ScandAsia February 2021

FEB 2021 BUSINESS:

Norwegian stops Thailand-route

COMMUNITY:

Singapore most livable city

DEMOCRACY:

Sweden gives 12 Mill. USD more

Vaccines are on their way

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February 2021

ScandAsia Stories

16 King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden has been Covid-19 vaccinated

36 Living Conditions Improving We are less poor, get more education, live longer

20

32

8 Norwegian drops Thailand route 12 IKEA made gimmick from misprint 13 Singapore again most livable 17 Extra 12 mill USD for democracy

8

Countess Alexandra, Nikolai, Felix Chinese TV documentary interview now on Youtube

12

Monsoon Tea Agneta de Bekassy talks to Kenneth Rimdahl

28 Danish goods on e-Commerce in China Team of experts help Danish companies enter the Chinese e-commerce market

13

22 Seven Peaks Software on the move

28 Shrewsbury expanding Opening in August 4 ScandAsia • February 2021

17

Editorial

Will the expats never come back?

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drop in expats has been one of many fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic in all the countries in Asia. Almost all Nordic companies offered their staff to come home because it was considered safer for them than leaving them exposed to the untested ability of their Asian host countries to handle the pandemic. At least their families were urged to come home.

Now, that the worst is over, and it has turned out that remote assignments often worked not so badly, the question has been raised if the companies will ever resume physically sending people out to take up assignments abroad - or instead give them “virtual assignments”, which has become the latest HR buzzword.

Virtual assignments are of course particularly appealing to the employer as a cost-effective alternative to the traditional long-term assignment. It is three to five times more expensive for a company to have someone on an assignment than to keep that person in the home country. Why not save the money?

A vir tual assignment could also hold employee benefits. Previously, an employee with a family would have to consider the impact on several people before accepting a move that would take the whole family halfway across the world. In this light, moving “virtually” instead of physically may be an ideal scenario.

In real life, many companies had no choice but to test the waters regarding virtual assignments this year. It has revealed new challenges. Are for instance employees on virtual assignments expected to work host country hours and if so, should the employee receive an additional allowance for the inconvenience?

Technologically, the enforced vir tual assignments have pushed everybody on a steep learning curve into software for remote working. We all learned the hard

ScandAsia is a printed magazine and online media covering the people and businesses of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland living and working in China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.

Who should subscribe:

ScandAsia subscribers are typically Nordic expats and companies from the Nordic countries living in and active in Asia. Another group of subscribers are Nordic people living in the Nordic countries who subscribe to ScandAsia for personal or business reasons. We also have many Asian subscribers, who for a wide range of reasons are following the activities of the Nordic expats and companies via a subscription to ScandAsia.

6 ScandAsia • February 2021

way that a lot of processes can be shared in the cloud and much physical face-time can be replaced by meetings on Zoom or on Google Meet. Since most of us now master this new technology it will no doubt have a lasting effect on team productivity and offer opportunities for cost savings.

Still, I personally believe the era of the expatriate corporate assignees is not over. I think the expats will come back because many employees find the opportunity to go on an assignment attractive because it allows professional, cultural and personal development. Especially graduates seeking international opportunities will not find a virtual assignment appealing.

If Nordic companies back home stop providing this opportunity, I think young professionals will simply drop them and go out and seek employment in international corporations in Asia on their own. Nordic employers should realize this and provide this incentive - or prepare themselves to lose them to the competition.

Then you can sit back and from your safe distance watch them doing a better job on location than the person you hired at home.

Gregers Moller Editor in Chief

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January 2021 • ScandAsia 7

News brief

Norway finally ready to help Norwegian airline avoid bankruptcy

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o r we g i a n a i r l i n e s h a s announced that the government of Norway has agreed to help the airline by granting Norwegian a so-called hybrid loan, which is a loan without an expiration date with special terms, after the government approved of a plan for how the company will emerge from the crisis.

As par t of this plan, Norwegian will drop its investment in longdistance routes to Asia the USA and instead only focus on short-distance routes within Europe.

Norwegian is currently subject to bankruptcy protection in Ireland, where the majority of the company’s aircraft and debt is registered.

Bankruptcy protection is a process in which the company can, without the risk of being declared bankrupt, negotiate a solution in place with the

The Norwegian government wants to save Norwegian from bankruptcy. Photo: Henning Bagger company’s creditors that can secure the company’s future. Norwegian is currently negotiating, among other things, to have a large part of its debt written down.

Danish Jacob Pedersen, Sydbank’s head of equity research, who

closely follows the aviation industry says that the support means that the risk of Norweigan going bankrupt has magically disappeared. He adds that the support from the government will motivate other investors to invest in the airline as well.

Norwegian Air drops flying to Thailand

Photo credit: Norwegian Air

N

orwegian Air has announced that the airline will halt its long-haul business in an aim to survive the pandemic. The lowcost airline continues to struggle to survive the financial effects of the 8 ScandAsia • February 2021

Covid-19 pandemic and the new initiative is another measure for the airline to stay afloat.

Norwegian Air has in recent years operated long-haul routes to destinations such as Thailand, Argen-

tina, and across the USA but Jacob Schram, Norwegian’s chief executive has revealed the airlines plan to drop all these long-haul flying and focus on its European and Nordic short-haul business.

The drop in business means that thousands of jobs are on the line as cabin crew and pilots face being made redundant.

According to Jacob Schram, the focus for Norwegian is to rebuild a strong and profitable airline so they can safeguard as many jobs as possible. Norwegian expects a very low demand in long-haul flights in the near future and the focus will therefore be on developing the airline’s short-haul network as they emerge from the reorganization process.

News brief

Kim Eriksson Siriwan spent eight years in a Thai prison until in 2019 he was transferred to Sweden from Bangkwang Central Prison. The Swedish prisoner transfer agreement with Thailand does not, like the Danish, transfer the right to a new trial and consequent pardon at a time decided by the Danish court. But it does say that the prison time in Sweden should be shorter than in Thailand.

Swedish Kim Eriksson Sirawan: Release me or send me back to Thailand

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wedish Kim Eriksson Sirawan was in 2011 sentenced to life in prison in Thailand for running a drug lab and spent the next eight years in a Thai prison.

His sentence was later shor tened to 21 years and three months in a Swedish prison. In 2019 he was transferred to the Swedish prison Mariefredsanstalten.

A previous attempt at having his prison sentence shortened failed.

The Swede is now appealing to the Swedish government again, this time for a pardon to be released as early as 2022 or to be sent back to Thailand.

In an inter view with Aftonbladet, Kim’s lawyer, Harri Keränen says that Kim now wants to see his

sentence shortened and has sent an application for pardon or amnesty to the Swedish government. In the document, he puts forward several arguments for a reduced sentence.

Among other things, that Kim believes his punishment is contrary to Swedish principles and that he has already been punished extremely harshly during his time in the Thai prisons.

He states that because the sentence in Thailand now has been reduced to 18 years, Sweden has violated the agreement that the countries have concluded which states that the home countr y’s penalty period would be shorter. In addition, the Swedish Prison and Probation Service are not considered to have

taken his family situation into account, by not granting him a visit or leave to meet his daughter during the pandemic.

His lawyer Harri Keränen says that if the application for pardon is not granted, Kim’s wish is that he be returned to Thailand to ser ve the remaining part of his sentence there.

February 2021 • ScandAsia 9

News brief

Finnish Viking Line launches new Chinese build cruise ship

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iking Line, a Finnish shipping company launched on 26 Januar y its new cruise ship built in China. The new Finnish Baltic cruise “Viking Glory” is build Built

by China’s Xiamen Shipbuilding Industry Co., Ltd., and the birth of the cruise ship was launched via a

web stream ceremony in Xiamen, the southeastern coastal city in China’s Fujian Province.

Jan Hanses, CEO of Viking Line said in an inter view with Finnish national radio Yle, that the Viking Line was very pleased with the Chinese shipbuilding company and that

the company was chosen for its rich experience in shipbuilding and competitive price. He added that Viking Line had been looking for a similar order from Finland but that would have cost the company nearly 100.000 euros extra.

The Viking Glory is equipped with the world’s advanced central control and alarm monitoring system and powered by natural gas (LNG). The 218 meters long Finnish Baltic cruise ship will be sailing between Turku in southwestern Finland and Stockholm, Sweden with a call on Mariehamn of the Aland islands.

The cruise ship is expected to arrive from China in a month to a month and a half.

Vaccine sparks Nordic travel bookings to Thailand

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he positive news regarding the Covid-19 vaccine has sparked a boost in booking of travel arrangements to Thailand from Finland and Sweden and now Denmark is following the trend.

Bookings to Thailand is amongst the most popular destinations for the second half of 2021.

10 ScandAsia • February 2021

Last week, the Danish Health Authority announced that it is expected that all Danes will be vaccinated by the end of June 2021 and with that date in mind, Danes are now eyeing the opportunity to travel abroad again.

Mikkel Hansen, communication manager at Tui’s says in an interview with Jyllands-Posten, that the announcement from the government resulted in an increase of 129 percent in travel bookings compared to the day before.

It is specifically the 2nd half of 2021, where there is a high demand for travel to Thailand.Thailand is also by far the most popular destination

for winter 2022 bookings and the company already has six times as many bookings to the land of smiles compared to January last year.

According to a new statistic released by the char ter industr y association, Tour Operators in Denmark, RID, 2020 was a catastrophic year. The number of vacations sold fell by more than 80 percent.

Mikkel Hansen notes that even though travel companies are experiencing increased demand and noticeable percentage increases week after week, they are still far from the level seen pre-corona times.

February 2021 • ScandAsia 11

News brief

Chinese billionaire’s failed mink business saved by Danish compensation package

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hinese billionaire Pat Wong, who has since 2013 owned 12 mink far ms in West and Central Jutland, will be paid up to DKK 100.000 million from the Danish government’s billion kroner compensation deal to the mink breeders in Denmark. The government unlawfully ordered all minks in Denmark killed when news came out that had a new strain of the coronavirus had ben found in minks.

The government has since agreed to compensate all mink farmers for their losses.

Pat Wong’s 12 mink farms produced approx. 200,000 mink a year, but the billionaire will not receive full compensation for the forced killing of the minks because the vast

majority of the minks were furred in November. But he is entitled to compensation for lost income 10 years into the future as well as compensation for all buildings, machines, and cages, which according to the accounts have a value of DKK 76 million.

Pat Wong invested a total of DKK 219 million into his Danish mink adventure and over the last five years he accumulated losses on the mink farms to the tune of DKK 108 million. He never recorded any profit on the farms that were technically owned by Pat Wong’s company, the Cayman Island-based Kingkey Financial International where the majority of the Danish compensation package may now end up.

IKEA Singapore turns mistake into marketing gimmick

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wedish IKEA in Singapore has acknowledged a misprint mistake on their reusable bags.

Instead of the correct url of “www.

IKEA.com.sg” the bags say “www.

IKEA.co.sg” .

But instead of scrapping the bags, IKEA has turned the misprint into a marketing gimmick and made the bags available at a discounted price both in stores and online in Singapore.

On the product’s signage , where a product description would normally be, IKEA owns up to their mistake and printed the Malay word “ALAMAK” meaning “Oh Shit!” and explained.

“At IKEA it’s OK to make a mis-

12 ScandAsia • February 2021

take. We printed the wrong website address on the KLAMBY reusable bag but because it’s re-usable we won’t scrap them. They’re limited edition and they won’t be back!”

The reusable KLAMBY bags

retails for S$1.90 and just goes to show that despite the mistake, IKEA is committed to their sustainable business ways by selling the misprinted merchandise.

News brief

Singapore named the most livable location in the world for 15th year

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ingapore has once again retained its place as the most livable location for East Asian expatriates, continuing a trend which stretches back to 2005. This was one of the conclusions of the latest Location Ratings research published by global mobility exper t, EC A International.“Singapore is top of the livability rankings for the 15th year in a row as its superior infrastructure, low pollution and large expatriate communities continue to appeal to overseas workers” said Lee Quane, Regional Director – Asia at ECA International.

“Moreover, while Singapore imposed a circuit breaker to man-

Location Copenhagen, Denmark Stavanger, Norway Aarhus, Denmark Gothenburg, Sweden

age the outbreak of Covid-19 within its borders in 2020, the scale of its lockdown was less severe than other locations in the region.”

Singapore is once again the most livable location in the world for East Asian expatriates Hong Kong rose up 35 place from last year and is now ranks 58th most livable location in the world for East Asian expatriates Many cities see big drops in their rankings, owing to the widespread impact of Covid-19 Nevertheless, many big major cities in the Nordics rose up on the scale:

2020/21 ranking 6 10 10 12

2019/20 ranking 9 16 21 24 February 2021 • ScandAsia 13

News brief

Denmark and the Philippines celebrate 75 years of diplomatic relationship

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he Danish Embassy in the Philippines celebrate in 2021 the anniversary of 75 years of diplomatic relationships between the two countries.

“To commemorate this milestone, we are happy to launch our logo conceptualized by highly awarded Jacob Jensen Design. The logo represents our theme of “75 Years of Friendship: Par tners in Progress for Sustainable Growth”, which highlights the various projects

and activities planned all throughout the year,” the Danish embassy said in a statement.

Jacob Jensen Design states: “We have created a simple, fresh, and dynamic logo inspired by renewable energies, which are the forefront of both countries’ economic and social agendas”.

The windmills have wind blades in the shapes of two local flowers – Sampaguita and Daisy respectively.

Foreigners in Asia targets of Covid-19 related racisms

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hen Covid-19 fir st spread from China, Asians became targets of racism in Scandinavia and the rest of the West. Now after the spread of the virus has changed in China, that same racism is turned against foreigners and expats inside the country.

While internal coronavirus infection in the country has basically stopped, according to the Chinese authorities themselves, the worr y about impor ted cases has begun.

The focus is now on enforcing strict restrictions on entry from abroad and with that, a wide fear of foreigners is seen in China.

The Guardian repor ts that foreigners in China have begun to feel the consequences. According to the newspaper a large number of foreigners in China experience shouting and discrimination in public.

They have been subjected to further screening and avoided in public spac14 ScandAsia • February 2021

“My ethnicity is not a virus”, says the sign held by an Asian during the early month of the pandemic, where Asians were feared having the virus. As most Asian countries are getting the pandemic under control, westerners now start feeling the same suspicion of being Covid careers. es. An expat in China walking with a group of foreigners saw a woman grab her child and run the other way.

In Taiwan, some restaurants have repor tedly said they will not ser ve foreign diners. In Thailand, a Facebook page encouraged last spring Thais to use slingshots against foreigners not wearing a mask. In Vietnam, the hostility toward foreigners is so severe that the Viet-

namese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a statement calling for it to stop.

“We hope that the spirit of humanitarianism, equality, and nondiscrimination will be upheld by the entire international community so that citizens from all countries and territories can enjoy security, safety, and healthcare,” the statement said.

News brief

Nurminen Logistics opens three new train routes between China and Finland

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n 22 Januar y 2021, Nur minen Logistics, a Finnish company providing cargo handling and railway transport services announced the opening of three new train routes from China to Europe. The company’s Chinese container train traffic volumes have tripled during 2020 and the new routes will be opened to meet the increased demand.

Marjut Linnajärvi, Sales Director at Nurminen Logistics says: “On 19 January 2021, the first train has left Suzhou towards Helsinki. The Ningbo and Jinan routes will open in February. All trains have been fully booked for a long time.”

Nurminen Logistics star ted regular container train services from Finland to China in 2018, when the Hefei route was opened. In autumn 2020, cooperation with the Port of Narvik followed, and Chongqing’s route connection was quickly established as weekly departures. Suzhou, Ningbo, and Jinan are new routes in early 2021, and Nurminen Logistics is planning to open more routes in the future.

Nurminen Logistics train runs between China and Northern Eu-

rope in both directions. In February, export trains will depart every two weeks to Chongqing and Jinan and tailored trains to customers who book the whole train.

Linnajärvi says, “regular departures allow our customers to reduce storage costs and increase flexibility according to the needs of their customers. Besides, the train has been studied to be an environmentally friendly mode of transpor t. Train CO2 emissions are up to 96% less than 29% sea freight, calculated by standards. The benefits of the train transport is undeniable.”

The transport time is 14 days.

Routings: Suzhou – Helsinki – Suzhou • Suzhou, CN • Erenhot – Zamyn-Udd, CN / MN • Naushki, RU

• Buslovskaya – Vainikkala, RU / FI • Helsinki, FI Ningbo – Helsinki – Ningbo • Ningbo, CN • Alashankou – Dostyk, CN / KZ • Iletski, RU • Buslovskaya – Vainikkala, RU / FI • Helsinki, FI Jinan – Helsinki – Jinan • Jinan, CN • Erenhot – Zamyn-Udd, CN / MN • Naushki, RU • Buslovskaya – Vainikkala, RU / FI • Helsinki, FI Chongqing – Helsinki -Chongqing • Chongqing • Alashankou – Dostyk, CN / KZ • Iletski, RU • Buslovskaya – Vainikkala, RU / FI • Helsinki, FI

February 2021 • ScandAsia 15

News brief

Finland provides Vietnam with $ 100 million for public sector investment

A

f t e r s e ve r a l r o u n d s o f negotiation, Finland has agreed to provide more than US$100 million for public investment projects in Vietnam, starting this year.

The deal was signed by Tran Xuan Ha, Deputy Minister of Finance, and Kari Kahiluoto, Finnish Ambassador to Vietnam on 21 January 2021.

The Public Sector Investment Facility (PIF) will be given according to the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN and with the utilization of Finnish expertise and technology. Ville Skinnari, Finnish Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade has previously said that with PIF he expects Vietnam to receive additional public funding, and experienced Finnish companies with exper tise and suitable technology solutions can gain wider access to the Vietnamese market.

Vietnam and Finland’s two-way trade has increased dramatically over the past decade and thousands of Vietnamese students are exploring education in Finland.

The signing of the bilateral Framework Agreement on the use of Public Sector Investment Facility (PIF) between Vietnam and Finland. Photo: Embassy of Finland in Hanoi

King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden has been Covid-19 vaccinated

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n 20 January 2021 Sweden. se released a statement regarding Covid-19 vaccines that said: “Just like many other countries around the world, Sweden has star ted vaccinating people against Covid-19. Sweden’s HM King Carl XVI Gustaf got his jab the other day.”

“At present, the Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna have been approved in Sweden. Vaccination is voluntary. It’s estimated that all adults in Sweden will have been offered the vaccine by the end of June. Around 150,000 people have been vaccinated so far.”

16 ScandAsia • February 2021

Sweden allocated extra USD 12 million to democracy and human rights in Asia and the Pacific Region

News brief

Isabella Lövin, Minister for International Development Cooperation. “I view with concern the negative development of democracy and the lack of respect for human rights in several countries in the region. With today’s decision, the Government wants to further strengthen support to the forces working to counter this.”

T

he global trend of democratic backsliding, as well as lack of respect for human rights and the rule of law, are risks being exacerbated by the pandemic says Sweden.

“We have seen several worrying signs of this – not least in Asia and the Pacific Region. The Government has therefore decided to allocate approximately USD 12 million (SEK 100 million) in extra support to the Swedish strategy for regional development cooperation in Asia and the Pacific Region,” says Sweden’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“Democratic societal development and respect for civil and

political rights have deteriorated in several parts of Asia and the Pacific Region in recent years. In several countries, civil society organisation have had their ability to take action curtailed and the media are under increasing pressure. Fur thermore, corruption in several countries permeates all parts of society, including the legal system. Violence against women remains a major problem.

This development has been further reinforced by the COVID-19 pandemic over the past year.”

The Swedish strategy for regional development cooperation in Asia and the Pacific Region, which applies for 2016–2021, has an in-

tegrated goal: sustainable development in Asia through mutual cooperation between human rights, democracy, gender equality, the environment and climate. In connection with the government decision of 11 June 2020 to phase out the bilateral strategy for Cambodia, a specific goal was also added regarding democracy, human rights and the rule of law in Cambodia. Today’s decision only covers the first-mentioned goal.

Ms Lövin says “Sweden must stand up for democracy and human rights where these are challenged.”

February 2021 • ScandAsia 17

News brief

Danfoss to build $7.7m refrigeration R&D center in China

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anish manufacturer Danfoss is to build a new US$7.7 million global refrigeration research, development and testing center in China. The new 7,000m2 center will be dedicated to research

and development and will be located in the Wuqing District, Tianjin. The new R&D and testing center is expected to be completed within the next year.

Danfoss reports that the new

Testing Center will have an important impact on the green development of the refrigeration industry and Danfoss’s global research and development layout. The center will be equipped with leading-edge technology and also meant for testing of environmentally friendly refrigerant alternatives, inverter technology for refrigeration and air conditioning compressors, and heat pump applications.

Xu Yang, President of Danfoss China describes China as the company’s second home market and one of the most important bases in Danfoss’ global research and development territory.

Wuqing will become the global field for the development and production of commercial compressors.

Denmark considering to support Taiwan’s bid to return to the WHO

D

enmar k’s par liament is considering a resolution to suppor t Taiwan’s bid to return to the Wor ld Health Or ganization (WHO), despite opposition from China, according to Danish media and Taiwan’s representative office.

In a Facebook post,Taiwan’s office in Denmark said that six of the ten political parties represented in the Danish parliament are supporting to ask the WHO to invite Taiwan to the World Health Assembly (WHA), the WHO’s decision-making body, as an observer, reported Taipei Times citing Central News Agency (CNA).

The resolution was jointly initiated by the Danish Blue-bloc coalition and Danish Social Liberal Party 18 ScandAsia • February 2021

and has passed the first reading and is currently under review by the parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Since being expelled from the WHO in 1972 after the PRC took its seat, the Republic of China has not been able to participate in the WHA, except from 2009 to 2016, when it attended as an observer at

a time when cross-strait relations were warmer under the Chinese Nationalist Par ty (KMT) government.

Since 2017, however, China has pressured the WHO not to invite Taiwan, in line with Beijing’s hardline stance on cross-strait relations since President Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party took office in May 2016.

Taiwan’s successful containment of the Covid-19 pandemic has given broad support for Taiwan to rejoin the World Health Assembly (WHA), which is the decision-making body of WHO.

News brief

Akke Songcharoen has had The Fat Chili since December 2020. Photo: Merete Jensen

Thailand-born, Danish army veteran opens restaurant

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hailand-born, Danish army veteran Akke Songcharoen is honouring his Thai origins with his new business ventures of Thai fusion food at The Fat Chili in Sorø, a small town south of Copenhagen. He has turned the former little cafe into a fusion of ‘Easy2cook’ Thai-inspired dishes, roast pork sandwiches, burgers, sliders, and much more.

Akke Songcharoen came to Denmark with his mother when he was five years old. Both his biological parents are from Thailand but he has never really known his father.

Akke Songcharoen explains in an interview with sn.dk that he has made ‘Easy2cook’ Thai-inspired dishes available on the menu. The dishes consist of precooked meat, pre-cut

vegetables, and cooked rice. It is a very easy and convenient to make into a complete Thai meal because you only have to heat the three elements. To accommodate the Danish taste buds, Akke Songcharoen has put chili on the side so people can make their dish as spicy as they want to.

In addition to Thai fusion food, Akke Songcharoen also ser ves a variety of traditional Danish food such as roast pork sandwiches, open sandwiches, sliders, and his signature burgers with homemade brioche buns and french fries.

Akke Songcharoen is a trained nurse and has been deployed with Danish defense force to hotspots such as Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He says that the idea of helping a veteran set up a business appealed to the previous owner of the cafe and that he is very grateful for the opportunity to take over the cafe and introduce Thai fusion food to the town of Sorø.

Original ar ticle: https://sn.dk/ Soroe/Thai-inspireret-mad-hosThe-Fat-Chili/artikel/1403073 February 2021 • ScandAsia 19

News brief

Danish Prince Nikolai and Prince Felix and mother Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg in Chinese documentary

Prince Felix, 18, Countess Alexandra, 56, and Prince Nikolai, 21, star in a Chinese documentary that can now be viewed on YouTube. (Photo: Birger Storm)

A

lexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg, is the first Asian-born princess in the histor y of the European Royal family. In a documentary on Chinese television, which you can now watch on Youtube, the Countess gives viewers a whole new and honest insight into her life as a divorcee and a single mother of Prince Nikolai and Prince Felix.

The Chinese documentary ‘A Bigger Role’ shows a part of the Royal family that has not been shown before.

It has already been viewed by over 20 million people in China. When it 20 ScandAsia • February 2021

was shared on youtube and it immediately got well over 300,000 views.

The documentary features the two Danish princes Nikolai and Felix and their mother Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg.The princes are sons of Prince Joachim of Denmark, Count of Monpezat, the younger son of Queen Margrethe II, and Prince Henrik.

The interview took place over several days two years ago and Countess Alexandra talked to the Chinese TV host about the difficulties of moving from Hong Kong to Denmark and the struggles she later

accrued as a single mother after her failed marriage to Prince Joachim.

The documentar y also dives into topics such as Prince Nikolai’s modeling career which is something the young prince is very passionate about. He reveals to the Chinese TV host that it is much nicer to be known for something that he has archived than something he was born into.

Watch ‘A Better Role’ here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v =4GpQEjqY-6U Source: BT

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February 2021 • ScandAsia 21

Seven Peak’s founders and partners, from left Andy Watts, partner, Jostein Aksnes, founder, Leif Åsmund Mørk, partner, and Roy Ivar Moe, founder.

The surprising success of Seven Peaks Software Seven Peaks Software is a story of how a trio of Norwegian software engineer entrepreneurs went from starting a software developing company in Bergen in Norway to establishing a fast-growing international software and design agency in Bangkok.

By Mette Larsen

22 ScandAsia • February 2021

T

he success of Seven Peaks Software seemed unlikely had you asked CEO Jostein Aksnes 10 years ago when he first came to Thailand as an expat. Jostein went from not wanting to come to Thailand at all, to not wanting to leave, when the Norwegian company he worked for, wanted him to move back.

But today, Seven Peaks Software has a staff of 65 professionals and the company recently moved into a new office space in The PARQ on the corner of Ratchadapisek and Rama 4 with room for 50 percent more employees.

From Bergen to Bangkok

Jostein Aksnes, grew up in Bergen, Norway, surrounded by mountains and fjords, and never saw himself living in Asia. That was until he was stationed in Thailand by the Norwegian company Vizrt. Life in the far east suited him and after around three years in Bangkok, he found himself not wanting to leave. It was also around that time Roy Ivar Moe, an old university classmate from Bergen and co-founder of Apphuset came to Bangkok and that became the start of Seven Peaks Software in Bangkok.

Jostein Aksnes and Roy Ivar Moe started Seven Peaks as a production company in 2014 and brought on board with them Leiv Fasmer, who managed the Norwegian entity Apphuset, as a partner.

With a passion for software engineering and mobile technology, the Norwegian trio set out with a goal of serving exclusively Norwegian clients with high-quality, cost-efficient outsourced software development from their office in Bangkok. From there, Seven Peaks expanded its services towards UI/UX designs, an area with rapid demand growth, by bringing Andy Watts, Head of Design on as partner. The company also expanded into offering web development, cloud solutions, and quality assurance.

All in addition to native mobile application services.

Bridging cultural differences

Seven Peaks Software has come a long way throughout the seven years the company has been operating and their executive management now consists of four. Jostein Aksnes CEO and Founder, Roy Ivar Moe, CTO and Founder, Leif Åsmund Mørk, Head of Software Engineering & Partner and Andy Watts, Head of Design & Partner.

The company has in that timespan found success in the Asian market as well.The road to serving customers from the Thai business world, however, seemed improbable according to Jostein Aksnes when he reflects on the early stages of the company: “When we started Seven Peaks in 2014, we did not have any big plans on building a big company. Our focus was on building a good development team to support our Norwegian partner Apphuset and their Norwegian clients. “

He turned out to be wrong as demand in Thailand proved to be strong and Seven Peaks Software has been driven by fast organic growth. Working across two locations with such cultural differences has however meant that the company has had to adjust in several areas.

Seven Peaks Software proudly offers high-quality services with a constant focus on improving their process to ensure the quality and efficiency of their service and in Norway, this trust is something you start with. In Thailand however, potential new clients don’t always see that and there you start with no trust as you have to build it first.

There are also other differences in customers from Norway and Thailand with the key difference being, where the two countries are from a technical standpoint.

Thailand has not been a pioneer in computer and mobile technology and the country is a bit behind digital transformation in many industries. In Norway, businesses prefer the flexibility of a cloud solution for their computer systems but it is more difficult to persuade Thai company management to opt for that same solution. As the term ‘cloud’ indicates, the solution is based on an on-demand end-to-end service accessed via the internet and through another provider’s shared cloud computing infrastructure and not located in a computer located in the office of the company as traditionally seen in Thailand. Many companies in Asia seek agile development but their organizaFebruary 2021 • ScandAsia 23

When we started Seven Peaks in 2014, we did not have any big plans on building a big company. Our focus was on building a good development team to support our Norwegian partner Apphuset and their Norwegian clients.

- Jostein Aksnes

tions are usually not ready for it. Jostein Aksnes explains: “Many software projects in southeast Asia are run in a very old-fashioned way based on waterfall methodology. We find ourselves needing to convince them of the benefits of running software projects in a lean and agile way with rapid development and shorter iterations.”

However many Thai companies are now going through a digital transformation where cloud providers are an important element and this is an area where Seven Peaks Software can help businesses in Asia.

Through mainly repeat business, referrals, and inbound requests, Seven Peaks Software has managed to step into the Asian market and establish collaborations with leading management enterprises and this has brought the company several big enterprise projects.

24 ScandAsia • February 2021

Seven Peaks Software now brings in over 50 percent of its revenue from Thai customers and that is a celebrated milestone in the company’s story.The growth has also inspired Seven Peaks to look at how the company can expand into other Asian regions as much like their growth elsewhere, business in Southeast Asia has also increased organically. The company has recently landed a project in Kuala Lumpur and is also working on projects for companies in Singapore and Hong Kong.

New location – ready for more growth

What started with a trio from Norway has grown into a team of over 65 industry professionals from 17 different countries and the company has recently moved into their

brand new office space to fit their large team. A modern open office space on the seventh floor of the recentlyopened commercial development ‘The PARQ’ on the corner of Rama 4 and Ratchadaphisek Road in central Bangkok. The new office has an impressive view of Benjakitti Park. According to Jostein Aksnes, the vision was to be based at a more recognizable building in a space that could accommodate up to 100 employees, which is the next goal team capacity vise for Seven Peaks: “The office helps us stand out. We wanted a place that would impress clients and match our branding. We wanted an office where people would be happy to come to work every day. The move ended up being a part of rebranding who we are both internally and externally.”

As well as a new and stylish office space, Seven Peaks has also taken on the task of rebranding their logo and incorporating their Norwegian roots combined with the history of Thailand into the design. With consideration of where Seven Peaks Software is in the world and where they want to be, the new logo matches those elements and represents a concept called ‘opposing symmetry’ within the logo. The concept means the comingtogether of multiple cultures and multiple languages and having a focal point in the center of the logo so that

everything converges into one nice, central element. The meaning and concept of the logo draw similarities to the core foundation that seven Peaks is built on and prove that foundation is key for Seven Peaks Software’s rapid growth in Asia.

“Seven Peaks Software is founded by software engineers, and we are proud to say we are an engineering first company.”

This acts as the introduction to Seven Peaks Software and it is clear that engineering is the core of the business and what formed the company originally. Today, Seven Peaks Software has grown into being one of the leading design and development agencies in Bangkok combining Nordic software standards with computer and mobile solutions and the company has established itself as a trusted technology partner amongst many wellestablished enterprise clients in Thailand and around the world. Seven Peaks has, along with the company’s growth, made sure that a strong and solid foundation was in place to handle the extra work. With a growing team of experienced employees, proper strategies, additional exposure, and the upscale of a local team of Thai designers and project managers, Seven Peaks finds itself reaching the peak with its software solutions in Bangkok.

February 2021 • ScandAsia 25

Shrewsbury’s Project 2021 Close To Completion In August 2021, Shrewsbury International School Bangkok Riverside will complete an ambitious 1.1 billion Thai Baht building project.

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hrewsbur y International School Bangkok Riverside will this year in August complete a new building. Codenamed ‘Project 2021’, the new building dramatically increases the provision for Science, Mathematics, Computing, Innovation, Sixth Form, Higher Education counselling, Dining and Spor t at Thailand’s leading independent international school.

The 18 new high-specification Science laboratories – set over three floors – will inspire students on their journeys to the World’s finest universities. In combination with the dedicated facilities for Biology, Chemistry and Physics, 16 Mathematics classrooms, four Computing suites, an Innovation space and Robotics lab and brand new Sixth Form centre will deliver a compelling 17,000 sqm learning environment for the Shrewsbury Riverside community.

This additional capacity will support the growth of 26 ScandAsia • February 2021

School Principal, Chris Seal (left) with Assistant Principal – Head of Senior, Rob Millar (right) are excited about the opportunities that the new facilities will bring to build on Shrewsbury’s unparalleled track record.

the community from the current Senior School role of 930 students to a broader and more diverse community of 1,370 students by 2026. In addition, the 43 rai Riverside campus retains its renowned Junior School (from 3 years) and will continue to receive students into its Senior School from Shrewsbury’s already successful primaryaged City Campus (Sukhumvit-Rama 9), which opened in August 2018.

On the ground floor, Students will dine in an all-new purpose-built 700 seat air-conditioned hall, whilst at the top of the new Senior School building, Shrewsbury’s A level students will enjoy wonderful views out over the Chao Phraya from a split level 4000+sqm Sixth Form Centre. Incorporating Riverside’s award-winning Higher Education Team, a cafe, numerous breakout spaces, and quiet, flexible working environments, aspirational students will enjoy an inspiring environment that offers space to think and collaborate.

Khun Chali Sophonpanich together with daughter and Shrewsbury Alumna Khun Julie Sophonpanich. The unwavering support of the Sophonpanich family ensures that Shrewsbury remains at the pinnacle of international education.

Set over 5 floors, the new 17,000 sqm Senior School building will provide top-specification facilities for STEM subjects, dining and a 4,000sqm Sixth Form centre for A level studies and award-winning Higher Education counselling Shrewsbur y Spor t has been a key par t of the collaboration among students over the history of the school, and Project 2021 represents another leap forward in provision. Two basketball courts are added to the existing three, and the growing netball programme will have one of the few purpose-built courts in Thailand.

With badminton and volleyball also well served by the new 1,480sqm, air-conditioned spor ts hall, all athletes will benefit from 340sqm of Strength and Conditioning Space beneath, as well as a new 80sqm Yoga room and 80sqm spin bike studio. This new performance complex is based on the Powerbase concept from Loughborough University, where many of the UK’s finest Olympians and

elite athletes train and develop.

A 340sqm Strength and Conditioning zone sits beneath a new 1,400sqm sports hall, which will add two more competition courts to the existing three Project 2021 meets the ambitions of the whole Shrewsbury community. With a design informed by a range of stakeholders – including the students themselves – and supported wonderfully by the Sophonpanich family and excellent governance linked to Shrewsbury School in the UK, this new development delivers new and exciting opportunities for aspirational parents, staff and students alike.

School owner, Khun Chali Sophonpanich, is pleased with the progress made and excited with what the investment will offer students going forward.

“We are proud to be delivering two wonderful buildings that, for years to come, will continue to offer Shrewsbury students a chance to find and fulfil their potential – par ticularly in the Sciences, Mathematics, Computing, Sports – and ultimately to secure places at World-leading universities of their choice”.

Always looking forward, Shrewsbury Riverside has already produced a campus masterplan under the leadership of Shrewsbury Alumna, Khun Julie Sophonpanich and Principal Chris Seal, and in partnership with lead architect, Robert Philip Holmes of City Realty Company Ltd. and DWP Architects. This masterplan will in turn see new developments in all Senior School departments (including new plans for Music, Art and Drama) as well as renewal of the Prep and Pre-Prep buildings by 2025.

Principal Chris Seal comments, “Shrewsbury Riverside is built on aspiration. The Sophonpanich family and the Governing body showed foresight and ambition in launching this project before my appointment. I have thoroughly enjoyed bringing it to fruition and look forward to seeing the impact of these amazing spaces on our young people and their learning”.

February 2021 • ScandAsia 27

Danish team in Shanghai help Danish products get e-market access to China

Looking at Shanghai from a Nordic perspective, Danish activity seems to be incredibly brisk. Their flow of trade-related undertakings are relentless, paired with the very fact that Denmark’s Shanghai mission includes a team of fifty men and women – which speaks volumes about the importance of this hub for business relations and trade between Denmark and China.

Consul General Jakob Linulf and Commercial Consul Jesper Halle report on the Danish activities, describe their various efforts, and outline Shanghai’s forward-looking society which has been undergoing huge transformation.

By Joakim Persson 28 ScandAsia • February 2021

D

anish Consul General Jakob Linulf has been in China for four years, having started out at the embassy in Beijing as head of the commercial depar tment. Jakob moved to Shanghai to become the Consul General two years ago. His relatively long career with Denmark’s MFA has mostly focused on trade, including promoting Danish export within the energy efficiency/ renewable energy business.

Commercial Consul Jesper Halle, meanwhile, has been in Asia for twenty years already; first living in Kuala Lumpur for seven years as an expat, before moving to Shanghai, working for design and construction material companies.

“Jakob brought me on board two years ago to take care of the commercial activities here,” says Jesper, who heads the Trade Council.

Jesper’s unit works broadly with Danish companies trying to grow their export to China. He also helps those companies who have already invested and have presence in the country.

The Royal Danish Consulate in Shanghai has three additional business units: the Innovation Centre, which promotes innovation and education partnerships, working with start-ups, entrepreneurs, tech and new business areas; Invest in Denmark, which works with Chinese companies in trying to get a foothold in Denmark and getting them to invest; and finally the Visa and consular affairs unit.

“On the commercial side we help all kinds of Danish companies, everything from start-ups (firms in Denmark that have things relevant for China’s market) up to companies like Lego, Pandora and so on. It’s a very wide scope but our main focus is on SMEs – something that has become even more important lately, because following the Covid-19 re-opening the Danish government really wanted to push the Danish export for SMEs who have been struggling with their home market and so on. Our task is to help those to open up,” explains Jesper.

“We help with anything from finding distributors and partners, and setting up subsidiaries of Danish companies here, to helping big Danish companies here with government relations, representation and so on.”

W

hile the work is broad, he says their main scope is to find distribution channels for Danish products in the Chinese market, including e-commerce as one of the main focus areas.

“We have during the last few years been looking a lot at the e-commerce channels. Denmark was the first country six years ago to enter into a collaboration agreement with Alibaba group, which basically covers three main areas – one being a red carpet agreement to bring on Danish businesses, to make it easier for those to enter the Alibaba ecosystem which is mainly Tmall. Second one is to work on IPR – In China there have traditionally been a lot of challenges relating to intellectually property, so we see it as a very important task for us to liaise between the distribution channel and the Danish companies to solve such issues. Third is to collaborate with Alibaba on marketing and promotions. So, for example, we have a Danish platform on Tmall where we gather all the Danish products/brands to try to generate additional traffic to their products displayed,” explains Jesper.

February 2021 • ScandAsia 29

And one specific service works as an e-commerce tester, where Danish SMEs get help to get to market their product online in China, for a six-month test run. Then they see if each product has the right traction and the right price, without having to do too big an investment, before having to possibly do more “homework” in order to succeed better.

“For this we utilise multi-brand stores that already have good traffic online and place the product in the middle of that traffic to see the reaction. So even though the consumer does not know the brand or is familiar with that product it will still be presented, whereas if a brand comes and open their own shop they will also need to promote it and draw consumers in – which is usually challenging for the brand,” explains Jesper.

“Because we are a government institution we are able to get access on behalf of the Danish companies to certain things that even the big Danish companies usually, and individually, would not be able to obtain. There we play an important role,” he adds.

This aside, the consulate also does other marketing events, such as online streaming sales promotion broadcasts.

30 ScandAsia • February 2021

T

he consulate team, as part of Danish programmes, is focusing on the possibilities for Danish companies on Chinese e-commerce platforms but also offline ones, where they can channel more Danish companies through the same setup – to generate more volume.This is their way to manage the significant amount of daily requirements from companies who want to active themselves and who want to do things in China.

To have offline presence, aside online is also necessary for brands, explains Jakob.

“Physical stores are often like showrooms, where we are seeing the trend that the Chinese customers would like an experience, but they do not necessarily buy there. They might ask the shop assistance, who will then help to make the purchase online – for home delivery.”

And while talking trends, Jesper tells about so called Key Opinion Customers (KOCs), which many Danish brands are spending marketing budgets on. “It is supposed to be more reliable for the consumers, like a mini KOL (Key Opinion Leader) but a real customer talking about their experience.”

“Now we’ve also started looking at the distribution channels, including collaborations with the companies doing the last mile delivery of food and different services to people. We not only help Danish companies to enter into agreements with platforms, but also with the distribution channels so that various types of Danish food can be delivered through this ecosystem all the way to the consumer’s home. The commercial battle on the ecommerce side has been won by the three big players left, which is Tmall, JD.com and Pinduoduo, but right now the big battle in China is happening in the fine distribution; in the last mile,” adds Jesper.

“We have to monitor these things in order to stay relevant to the Danish companies; to try to get them in

there by using the access that we can get as a government body. Recently we entered into collaboration with Dingdong, which is the fastest growing supermarket, but also a large list-mile delivery company in Shanghai, and have already signed up several Danish companies.”

“We have of course been a bit hampered by the fact that Danish companies could not travel to China since Covid-19. So we launched a lot of these initiatives connecting to digital platforms and we have also installed a room with the most modern technology and equipment for holding webinars, online meetings and doing presentations. We can therefore also invite Danish companies to meet their clients online, and we invite Chinese companies to our super facilities to meet Danish companies/ partners back in Denmark,” says Consul General Jakob.

“China is one of the countries that you would look for if you are a Danish exporter, because you see an economy being back in gear. We do see Danish companies looking at Shanghai as being one market to grow in.”

Testament to this, bilateral trade between Denmark and China continued to rise despite the pandemic. Danish export to China was already performing well, with an increase of 26 percent throughout the first eight months of 2020.

T

he Danish government decided in the spring to reduce by half the fee for Danish Trade Council’s consultancy service, which might also be contributing to increased business with China.

“We are pretty impressed with the aggressiveness with which Danish companies are looking at this market now. We have seen an increase, getting many more enquiries. I think a lot of them would come anyway but the lowered price maybe allows them to be more detailed.

Before, they would have allowed us to spend between

10 and 50 hours on an assignment and now they spend more time and are more thorough in what they are doing, and ultimately get a better product,” comments Jesper.

“When the price is lower you are tempted to do more, but you shouldn’t look at China just because of a discount. And it’s also our job to explain to Danish companies that China isn’t something you handle with your left hand. It’s a very challenging market while also the market of opportunities and you can only succeed here if you do it 100 per cent,” adds Jakob “One of the strengths in Shanghai is how our different agencies work closely as a tightly-knit network to provide the best assistance to Danish companies. We collaborate with the Confederation of Danish Industry (with their incubator facility), the Agriculture and Food council, and the Export Promotion agency, and also with senior Danish businessmen who have been here for many years, to advise us and Danish companies,” emphasises Jakob.

“In non-Covid-19 times we have visitors every day here at the consulate from Danish businesses coming to Shanghai,” says Jesper. In 2020 most meetings are thus taking place online via various platforms.

“And we have a very big conference area used by companies almost every day, doing seminars, workshops, presentations, signings, or in other ways liaising with Chinese stakeholders. So it’s a super active place to be; you really feel that you are in a hotspot now for business.”

February 2021 • ScandAsia 31

Agneta’s World

Monsoon TEA

Forest growing tea is totally different from the common plantation tea

What you need to know about tea, the second most enjoyed drink in the world, after water!

By Agneta de Bekassy

U

ntil just a few days ago, I always thought tea was a drink you imbibed when your stomach was upset after a food poisoning or stomach flu, now I know better. Of course I have also enjoyed an “Afternoon tea” or a “Five o’clock” tea several times, but tea has never been able to surpass my fondness and affinity for coffee.

Since I got to know a Swedish man Kenneth Rimdahl, founder and CEO of “The Monsoon Thai Tea”, I have broadened my knowledge about tea and I now realize that tea is a whole and separate science, comparable to wine.

First of all, I had no idea that Thailand has its own tea and that, from the earliest of times. Thai people were eating tea leaves rather than drinking it. We are all familiar with the classic tea types such as English Breakfast Tea, Earl Grey, Lapsang Souchong etc. but how many of us know about the Thai produced tea “Monsoon Tea”?

32 ScandAsia • February 2021

I will get back to the topic tea soon, but first I want to introduce you to Kenneth Rimdahl and describe his journey to become a tea specialist.

Kenneth was born and grew up in Stockholm, Sweden. He went to Frans Shartaus Gymnasium and studied later economy at the University of Stockholm. 1986 he got a job at the well-known company Electrolux at their office in Peru.

During the 80s he spent much of his time in Barcelona, Spain, and also lived there for a while together with a friend. After 2 years he moved back to Stockholm and worked for a magazine called RES, while his friend decided to open a tea shop in Barcelona, in 1990.

In 1994 Kenneth was persuaded to open a tea shop in Madrid. Today, the company has more than 100 tea shops in Spain and Latin America.

Kenneth was curious about Asia and decided to go on a combined discovery and shopping tour for the Spanish Tea company and arrived in Thailand 2001, looking for ceramic tea pots to import. He, like many of us, had never heard about Thai tea until a friend of his, khun Vorakarn Wongfu, also known as khun Aek, introduced him to “HMIANG” and said “this is tea, that grows wild in the forests, and this forest growing tea is totally different from the common plantation tea.”

HMIANG is normally known to foreigners as a snack made of fresh betel with different components.

Many Thai restaurants ser ve these leaves with dried shrimps, peanuts, lime, ginger, shallots, and roasted coconut flakes together with a sweet sauce made of palm sugar, as an appetizer.

The Tea plant has its origin in the Himalayan tale, the mountain that goes from Assam in India, through Burma, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Yunnan in today’s China. The tea was first used for eating long before China started to use the leaves for drinking. In Thailand it is called Miang, in Burma it’s called Lapetto.

“Hmiang is often used as an ingredient in the northern Thai kitchen.The Latin name is Camellia Sirensis Assamica. It’s also a Thai tradition to use the tea for producing herbal medicines” Kenneth tells.

“In 2013 I decided to start a tea label from tea that only grows in Thailand forests, a tea that grows in harmony with the forest” Kenneth lets me know.

Today, 21 years later, there are 4 boutiques distributing the Thai Monsoon Tea all over the world. “I’m proud to say we have customers like the fashion house Prada, Four Season’s Hotels, Michelin Restaurants etc. Today we are 3 partners, me and Khun Aek, as well as American Ryan Price.

February 2021 • ScandAsia 33

The tea comes from 7 different places around Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Mae Hong in the northern part of Thailand. We produce all kind of tea, City, Green tea, Yellow and Oolong tea as well as Black tea. All in all we have around a 100 different sorts of tea, both pure and flavored with fruits, spices and flowers.”

What makes the different tea colors? “All tea sorts are produced from the same plant, but the producing process is different. Take “White tea”, which is made of only dried tea leaves, while “Green tea” is made of fresh, green leaves that are heated up and the heat finishes the oxidization process, and the same applies to “Yellow tea “before they start to oxidize, and with a slight fermentation. With “Oolong tea”, we let the green leaves oxidize half way and then we heat up the leaves to finish the oxidation process. “Black tea” consists of fully oxidized leaves with a slight fermentation.”

It’s widely known that the original tea plant is far stronger than the domesticated one, as it possesses natural defenses. Their roots are much deeper and therefore need little watering, also no need of pesticides as the plants have more tannins, a protection against insects and parasites. These plants don’t even need to be fertilized.

“I prefer to enjoy a very special Jungle Tea that we also have,” Kenneth says. This tea is growing totally wild

34 ScandAsia • February 2021

about 3 hours walk from the nearest road in the mountains between Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai.These trees can only produce a limited amount of leaves yearly and that makes this tea so exclusive”.

Kenneth has also developed the “Rimdahl Scale” that makes it possible to measure how forest- friendly a tea plantation really is.

During his years in Thailand, Kenneth has achieved much. Asking him about his goal he says; “My goal is to sell as much tea as possible and buy from the people up in the mountains, so they can get some income and keep the forests intact instead of shoveling it”.

Kenneth loves Thailand and Thai people. ”Thailand is a beautiful piece of earth to live on and all people around me have been so helpful and supported me all the way through the years”.

Kenneth spends his time between Chiang Mai in the northern part, and the bustling Bangkok. Ryan has moved from Chiang Mai to Bangkok and is taking care of the 2 Bangkok shops, while Khun Aek is up in the north and spending much of time in the forests. “Now with the corona restrictions, it’s not so easy to travel back and forth as it uses to be” Kenneth says. That’s something we all have to live with, less freedom than ever.

One of my favorite questions always is; who would

you like to invite for a cup of tea (normally I ask this referring to dinner) if you could pick someone, dead or alive?

Kenneth’s choice would be the actor Leonardo di Caprio. “This man I would like to show what a forest friendly tea is like and maybe I could get him to support this project?” Kenneth says with a big smile.

We all know that actor di Caprio is a man who cares about our planet and wants it to be sustainable, so Kenneth’s choice is a wise choice. Until that day comes, when di Caprio lays his eyes on the Monsoon Thai tea, we meanwhile can suppor t Kenneth purchasing the Monsoon Tea. The 4 Tea shops existing in Thailand, you will find at Sukhumvit soi 23 “The Monsoon Tea Asok”, which is not only a tea shop or tea house. This cozy place is “THE PLACE” for enjoying a cup of tea in Bangkok; let’s call it a Forest Friendly Tea Hub. Here you can also participate in workshops and other events surrounding tea.

“Here we connect tea farmers with tea lovers” Kenneth tells. The other 3 shops are located in the EM Quartier Bangkok, at Wat Ket Chiang Mai and One Nimman, Chiang Mai. Forest Friendly Tea stands for “Making community, not customers”. This involves a balanced diet and virtuous circle with:

1) CONSUMERS Awareness Purchasing Power 2) LOCAL FARMERS Income for community Training & education Protectors of forests 3) SUSTAINABLE Grow in harmony with forest Free from Pesticides Free from irrigating systems 4) FOREST FRIENDLY Higher value on forests Natural Wildlife habitat There is so much to learn and understand about tea. If I have increased your interest for tea, I suggest you go to Youtube and have a look at the several videos about Monsoon Tea. There is also a site on Facebook as well as Instagram.

(MonsoonTea.co.th) Let’s start tea parties, not only Tea for Two, and become healthy and at the same time helping the farmers in the north, and to keep the forests healthy. During this time of the year, when the farmers burn the fields, we might even get a smoked tea!

February 2021 • ScandAsia 35

Global living conditions are improving Statistically, Nordic people are among the worst to believe that where they live, issues like poverty and health and freedom are maybe not so good, but they are far, far worse elsewhere.

People are much more negative about places that are far away – places which they know less from their own experience and more through the media.

By Max Roser Our World in Data

A

recent survey asked “All things considered, do you think the world is getting better or worse, or neither getting better nor worse?”. In Sweden, only 10% thought things are getting better, in the US they were only 6%, and in Germany only 4%.

The fact is, that global living conditions have improved.

The difficulty of telling the history of how everyone’s lives changed over the last 200 years is that you cannot pick single stories. Stories about individual people are much more engaging – our minds like these stories – but they cannot be representative for how the world has changed. To achieve a representation of how the world has changed at large you have to tell many, many stories all at once; and that is statistics.

Extreme Poverty

To see where we are coming from we must go far back in time. 30 or even 50 years are not enough. When you only consider what the world looked during our life time it is easy to think of the world as static – the rich, healthy and educated par ts of the world here and the poor, uneducated, sick regions there – and to falsely conclude that it always was like that and that it always will be like that. In fact the countries that are rich today were very poor just very recently and were in fact worse off than the poor countries today.

The chart shows that in 1820 only a tiny elite en36 ScandAsia • February 2021

joyed higher standards of living, while the vast majority of people lived in conditions that we would call extreme pover ty today. Since then the share of extremely poor people fell continuously. More and more world regions industrialized and thereby increased productivity which made it possible to lift more people out of poverty: In 1950 two-thirds of the world were living in extreme pover ty; in 1981 it was still 42%. In 2015 – the last year for which we currently have data – the share of the world population in extreme poverty has fallen below 10%.

The United Nations measure extreme poverty as living with less than 1.90$ per day. This is very low and focuses on the very poorest in the world. The world is also making progress against poverty relative to higher poverty lines. In fact, no matter what extreme poverty line you choose, the share of people below that poverty line has declined globally.

That is a huge achievement, for me as a researcher who focuses on growth and inequality maybe the biggest achievement of all in the last two centuries. It is particularly remarkable if we consider that the world population has increased 7-fold over the last two centuries. In a world without economic growth, such an increase in the population would have resulted in less and less income for everyone. Yet, the exact opposite happened. In a time of unprecedented population growth our world managed to give more prosperity to more people and to continuously lift more people out of poverty.

How often have you not met people back in the Nordic countries, who will lecture you and anybody else around the dinner table how bad living conditions are in the country in Asia, where you actually live, but where this person has never been or only visited as a tourist?

February 2021 • ScandAsia 37

Increasing productivity was impor tant because it made vital goods and services less scarce: more food, better clothing, and less cramped housing. Productivity is the ratio between the output of our work and the input that we put in our work; as productivity increased we benefitted from more output, but also from less input – weekly working hours fell very substantially.

Economic growth was also impor tant because it changed the relationship between people. In the long time in which the world lived in a non-growth world the only way to become better off is if someone else got worse off.Your own good luck is your neighbors bad luck.

Economic growth changed that, growth made it possible that you are better off when others become better off.

The ingenuity of those that built the technology that increased productivity – the car, the machinery, and communication technology – made some of them very rich and at the same time it increased the productivity and the incomes of others. It is hard to overstate how different life in zero-sum and a positive-sum economy are.

Unfortunately the media is overly obsessed with reporting single events and with things that go wrong and does not nearly pay enough attention to the slow developments that reshape our world. With this empirical data on the reduction of poverty we can make it concrete what a media that would repor t global development would look like. The headline could be “The number of people in extreme pover ty fell by 130,000 since yesterday” and they wouldn’t have this headline once, but every single day since 1990, since, on average, there were 130,000 people fewer in extreme poverty every day.

That it is possible to make progress against poverty is important to know because even after two centuries of progress poverty remains one of the very largest problems in the world. The majority of the world population still lives in poverty: Every tenth person lives on less than $1.90 per day and two-thirds live on less than $10 per day. Much more progress is needed.

Literacy

How did the education of the world population change over this period? This chart shows the share of the world population that is literate over the last two centuries. In the past only a tiny elite was able to read and write. Today’s education – including in today’s richest countries – is again a very recent achievement. It was in the last two centuries that literacy became the norm for the entire population.

In 1820 only every 10th person older than 15 years was literate; in 1930 it was every third and now we are at 86% globally. Put differently, if you were alive in 1800 there was a chance of 9 in 10 that you weren’t able to read – today more than 8 out of 10 people are able to read. And if you are young chances are much higher since many of today’s illiterate population are old.

If you think science, technology, political freedom are important to solve the world’s problems and you think that it helps to read and write to do this then look 38 ScandAsia • February 2021

at the figures in absolute numbers. Today there are 5.4 billion people older than 15 years of which, as the chart shows, 85% are literate – these are 4.6 billion people. In 1800 there were fewer than 100 million people with the same skill.

Health

One reason why we do not see progress is that we are unaware of how bad the past was.

In pre-modern times around half of all children died.

The chart here shows that in 1800 the health conditions were such that around 43% of the world’s newborns died before their 5th birthday. The historical estimates suggest that the entire world lived in poor conditions; there was relatively little variation between different regions, in all countries of the world more than every third child died before it was 5 years old.

It would be wrong to believe that modern medicine was the only reason for improved health. Initially, rising prosperity, public health interventions, and the changing nature of social life mattered more than medicine.

It was improvements in housing and sanitation that improved our chances in the age old war against infectious disease. Healthier diet – made possible through higher productivity in the agricultural sector and overseas trade – made us more resilient against disease. Surprisingly

improving nutrition and health also made us smar ter and taller.

But surely science and medicine mattered as well. A more educated population achieved a series of scientific breakthroughs that made it possible to reduce mortality and disease further. Particularly important was the discovery of the germ theory of disease in the second half of the 19th century. In retrospect it is hard to understand why a new theory can possibly be so important. But at a time when doctors did not wash their hands when switching from post-mortem to midwifery the theory finally convinced our ancestors that hygiene and public sanitation are crucial for health.

The germ theory of disease laid the foundation for the development of antibiotics and vaccines, and it helped the world to see why public health is so very impor tant. Public health mattered hugely: Ever ybody benefits from ever ybody else being vaccinated, and everybody benefits from everybody else obeying the rules of hygiene.

With these changes global health improved in a way that was unimaginable to our ancestors. In 2015 child mortality was down to 4.3% – 10-fold lower than 2 centuries ago. You have to take this long perspective to see the progress that we have achieved.

Freedom

Political freedom and civil liberties are at the very heart of development – as they are both a means for development and an end of development.

In this analysis I rely on the Polity IV index as it is the least problematic of the measures that present a long term perspective. The index measures political regimes on a spectrum from +10 for full democracies to -10 for full autocracies; regimes that fall somewhere in the middle of this spectrum are called anocracies. To this I added information about the world’s countries that were ruled by other countries as part of a colonial empire.

The chart shows the share of people living under different types of political regimes over the last 2 centuries. Throughout the 19th century more than a third of the population lived in colonial regimes and almost everyone else lived in autocratically ruled countries. The first expansion of political freedom from the late 19th century onward was crushed by the rise of authoritarian regimes that in many countries took their place in the time leading up to the Second World War.

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In the second half of the 20th century the world has changed significantly: Colonial empires ended, and more and more countries turned democratic: The share of the world population living in democracies increased continuously – particularly important was the breakdown of the Soviet Union which allowed more countries to democratise. Now more than every second person in the world lives in a democracy.

The huge majority of those living in an autocracy – 4 out of 5 – live in one autocratic country: China.

Population

The world population was around 1 billion in the year 1800 and increased 7-fold since then.

The increase of the world population should evoke more than doom and gloom. First of all, this increase shows a tremendous achievement. It shows that humans stopped dying at the rate at which our ancestors died for the many millennia before.

In pre-modern times fertility was high – 5 or 6 children per woman were the norm. What kept the population growth low was the very high rate with which people died and that meant that many children were dead before they reached their reproductive age. The increase of the world population followed when humanity started to win the fight against death. Life expectancy doubled in all world regions.

Population growth is a consequence of fer tility and mor tality not declining simultaneously. The fast population growth happened when fertility was still as high as it was in the unhealthy environment of the past, but mortality has already declined to the low levels of our time.

What we have seen in country after country over the last 200 years is that when women gain more independence, education, and prosperity and realize that the chances of their children dying declined they chose to have fewer children. Rapid population growth comes to an end. This transition from high mortality and high fertility to low mortality and low fertility is called the demographic transition. In those countries that industrialized first it lasted at least from the mid 19th century to the mid 20th century – it took 95 years for fertility to decline from above 6 children to less than 3 children per woman in the UK. Countries that followed later sometimes achieved this transition much faster : South Korea went from more than 6 children per woman to less than 3 in just 18 years, Iran even achieved it in just 10 years.

Now that we see fertility declining everywhere we come to an end of population growth:The global population has quadrupled over the course of the 20th century, over the course of this century it will not double. And at the end of the century the UN expects a slow annual population growth of 0.1% whereas the demographers from IIASA expect an end of global population growth around the year 2075.

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Education

None of the achievements over the last 2 centuries could have been made without the expansion of knowledge and education. The revolution in how we live was not only driven by education it also made education more important than ever.

Contrary to many other social aspects where forecasts are of limited use, I think education is an aspect where we can make some useful projections into the future. The simple reason is that the educational composition today tells us something about the education of tomorrow – a literate young woman today will be a literate old woman in 2070 and a student with secondary education now will be a graduate with secondary education in the future.

This visualization shows the projection of the IIASA institute for the size and the educational composition of the world population until 2100. It is an interesting look into the future: With today’s lower global fertility the researchers expect that the number of children will decline from now – there will never be more children on the planet than today. And as mentioned before the IIASA researchers expect the world population to peak in 2070 and to decline thereafter.

Focusing on the educational breakdown the projection suggests that by 2100, there will be almost no one without formal education and there will be more than 7 billion minds who will have received at least secondary education.

With the great impor tance of education for improving health, increasing political freedom, and ending poverty this projection is very encouraging.

Why do we not know how our world is changing?

The motivation for this history of global living conditions was the survey result that documented the very negative perspective on global development that most of us have. More than 9 out of 10 people do not think that the world is getting better. How does that fit with the empirical evidence?

I do not think that the media are the only ones to blame, but I do think that they are to blame for some part of this.This is because the media does not tell us how the world is changing, it tells us what in the world goes wrong.

One reason why the media focuses on things that go wrong is that the media focuses on single events and single events are often bad – look at the news: plane crashes, terrorism attacks, natural disasters. Positive developments on the other hand often happen very slowly and never make the headlines in the event-obsessed media.

The result of a media – and education system – that fails to present quantitative information on long-run developments is that the huge majority of people is completely ignorant about global development and has little hope that progress against serious problems is even possible.

Even the decline of global extreme poverty – by any standard one of the most important developments

in our lifetime – is only known by a small fraction of the population of the UK (10%) or the US (5%). In both countries the majority of people think that the share of people living in extreme poverty has increased! Two thirds in the US even think the share in extreme poverty has ‘almost doubled’. When we are ignorant about global development it is not surprising that few think that the world can get better.

The difficulty for telling the history of how everyone’s lives changed over the last 200 years is that you cannot pick single stories. Stories about individual people are much more engaging – our minds like these stories – but they cannot be representative for how the world has changed. To achieve a representation of how the world has changed at large you have to tell many, many stories all at once; and that is statistics.

To make it easier for myself and for you to understand the transformation in living conditions that we have achieved I made a summarizing visualisation in which I imagine this 200 year history as the history of a group of 100 people to see how the lives of them would have changed if they lived through this transformative period of the modern world.

Why it matters that we do not know how our world is changing The successful transformation of our living conditions was possible only because of collaboration. Such a

transformation would be impossible for a single person to accomplish. It is our collective brains and our collaborative effort that are needed for such a revolution.

There are big problems that remain. None of the above should give us reason to become complacent. On the contrary, it shows us that a lot of work still needs to be done – accomplishing the fastest reduction of poverty is a tremendous achievement, but the fact that 1 out of 10 people lives in extreme poverty today is unacceptable.

We also must not accept the restrictions of our liberty that remain and that are put in place. And it is also clear that humanity’s impact on the environment is at a level that is not sustainable and is endangering the biosphere and climate on which we depend. We urgently need to reduce our impact.

But what is clear from the long-term perspective is that progress is possible and that the last 200 years brought us to a better position than ever before to solve problems.

Sources: https://ourworldindata.org/a-history-of-global-livingconditions-in-5-charts https://ourworldindata.org/optimism-pessimism

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The World as over the last

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100 People two centuries

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