’s chronic air pollution is harming mothers’ milk supply, reports reuters news agency.

Rat race in Guangdongn in May 2013, Chinese authorities busted a crimi-nal operation that sold rat, fox and mink meat as mutton in Shanghai and neighbouring Jiangsu Province for more than 10 million yuan.

but for some Chinese, rat is a delicacy and is even served in restaurants. the China Daily reported in 2010 about restaurants in the town of zhongcun in guangdong Province, where rat dishes have been a major attraction for decades. diners sometimes have to book in advance for a rat meal at the most popular restaurants during peak hours.

a staff member of one of the restaurants said that it could sell more than 40 kilograms of rat-meat dishes a day – they come roasted, braised in soy sauce, stewed or cooked in soup.

Rewards to food-safety informersn China will offer up to 300,000 yuan as a cash reward to people who report on others who violate food safety laws.

“actions taken to report violations of food and drug safety laws will be rewarded,” state news agency Xinhua reported in January 2013. “the reward for each case, in principle, will not exceed 300,000 yuan.”

rewards will be paid out after the authorities confirm the veracity of the tip-offs.


s China’s people get wealthier, they also want to eat healthier.China’s upper-middle class is expected to account for more

than half of urban households by 2022, according to research by McKinsey. At that point, they will become the principal engine of consumer spending, and they will prob-ably, to a large extent, choose imported food over local products.

For decades, the ruling Communist Party set a goal of guaranteeing at least 95 per cent food self-sufficiency. But the on-going urbanisation process – the fastest and biggest in world history – is swallowing up arable land, which has led to a drive for quantity rather than quality. Harvests have been secured even from land contaminated by high levels of industrial waste, and irrigat-ed with water unfit for human consumption.

The result has been successive food scandals, forcing the government to put food safety ahead of food security, and making it highly plausible that quotas on high-quality food imports will be allowed to increase.

In 2008, six infants died and 300,000 babies were affected with painful kidney stones after drinking tainted milk powder. An industrial chemical, melamine, was added to milk powder sold by several major Chinese producers, allegedly to boost the protein content in the milk.

Many other items on the shelves of Chinese stores have been tainted by scandals. The so-called “gutter oil” scandal involved the sale of cooking oil made from leftovers in restaurant kitchens, or even scooped from drains. Rice has been found to contain dan-gerous levels of toxic cadmium. Pork from diseased pigs has been sold countrywide, and some food products have been proven to be faked altogether – most notoriously mutton and beef that was actually made from rat, fox and mink meat.

While these frequent food scares are terrible news for Chinese consumers, they could turn out to be good news for foreign food exports.

Many countries have already woken up to that fact, but Sweden appears only now to be rousing from a deep sleep.

“With some exceptions, Swedish food and beverage companies have underper-formed when it comes to exports to China. Many other countries, such as our neigh-bours Denmark and Norway, have done much better,” says Marie Söderqvist, director

general at the Swedish Food Federation.“Denmark and Norway are at levels that

are at least 10 times higher than Sweden. If Swedish food and beverage exports had the same ratio to total exports as Denmark, our exports would increase by more than US$700 million,” says Margaret Leung, manager at Business Sweden’s Hong Kong office.

The food industry is Sweden’s fourth largest industry. About a third of the pro-duction, valued at around SEK60 billion, is exported, mainly to Nordic and other Euro-pean countries. In 2011, China accounted for only SEK244 million, or 0.4 per cent, of those exports, while food exports to Hong Kong amounted to just SEK101 million. Sweden food exports to China are mainly milk powder and other dairy products, fruits and vegetables, coffee, chocolate and confectionaries.

“Total Swedish food exports have doubled over the past decade, but in the case of China development has been rather slow. Most important is to get a trade agree-ment with China to be able to export meat. However, many other countries are standing in line, trying to get such an agreement from the Chinese,” says Söderqvist.

“There is big demand in China for chicken feet, pork legs and pork ears – prod-ucts that are not used in Sweden, but could become Swedish export successes if they were allowed to be exported,” she says.

Sweden’s neighbour, Denmark, has worked much harder at achieving accept-ance by the Chinese authorities. Denmark is known internationally for its breeding skills,

waste management and animal welfare. Meanwhile, official Chinese representatives have also made frequent visits to Denmark, leading to some Danish farms being certified by the Chinese and given permission to export meat to China.

“The opportunities in China for export-ing dairy products are huge,” says Frede Juulsen, senior vice president and respon-sible for China at Arla Foods, a farmer-owned dairy company with owners in Sweden, Denmark and four other countries (see separate article).

Denmark’s leading food and beverage ex-ports are pork, seafood, cereal, milk, starch, flour and pastry products, as well as soups, ice cream, sauces, seeds, fruits, and grains, and fodder for animals.

Traditionally, Swedish food produc-ers have concentrated their efforts on the domestic market rather than on exports.

“They are not used to it, and there could be cultural barriers, as well as problems han-dling supply chains, logistics and transporta-tion,” says Söderqvist.

“For many Swedish small- and medium-sized companies, China is a faraway market. Because of the competition, they have to do a lot of homework,” says Leung.

The furniture retailer IKEA is actually Sweden’s biggest food exporter to China. IKEA is even able to offer meat and chicken products in its restaurants in China. How-

foreign appetite for China’s food market

China’s food safety concerns are creating great opportunities for foreign firms.

But Sweden’s food and beverage exports lag far behind other

Scandinavian countries such as Denmark and Norway.

TExT: Jan Hökerberg, Bamboo,[email protected]

the overall theme for this year’s cover stories in Dragon News is the four new mod-ernisations launched in november 2012 by China’s then premier-in-waiting, Li Keqiang. Li announced the party’s four new modernisa-tion goals highlighting beijing’s push in the areas of information technology (it), industri-alisation, urbanisation and agriculture.

in China, the so-called four modernisa-tions were first used by former premier zhou enlai in 1963 to strengthen the fields of agriculture, industry, national defence and science and technology.

and in december 1978, at the third Plenum of the 11th Central Committee, para-mount leader deng Xiaoping announced an official re-launch of the four modernisations, marking the beginning of the reform era.

in this year’s fourth issue, Dragon News looks into the opportunities for foreign companies to export food to China after the recent years’ many food scandals.

Four new modernisations (4)

A

“For many Swedish small- and medium-sized companies, China is a faraway market,” says Margaret Leung of Business Sweden.

DRAGONNEWS • NO.04/2013 11

ever, these products are made in China, according to Yvonne Yin, commercial PR manager at IKEA in Shanghai (see separate article).

If Swedish companies have been slow in sell-ing food products to China, some have been more successful in selling equipment to the food industry. DeLaval, a company within the Tetra Laval Group, is a pioneer in the Chinese agricultural sector, providing equipment, consumables and services to Chinese dairy farmers since 1979.

DeLaval delivers products for automated systems for milk extraction, milk cooling and storage, herd health and performance systems, consumables services including farm-management services. The company is the market leader in China and counts all the country’s leading dairies among its customers.

“After the melamine crisis, there was much greater concern about food safety. This has resulted in a con-solidation into big farms, often with more than 1,000 cows, and in some cases over 5,000 cows on one site,” says Geert-Jacob van Dijk, managing director of De-Laval’s local sales organisation in China, who has seen the company’s turnover double every three years.

The company has also established a Sino-Swedish Dairy Centre, which was China’s first international collaboration in terms of training and research for the dairy industry.

“There is a lack of knowledge about farm manage-ment in China, so at the centre we train farm managers how to manage their herd, improve the milk quality, animal health and drive herd productivity and profit-ability,” says van Dijk.

In essence, China needs to modernise its agricul-tural sector. Hexagon, a leading global provider of integrated design, measurement and visualisation tech-nologies, is currently working with two provinces on technical solutions to make the farms more productive and environmentally friendly.

China is the world’s fastest growing dairy mar-ket and the world’s largest importer of dairy products. in 2008, China imported 250,000 tonnes of dairy products, a figure that has quadrupled today to 1 million tonnes.

“the opportunities for exporting dairy products to China are huge,” says frede Ju-ulsen, senior vice president with responsibil-ity for China at arla foods, a farmer-owned cooperative based in aarhus, denmark.

the main reasons for the import boom, according to Juulsen, is that local dairy produc-ers are struggling to find sufficient land and water to support growing local demand.

“the average milk consumption per capita in China is still only 23 to 25 litres per year. on average, asia as a whole consumes 65 litres and the eU around 200 litres milk per capita annually. Previous experience in Japan and South Korea shows that when an economy grows, its citizens want better nutrition,” says Juulsen.

Arla has been active on the China market since 2006, when the company entered a

joint venture with the inner Mongolia-based Mengniu, China’s second largest dairy com-pany, taking a 49 per cent minority share.

in 2012, arla signed an agreement with Mengniu to strengthen its presence in China. the deal involved an investment dKK1.7 billion (rMb1.9 billion) and made arla the second-largest shareholder (6 per cent) in Mengniu after the state-owned commodi-ties giant Cofco.

arla has signed a commercial agree-ment with Mengniu, which will distribute, market and sell arla-branded products in Chi-na, such as long-life milk, cheese, and milk powder for babies.

“we have launched a number of new products, such as organic baby-milk powder and organic

long-life milk,” says Juulsen, who adds that arla is the world’s largest organic dairy product producer.

“we also want to contribute to China’s development, so we’ve set up a technical centre where we can transfer knowledge from Scandinavia to increase food safety by improving local milk production,” he says.

Breakthrough for Arla

The international dairy cooperative Arla Foods, with 3,600 owners in Sweden, has become the second-largest shareholder in one of China’s largest dairy companies, Mengniu, which will distribute Arla’s products China-wide.

23-25the average milk consumption

per capita in China is still only 23 to 25 litres per year, compared to 65 litres in asia overall, and 200

litres in europe.

Most important

is to get a trade agreement with China to be able to export meat.”Marie Söderqvist, Swedish Food Federation

Milkers in DeLaval’s Cascade milking parlour, designed to increase the speed of cow traffic.

Danish cows produce healthy milk.

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“We fly over the fields and take aerial photos to identify problem areas and ways to improve crop yields. Then we programme a GPS system mounted in the farm’s tractor, so that the farmer is automatically guided to the problem areas. He can carry out special arrangements suggested by an agronomist in order to improve yields in the problem areas but he can also avoid to, for example, wasting water on areas where it’s not needed. With this solution, we can raise productivity by 30 per cent per hectare and the usage of water and pesticides can decrease by 50 per cent,” says Ola Rollén, president and chief executive officer of Hexagon (see also pages 22-23).

Scandinavia has a good reputation in China, and as Chinese become wealthier their curiosity about foreign products and the as-sociated health, safety and status that comes with them are making imported foods an attractive market – a trend that can be expected to continue for years to come.

However not all consumers in China are ready for imported food and often need to be educated.

“To sell beer is not so difficult, since all Chinese know what beer is. But lingonberry jam, for example, is much more difficult to explain. We do that with in-store promotion where we get a chance to explain the product and let the consumers taste,” says Per Lindén who runs Scandic Foods Asia in Shanghai (see separate article).

Another importer of Swedish food products is SverigeShop-pen (The Sweden Shop) in Hong Kong, which is run by Swedish couple Per and Carol Ågren. Per, who works at APC (Asia Pacific Cargo), handles the logistics and Carol runs the store.

“When we found out in 2012 that IKEA had stopped selling brands other than its own, we decided to import some traditional Swedish products and launch a small-scale web shop. For that year’s Christmas holiday, we brought in some 20 Christmas hams but discovered that there was much bigger demand and ended up selling some 150,” says Per Ågren.

“We realised that there was a potential to do much more

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Founded in 1828, Bureau Veritas is a World Leader of Conformity Assessment and Technical Consulting services in the fields of Quality, Health and Safety, Environment (QHSE) and Social Responsibility. Bureau Veritas employs over 10,000 people in 110+ offices throughout China.

CONTACT US

Kristoffer MIL

Nordic Key Account Manager China

[email protected]: +86 (21) 2319 0506Mobile: +86 180 1750 1488

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CERTIFICATION

- Certification of Management Systems & Processes

Bureau Veritas' mission is to help Clients manage their assets, products or services, systems and employees whilst creating economic value through risk management and performance optimization. Bureau Veritas China provides customized and performance-driven solutions with a specific concern for domestic requirement.

Founded in 1828, Bureau Veritas is a World Leader of Conformity Assessment and Technical Consulting services in the fields of Quality, Health and Safety, Environment (QHSE) and Social Responsibility. Bureau Veritas employs over 10,000 people in 110+ offices throughout China.

CONTACT US

Kristoffer MIL

Nordic Key Account Manager China

[email protected]: +86 (21) 2319 0506Mobile: +86 180 1750 1488

The opportunities for exporting dairy

products to China are huge.” Frede Juulsen, Arla Foods

here, and decided to import many different products that are not possible to find elsewhere in Hong Kong. We also opened a small store in Tsimshatsui, in addition to the web shop, and have started distributing our products to super-markets, hotels and restaurants,” he says.

All their items are imported by air-freight. Hong Kong’s import regulations make this easy.

Import licenses are needed for chilled or frozen meat, but not for processed meats and most other products.

Peter Fransson, director and part-owner of Saison Foods Service in Hong Kong, is taking advantage of the same import regulations, running a company that imports beef, pork, lamb,

0.4%China’s share of total Swedish

food exports.

With the help of aerial photos and a GPS system, Hexagon helps farmers to get more productive.

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Arla Foods’ CEO Peder Tuborgh explains the deal with Mengniu.

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mutton, and chicken products, mainly from Australia, the US, and Argentina, among other countries, for five-star hotels in Hong Kong, as well as to restaurants and supermarkets.

“Hong Kong has fair, open, simple and clear regulations for meat imports,” says Fransson. “But Sweden is not known here as a supplier of culinary food products. France has a good share of the market and so has Italy and Spain, especially for fine dining. Hol-land, the UK, Germany and Denmark are also major suppliers.”

Fransson has been based in Hong Kong since the mid-1980s. At that time, Sweden had a good share of the bacon market in Hong Kong, but it disappeared when Sweden decided to limit its subsidies.

Realising there are huge opportunities, Sweden is now trying to grab a bigger share of the food markets in China and Hong Kong. In November 2012, a major delegation of food and bever-age companies, led by Minister of Rural Affairs Eskil Erlandsson,

in 2009, Scandic Sourcing in Shanghai decided to import bever-ages from Sweden, but the move was more a coincidence than a result of forethought.

“in our sourcing business, we couldn’t hedge the Chinese currency at the time, and the rMb was appreciating against the US dollar. to eliminate currency exchange losses we needed to import something to achieve a balance in our currency flows, and we chose mineral water,” says Per Lindén, president at Scandic Sourcing.

that was when he discovered how difficult it was to import food and beverages to China because the regulations were so different compared to other countries.

“the mineral water we imported from guttsta Källa couldn’t be classified as mineral water; we were only allowed to say that it was purified water,” says Lindén.

However, he didn’t give up; rather he founded a subsidiary called Scandic foods asia. a breakthrough came about when the company reached an agreement to distribute its products through a supermarket chain called olé, which today has stores in 14 cities China-wide, most of them in luxury shopping malls.

Scandic Foods targets the wealthy ChineseScandic Foods Asia imports and sells around 40 Swedish products in China, including beer, jam and crispy bread.

olé is owned by conglomerate China resources enterprise, a giant that also owns CrC Vanguard and Pacific Coffee stores in hong Kong, among other holdings.

olé is a high-end supermarket brand in China and it provides quality products thanks to its close cooperation with more than 100 brand suppliers in over 20 countries and regions. its import-ed goods account for over 85 per cent of its product range.

“when we introduced them to Swedish soft drinks, they were really happy to see that it was a family of products in bright colours and that they came from Sweden. they welcomed us since they didn’t have any Scandinavian products in their assort-ment range. we decided that Scandinavian products in high end-supermarkets would be the niche we will work in,” says Lindén.

Today, Scandic Foods imports around 40 Swedish products to China, including beer from Spendrups, Krönleins and arboga, jam from felix, crispy bread from Vilmas, oat milk from oatly, and rice cakes from friggs.

“we have now also made an agreement with the Swedish food company Procordia and have access to their complete product programme, including abba seafood. it is our ambi-tion to add some 30 more products in 2014,” says Lindén. “our target group is not expatriates, but sophisticated middle- and upper-class Chinese, a fast growing customer group with a growing demand for imported high-quality food products.”

Our target group is not expatriates, but

sophisticated middle- and upper-class Chinese.” Per Lindén, Scandic Foods Asia

ten basic guidelines for entering the Chinese market for food and beverages.• Get to know the market.• Find a local partner and/or distributor.• Know the rules.• Invest (wisely) in consumer research.• Find your market niche and focus on it.• Invest in market promotion.• Adapt your products.• Pursue gradual but sustainable growth.• Understand the importance of relationships.• Be flexible.Source: Business Sweden

Guidelines to a China F&B entry

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Find out more at: ericsson.com/networkedsociety

When one person connects, their life changes.With everything connected, our world changes.

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Ericsson_Wired_February_final210X286.ai 1 3/7/13 4:36 PM

besides being the world’s leading furniture retailer, iKea is also a leading Swedish food exporter, supplying its in-house restaurants and Swedish food market stores. Yvonne Yin, commercial Pr manager at iKea, Shanghai, says that Chinese consumers are becoming in-creasingly accustomed to Swedish food.

“it’s important for iKea that we en-able our customers to experience Swed-ish food, which is an important part of Swedish culture. we can see customers enjoy the food a lot. for example, Swed-ish meatballs have become a famous dish. the quality of iKea food is very good and our customers feel they are getting value-for-money dishes,” she says.

Chinese customers enjoy Swedish food

IKEA is the leading Swedish food exporter to China, but some products have to be produced locally.

The meatballs we serve in China are made in China with

a Swedish traditional recipe.” Yvonne Yin, IKEA

visited Shanghai and Hong Kong.The Consulate General of Sweden in

Hong Kong is also actively working to promote Swedish food products.

“Sweden is a big exporting country but our agricultural sector has so far been mainly domestic. As a consulate general, we have to be selective and concentrate on areas where we can make a difference. We have decided to prioritise two main sectors: clean-tech and food and beverages,” says consul-general Jörgen Halldin.

“Hong Kong is an open market for importing food and beverage products. It doesn’t have its own agricultural sector and is a fairly mature economy. Hong Kong is also a window to China, so it can serve as a test market for players who want to enter China,” he says.

Together with the Swedish trade and

Do you ‘localise’ the menu to better suit Chinese tastes?“Yes, we do. for traditional Sweden dishes such as meatballs and salmon, we do retain the authentic flavours. but we also offer local dishes to customers so they have a broader range of choices.”

Where are IKEA’s food items produced? “Most products are produced either in Swe-den or in europe. but due to legislation, some products can’t be imported, so some iKea-agreed recipes and flavours include local products.”

Have you seen a downturn in the food businesses in China after the discovery of horse-meat in some IKEA meatballs?“the Chinese market was not affected by the horse-meat issue. the meatballs we serve in China are made in China according to a Swedish traditional recipe. there was no horse-meat found in iKea meatballs in China

… we don’t think our reputation was damaged in terms of local customers.”

Two years ago, IKEA decided to only promote its own food items in its stores, but recently some of non-IKEA brands are back on the shelves – has the company changed its mind?“no, there is no change iKea policy on food items. during the transition period, there have been product shortages in certain product ranges. as a temporary solution, iKea is adding some non-iKea brands, but we will go back to being only iKea-branded as soon as possible.”

invest council, Business Sweden, the consulate general is focusing on regulation, education and events.

“After Eskil Erlandsson met his Hong Kong counterpart, we had a breakthrough and Hong Kong allowed imports of beef from Sweden. We are now working on to get approvals for imports of game meat, such as elk, roe deer, red deer, fallow deer, wild boar and reindeer,” says Halldin.

He adds that the Hong Kong market for food products is really larger than you would think at first; it is the largest export market world-wide for Japanese food products, the seventh largest market for US agricultural products and it has quickly grown to be the fourth largest market in the world for Swedish pork exports.

The consulate also arranges opportuni-ties for Swedish chefs to work at restau-

Consul-general Jörgen Halldin is working on to get Hong Kong approvals for imports of game meat.

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rants in Hong Kong and Macau. Recently, Lund University also signed a cooperation agreement with the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Business Sweden and Sweden’s official tourism promotion arm, Visit Sweden, have also launched a website about Swedish food, www.tryswedish.com.

After the melamine scandals in 2008, China put its first Food Safety Law into effect in 2009. Since then, the govern-ment has slowly implemented up to 350

food-safety regulations. By 2015, all the regulations are expected to be implemented.

“Most of our customers already com-ply with the new regulations since they are suppliers to larger non-Chinese corpora-tions, for example McDonald’s,” says Louise Wikström, chief executive officer of Ekpac Asia, a company that sources special-ised industrial machinery to customers predominantly in Taiwan and China. Food processing and packaging is one of the company’s six divisions.

“Technology catering to European regulations is at times challenging to introduce to local customers in China where regulations for animal handling and environmental issues differ substantially,” she says.

In March 2013, the National People’s Congress ratified the creation a new author-ity, the China Food and Drug Administra-tion (CFDA), which stripped several bodies of their food and drug regulatory powers. Ten years earlier, in 2003, a complete overhaul of the food safety system was seen as too difficult because several ministries

oversaw food safety. In October 2013, the CFDA released

a revised draft of the law, asking for input from the public.

It will, however, probably take a long time for Chinese consumers to regain con-fidence in domestically produced food. b

in 2011, the national bureau of Statistics’ numbers for Chinese food and beverage firms with core revenue of at least 20 million yuan alone included:• 1,785 state-owned farms with 6.4

million hectares sown.• 20,895 food-processing firms and

614 state-owned firms.• 6,870 food manufacturers and 284

state-owned firms.• 4,874 beverage manufacturers and

271 state-owned firms.Source: Kreab Gavin Anderson.

Fierce domestic competition

“Hong Kong has fair, open, simple and clear regulations for meat imports,” says Peter Fransson of Saison Foods Service.

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Louise Wikström of Ekpac Asia says that most of the company’s customers already comply with China’s new food-safety regulations.


Hexagon’s CEO Ola Rollén has created a totally new company from the one he took over 13 years ago. He has divested all 90 companies in the old conglomerate and bought some 200 measurement technology enterprises, making Hexagon a global market leader. Now, he has made Hong Kong his base for the company’s future expansion.TExT: Jan Hökerberg, Bamboo, [email protected] PHOTO: Hexagon

ome 13 years ago, Ola Rollén got a very special offer. He was asked to take over a company called Hexagon and the main shareholder, the Swed-

ish businessman and investor Melker Schörling, said to Rollén that he could do whatever he wanted with it because it had “driven off the tracks”.

Rollén took over as president and chief execu-tive officer and undertook a massive restructuring. Today, he has sold all of the 90 companies in the original group – mostly money-losing, family-owned companies.

He replaced them with a new business – design, measurement and visualisation technologies – and has, over the years, acquired around 200 companies around the world, making Hexagon the global No 1 player in the industry.

“In the 1990s, while I was working at Sandvik, I was offered an executive position at an American corporation, Brown & Sharpe, which focused on metrological tools and technology. It was now in financial default and it became the first company we bought. The purchase price was one and half times Hexagon’s stock market value at that time so it was a huge deal,” says Rollén.

In the very beginning, Hexagon was a Swed-ish conglomerate led by the late entrepreneur Torbjörn Ek. He was manoeuvred out of the com-

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Measuring the world

pany in a struggle with some Swedish investors but managed to keep the name Hexagon, which is Greek for a polygon with six edges and six verti-ces. In 1992, Ek founded a new Hexagon, which was dominated by Swedish family-owned small- and medium-sized enterprises, and Schörling took a majority of the shares in 1998.

Today, there is little that is Swedish about the company. Even though it is listed on the Stock-holm Stock Exchange, only 10 out of 14,000

employees are Swedish, its head-quarters are in London, and Rollén himself has chosen to make his base in Hong Kong, where he recently moved together with his wife and a nine-year old son.

Rollén is 48 years old and his career has included top executive positions at Kanthal, Avesta Shef-

field and Sandvik Materials Technology. He was born and grew up in Stockholm where his father Jarl-Erik was a businessman and his mother, Berit, a social democratic politician. However, rather than becoming a leader of a big international company, Rollén almost became a rock star ...

“Before I took up my studies in finance at the Stockholm University in the 1980s, I wanted to be a musician. We had a band called Capricorn, and we played middle-of-the-road rock music. We even got a record contract, but then we had disagreements and we split up,” says Rollén.

200the number of companies ola rollén’s hexagon has

acquired since he took over in 2000.

… why he hasn’t appointed any women in Hexagon’s executive management team in 13 years: “i would be happy to do that, but real equality in an engineering group like hexagon is when a woman is appointed an executive for a part of our core business, not just a staff function like head of human resources or com-munications. but it is a fact that 80 per cent of all engineers are men so it’s not easy to find women with the ideal background. in our China operations, however, 25 per cent of the manag-ers are women.”

… profit-sharing: “it is important that a com-pany earns money and that its success can be shared by the employees. if you feel that you are part of the company, part of its profit improvement, you do a better job. Just look at how you treat your own car compared to a rented one.”

… outsourcing of factories to China: “the mid-dle class in the west aren’t earning more money today, in real terms, compared to 10 years ago. but the prices of capital goods have decreased so we think we have got a better standard of living. today, we can hire five engineers in Shanghai for the same salary as one in the US, and it is very tempting to do that.”

Ola Rollén on …

If you’re in line

with what the authorities want to achieve through their five-year plans, then you can grow very quickly in China.”

He quickly discovered that he wanted to work in industrial companies “where you deal with a lot of people and produce things that have meaning”. At the heating technology company Kanthal, he started out as a controller and left as president eight years later. Several years earlier, in 1985, Kanthal had set up the second Swedish joint ven-ture in China, together with giant local steelmaker Shougang Group.

“At that time, the more senior executives were not so fond of going to China, so I got the op-portunity and spent quite a bit of time in Beijing from 1990 to 1998. Today, it is the opposite; now the most senior executives in Western companies are being sent to China,” says Rollén.

He built Hexagon through buying companies, and says the key acquisitions were the US-based Brown & Sharpe Inc in 2001, Leica Geosystems of Switzerland in 2005, and the US-based software provider Intergraph in 2010. The customers come from many different industries, such as survey-ing, power and energy, aerospace and defence, construction, safety and security, automotive and manufacturing, as well as governments.

“Sometimes, the competitors have advanced more than we have, and then it is often better to acquire them rather than doing your own research and development,” says Rollén, adding that Hexagon still spends 12 per cent of its net sales on R&D.

Today, Hexagon has activities in more than 40 countries and net sales of about EUR2.6 billion. In China, the company has 3,000 employees, five factories, and 18 regional offices, with the head office in Qingdao.

“China is the market with the biggest growth potential. If you’re in line with what the authorities want to achieve through their five-year plans, then you can grow very quickly in China,” he says.

He realised early that it was impossible to keep the global headquarters in Sweden and estab-lished a head office in London instead.

“We have one third of our business in North America, one third in Asia, and the remaining third in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. If we need to set up a meeting quickly we need to be in a city that everyone can visit via direct flights. Stockholm has very few direct flights. It’s a pity for Sweden that we have downgraded ourselves,” says Rollén.

By locating himself in Hong Kong, he wants to emphasise the importance of Asia for the expansion of the company, to acquire informa-tion on what is going on in the Asian markets more rapidly and, not least, force his executive colleagues in the West to go to Asia more often.

“Asia will be our future home market and we want to be regarded as a domestic player here,” says Rollén. b


hina is no longer only manufac-turing garments for the rest of the world. The Chinese fashion industry is booming and the

opportunities for foreign brands to enter the market are growing each year.

Scandinavia has a strong design heritage and is known for high quality and design, but Chinese consumers are in general more aware of French and Italian design. All the same, many Scandinavian brands have arrived in China, and as the fashion industry landscape continues to de-velop Scandinavian design is definitely here to stay.

Aron Fredriksson has founded ÅÄÖ Brands, a company that specialises in helping Scandinavian brands to enter the Chinese market. The company is leading the opening of H&M-owned Cheap Monday’s first ever mono-brand stores in China in December 2013 and in the spring of 2014. A mono-brand store is a retail outlet that only sells its own products.

How did you end up in China?“In 1995, when I was nine years old, my father brought me along on one of his freelancing trips to Beijing. During the trip I met a Swedish person who spoke Mandarin fluently, and this left a big impression on me. I think that was probably the moment when I made the unconsciousness deci-sion that I would learn the language in the future.

Ten years later, in 2005, I started Chinese studies at Stockholm University, but soon realised that to really master this language I had to travel China, so I bought a one-way ticket to Shanghai.”

Once you were here, how did you get the idea to start your business?

“One thing led to another. I got a scholarship to study at Fudan University and decided to start ÅÄÖ

Brands at the same time. I had some old contacts in the fashion industry in Europe

and realised that, other than H&M, there were no Scandinavian fashion

brands working actively in China and specifically targeting Chinese

customers. As a result, I decided to found the first and only fash-ion showroom in China that offers distribution services for foreign brands. The first ÅÄÖ Brands office was just a 12-square-metre apartment in the French concession area, but it’s now a 500-sq-m showroom, and our business keeps growing every day.”

Cheap Monday is opening their first mono-brand stores in China; why are so many Scandinavian brands choosing to

enter the Chinese market now?“I believe Scandinavian fashion brands have finally

Bamboo Business Communications Ltd (Hong Kong) +852 2838 4553

Bamboo Business Consulting (Shanghai) Co, Ltd +86 21 6472 9173

Bamboo has been creating content in Hong Kong and overseas from 1996 and in China from 2002 as a one-stop shop for its

customers. Here is what we can do: Customer magazines and newsletters, internal magazines and newsletters, apps for iPad and

Android tablets, e-newsletters and websites, corporate video, marketing materials for trade fairs, article assignments and photography,

interactive sales presentations, reader surveys, advertisements, etc.

We can do it in Simplified or Traditional Chinese and other Asian languages, as well as in English.

Feel free to contact us to know more or to set up a meeting.Jan Hökerberg, managing [email protected]

Johan Olausson, sales and marketing [email protected]

We make your company’s best stories come alivewww.bambooinasia.com

Back in 1996, when mobile phones were the size of bricks; before tablets, before 3G, before Google even, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates wrote an article in which he foresaw the importance of content on the Internet.

“Content is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the Internet, just as it was in broadcasting … Those who succeed will propel the Internet forward as a marketplace of ideas, experiences, and products – a marketplace of content,” he wrote.

Bill Gates was right. Today, 17 years later, content marketing has become the art of communicating with customers and prospects without the hard sell. If you, as a company, can deliver consistent, ongoing, valuable content to buyers, ultimately they will reward you with their business and loyalty.

TExT: Savannah Alsén, Swedish Chamber of Commerce Shanghai [email protected]

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Aron Fredriksson, 27, came to Shanghai to

study Chinese, but soon founded ÅÄÖ Brands, a

company specialising in helping Scandinavian

brands to enter China.

bringing Scandinavian fashion to China


realised the importance of expanding into the Asian markets as the European market continues to decline. Increased online social-media sharing possibilities have also meant that Chinese customers are be-coming more aware of which brands that are actually popular abroad, which in turn has had a big impact on local demand.

“Still, as a foreign brand striving to enter Asia you have to be re-alistic and ask yourself what competitive advantages your brand really has in these markets? From my experience, selling in China has always

Scandinavian fashion brands have finally

realised the importance of expanding into the Asian markets as the European market continues to decline.”

Selling in China has always been more

about selling a brand rather than a product.”

Age: 27.Job: Co-founder and Ceo of ÅÄÖ brands.Lives: Xintiandi, Shanghai.Time in China: Seven years.Best thing about Shanghai: the entrepreneurial environment.Worst thing about Shanghai: the pollution.

Aron Fredriksson in brief

been more about selling a brand rather than a product, But this is a big challenge because it means that you have to put a lot of effort into translating your entire brand story and adapting it to local habits.”

What are the challenges your clients face in China com-pared with other markets?“China is a very complex market in the sense that you have com-petitors from all continents gathered in one place. This is a major challenge, and it means that Scandinavian brands in China not only compete with European and American brands but also with Korean, Japanese, and local Chinese brands. Selling garments in a country with a strong manufacturing sector is also a big challenge for all brands be-cause it means price competition is extremely fierce. All brands have to be very careful with how they position and market themselves in order to reach their expected goals.” What do you do when you’re not working?“I like to travel a lot and get inspiration from different places; this always improves my creativity. Other than that I like to do sports and work out, I believe that staying fit and healthy is still highly underestimated.” b

Fredriksson’s company is helping the H&M-owned Cheap Monday to open stores in China.


Nordic touch with a Chinese edgewhat's new?judy wang and becky jiang recently join the firm’s china team in shanghaiJudy Wang arrives from U.S. firm O’Melveny & Myers. After receiving her L.L.M. degree at the University of Pennsylvania in 2009, she worked at the US Securities and Exchange Commission and later at the Government of the District of Columbia.

Becky Jiang graduated from Shanghai International Studies University (L.L.M.) in 2005 and gained work experience at Carrefour China and at the Chinese law firm Concord & Partners where she has been working with finance transac-tions as well as in- and outbound M&A.

what's up?mofcom appoints mannheimer swartling to legal panel for international investmentThe Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) of the Govern-ment of the People’s Republic of China, has announced the appointment of Mannheimer Swartling to its panel of international legal advisers. The scope of the appointment involves providing legal services to the Chinese govern-ment in economic and trade agreement negotiations related to investment and in international investment disputes. Mannheimer Swartling secured its appointment to the panel in competition with 23 predominately English or U.S. law firms and is the only firm from the Nordic region appointed to the panel.

This is the first time the MOFCOM has established a formal legal panel for international investment disputes. The panel was formed via a public competitive bidding procedure conducted by CMC International Tendering Company on behalf of the MOFCOM.

Mannheimer Swartling’s dispute resolution group secured the appointment to MOFCOM’s legal panel with a team led by Nils Eliasson, head of the firm’s Dispute Resolution practice group in Asia, primarily assisted by Sabrina Wang and Åsa Rydstern from the firm’s Shanghai and Stockholm offices, respectively.

volvo car group signs second loan agreement with china development bankVolvo Car Group (Volvo Cars) and China Development Bank have signed a USD 800 million loan agreement with a maturity in 2021. As announced by Volvo Cars, the loan will support Volvo Cars in further developing its product program as well as strengthening its capital structure over the coming years.

Volvo Cars was advised by Mannheimer Swartling. The team handling legal issues in the transaction comprised Rosmarie Söderbom from Volvo Cars, André Andersson from Mannheimer Swartling’s office in Stockholm together with Hans Abrahamsson and Ida Gao from Mannheimer Swartling’s office in Shanghai.

the sixth ap fund invests in salcomp and enters into a partnership with nordstjernanThe Sixth AP Fund (“AP6”) has signed an agreement with Nordstjernan whereby AP6 acquires, through a holding company, 45 per cent of the shares in Salcomp Oyj (“ Salcomp”). Nordstjernan remains the majority owner with 55 per cent of the shares.

Salcomp is a world leading manufacturer of chargers for mobile phones, tablets and other mobile devices. During the last twelve months, Salcomp had net sales of EUR 466 million. Salcomp has around 13,000 employees and produc-tion sites in China, India and Brazil. The company also has offices in Finland, Taiwan, South Korea, USA, Japan and Hong Kong to support customers on a global basis.

AP6 was advised by Mannheimer Swartling in the trans-action.The firm’s team included primarily Clas Nyberg, Jan Holmberg, Terese Holmqvist, Anna Nidén, Moa Molin, Tobias Normann and Magnus Prick from Sweden and also included Ulf Ohrling, Rachel Dong, Hans Abrahamsson and Andreas Elving from the firm’s offices in China. Stefan Perván Lindeborg and Magnus Olsson were responsible for the competition filing.

awardsmannheimer swartling leads “klientbarometern” for tenth consecutive yearFor the tenth consecutive year, Mannheimer Swartling has been named Sweden’s most sought legal adviser in BG Research’s annual client survey, “Klientbarometern”.

mannheimer swartling tops tns sifo prospera client surveyMannheimer Swartling ranks highest in “overall perfor-mance” among business law firms by corporate lawyers and executives in TNS Sifo Prospera’s client survey. The study evaluates commercial law firms by surveying nearly 200 companies that buy legal services in Sweden. Participants rate various aspects of law firms’ services; among the 16 criteria assessed are legal expertise, professionalism, high business ethics, ability to manage large projects and pricing.

biörn riese receives swedish bar association’s prize for outstanding work in the legal professionMannheimer Swartling partner and chairman Biörn Riese has received the Swedish Bar Association’s prize for outstand ing work in the legal profession. Riese is the first lawyer specializing in business law to receive the award.

With Christmas and the Western New Year rapidly ap-proaching, we would like to express our sincerest Season’s Greetings!

god jul och gott nytt årseason’s greetings and a happy new yearfrohe weihnachten und ein gutes neues jahrjoyeux noël et bonne annéec hoвыm годom

圣诞快乐及新年进步

Celebrated chef Kristoffer Luczak is enjoying working in Macau, to where he moved after a career at some of the world’s most famous hotels.TExT: Jan Hökerberg, [email protected] PHOTO: Gerhard Jörén – see his photo collection at www.gerhardjoren.com

s a teenager, Kristoffer Luczak decided to quit upper secondary school in Stockholm, Sweden, and work as a trainee in restau-

rants instead. He never dreamed he would be where he is today – vice president for food and beverage at Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd in Macau, with 1,600 people working for him, including 600 chefs.

“At that time, working in a kitchen was just an ordinary job. It didn’t have the same status as today, chefs worldwide being celebrated almost like rock stars,” says the 44-year old Swede.

Luczak left Sweden when he was 19 and has worked abroad since, at first at hotels and restaurants in Ireland and England, followed by a stint at Sheraton in Frankfurt.

Sheraton transferred him to its Australian Mirage resort hotel in Port Douglas. In 1994, he was appointed chef de cuisine of the fine dining at one of Australia’s best restaurants at Park Hyatt in the capital Canberra.

A few years later, he came to Asia, where he has worked over the past 20 years for five leading hotel companies: The Oberoi in Bali, the Dusit Thani in Bangkok, The Peninsula in Bangkok,

A

The chef

King of the kitchen

Raffles in Singapore, and now Melco Crown in Macau, which operates the City of Dreams and Altira hotels including 25 restaurants.

“I have had the opportunity of working at some of the world’s finest hotel restaurants. The Peninsula got a prestigious award as the world’s best hotel when I was there. At that time, the Swedish King and Queen visited Bangkok and I was re-sponsible for the royal dinner,” says Luczak.

“Raffles is very much a culi-nary institution and had at that time the largest single food and beverage opera-tion in the Asia-Pacific. We had 18 restaurants and 200 chefs in the kitchen,” he says.

He joined Raffles in 2004 as an executive chef and when he left a couple of years later

he had overall responsibility for food and beverage in the hotel group.

“People thought I was crazy to go from one of the world’s most famous hotels to a casino operator in Macau, but as a chef you need to change environment now and then to get a new adrenaline kick and find inspiration,” says Luczak.

Melco Crown is controlled by Lawrence Ho, a son of the Macau gambling mogul Stanley Ho, and James Packer, son of the late Australian media tycoon Kerry Packer. The com-

pany is one of the six licensed casino operators in Macau.

“I thought I should try it out and per-haps stay six months. Now, I have been there for seven years and it has been an amazing

development. Macau has the highest concentration of five-star hotels in the world. In 2012, Melco Crown alone had the same turnover as the whole Las Vegas’ casino business, four billion US dollars,” says Luczak.

He lives in Macau together with his French wife Christine, whom he met 10 years ago in Bali, and their baby daughter Alexandra, who was born in January 2013.

“She’s my first, and it’s a fantastic feeling to have a child. In this part of the world you work so much so it is easy to forget about having children,” he says.

When Luczak came to Macau in 2007, after a career at some of the world’s most prestigious hotels, he admits that he probably was somewhat pretentious in the beginning and that Macau felt a bit ‘secondary’.

“However, moving to Macau is the best thing I have done in my whole life,” he says. “The owners give me freedom to do what I want. I have learnt a lot about Asian and espe-cially Chinese cuisine. I am also very much involved in the operations, creating strategies for different types of guests and price levels, and taking active part in our future develop-ments in Manila and the new gaming resort, Studio City, in Macau.”

Moving to Macau is the best thing I have done in my whole life.”

600the number of chefs

working at Melco Crown’s 25 restaurants.

… food safety in China: “those who can afford it are eating more and more imported food. the poor will continue to suffer.”… the quality of restaurants in Swe-den: “i was travelling around in Sweden for a tV programme in 2012 and i was disappointed. while Stockholm has a lot of great restaurants with new concepts most of the towns in the countryside seem to only have pizza and kebab restaurants. i had hoped to see farmers selling their fresh products at market squares.”… his favourite restaurants: “in hong Kong, i go to din tai fung when i long for dim sum and dumplings. in Stockholm, it would be Lisa elmqvist for seafood, operakällaren’s bakficka for meat-balls, bistro Jarl for beef rydberg and Mathias dahlgren at the grand hôtel for fine dining.”

Kristoffer Luczak about …

He also appreciates the proximity to Hong Kong and boards the ferry several times a week to meet friends and business contacts.

Luczak says that he eats all kinds of food but prefers to have the local specialties wher-ever he is:

“When I am in Sweden, I’d like marinated herring and Skagen mix [shrimps with dill, red onion, bleak roe and mayonnaise] and other typical Swedish tastes, such as wild strawber-ries and cloudberries. If I am in Thailand I’ll have the Tom Yum Goong, and in the Czech Republic I’ll eat roast pork and sauerkraut.”

He also enjoys making dinners at home. “I try to do it as much as I can. I put on some music, pour a glass of wine and start cooking. It is relaxing and a bit of therapy for me …” b

Kristoffer Luczak (third from left) together with his colleagues at Raffles in Singapore.


STOCKHOLM GOTHENBURG MALMO HELSINGBORG BRUSSELS HONG KONG SHANGHAI

Vinge opened its o� ce in Hong Kong as early as 1985. In 1999, Vinge became the � rst Swedish and Scandinavian law � rm to obtain a licence to open an o� ce in China,

located in Shanghai. Vinge has led the way and assisted clients in Sweden-China related trade and investment matters for more than 20 years. Practice makes perfect.

Experience leads to excellence

Beijing

Breakfast meeting with Jacob Wallenberg

n the nordic chambers of commerce hosted a human resources morning seminar on 26 november at the radisson blu hotel in beijing.

nordic and other international companies struggle with how to retain and attract the right employees. the seminar was a good opportunity for everyone to listen, share and take in good and practical advice from the members of the panel, which consisted of Jessica hedlund (vice president north asia at Universum), anu Pires (head of hr aPaC region at nokia), diana niu (sen-ior vice president for hr at Volvo trucks) and Christian topp olsen (managing director at Velux China). the panel was moderated by Christer Ljungwall, counsellor at the Swedish agency for growth Policy analysis.

hedlund based her speech on a vast number of case studies and field research from Universum. She talked about employer branding as a unique selling point and the importance to match different genera-tions’ needs and to analyse the difference in perception between Chinese and nordic students.

other recommendations from the speakers included not being afraid telling employees to face a bumpy ride and to embrace company’s culture with an open mind. team members should be treated as if they are the best you can hire. employees should be retained with a supplementary pension system, while maintain-ing flexibility for contributions by employees. employers should never “over-promise” its employees and should adopt a pragmatic approach in recruiting local staff.n on 29 october, the Swedish banker Jacob wallenberg gave a fascinating break-

fast presentation on a broad range of subjects, starting with the founding of the Seb bank in 1856 to his current view on the state of the world economy. the presentation gave a clear-headed view on the challenges that China and the global community is facing although he still remained hopeful.

Jacob wallenberg visited China to attend the annual meeting of the interna-tional business Leader advisory Council (ibLaC) with the mayor of Shanghai, Yang Xiong. he described the mayor as an energetic leader and noted that the deputy mayors are younger than their predecessors, have a better grasp of the english language and a more global outlook.

the presentation was followed by a Q&a session that addressed a variety of topics, including a discussion of what advantages Swedish companies have in China, such as Sweden’s respected national brand and the long-term commitment to China that Swedish companies have demonstrated.

Visa briefing from the embassyn on 26 november, the Swedish Chamber of Commerce had the pleasure of welcoming anders andersson, senior migration officer and head of the visa section at the embassy of Sweden, for a briefing about visa rules and how to make the process smooth and easy.

andersson stressed the importance of handing in all the correct docu-ments and not trying to cut any corners by using fake documents or not submitting all the requested documents. hand in your application in time, and calculate 15 days for the process, although it usually takes less time. he suggested that if you have questions or problems with the application, you should contact the visa section directly.

Are you ready for the talent war?

Gandong Li (left) of the Swedish chamber’s Beijing Chapter presented the event, which included panel members Anu Pires, Christian Topp Olsen, Christer Ljungwall (moderator), Diana Niu and Jessica Hedlund.

From left, Curt Bergström (Sino Matters), Anders Andersson (Swedish embassy) and Jimmy xue

Jacob Wallenberg together with Lars-Åke Severin, chairman of the chamber’s Beijing Chapter.


We are catalysts of evolutionary development ... customer by

customer, order by order. Every customer is unique and our role

is to make their logistics more efficient in every way, every day.

www.apclogistics.com

DrivenShanghai

n on 4 november, during the nordic design and innovation week, close to 50 people gathered at bridge 8 in Shanghai to discuss how to implement Scandinavian design in China. Lars falk, vice president of Volvo design China, henrik Larsson, head of architecture of inter iKea Centre China, and olle Carlbark, global technical innovation director of SCa asia Pacific, shared their experience and knowledge about the topic.

falk told the audience that the Volvo design studio’s work is all about maximising creativity and working closely with customer and market inputs to create and deliver essential advantages.

Larsson gave a presentation on how the inter iKea Centre is bringing international shopping-centre concepts to the China market. iKea is emblematic of many Scandinavian design values such as simplicity, functionality, diversity, natural light and materials.

Meanwhile, Carlbark discussed how innovation efforts at SCa utilised insights into trends and customer- and consumer-needs to implement a nordic baby-diaper design into a Chinese brand.

Social media as a driver of innovationn on 14 november,tomas Larsson from Kairos future intrigued an audience of 34 by sharing how the more than 600 million internet users in China have become not only a force for change in society, but also a driver of innovation in organisations by using social media. internet users in China are three times more active than their western counterparts. Larsson talked about how companies can harness the wisdom of the crowd and “big data” through social media to enhance their innovation capacity and devise better strategies.

Swedish businesses face challenges in China n Katarina nilsson, chairman of the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in China and Jakob Kiefer, deputy head of mission of the embassy of Sweden discussed the results of the new-ly released business Confidence Survey with an audience of 30 at Le Méridien hotel in Shanghai on 21 november.

the profit margins of Swedish companies in China are decreasing and the domestic competition is growing fiercer every day. however, most companies are still profitable and plan to expand investments. a large number of companies perceive corruption as still being an obstacle to doing busi-ness in China and believe that the competition does not always play fairly. an increasing number of companies re-ported that their branding was an advantage on the market; on the other hand, they said they felt that quality decreased in value in terms of competitive advantage.

Analyst Tomas Larsson

encourages companies to

make better use of social media.

Implementing Scandinavian design in China

From left, Henrik Larsson (Inter IKEA), Johanna Pollnow (Swedish Chamber of Commerce), Olle Carlbark (SCA) and Lars Falk (Volvo Cars) discuss Scandinavian design in China.

Jakob Kiefer of the Swedish

embassy and Katarina

Nilsson of the Swedish Chamber of Commerce

present the results of their annual survey

of Swedish companies.


Spotlight on the board:Active lobbying in Hong KongSwedCham Hong Kong works for extended Swedish passports, a double taxation agreement and direct flights to Scandinavia.

n the board of SwedCham hong Kong is actively carrying out lobbying work in three important areas, and appreciate the support it has received from members.

The possibility of an increased number of pages in the Swedish passports. a majority of SwedCham’s member companies are frequent travellers to China and the asia region. Swedish 32-page passports fill up too quickly for such Swedish businesspeople, causing a many problems for the companies and individuals involved. it is highly recommended that a business passport with at least the double number of pages (64) should be available, even at a higher cost.

a number of countries provide this service, but unfortunately Sweden does not, even though it used to.

the board has taken this issue to the Swedish national Police board (rikspolisstyrelsen), but with no success so far. Copies of the letters sent by SwedCham and a reply from Sweden (in Swedish) are posted on www.swedcham.com.hk.

Direct flights between Stockholm and Hong Kong. Currently, no carriers offer direct routes to Scandinavia (Sweden, denmark and norway) from hong Kong.

SwedCham is convinced that there is potential for direct flights, and has been pursuing in-depth dialogues with airlines on expanding future routes. dialogue is on going.

Please stay tuned for more information about the progress of negotiations on these issues by visiting SwedCham hong Kong’s website, and click on the “Spotlight on the board” icon. Please remember that lobbying can be a powerful tool. it was, at least partly, thanks to our chamber’s initiative that the changes to the hong Kong Companies ordinance, which aimed to store secret information about board members in hong Kong companies, were shelved.

A comprehensive double taxation agreement (CDTA) between Hong Kong and Sweden. SwedCham supports a tax treaty between hong Kong and Sweden, as opposed to an information exchange agreement only. hong Kong has indicated its willingness to negotiate and enter into such an agreement, but Sweden, in contrast to a number of other european countries, has so far shown no interest.

for background, please see the notice posted on the SwedCham website. the reply obtained so far states that Sweden is not giving this priority and blames lack of resources.

the issue is on going, and the board is lobbying all possible channels in Sweden. if you have any input or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact the chamber’s office. the board feels this is an issue that, if not resolved, could impact Sweden’s competitiveness negatively in relation to other european countries, for example finland and holland, when attracting Chinese investments in Sweden via hong Kong.


n Since the human resources costs for expats continue to increase, many foreign companies are speeding up the pace of their localisation process. this has led to strong demand from Swedish companies to en-hance their Chinese talents leadership skills.

in february 2013, the Swedish Cham-ber of Commerce in China started a series of training modules for Chinese leaders at Swedish companies in beijing, oversee-ing its last module in november. the goal of this leadership programme, which was arranged in cooperation with the training company Mti, was to cultivate the skills needed to work and lead effectively within organisations that have both Chinese and Swedish influences. it focused strongly on personal leadership. another point of the programme was the development of strong networks.

Many member companies in beijing

and tianjin sent their Chinese talents to attend the programme, which included nine different modules, including the Lead-ership transition Programme, from Vision to results, influencing Leadership Power, developing and Coaching Your team, Problem Solving and decision Making, ne-gotiation Skills, Successful Selling Skills, effective Meetings, and Customer relation

Management. around 60 participants at-tended the nine modules with an average of 22 attendees in each module. the 12 participants who attended more than six modules received a certificate signed by the Swedish Chamber of Commerce and Mti. the chamber is planning to continue with more training sessions on new and relevant topics in the future.

n the Swedish chamber in Shanghai has over the past years held multiple training programmes in Chinese focusing on lead-ership skills and personal development. the goal for the participants has been to cultivate the skills needed to work and lead effectively within a Swedish-Chinese organisation.

the focus has been on personal leadership and one important result of the programme is improved networks. the programme is made up of three full training days composed of six modules; personal leadership and development, presentation skills, a personality test assessment, and cultural training, as well as assertiveness and accountability. the educators have come from MiL institute, the one-Minute Presenter, Concius and thomas interna-tional, while participants are from large, medium-sized and smaller companies, cre-ating a dynamic group that learn from both the trainer and from each other.

“the employees we have sent to the

emerging Leader’s Programme have all been promoted, and that is why we have kept sending more employees to the programme each year,” says anna Palmqvist, chief rep-resentative of h&M far east Ltd.

“almost one month has passed since i completed the programme together with 21 other talented participants from nordic companies, banks and institutions. one of the biggest benefits i obtained from the course was the chance to get to know these energetic, talented and creative people,” says ida gao, legal advisor at Man-nheimer Swartling.

“during the three-full-day course we listened, shared, supported, challenged and coached each other. we explored the foun-dations for good leadership in the context of different personalities and cultural back-grounds along with presentation skills and other practical abilities required to become a better leader.”

the chamber will continue to offer full-day training sessions in a new format in spring 2014. the training will focus on specific topics, such as sales, human re-sources, team management and leadership and will be in english.

Training in BeijingThe Beijing participants were

happy to receive their certificates at the last module.

Training in Shanghai

A group of emerging leaders from Shanghai-based Swedish companies.

Stronger leadership skills for Chinese talents


We feel at home in the Chinese market and want you to feel the same. It’s a large and fastgrowing market. As a result, more and more Scandinavian companies need banking solutions, such as cash management, financing in local and foreign currencies, trade finance and treasury solutions in China.

We’ll help you – bringing our 20 years of experience of business in China. If you have the opportunity, please visit us in Shanghai where we’ve been located since 2001.

Swedish banking in China

Swedbank Shanghai Citigroup Tower 601, 33 Huayuanshiqiao Rd. Shanghai, China + 86 21 386 126 00

Swedish companies remain positive on Chinan Most of the 200 Swedish or Swedish-related companies that participated in the 2013 business Confidence Survey view the Chinese market as fa-vourable and profitable. however, the overall trend suggests there has been a marginal decrease in the number of companies that have a positive outlook on China compared with the last report in 2011. this is evident in areas such as the overall favourability of the Chinese market, profitability, market share, investment climate and the avail-ability of skilled labour.

the business Confidence Survey is conducted biannually by the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in China, the embassy of Sweden in beijing, and business Sweden in China.

among other key findings in the survey were that fewer companies are increasing their market share, with competition being the primary barrier to profitability; that 60 per cent are planning further investments in the coming two years; and that 50 per cent think that corruption exists, and more than two-thirds of these companies think that it poses a

“moderate” or “great” difficulty to their business.Product quality and design are regarded as

the greatest advantages versus local competi-tors, while pricing and government relations are perceived as the greatest disadvantages.

Some 37 per cent have noticed increased implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSr), and 27 per cent have received increased demands for CSr implementation from custom-ers; 29 per cent had increased their demands on Chinese suppliers regarding CSr.

the purpose of the survey is to get an over-view of how Swedish companies are performing in China, the opportunities and challenges they face, and their outlook on the Chinese market. the report will also serve as a source of reference in the on-going bilateral trade dialogue and joint-commission meetings between the Chinese and Swedish governments.

the surveyed Swedish companies employ a total of almost 87,000 people with the majority based in Shanghai or beijing.

The survey covered 200 Swedish or Swedish-related companies in China with a total of almost 87,000 employees.


HONG KONG ORdiNARy MEMBER >>>

Ekpac Asia Ltd2803 Sino Plaza, 255 gloucester roadCauseway bayhong Kongtel: +852 2555 5555email: [email protected]: www.ekpac.com

Activitiesour business strengths lie in sourcing industrial machinery from leading global manufacturers. with extensive sales and service operations throughout greater China and South-east asia. we also source a wide variety of components for worldwide distribution from greater China.

Chamber representativesLouise wikström, CeoLeif Sjöholm, director

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Connect2China Consultant Company Ltdno 39 Lung Sum avenue, 17/f room 1707, Landmark northSheung Shui, nthong Kongtel: +852 2670 7787email: [email protected]: www.connect2china.se

Activitieshelping companies become successful on the Chinese market by offering services both for clients with export and sales in China and for those buying and sourcing from China. we also arrange business courses, matchmaking, and work-shops, as well as events and leisure travel services.

Chamber representativeUrban dahlén, Managing director

Hexagon AB19/f, Cheung Kong Centre2 Queen’s road CentralCentralhong Kongtel: +852 3469 5240web: www.hexagon.com

Activitieshexagon (naSdaQ oMX Stockholm: heXa b) is a leading global provider of design, measurement and visualisation technologies. our customers can design, measure and posi-tion objects, and process and present data, to stay one step ahead in a changing world.

Chamber representativeola rollén, Ceo

Kemira Hong Kong Company Ltdroom 801-02, Shui on Centre6-8 harbour roadwanchaihong Kongtel: +852 2899 2850email: [email protected]: www.kemira.com

ActivitiesKemira has operations in 40 countries and employs approxi-mately 4,900 people. our four research-and-development centres are located in espoo (finland), atlanta (USa), Shanghai (China) and São Paolo (brazil). Kemira is a global chemicals company, serving customers in water-intensive industries. we provide expertise and chemicals that improve our customers’ water, energy and raw-material efficiency.

Chamber representativePetri helsky, President

Orangefield ICS Limited6/f, St. John’s building33 garden roadCentralhong Kongtel: +852 2854 4544email: [email protected]: www.orangefield.com

Activitiesorangefield iCS is part of a global corporate service provider and fund administrator. with more than 40 years of experience, we provide a wide range of services to corporate clients, private clients and fund managers from all over the world.

Chamber representativesKaren Cheung, business development ManagerQuinten Kah, business development Manager

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SverigeShoppen Shop 202, SoLo building, 41-43 Carnarvon roadtsimshatsui, Kowloonhong Kongtel: +852 2312 1919email: [email protected]: www.sverigeshoppen.com

ActivitiesSverigeShoppen promotes, introduces and distributes Swedish food and beverage brands in hong Kong/China, directly to consumers through www.sverigeshoppen.com and a retail shop in tsimshatsui. we also provide wholesale to restaurants, hotels and department store chains.

Chamber representativeCarol agren Lee

Panalpina Asia-Pacific Services Ltd 1301-13, 13/f, atL Logistics Centre b, berth 3Kwai Chung Container terminalnt, hong Kongtel: +852 3405 0700email: [email protected]: www.panalpina.com

Activitiesthe Panalpina group is one of the world’s leading providers of supply chain solutions. the company combines its core products of airfreight, ocean freight, and logistics to deliver globally integrated, tailor-made end-to-end solutions.

Chamber representativerobert Jonasson, trade Lane development northern europe

Swedbiz Design & Development Ltd Unit 1628, 16/f Star house, 3 Salisbury roadtsimshatsui, Kowloonhong Kongtel: +852 2802 9533 +86 138 233 80535email: [email protected]: www.swedbiz.com

ActivitiesSwedbiz is your business partner specialized in procurement, sourcing and sales services in China and Southeast asia. we offer a variety of services and business models for your com-pany, and we can tailor the best solutions for your needs.

Chamber representativeKennet Stigsson, Managing director


With the opening of its new private banking branch in Singapore, clients resident in Asia can benefit from Nordea’s wealth management expertise, global market access and Nordic approach to doing business, while maintaining their account in the Asian financial centre of Singapore. Address: Nordea Bank S.A., Singapore Branch, 3 Anson Road, #20-01 Springleaf Tower, Singapore 079909

Visit us at www.nordeaprivatebanking.com, call +65 65 97 10 82 or email [email protected] for more information or to set up a personal meeting.

Nordea Bank S.A, Singapore Branch is part of Nordea Group, the leading financial services group in the Nordic and Baltic Sea regions. Some products and services may, due to local regulations, not be available to individuals resident in certain countries and their availability may depend, among other things, on the investment risk profile of persons in receipt of this publication or on any legislation to which they are subject. Nothing in this publication should be construed as an offer, or the solicitation of an offer, to purchase, subscribe to or sell any investment or product, or to engage in any other transaction or provide any kind of financial or banking service in any jurisdiction where Nordea Bank S.A., Singapore Branch or any of its affiliates do not have the necessary licence. Published by Nordea Bank S.A., R.C.S. Luxembourg No. B 14.157 on behalf of Nordea Bank S.A., Singapore Branch, 3 Anson Rd #20-01, Springleaf Tower, Singapore 079909, subject to the supervision of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (www.mas.gov.sg). www.nordeaprivatebanking.com

Nordea opens International Private Banking branch in Singapore

Making it possible

Välkommen, velkommen, tervetuloa, welcome ...

AD_dragonnews_Opening_eng_Jonas.indd 1 12/09/2013 08:52

Wild Grass 1/f, 8 arbuthnot roadCentralhong Kongtel: +852 2810 1189email: [email protected]: www.wildgrass.hk

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Activitiesour restaurant is all about natural, sustainable ingredi-ents, lovingly prepared by traditional slow-cooking meth-ods. here, you’ll find wholesome, time-honoured recipes readapted for a new generation of food lovers.

Chamber representativesJean Paul gauci, directoremma Maria norgren, Manager

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HONG KONG OVERSEAS MEMBER >>>

Muraya4/f, no 1000 Changping road, Jing’an districtShanghai 200042Pr Chinatel: +86 21 3226 7550email: [email protected]: www.muraya.com

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ActivitiesMuraya is an established Swedish interior design and con-struction company in asia. we have successfully completed multiple projects across China for corporate offices, retail spaces and industrial facilities for international clients, and we are qualified to work on projects of any size within China.

Chamber representativesLove englund, general Manageragnieszka rapala, Marketing Manager

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OneMed Holding ABSvärdvägen 3bSe-182 33 danderydSwedentel: +46 725 32 00 92email: [email protected]: www.onemed.com

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ActivitiesoneMed is a leading medical-supplies distributor, serving customers in the healthcare industry with reliable and ef-ficient solutions for their entire needs in terms of supplies and related services.

our mission is to make everyday life easier for health-care personnel by ensuring that they receive the right prod-ucts at the right time. by improving processes and reducing inefficiencies, we can lower the overall costs for customers and ultimately increase the quality of care for patients.

Chamber representativesJohan falk, Ceohenrik Cederqvist, Product area director

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Universum Communications Pte Ltd76 Circular road 02-01049430 Singaporetel: +65 91167854email: [email protected]: www.universumglobal.com

ActivitiesUniversum is the global leader in employer branding. we are passionate about empowering clients to grow great employer brands. we’re experts in providing market insights, communication solutions and advisory services that enable employers to attract, recruit and retain talent.

Chamber representativeJoakim Ström, Managing director, aPaC


HONG KONG iNdiVidUAL MEMBERS >>>

Ellen Huangemail: [email protected]: +852 2846 5124

Varenne ABJakobsbergsgatan 16Se-111 44 StockholmSwedentel: +46 8 5550 9600email: [email protected]: www.varenne.se

ActivitiesVarenne is an investment company with the business idea to create long-term profits for its shareholders by being an active investor that works to increase the value of its port-folio companies.

Chamber representativeJosefine grane, Vd

Peter Luxenburgemail: [email protected]: +852 5171 3208

DIAB (Kunshan) Co, Ltdno 27, taihu road, Ketd zoneKunshanPr Chinatel: +86 0512 5763 0666email: [email protected]: www.diabgroup.com

Activitiesdiab is a world-leading supplier of sandwich composite solutions that make products stronger, lighter and more competitive. diab’s solutions include a wide range of core materials, cost-effective core kits, a wide range of finishing options and a comprehensive set of composite know-how. diab also provides a series of consulting services within composite technology through the Composites Consulting group. diab provides sandwich composites solutions within wind energy, marine, transportation, aerospace and indus-try. diab is a global company with sales and customer sup-port in 16 countries and an extensive network of distribu-tors. diab has six strategically located manufacturing units in order to serve its global customers on a local basis. diab is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Swedish private equity company ratos ab (publ).

Chamber representativesJohan gralén, executive Vice President asia PacificSusan zhan, Managing director

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Michaël Berglund Expat SearchStrandvägen 5bSe-11451 StockholmSwedentel: +46 8 663 9000email: [email protected]: www.mbes.se/expat

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ActivitiesMichaël berglund expat Search is an area within Michaël ber-glund executive Search, one of the leading executive search firms in Sweden. we conduct assignments in executive search and board recruitment, and also maintain a constant lookout function. our focus is Swedes working abroad who want to maintain a connection with the Swedish job market. our definition of an expatriate is a person who has lived and worked abroad for at least two years.

our vision is to highlight global talent and enrich companies, organisations and society. after nearly 30 years’ experience of executive recruitments in a variety of industries, we know the value international experience can bring to an organisation.

Chamber representativesPer wreding, ConsultantStina Sandberg, Consultant

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banking and finance company law and corporate finance distribution and agency law property lease law china desk environmental law corpo-rate reconstructuring eu and competition law maritime and transporta-tion law real estate and construction law employment law mergers and acquisitions insurance intellectual property marketing and media law international law energy and investment law it and telecom litigation and arbitration private equity

Doing business in Sweden?

Lawyers you want on your side

Clean Healthy Air 24/7 = Life insurance and Higher Performance

At Home • Kindergarten/School/High School/University • At Work

SWEDEN HQ Environmental Air of Sweden AB. Mr Göran Hertzberg, M D, Ph: 0046 761 048 350, Mail: [email protected]

www.easab.com

EAS Beijing Office, China, Mr Shangyou Dong, Manager, Ph: 0086 10 85322147,Cell: 0086 135 2199 5330, Mail: [email protected]

Kienbaum Management Consultants China31 floor, Jin Mao towerno 88, Shi Ji avenueShanghai 200120tel: +86 21 2890 9089fax: +86 21 2890 9999web: www.kienbaum.com

ActivitiesKienbaum Management Consultants is a global consultancy firm with german roots. as one of only few consultancy firms, we combine traditional management and strategy consulting with hr-focused change management expertise in order to provide our clients with all the solutions they need under one roof. in China we are mainly working in the areas of operational excellence, process-safety excellence and human resources management. in all of these services, we rely on native Chinese and international consultants.

Chamber representativeSimon thomas hagspiel, Vice general Manageremail: [email protected]: +86 186 1635 7022

Microdata Telecom (Suzhou) Co, Ltdno 69, weixin road, SiPSuzhou, China 215000tel: +86 512 8083 8659web: www.microdata.se

ActivitiesMicrodata telecom innovation ab is a Swedish telecom company operating in the mobile infrastructure market. our high-volume manufacturing is located in Suzhou, China.

Chamber representativeJohanna Sandbergemail: [email protected]: +86 150 5144 8538

Telko Shanghai Ltdroom 2804-07, tower b, City Centerno 100, zunyi road, Changning districtShanghai 200051 tel: +86 21 6270 0640fax: +86 21 6270 0872web: www.telko.com

Activitieswe carry out plastics and chemical distribution in China, as well as sourcing chemicals and plastics for other telko markets.

Chamber representativeSky wang, Sales directoremail: [email protected]: +86 136 2182 9553

GRAPHIC GUIDELINES

December 10th, 2008

CHiNA ORdiNARy MEMBERS >>>

Guosta ABSveavägen 1Se-777 32 SmedjebackenSwedenfax: +46 763 097 772web: www.guosta.se

Activitiesguosta helps its customers with protection of intellectual property rights in China, with research-and-development patent applications, while also acting as a financial adviser.

Chamber representativeguo Qiemail: [email protected]: +86 135 0116 5121


CHiNA ASSOCiATE MEMBERS >>>

Helena Albrechtssonc/o wilddesignroom 618, no 68, Changping LuShanghai 200041email: [email protected]: +86 159 0213 4490tel: +86 21 5228 8112

Prit Singhroom 1201, building 3no 255, guangxi north roadhuangpu districtShanghai 200001 email: [email protected] Mobile: +86 156 0163 7032

Monitor ERP SystemJakobsbergsvägen 4hudiksvallSwedentel: +46 650 766 00web: www.monitor.se

ActivitiesSales and consultancy services.

Chamber representativeKnut ngoemail: [email protected]: +86 186 2171 0892

Shampoodle ABbellmansgatan 22CSe-11847 StockholmSwedentel: +46 8 5031 3131web: www.shampoodle.com

ActivitiesShampoodle designs comfortable clothes for kids and adults, using organic materials and fair-trade standards. it has retailing activities in 32 countries around the world.

Chamber representativeJakob wästbergemail: [email protected]: +46 708-95 61 31

Pinyin Studioroom 19a, building b, oriental Kenzo office buildingno 48, dongzhimenwai dajie dongcheng districtbeijing 100027tel: +86 10 5817 4014email: [email protected] web: www.pinyinstudio.com

ActivitiesPinyin Studio is a branding and design agency active within the fields of visual identity creation, print design, web design, photography and advertising. based in beijing, our job is to create and develop brand and corporate designs to boost the identity and profitability of our clients.

Chamber representativeadrian torstenssonemail: [email protected] Mobile: +86 150 1124 4204

• Photographic Equipment• Video/Audio Hi-Fi Equipment

• Home Appliances• Colour Film Processing/Enlargement

• Audio/Video Dubbing Services• Communication Equipment

• Electronic Equipment• Repairing Services

• Mail Order Acceptable

Shop No.65, 1/F, Admiralty Centre, 18 Harcourt Road, Hong KongTel: 852-2877-2227 Fax: 852-2877-2120

Mobile: 9051-9499 E-mail: [email protected]

Opening Hour: Mon – Sat 9:00am – 7:00pm Sunday 2:00pm – 6:00pm

JOHNNY’S PHOTO & VIDEO SUPPLY LTD

• Photographic Equipment• Video/Audio Hi-Fi Equipment

• Home Appliances• Colour Film Processing/Enlargement

• Audio/Video Dubbing Services• Communication Equipment

• Electronic Equipment• Repairing Services

• Mail Order Acceptable

Shop No.65, 1/F, Admiralty Centre, 18 Harcourt Road, Hong KongTel: 852-2877-2227 Fax: 852-2877-2120

Mobile: 9051-9499 E-mail: [email protected]

Opening Hour: Mon – Sat 9:00am – 7:00pm Sunday 2:00pm – 6:00pm

JOHNNY’S PHOTO & VIDEO SUPPLY LTD


A F T E R H O U RS

O u r w o r l d i s l o g i s t i c s

Kasper Svane KristensenSales Manager Hong Kong & China

+86 139 1609 [email protected]

SGL Textile Handling– Experts in individual preparation

Turn Fixed costs into Variable costs ..!Let us pack, label, price tag and quality control your products in Asia

12926-SGL- Textil annonce.indd 1 05/03/13 08.10

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Swedenin the World

SVERIGES LEDANDE INTERNATSKOLA

n DesignDecorate your walls the Swedish wayHave you ever thought of decorating your home or office with wallpaper rather than paint? Finally, high-quality Swedish wallpaper has arrived in China. WallVision is the Nordic region’s market-leading wallpaper group, and its business concept is to design, produce and sell high-quality, branded wallpapers, focusing on the premium segment.

WallVision has some of the best known and top-selling Nordic wallpaper brands, including Boråstapeter (classic, modern designs), ECO Wallpaper (trendy designs), Cole & Son (traditional and innovative wallpapers) and Mr Perswall (customised photo wallpapers).

The Nordic market accounts for three-quarters of the group’s sales. In China, WallVision International Trading sells and distributes the products.


n BooksBilingual cookbook features Nordic recipesFood has associations with memories, culture, traditions and enjoyment, in addition to being a source of nutrition. Johanna Pollnow, office manager at the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, has been working on her cookbook Chi Fan - 101 Nordic everyday recipes for cooking in China since she moved to China in 2011.

Chi Fan (“to eat”) is bilingual (English and Simplified Chinese) and was released in December 2013. The cookbook is full of simple, quick, everyday Scandinavian recipes that contain ingredients that are easy to find. There are recipes for starters, main courses, salads, sauces, dips, snacks and desserts.

The book is particularly useful for expatriates living in China who want to have Scandinavian food on their dining table made by themselves or their ayi. It is also a great cookbook for Chinese who are interested in food and culture, featuring both the traditional and new tastes of Scandinavian home cooking.

“With 101 recipes and a picture for each dish, you can imagine my family is happy now that they can eat without waiting for me to take pictures,” says Pollnow.

You can order the book, which costs RMB299, by sending an email to [email protected].

T H E C H A M B E R A N d i

Members choose their favourite restaurants

Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong

DIRECTORS OF THE BOARDUlf Ohrling, Chairman [Mannheimer Swartling]Jimmy Bjennmyr [Handelsbanken]Carl Christensson [Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken]Eva Henriksson [Henriksson Consulting]Walter Jennings [Kreab Gavin Anderson]Staffan Löfgren [ScanAsia Consulting]Laurence McDonald [Ericsson]Kristian Odebjer [Advokatfirman Odebjer Fohlin Fitzgerald]Per Ågren [APC Asia Pacific Cargo]

Swedish Chamber of Commerce in China

DIRECTORS OF THE BOARDKatarina Nilsson, Chairman [Advokatfirman Vinge]Lars-Åke Severin, Vice Chairman and Chairman of the Beijing Chapter [PSU]Ulf Söderström, Vice Chairman and Chairman of the Shanghai Chapter [SCA]Fredrik Ektander, Treasurer [SEB]Yvonne Chen [GM, Swedish Chamber of Commerce in China]Birgitta Ed [Six Year Plan]Karine Hirn [East Capital]Peter Idsäter [Mannheimer Swartling]Daniel Karlsson [Asia Perspective]Tom Nygren [Ericsson]Martin Pei [SSAB]Peter Sandberg [Tobii]

1. anette andersson Volvo Car Distribution China, Shanghai

“for Chinese food, i enjoy Lost heaven, both the one at the bund and in the french conces-sion, it has always high quality food and a nice atmosphere. for western food, i enjoy nolita at dagu Lu.”

With the holidays approaching, there will be more time to bring your family or friends to a good restaurant. Dragon News asked some of our members what their favourite restaurants were and why.

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2. Marie Lundgren Global Sourcing, Shanghai

“My favourite restaurant in Shanghai is Lost heaven. they serve delicious Chinese food with a western touch. the food is nicely organised and the restaurant has a cosy environment.”

8. Camilla hammar IKEA, Shanghai

“My favourite foreign restaurant is Mr & Mrs bund because they have a large menu, ambience and so far i have never been disap-pointed. they manage to maintain a consist-ent level of well-cooked food and service, which is not always the case with other restaurants in Shanghai.”

5. Marcus Solberg Fjällräven, Beijing

“Mughal´s indian restaurant has the best chicken tikka masala in beijing, as well as some really delicious naan bread to go with it.”

3. Mikael bick TOP-TOY, Hong Kong

“il Moro in Sheung wan is a hidden gem that serves authentic home-style italian food and great self-imported wine. Make sure to get along with the owner/chef Joseph and you will be in for a treat.”

7. Jörgen halldin Consulate General of Sweden, Hong Kong

“if you can´t get enough of authentic Sichuan food, then San Xi Lou on garden road in Mid-Levels is the place to go. it has cheap nylon napkins, which means it hasn’t seen an inte-rior designer for a long time, a bustling and noisy atmosphere, but the dishes will make you feel like you really are in Sichuan enjoying the world’s most exciting cuisine.”

6. Margaret Leung Business Sweden, Hong Kong

“thai basil in the basement of Pacific Place serves very good thai food. a lot of the dishes are really tasty in my opinion. the seating is relatively comfortable but booking in advance is recommended.”

4. birgitta Söderström Shang Learning, Beijing

“Mercante is a fantastic italian restaurant located in a hutong in beijing and the place is small and cosy. the owner is a service-minded italian guy who imports olive oil and Parmesan cheese from his village back home.”

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handelsbanken.cn

Your Nordic Bank in Greater ChinaHandelsbanken has been operating in Greater China for more than 30 years. Today we are the Nordic bank with the largest presence in the region.

As your banking partner we are here to help your business succeed. Banking with us you benefit from local knowledge and experience as well as a high level of flexibility and personal service.

Our offering includes full-service corporate banking, from all types of financing to a wide range of cash management services. As an experienced member of the local clearing system, our payment services are second to none.

Johan AndrénDeputy Head of Greater China and General Manager Hong Kong branch

Florence ChanSenior Account Manager

Jimmy BjennmyrSenior Account Manager

Contact us to find out more about how we can help your business:Shanghai – Mikael Westerback or Camilla Sjöberg +86 21 6329 8877Hong Kong – Johan Andrén +852 2293 5388, Jimmy Bjennmyr +852 2293 5326Taipei – Amy Chen +886 2 2563 7458Beijing – Jason Wang +86 10 6500 4310, Joakim Hedhill +86 10 6500 3435

Mikael Westerback Head of Greater China and General Manager Shanghai branch

Annons_dragon_news_dec13.indd 1 2013-12-05 09:08:32

dragon news - no. 4, 2013

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