ScandAsia Singapore - December 2017

DEC 2017

Esben Poulsson Proud to be in Shipping

BUSINESS NTU and Saab starts research centre

PEOPLE

START-UPS

COMMUNITY

Thomas Krogh Jensen, Copenhagen Fintech

Finnish blueberry soda

Finnish art

by Soile Yli-Mäyry

2 ScandAsia.Singapore • December 2017

December 2017

Commmunity Stories 4 Finnish art exhibition 13 Finnish start-up makes blueberry soda 18 Food recipes

7

Mr. Pekka Soini

Director General of the organisation Business Finland

10 Esben Poulsson: Proud to be in shipping

ScandAsia Business

4

Mr. Aleksi Grym

8 NTU and Saab

Establishes joint research center

14

Bank of Finland’s Head of Digitalisation

13

9 TechInnoation 2017 Three finnish companies

14 Singapore FinTech Festival Nordic start-ups and delegations attended

18

17

Mr. Thomas Krogh Jensen

Copenhagen Fintech’s Singapore engagement

DEC 20

17

Your FREE ScandAsia Magazine in Singapore ScandAsia is the only magazine that covers all the Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish residents in Singapore.

on Poulss EsPrbouednto be in Shipping ESS BUSIN Saab

NTU and arch centre starts rese

PEOPLE

en, Krogh Jens Thomas gen Fintech Copenha

PS START-Uberr y Finnish soda

blue

UNITY COMM art Finnish Yli-Mäyry

by Soile

Front cover photo: Visit Finland

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Community

Finnish art exhibition with Soile Yli-Mäyry

D

uring 14 – 22 October the new solo exhibition ‘Digidream’ by Finnish artist Soile Yli-Mäyry took place at Goshen Art Gallery, Millennia Walk, Singapore. A crowd of art enthusiasts came to the opening to admire the colourful paintings of the ar tist, who was exhibiting in Singapore for the tenth time now.

The Ambassador of Finland, H.E Mrs. Paula Parviainen was the Guest of Honour.

The exhibition was part of celebrations of Finland’s 100 years of independence, and one of Yli-Mäyry’s solo exhibitions in seven locations this year: New York, Copenhagen, Tokyo, Rome, Singapore, Mumbai and Dubai.

Digidream showcased 37 paintings with four main pieces. In her work, Yli-Mäyry examines the universal theme of humanity and people’s alienation from nature in the urban world.

“We live in a digital world, and by using modern technology we can easily communicate with people independent of their cultural background. In this Digiworld we have plenty of information, but this world does not necessarily have any contact on what happens inside a human. People are mentally very lonely. Art music, literature and visual ar ts – can create bridges between people and show what really happens inside another person”, explained YliMäyry.

Yli-Mäyry’s artwork has been exhibited in over 30 countries and 300 art exhibitions. She makes her paintings using a palette knife and uses paint in three ways: a thin even coat, thick lines, and scraping lines into the painted area for a three-dimensional look.

“I am happy to welcome Soile Yli-Mäyr y back to Singapore. Over the past 20 years she has found a firm supporter base here with her 4 ScandAsia.Singapore • December 2017

bright and colourful art works that bring a piece of Finland to Asia”, said Mrs. Parviainen.

With a variety of cultural events offered in Singapore during the jubilee year, SF100SG aims to build bridges between Singapore and Finland through arts.

Suomi Finland 100 Singapore is an organisation working closely with the Embassy of Finland running over 60 events in Singapore this year.The main goal is to greatly strengthen the knowledge of Finland by building bridges that would boost cultural and university exchange programs, tourism, business and investment opportunities with Singapore.

Source: sf100.sg

International School of Bergen

I

nternational School of Bergen (ISB) is situated on the west coast of Norway and offers an English language learning environment to students between the ages of 3 and 16.

Our mission is to provide an internationally accredited education ser ving the business and Bergen communities.

The educational programme of ISB has been developed to help prepare its students for a successful future. The school is accredited by the Council of International Schools and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges in addition to being authorized by the International Baccalaureate Organization to offer their Primary Years and Middle Years programmes.

Our students and staff

ENGELSKSPRÅKLIG PRIVATSKOLE FOR BARN OG UNGDOM MELLOM 3 OG 16 ÅR • • • • • •

Få elever i hver klasse Trygt læringsmiljø med god individuell oppfølging God kontakt med foreldre Internasjonalt godkjente og utfordrende læreplaner Utmerkede resultater i internasjonale og norske nasjonalprøver Sentral beliggenhet med bybanestopp rett utenfor døren For mer informasjon: www.isob.no eller post@isob.no

All teacher s hold univer sity degrees and appropriate teaching qualifications. Classes are small.With students and staff representing more than thir ty different nationalities, we pride ourselves in having a welcoming and including community.

ISB was founded in 1975, giving us 40 years of experience as an educational institution.

International School of Bergen Vilhelm Bjerknesvei 15, 5081 Bergen, Norway Phone: +4755306330 Website: www.isob.no E-mail: post@isob.no December 2017 • ScandAsia.Singapore 5 April 2017 • ScandAsia.Thailand 23

Business

Mayor of Helsinki:

Finland and Singapore sho

S

By Eva Eriksen ingapore and Finland have a lot in common. They are equal in size, both advanced in innovation and technology, and individually recognized worldwide for their education systems. However, there are also cultural differences between the two countries, which is why the Mayor of Helsinki Jan Vapaavuori sees great potential in becoming strategic partners:“We are similar enough and yet different enough.That is a good combination,” the mayor told ScandAsia in Singapore, pointing out that it makes a good basis for learning from each other and hence working together.

The goal with coming to Singapore for the anniversary of Finland’s 100 years of independence was to strengthen business and economic collaboration between the two countries.

“We are living in a world, where digitalization is changing the world more rapidly than any one of us can understand today. Therefore, we need strong partnerships in order to make success stories. So it is also a question of innovating future solutions – maybe for the whole world and trying to do it together.”

Though technology is advanced nowadays, coming to Singapore and giving people and companies a chance to meet and listen to each other’s presentations is what creates results.

“This is still a world of people. Even though technology is solving a bigger and bigger part of our challenges, there are still people behind them,” Vapaavuori said, pointing out that when people get to know each other the chances of cooperation will increase.

Similar countries – similar challenges

Similar countries like Singapore and Finland are also facing comparable challenges. According to the mayor, the biggest challenge is now to keep moving forward after reaching the top, having climbed up the latter the previous 50 years: “It is easier to start from a lower point and reach the higher level, where someone has already been. You can do much by copying what other countries have already done, but if you want to be among the leading countries also in the future, the same concept is not valid anymore. Now we have to create something that no one has ever done before, lead the other countries, and not just be clever followers.”

Therefore, Jan Vapaavuori thinks that now there is a higher need for being more creative and brave, which is done best through collaboration.

Another challenge is the matter of digitalization, which not only concerns Singapore and Finland, but the whole world. It will change everything more or less and quite rapidly. It does not only come down to technical solutions, but also the way we are thinking. We only know this speaking generally, but not what it will mean 6 ScandAsia.Singapore • December 2017

Business

ould be strategic partners practically, according to the mayor. Additionally, the complications of digitalization increase the risk that some groups will not be able to adapt, for instance the elderly.

“It is not enough to create clever solutions; you also need to create solutions that are easy to use and easy to understand.” Furthermore, the need to rethink jobs is a challenge due to the efficiency of digitalization.

Finally, climate change is a worldwide challenge: “Who are going to really invent the solutions that are most effective in the fight of climate change?” the mayor asked “That’s a question for the whole population.”

Smooth changes rather than revolutions

To move forward and meet challenges, it is often smartest to give the two best pupils a chance to talk together, according to Vapaavuori. Singapore and

Finland are the leading countries when it comes to education, yet the systems are quite different.

The Singaporean is more efficient, whereas the Finnish gives more room for creativity. This is an area where the mayor sees great opportunity in learning from one another. However, education systems are very much cultural-based, and so the amount of changes that should be made altogether is probably limited: “The point is to take elements from another culture and smooth it into your own system. Drastic changes would not work.”

When asked what effects the increase in collaboration with Singapore will have on the Finnish culture and people, the mayor was very blunt: “I don’t know,” he stated, “but that is why you really need to be clever and understand that with issues like these you should not aim to revolutionize changes but to smooth changes.”

Furthermore, it is not possible for one country

Business Finland to start in 2018 with Pekka Soini as Director General

O

n 1 January 2018 Business Finland will commence its operations, intended to improve service to businesses.

The Finnish Government has submitted a bill for an Act on Business Finland. Business Finland will bring under the same roof all the present services of the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation (Tekes) and Finpro related to innovation funding and internationalisation as well as to the promotion of expor ts, foreign investment in Finland and tourism.

The purpose of the Act will be to create a national body that will clarify and simplify

the public internationalisation services offered to businesses, and suppor t international cooperation in research, development and innovation as well as regional growth services.The new body would have around 600 employees and nearly 40 service locations abroad as well as, in the future, service locations in 18 counties throughout Finland.

Minister of Economic Affairs Mika Lintilä is delighted that the legislative proposal will now proceed to Parliament for consideration.

“A single body will take the entire lifecycle of business renewal, growth and internationalisation

to teach another country how to incorporate the changes into their educational system; it is only possible to give inputs and ideas, and then it’s up to the individual country to look at which elements could lift up their system and in what way, he explained. “And that kind of cooperation is much easier when you are of similar size and advancement.”

better into account. The unified service path will extend from the development of products, ser vices and business models all the way to market launch and the chain will not be broken at any stage. Removing overlaps will release necessary pairs of hands into the field both in Finland and abroad,” says Minister Lintilä.

Pekka Soini, Director General of Tekes, will continue as Director General of the new Business Finland body after the law is adopted.

Soini will work closely with Per tti Korhonen, Chair of Business Finland’s Change Management Board.

“The Business Finland reform has been prepared as a close collaborative effor t with the Change Management Board, which consists of representatives of Finpro and Tekes management, customers and stakeholders. The goal is to serve customers better than before when the new Business Finland is launched,” says Pertti Korhonen.

The Gover nment bill proposes the passing of an Act on Business Finland – the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation and the establishment of wholly state-owned limited company named Business Finland. The funding agency will be responsible for strategic leader ship and official tasks, for example funding decisions. The company will focus on customer service.

The Act is intended to enter into force on 1 January 2018. The Government announced the establishment of the new body in March 2017.

Source: Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment December 2017 • ScandAsia.Singapore 7

Business

NTU and Saab

enter high-end digital technology partnership

N

anyang Technological University (NTU Singapore), one of the world’s leading researchintensive institutions, and top Swedish defence and security technology leader Saab, will set up a joint research centre as par t of a collaboration to develop research projects and programmes in high-end digital technology.

The collaboration with NTU is the first of its kind in Asia for Saab.

A key focus of the Saab-NTU Joint Research Centre is air traffic management, with research into areas such as ar tificial intelligence, cyber security, machine learning, computer vision, anomaly detection and unmanned aircraft system camera inser tion. Another focus area is underwater robotics, with an emphasis on research in robot perception (sensing, detection and navigation) and endurance (energy storage and reliability).

Saab plans to make an initial investment of S$1.6 million, in the first year, in its collaboration with NTU. This will be followed by an annual investment for five or more years, which will be matched by NTU. To initiate the partnership, NTU and Saab on 18 October signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) at the Royal Swedish 8 ScandAsia.Singapore • December 2017

Academy of Engineering Sciences, before the start of the two-day Wallenberg Autonomous Systems and Software Programme (WASP)NTU Workshop in Stockholm.

The MOU was signed by Prof Lam Khin Yong, NTU’s Acting Provost, Chief of Staff and Vice-President for Research, and Ms Ann-Kristin Adolfsson, Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer of Saab.

NTU President Prof Ber til Andersson, Mr Marcus Wallenberg, Chairman of Saab, and Prof Subra Suresh, who will succeed Prof Andersson as NTU’s fourth president on 1 January next year, witnessed the signing.

“Signing this agreement is an impor tant moment for both parties. It is a significant gesture on the part of Saab, sending a clear signal of its new research focus in Singapore and Asia. NTU is proud to be Saab’s partner of choice in Asia as together we forge a long-term partnership in research excellence,” said Prof Bertil Andersson.

“NTU will leverage the university’s strengths in interdisciplinar y research, and combine them with Saab’s expertise in aeronautics and defence technology to develop next generation technologies that will benefit both industry and society.”

Prof Subra Suresh said: “Industry investment into university-based research and development,

supporting the search for new discoveries and then translating them into industrial products and services, is critical to the advancement of science and innovation.

“NTU and Saab are breaking new ground together and this serves as a model partnership for companies looking to kick-start their R&D presence in Singapore. At NTU we look forward to realising the great potential of this joint research partnership which will benefit from the talent and creativity of our faculty and students and from Saab’s technical capabilities.”

Mr Pontus de Laval, the Saab’s Chief Technology Officer said that Saab decided to partner the Singapore-based University because of NTU’s rising reputation as one of the top universities in the world.

“Through our joint research, Saab will be able to tap into the ever growing and highly important Asia market while securing the engagement some of the region’s leading researchers to the company,” said Mr de Laval.

“Saab has a long history of collaborating with academia. Earlier research projects have all been located in Sweden, tied to Swedish universities and researchers. This collaboration with NTU is the first of its kind in Asia for Saab.

It is a long term research project that will help to broaden Saab’s knowledge base and business network in Asia-Pacific – a key market for Saab in the future.”

The collaboration will also see Saab recruit top candidates to do their PhD at NTU to conduct the joint research and development work. The Saab employed PhD students will have opportunities to be involved with Saab’s various operational branches in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as its global headquar ters in Sweden.

Prof Vu Nguyen Duong, director of the Air Traffic Management Research Institute at NTU’s School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, will be leading the research as its principal investigator. This is also the department that will house the Saab-NTU Joint Research Centre.

The MOU is also the latest in a long list of collaborations between NTU and Swedish institutions. It includes WASP, the Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education, clean air solutions provider Camfil AB, and low energy lighting specialists LightLab Sweden AB.

TechInnovation 2017:

Business

Tomorrow is already here today The expo halls of Marina Bay Sands were maxed out with new and smart companies; ready to show Singapore how their technological inventions can make everything just a little bit more convenient. IPI opened up the doors for this sixth annual industry-technology matching event on 19-20 September. The purpose of TechInnovation is to bring enterprises who seek innovative solutions together with technology providers to explore technology transfer and R&D collaboration opportunities. This is open innovation. At the convention was both a Finland 100 booth and a European Union Pavilion. Three Finnish companies with very different products were present to seek the possibility of expansion within the Asian region.

By Eva Eriksen

CEO Petri Kokko established SOVA3D in 2015.

Now they have partners with other Finnish technological innovative companies like Evolta and Terrasolid

MetGen thrives to decrease customers’ dependence on fossil fuels by increasing production yields with reduced costs and energy consumption.

Here CTO Matti Heikkilä.

HappyOrNot was established in 2009 and now companies in 115 countries use their services.

Here Jarkko Sipiläinen, Business Line Director, and the famous smileys.

3D digital building with SOVA3D

MetGen: Enzymatic solutions to utilize full value of raw material

HappyOrNot: Digital feedback to improve work environment and business

SOVA3D, studio of vir tual architecture in 3D, was one of the seven Finnish companies present at the Finland 100 booth for the event.

The company develops a web-based building project management system, a 3D mapping to visualize houses and buildings’ environment of construction. The idea is that both clients, constructers, designers and architects can follow the process of a building’s creation and interact with each other, giving everyone a better sense of what is going on. It is done through building information modeling, a digital representation of shared knowledge on physical and functional characteristics of a facility.

Petri Kokko, CEO, says that the idea is to speed up the process of both design and construction.

The format provides a city model which is always updated with data on environmental information, which makes it easier to picture the building when finished. You can see how the building will fit in with the surrounding buildings, how its shadow will fall during the day, which brings a better overview to the whole team. The system is integrated with ‘Lupapiste.fi’ building permission service, which speeds up the building permission for the actual construction work. The format used is Industry Foundation Classes (IFC). It is a neutral platform, which is not controlled by a single vendor or group of vendors. Like Petri Kokko said: “Nobody owns the format, but everyone can use it.”

T h e c o m p a ny M e t G e n e m p owe r s t h e biochemical industry to get more value out of the raw materials like pulp and paper, bio-refining/ renewable chemicals, water treatment, biogas and textiles. This they do with enzymatic solutions.

The process is about fracturing the materials into its tiny organic molecules, which then can be used in another way instead of going to waste.

For instance, wheat, where the shells and straws often go to waste, MetGen have developed Metzymes, enzymes that can fracture the sugars into chemistry, which then can be used in other contexts. This idea about breaking up the leftover biomass to reuse it is not only done by MetGen. However, as CTO in the company Matti Heikkilä said: “We go that extra mile in the process to make it clean, which brings extra value to the material.”

With severe increase in world population, the idea about sustainable use of materials is a key focus in the company’s intentions with their products. The need for planting new all the time decreases and it will save a lot energy.

The eight-year-old company HappyOrNot provides innovative feedback systems and intelligent data analytics repor ting ser vice to help business performance , employee experience and engagement. Smiley terminals give customers in a store or employees at a company the possibility to anonymously evaluate their experience that day by choosing either a very happy smiley, a somewhat happy smiley, a somewhat frowning smiley, or a definite frowning smiley. There is no yellow neutral smiley, so you have to choose positive or negative. Like Jarkko Sipiläinen, Business Line Director, pointed out “all Finnish would otherwise choose that one.”

The responses will be collected and reported back to the employer as simple statistical data views. This way employers and storeowners can evaluate the day and optimize the way of doing things, if there were an overload of frowning smileys. “Happy employees create happy customers which create more money,” Jarkko Sipiläinen, Business Line Director, HR, HappyOrNot, said.

December 2017 • ScandAsia.Singapore 9

Business

Esben Poulsson

is proud to be in shipping

At age 17, Esben Poulsson crossed the Pacific Ocean, working on a Columbus Line vessel in the summer of 1966.

Now, he has more than 45 years of experience in the shipping business and holds 6 non-executive directorships and leading roles in two maritime associations. The industry is facing big changes but Mr. Poulsson does not think they will come about quite as rapidly as everyone will have you believe.

By Eva Eriksen, Portrait photos: Xian-Li Chan 10 ScandAsia.Singapore • December 2017

T

o d ay, E s b e n Po u l s s o n i s Chairman of the Singaporebased ship owning entity Enesel Pte. Ltd., where he oversees the administration of fourteen modern container ships and takes care of business development and investments for the company.

Enesel Pte. Ltd. is owned by the Greek N S Lemos group, and due to the nature of the job, the family is supportive of him doing association and other external work. In his association roles, he is currently President of the Singapore Shipping Association (SSA) and Chairman of the International Chamber of Shipping, based in London.

“It is a lot of work, which at times includes both head ache and heart ache and it is not paid!”

The other positions do pay fees, but it is not what encourages him to do all this extra work: “What motivates me is my interest in, and my passion for the industry and the feeling that I can contribute to it, because if you’re just here to collect the fees, I don’t think you’re going to add much value.”

Daydreaming about the sea

The interest in the sea started in Esben’s case at very early age. Born in Copenhagen to a Norwegian father and a Danish mother, he used to go to Charlottenlund Molen, just north of Copenhagen, and look out on the sea, longing to get out there and sail. After the unexpected death of his father when Esben was seven years old, the family did not have a lot of money, so going sailing was not on the agenda. However, in 1961, his mother remarried and the family moved to Vancouver, where new opportunities met them.

“My stepfather was a keen and competent sailor and so I immediately started sailing when we arrived in Canada. I think with his encouragement and my own interest in the sea, shipping was just as given – honestly, I never thought of anything else!”

Esben’s stepfather helped him land a job working on a Columbus Line (now Hamburg Sud) vessel in the summer of 1966, on a voyage from Vancouver down the west coast and across the Pacific to Tahiti and on to Australia. It was a two-and-a-half-

I cannot say that some 24-year old whizz kid won’t come in and develop technologies we cannot presently visualize. Possibly, we have too much knowledge, and therefore cannot see the wood for the trees.

month-long trip on a 9,000-deadweight ship, with a crew of 35 men. Today a ship that size would probably a crew of 12, Poulsson explains.

“It was a fantastic experience because in those days it was just very different. There was no internet – there was no nothing! The captain would cable the ship’s position daily and that’s about the extent of communication you had with the outside world.”

One memory in particular stands out from the voyage.The 1966 World Cup final was played out between Germany and England. With an allGerman crew aboard, this was a very important game, and in the middle of the Pacific Ocean the entire crew gathered on deck around this tiny crackly radio.

“It meant nothing to me because I wasn’t the slightest bit interested in football, but these guys were all listening intently and said: ‘If Germany wins we’re gonna get drunk and if England wins – we’re still gonna get drunk!’ ” England won that World Cup – the only time they have ever done so.

After that experience, there was no turning back. All holidays and school breaks were spent doing something related to shipping, be it as

a telex operator or an agency boarding clerk.

In the summer of 1967 he got an internship working for a ship broker in London. The broking company was E.A. Gibson, where the world’s then leading tanker broker, Eric Shawyer, worked.

When word came of the outbreak of the six-day war between Israel and Egypt, resulting in the immediate closure of the Suez Canal, Esben was sitting right across from Shawyer.

“I was too young to really grasp the meaning of it, but the closure of the Suez Canal resulted in the almost immediate ‘birth’ of the VLCC (Very Large Crude Carrier), because it made it in effect economical to go around the Cape the Good Hope, using much larger vessels. So, in terms of a historical impact on the shipping industry, the closure of the Suez Canal in 1967 was a major event and had a great impact on the industry, until its eventual re-opening in 1974.”

Vancouver traded for Hong Kong

After graduation, the plan was all set. Esben was to join the local shipping firm Gibson, Vancouver but it did not turn out that way.

“Literally a few months before graduation, this pipe-smoking retired Norwegian captain said

to me: ‘Look Esben, you’re a young guy and I think you have energy and ambition. Now,Vancouver is a wonderful place for living but it’s a backwater in international shipping terms – it’s basically just a port. There are no ships, no owners, no cargo controlled here. You must get out in the world!’ I hesitated a bit, but he then said: ‘I have a friend in Hong Kong.’ ” At that time, living on the west coast of Canada, the idea of going to Hong Kong to work was to Esben a bit like going to another planet: “When he mentioned Hong Kong, I said: ‘That’s it, that’s what I want!’”

Esben arrived in Hong Kong in 1971, starting as a trainee at the company Wallem & Company Ltd. The plan was to stay with the firm for two years, but Esben had other ideas. “We reached an arrangement, and I ended up staying in Hong Kong for 25 years,” Esben said, reasoning:“Because I loved it. It was a truly exciting time and it was just brilliant – being in Hong Kong and witnessing the opening up of China in the ensuing years was an incredible opportunity.”

He stayed with Wallem & Company Ltd. for seven years. Later, he became the managing director of the Hong Kong broking house Rodskog Shipbrokers Ltd. where he stayed for 13 years. Rodskog Shipbrokers Ltd. was sold to the Danish shipping company TORM A/S in 1990 and when this company was sold again, in 1996, to the Norwegian broking house Fearnley’s, Esben remained with TORM and moved to London, to establish TORM U.K. Ltd. In 2004, he moved to Singapore to start up the Asian HQ for TORM here. About a third of TORM’s fleet was transferred from Denmark to Singapore, and Poulsson became Chairman and CEO. When a change of shareholding occurred in TORM, Esben decided to leave and start his own consultancy, and joined the Board of other companies. In 2011, he joined the N S Lemos Group, helping them establish a commodity trading business, AVRA International Pte. Ltd., and subsequently, set up Enesel Pte. Ltd. in 2012 where he has worked as Chairman ever since.

The Singapore mindset

One of the unique things about Singapore is the close working relationship between industry and government. In his SSA role, Esben Poulsson works closely with the Maritime and Por t Authority of Singapore (MPA) where he is also a Board member. There is a joke in Singapore that whenever you are asked to take a position on a committee or group work and you hesitate, people will convince you by saying it is ‘national service’, Esben explains.

Even though it can be a bit of a stretch, there is something to it: “In Singapore, you can actually make a difference. You can make things happen if you are prepared to make the effort. I have sat on various committees in other countries and often, it’s just talk and no result - which is a waste of time.”

Singapore has been rated the top maritime center in the world, but this did not happen overnight. It was a strategic goal, and when a strategy is developed and the government commits to it, failure is not an option, Poulsson explains.

“On a national scale, there is this kind of December 2017 • ScandAsia.Singapore 11

Business Man versus machine

engrained mentality that we need to always improve. Never sit down and say, ‘Oh well here we are.’ It’s the same with German engineers and cars. They keep getting better because they are always looking for the next improvement.This is a mindset. And bear in mind, Singapore has nothing except its people and its brains, no resources of any kind, it only has its hard-working people - and of course a great location.”

Being on all these various committees and boards, Poulsson acknowledges the danger of it all becoming a little clannish, and so it is important that it is not always the same people holding the same positions. He strongly believes that a big part of his role is to encourage and groom the younger generation to get involved in order to be ready to take maritime Singapore to the next level.

Disruption or technological improvement?

When it comes to the future, Esben is certain that the container business, especially, through blockchain, digitalization, and other new technologies is going to change significantly.

A container is ver y standardized and the procedure - going from manufacturer, to container, onto the ship, to the new port, and to the end user is very suitable for technological improvement. According to Poulsson, shipping lines are working on this, looking to gain a competitive advantage and a severe reduction in costs.

Concerning the overall maritime and shipping business Esben believes in a rapid evolutionary process rather than revolutionary one. As an example, Alibaba has tied up with Maersk Line so when you make a purchase and you want it shipped, you can book the Maersk container online.

“If you mentioned that idea a year or two ago, people would say that was incredible but today it just seems logical. So, to me it is not so much an ‘uberization’ of the industry, but an example of a logical development.”

12 ScandAsia.Singapore • December 2017

In Singapore, you can actually make a difference. You can make things happen if you are prepared to make the effort.

In the future, we will see smaller crews onboard the ships, Esben thinks. With technological improvement, more automation will appear and so the nature of the jobs onboard will also change.

A lot of people talk about unmanned ships, but Esben is far from convinced that will become reality within his lifetime.

“I personally don’t think so. They will come on shorter point-to-point routes, like for example across a fjord in Norway, but shipping a large cargo of coal or iron from Australia to China for example - I mean unless I am completely missing something - I just don’t see the change being quite as radical as many would have you believe in that type of trade. Maybe it’s just a lack of imagination on my part.”

“If you look at the aircraft sector computers have been landing aircraft for more than 20 years but there are still four people in the cockpit to this day.” However, it is not the technology that is the problem – Esben believes the technology is already here, but as so often is the case, technology and innovation are ahead of the regulatory environment needed to ensure the right result.

“Also, the sea is an unpredictable place. With hurricanes, storms, and typhoons, so many things can happen, and I think you will always need to have people onboard when trading globally.”

When it comes down to the question about man versus technology, it is hard to picture the future in maritime and shipping without one or the other:“It’s very difficult to say,” Poulsson states, “I mean cyberattacks target people, and therefore to defend against cyberattacks that would also require people, right? So, for a system to be built around that – it is hard to say.”

A business to be proud of

Esben Poulsson takes part in many conferences and is repeatedly told that the industry is asleep at the wheel and will be completely disrupted. He acknowledges that this is a possibility but he also sees a great deal of change coming from within the business.

“A company like Maersk has a room full of beavers, looking at every existing and future possible take on technology. They are investing tons of money in this area, and so are a number of other companies.”

Additionally, CMA CGM just confirmed that it will power the next generation of ships with liquefied natural gas (LNG) which is a first for ships of this size. Considering there are limited LNG supply facilities around the world, it is a bold move, Poulsson thinks. LNG is something only relatively few ports are investing in, including Singapore, but a number of ports are looking to take this route.

“However, we live in a free world, and there are a lot of clever people trying to be the next Mark Zuckerberg, so I cannot say that some 24year old whizz kid won’t come in and develop technologies we cannot presently visualize.

Possibly, we have too much knowledge, and therefore cannot see the wood for the trees.”

The shipping industr y is somewhat invisible because, as Esben puts it, “we are terrible at explaining and showcasing our industr y”.

Something Esben believes that people do not know is what improvements the industry has achieved over the years, especially in the safe operation of oil tankers, in respects of spills per annum. In the 1970s there were close to 30 spills per annum of more than 25 tons per spill.Today it is an average of 1.8 spills. Esben would like people to at least be aware that the worldwide industry has come such a long way.

“Apart from the moral aspect of it, being clean, being a responsible player, and doing a professional job is just good business, no matter what business you are in. In the long run, ship owners who do everything properly will generally be more successful and sustainable.”

To this day, Esben still sees shipping as lending itself to the entrepreneurial spirit, which is what makes it great. It is a free business, market-driven, and with very little interference in the free flow of goods.

“Whether or not you believe in free trade and globalization – as I do strongly – shipping’s contribution to both has been absolutely tremendous. And I would say that we in shipping should be very proud of that contribution.”

Finnish startup company bets on Finnish blueberries

A

Business

By Eva Eriksen

lthough they are only 18 years old, Patrik Pyöriä and his three class mates already founded a successful company. “I’m Blue” is the name of the startup firm that produces blueberry soda.

The whole thing started back when Patrik was 16 in Finland. They had an entrepreneur class in school and Patrik and his three friends tried to put their heads together to come up with an idea that would be fruitful on the market.

“We thought about what trends right now.

Health is a big thing – and what is more healthy than Finnish blueberries?”

In the beginning, production requirements were small and so the four students produced the soda themselves – all by hand.They were also the ones who came up with the recipe, and that was not an easy task: “We had barely made juice before, but

decided to simply try making soda and after multiple failures we got the first viable version of the soda.”

The project moved along and in 2016 the four students won the competition for young entrepreneurs in Finland, which was ver y motivating. Later, they represented Finland in the European competition that year and even though they did not win they wanted to continue.

Business slowly started to take off, as the students perfected the recipe, and it was not long before they realized that they needed to scale up in production. In spring 2017, they founded the Ltd I’m Blue and started manufacturing at a Finnish brewery.

Looking for contacts in Singapore

I’m Blue has worked with Visit Finland since last year, and this year Patrik Pyöriä joined Visit Finland on a trip to Singapore where he represented

his company at ITB Asia: the biggest travel trade conference in the region, which took place at the Marina Bay Sands on October 25-27.

The main goal was for the start-up company to get exposure and get contacts, both domestically and internationally. Patrik explained that they are very interested in the Asian market, and especially Singapore.

As part of the Suomi Finland 100 anniversary, the Finnish Embassy in Singapore held a Midnight Sun Party at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel on October 26. Here, Patrik got a taste of the corporate world at its finest and the guests got a taste of the new company’s blueberry soda, which everyone received in a goodie bag.

The Suomi Finland 100 mark is on the soda’s label this year out, celebrating Finland’s 100 years independence.

I’m Blue does not have to stop at blueberries

Right now, the soda is sold in more than thirty stores, restaurants, and cafés in Finland.The hopes are to be in even more stores domestically but also to expand to other markets, where SouthEast Asia is at the top of the list. However, that is not all, Patrik explains: “Not only do we want to succeed in business, we wish to continue contributing to the society.

We have been inspiring youngsters to take on entrepreneurship and to push their limits to exceed their comfort zone and that is also what we will continue doing in the future.”

Even though, the company name ‘I’m Blue’ suggests that the production of sodas will begin and end with blueberries, Patrik does not look at it that way: “Since the beginning we have had the idea of expanding the product family. We have had multiple ideas of infusing uncommonly used berries into sodas, but these plans are still open.

The name I’m Blue does not in fact exclude continuous expansion as there are many colors to rely on.”

December 2017 • ScandAsia.Singapore 13

Business

Erik Thedéen, Director General at Sweden’s Finansinspektionen

Danish start-up Ernit, Nordic participation

at Singapore FinTech Festival 2017

By Joakim Persson

S

ingapore FinTech Festival returned for its second year during 13-17 November 2017, with strong Nordic participation, including Danish and Swedish fintech delegations. Singapore is a financial hub and ranks as fourth on the Global Financial Centre Index 2017.

S i n g a p o r e ’s M o n e t a r y A u t h o r i t y o f Singapore (MAS) organised this massive festival as a way for the City State to to benefit from Fintech (financial technology) – and learn from its peers. There, the many Nordic participants (including many star t-ups) had access to a veritable smorgasbord, including workshops, a 3-day conference, an investor summit, an ‘Innovation Lab Crawl’, industr y networking events, a ‘Hackcelerator’ as well as the Fintech Awards.

The Investor Summit ‘Deal Day’ (aiming to enhance access to funding for star t-ups and improve the quality and quantity of Fintech investment deals in Singapore) showcased promising Fintech star t-ups and innovative technologies to local and global investors.

In the Lab Crawl over 20 innovation labs across the island opened up for visitors with demos, tours, and exhibitions that had been prepared, enabling great opportunities to network and get to know more about the up-and-coming innovative Fintech solutions.

14 ScandAsia.Singapore • December 2017

Denmark also hosted its own evening Nordic Networking Event (sponsored by: Nordea, Saxo Bank, Copenhagen Fintech) offering a golden opportunity to connect with the Nordic finch ecosystem, meet finch thought leaders, regulators, industry power players and start-ups. The event attracted a good 200 guests.

16 November was a big Nordic day, including the ‘FinTech Northern Lights’ session. ScandAsia talked to two of the participants in this panel; in addition to Denmark’s Thomas Krogh Jensen CEO of Copenhagen FinTech Lab (see separate story) Aleksi Grym,from Bank of Finland. Iren Tranvag Chief Executive Officer, Nordic Finance Innovation also attended this panel debate.

Aleksi Grym talked about how the private and public sectors are working together to build an innovation-friendly and highly developed financial ecosystem. “When an industry is going through such a major transformation, the best thing to do is work together in close cooperation between old and new players as well as private and public institutions. I see many similarities between the Nordics and Singapore in that respect. Also, we want to make sure digitalization leaves no one behind. Financial inclusion and financial literacy are becoming increasingly important topics in the age of digitalization and we feel we have a role to play in that regard.”

As Head of Digitalisation Mr Grym manages

the digital programme of the bank as well as various projects related to the digital transformation of the financial industry, covering topics such as Fintech, distributed ledger technologies, digital currencies, payment technologies, cybersecurity, and data analytics.

“Central banks around the world work together in many areas. I had met some of my peers from the MAS and through this cooperation the invitation came about. Fintech is an area of keen interest to both our central banks, and Singapore is one of the key locations for this activity,” he explained how this Nordic session came about.

At this stage there is probably collaboration or exchange between Finland and Singapore within Fintech. “But this would be mainly between commercial entities. As a central bank, we are not directly involved in the activities of Fintechs, but we want to encourage innovation in the financial industry,” replied Aleksi who was in Singapore to learn about the ecosystem as a whole and how the central bank and other public institutions can contribute to an innovation-friendly business environment.

His own current role is relatively new: “I star ted last year. The financial industr y is transforming significantly, driven by digital technology. My job is to understand in more detail what the opportunities and risks are, who the new entrants are and what they are offering that wasn’t available before. I study new technologies and business models and try paint a picture of what the financial industry might look like in the future. This also means the role of central banks might be affected.”

“The Bank of Finland has its usual tasks as a central bank to work with commercial banks.

Beyond that, we find that learning about digital transformation is best done in close cooperation and continuous dialogue with the industry, so that we have a common view of the significance, risks, and opportunities of new technologies and digital business models.The Bank of Finland wants to act as a kind of platform for exchanging knowledge and insights about digitalization in the financial industry in Finland.”

When asked to comment on the ecosystem

Thomas Krogh Jensen

in Finland the Head of Digitalisation said: “Finland is a relatively small country but we are part of the EU and the Eurozone. The financial market in Europe is becoming harmonised so it makes sense to view Finland as part of a much bigger overall market.The Finnish population is also very tech savvy so that digital services are widely used in the country. We had some of the world’s first online banks and we have the highest mobile broadband usage in the world. Fintech companies in Finland often have an international mind-set from the very start. I would describe the Finnish Fintech ecosystem as relatively small but highly skilled.”

The second Nordic highlight on Day 4 was the ‘Global FinTech Hackcelerator’ Demo Day, which included Danish fintech star t-up Ernit.

Their solution, with entails a physical piggy bank, focuses on empowering children with essential lifelong skills.

It is branded as the world’s first smart piggy bank. An app that connects with a physical, connected piggy bank, allow kids to learn about the concept of money by setting goals and reaching them.

“We make digital money tangible by letting children making different wishes and having different goals in the app. Their parents or grandparents and other grownups can then transfer money straight into the piggy bank and each time the piggy bag lights up and plays sounds so the child has to go an physically interact with the piggy bank to put money into the system.

Afterwards the child can distribute the money in the system between the different goals. So we are combining hardware and an IoT Piggy bank with an app and an integration into a real time bank account,” Søren Nielsen (founder and CEO) explained.

And he emphasise the purpose of the concept: “It’s four financial literacy, for children the age of 4-10, when they can start understanding the value of money. But in a society like the Danish, and the same goes for Sweden, where everything is going cashless we have an issue with not having cash anymore. So Ernit gives the children the ability to understand digital money but still having a physical

Aleksi Grym, Bank of Finland

presence. When we talk to experts about this it is, the first part of it is that money has to have a physical presence. That is why we need physical piggy bank; when children can use their touch, seeing and hearing senses the better the whole learning experience gets.”

“I am totally into he convenience of cashless society, I never have cash myself, I use mobile pay from my phone and the credit card but I can see that this has big consequences, especially for children. Because they don’t understand where the money comes from. My daughter calls my credit card the ‘magic card’ because she doesn’t see the link to money. She just thinks that with this card you can just pay. That is where we are trying to use money as an instrument to teach children about delayed gratification, about they to spend time on reaching their different goals and also on work at home, by doing the different tasks such as collecting the trash to get to the different goals.”

Ernit was one of 20 shortlisted fintech startups participating in Singapore’s 12-week virtual programme, where they were matched with industry champions to customise their marketready solutions into contextualised prototypes ready for adoption.

As the ‘Hackcelerator’ was vir tual Ernit worked from Denmark during the programme, have mainly working in collaboration with Standard Char tered Bank, with the focus on connecting Ernit’s system to the one of the bank.

“Oracle has also been involved with the technical setup. So the main goal has been the collaboration between different companies in making something that actually works and can be tested in the Singaporean market.”

Søren had previously never been in a virtual accelerator and concludes that it has been great.

“It worked far better than I thought so the outcome of this has been way bigger than I could have hoped for. I think it is difficult working from a distance with people. Even you are working with software and technology it is difficult because it all comes down to communication, which is way easer when sitting across from each other and being able to read each other’s body language.

And this was all of course over the phone, not having visuals.”

Standard Chartered bank were among the industr y champions in the accelerator, aside organising KPMG and MAS. December 2017 • ScandAsia.Singapore 15

Business

“Standard Chartered picked us seeing our value proposition.”

And already the day after Demo Day they had a follow-up meeting today to plan for actual adoption and integration of their solutions into a real client context.

“We are coming back to Singapore for further meetings with Standard Charter, and the same goes for many other banks, and investors too, who have reached out to us as well.”

“The big goal on the side has been the pitch competition that we were a part of. So making the pitch ready and going out in front of an audience of several thousand and pitching our value proposition have been a big part of the 12 weeks as well.”

“I had five minutes on stage in front of all these people and the outcome was a fantastic experience for me personally and for the company as well being at that venue and see all

the different cameras coming and taking photos of the piggy bag. It is really nice to have a physical hardware object in the fintech space; we are the only ones having that.”

Three winners that were picked from across four categories got 50 000 SGD each among the selected finalists (the Danish finalist being within the ‘Customer-facing’ category). Unfortunately Ernit was not one of them. “I like to win all the things I am a part of so for that part I am kind of sad. But we met a lot of other great start-ups and got some fantastic feedback from the audience.

We had some many people coming, to see the piggy bank, and to how they can get it, how it works etc. So we’ve received got tremendous response out of this,” concluded Søren.

Sweden also brought a fintech delegation following up on the participation in the inaugural Singapore Fintech Festival 2016, with Sweden’s Minister for Financial Markets and Consumer Affair s, Mr Per Bolund holding a keynote presentation of the Swedish fintech journey.

This time Finansinspektionen, Sweden’s financial supervisory authority, led a business delegation to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, with the purpose to gather stakeholders of the Fintech ecosystem, including regulators, financial institutions, investors and start-ups to enable sharing of knowledge and best practices.

There is great interest in Sweden’s experience within digital payment systems, since the country is at the forefront of development, and a leader in digitalization.

“Sweden, Singapore and Malaysia share many similarities in that we both focus on the importance of creativity, research and innovation.

We value high tech and have a high level of ICT maturity,” stated Team Sweden.

“We hope that the delegation will provide a starting platform for Swedish Fintech companies to meet with Fintech Stakeholders in Singapore, Malaysia and Asia Pacific, and will encourage fruitful collaborations going forward.”

Several large Fintech initiatives have been launched in Singapore recently. Among other things, a Fintech Office has been set up, to serve as a one-stop virtual entity for all Fintech matters and to promote Singapore as a Fintech hub. Also a regulatory ‘sandbox’ has been set-up in order to make it easier for innovators to experiment with new financial products or services in a safe regulatory environment.

At Singapore FinTech Festival Erik Thedéen Director General, Finansinspektionen will participated in the ‘Regulatory Insights’ session, along with Ong Chong Tee Deputy Managing Director, MAS, and Motonobu Matsuo Deputy Director General, Credit and Insurance Systems, JFSA. Participants in the Swedish business delegation are: Finansinspektionen, Covr Security, BehavioSec, BIMA (Milvik), Bokio, Collectius, ChromaWay, Dreams Nordic, GRC Watch, Zentro Finmarket, Nexus Group.

Denmark and Singapore strengthen promising fintech collaboration Denmark attended Singapore FinTech Festival with a big delegation as a continuation of intentions to establish fintech (financial technology) collaborations and expand business opportunities further, following two MoUs signed between Denmark and Singapore earlier in the year.

And Copenhagen FinTech’s CEO returned back home mighty impressed.

By Joakim Persson 16 ScandAsia.Singapore • December 2017

Business

The amount of people and the very high level of those who participated makes it the number one event

Thomas Krogh Jensen, Copenhagen FinTech

B

ack in May Copenhagen FinTech and Singapore Fintech Hub had agreed to kick-star t a process that would look at possibilities for collaboration, identify possible roadblocks and build a bridge between Singapore and Copenhagen.

Following this, the Monetar y Authority of Singapore, MAS, and the Danish Financial Super visor y Authority, Danish FSA, (in the end of June) signed a ‘FinTech Co-operation Agreement’ aiming to help FinTech companies in Singapore and Denmark to expand into each other’s markets.

The agreement enables between the two regulators to refer fintech companies to their counterparts and they are also committed to exploring joint innovation projects together, and to share information on emerging market trends and their impact on regulation.

Thomas Brenøe, Deputy Director General, Danish FSA commented that financial innovation is not confined to national borders, and they were therefore delighted to enter into the agreement with MAS. Copenhagen Fintech, meanwhile, was set up as recently as in September 2016 as an incubator and co-working space for fintech companies.

It aims at driving innovation and to position Denmark as a global player in the industry.

Bringing a delegation to the Singapore FinTech Festival was the culmination of efforts that began in the beginning of 2017. Singapore is one of the leading global fintech hubs and the festival is bringing together the global financial community in a weeklong celebration of fintech.

Just back from a ver y rewarding visit to the festival Thomas Krogh Jensen, Copenhagen FinTech’s CEO, had only praise for the trip to Singapore, ranking this fintech summit as the highest globally, when asked to compare.

“The amount of people and the very high level of those who par ticipated makes it the number one event. Asia was of course highly represented but they had managed to get in many other countries so the diversity was also really good. I think, compared to many others, this is also a very start-up friendly conference so the start-ups also got a lot out of it, so I think MAS had done a really good job,” says Thomas Krogh Jensen.

Aside the Royal Embassy of Denmark in Singapore and Copenhagen FinTech itself, 17

Danish organisations participated, including also Danish FSA. “Our companies really met great contacts and had many fruitful conversations with banks, the Singaporean regulator and different fintech hubs they were approached by. And Ernit pitching on stage during Demo Day as one of the 20 Global FinTech Hackcelerator companies was also awesome,” adds the CEO. The first step of the Copenhagen-Singapore collaborative process is to build bridges that connect Asian companies to European and vice versa “We brought these companies that all have the ambition of scaling or doing business in Asia so this was a clear step in the plan to connect the two ecosystems more together. Right now, in terms of the bridge we are working on trying to formalise this a bit more for Danish companies wanting to scale to that region. We are not done with that work, but are aiming at setting up some formal process. It is not only regulatory-wise, but also: How do I attract the investors for scaling, and how do I attract the right partnerships? What are the legal requirements around setting up a business? And so on. There are many dimensions to setting up a bridge like this and operationalize it. There are a lot of MoUs being done and I think what we have to focus on here is getting real value out of it. And there is certainly progress being reached in close dialogue with various different stakeholders.”

In his capacity as Danish and Copenhagen FinTech representative Thomas himself par ticipated in the ‘FinTech Nor thern Lights’ panel discussion, along with Aleksi Grym Head of digitalization, Bank of Finland and Iren Tranvag CEO, Nordie Finance Innovation.

The Dane discloses that this actually turned into the starting point for a closer collaboration between the Nordic countries. “We hold regular meetings between the different hubs in the Nordic region, while we have now decided to also look at how we can collaborate on how to help start-ups scale outside the Nordics and of course the Asian market is quite attractive so that could be one of them. Also we’ll look into doing shared events and market them to the eco-systems, and perhaps shared global delegation visits so the Nordics join together and send start-ups from the Nordic region.” ”We have been working on setting up a

bit more formalised collaboration between the Nordic hubs. Oslo’s fintech hub was established as recently as in early November this year.

Stockholm Fintech Hub has been there since the beginning of this year and Finland’s Helsinki Fintech Farm and Copenhagen FinTech hub were established last year. All four joined forces and put on paper what we’d like to collaborate on to convey to the global audience in Singapore,” continues Thomas.

One of the things he highlighted in the panel from the Danish perspective, and which he believes also applied to the Nordic region, is how fifty per cent of fintech start-ups already have a corporate partner and that around 70-80 per cent of them are actively looking for one.

“There is a lot of collaboration going on and there is still a lot of appetite from the corporate side and we still need to work a little bit on the capabilities of actually being able to engage with these start-ups. But that coin of course has two sides; it’s about the start-up learning to do business with the corporations. But it’s maturing in that it is moving away from just being curious and having a lot of meetings more towards: If we meet and talk it is because there is a real intention on both sides. We want to do business, we want to bring real solutions to the market and improve the value proposition of the bank or the start-up or whatever the collaboration is about.”

As for the growth of Copenhagen FinTechHub–its vision being to create a Danish fintech ecosystem of Nordic top class level–it has since its inception reached way beyond his imagination.

“There are now fifty companies in the fintech lab, including 160 people. It has gone from almost nothing to this in about a year, so this has really been growing fast. And we have been gaining traction very fast. We didn’t see this coming and I think proof of that is that we started with two floors with room for just under a hundred people.

Then we opened a third floor and recently had to open a fourth floor.”

They were for med buy the banker s association, the financial services union, and the city of Copenhagen. So they are a public-private partnership with both public and mainly private funds. They do three things: 1) Run a Danish innovation network with all the universities where they get funds to distribute to research; for example in the universities within fintech and bridge that to the start-ups and the corporates. 2) Run the incubator and co working space with different programmes. A pre-accelerator programme for very early stage fintechs was recently launched.

3). Initiate international collaborations and trying to help start-ups scale.

“We really need to teach the start-ups that this is about scaling and scaling fast because there’s so much going on in this space and that is also one of my takeaways when you look at the start-ups in the Asian region: there are so many things going on across the board within fintech and financial services now so the ones who will win or be first are probably the ones that will scale the fastest,” Thomas concludes.

December 2017 • ScandAsia.Singapore 17

Food recipe

Roast Pork w crackling F or a truly Danish Christmas, you have to serve Roast Pork - also known as Flæskesteg.

The part that every housewife fears is if she can make the skin crisp like her mother always did.

You start out by buying a whole pork loin with skin. You cut through the skin down to the meat, but not into the meat, in slices of 1 cm thickness or less.You may want to ask your butcher to do this as it is quite hard to get it right at home and the cut of the pork is really important to get the right type of crackling.

2kg loin of pork with the skin on is good for four people.

Method:

• Preheat your oven to 250°C. • Place the pork with the skin side down (yes, ‘upside-down’) into a roasting tray. Add just enough boiling water to the tray so that the skin is submerged.

• Put the pork in the oven for 20 minutes.

• Pour the water away. Use a clean tea towel to hold the pork in the roasting tray so you don’t burn yourself while you carefully pour away the water.

• Turn the oven down to 160°C, then flip the pork over so it’s the right way up (skin up), and coat the skin with a generous amount of salt and pepper, making sure you get into the crevices created by the scoring. Be careful of your hands at this point, the pork will be hot! Stick the bay leaves into the crevices as well, then add the carrot, onion and thyme to the roasting tin, and pour 400-500ml fresh, cold water in.

• Put the pork back in the oven for about an hour or until it is done.

Check about halfway through to see if you need to top up the water if it’s starting to evaporate too much.

• Using a meat thermometer, check the temperature of the pork after the hour. It should be somewhere between 68-70°C. Pour out the fatty residue into a bowl to use as stock for the gravy.

• Increase the oven temperature back up to 250°C and put the roast pork back in to make the crackling.This can take a good 15 minutes, so use the grill if you want to kickstart the process (but keep a close eye on it, or else you could end up with a burnt crackling).

• Remove the roast from the oven and check the temperature again. It should be between 70-75°C. This should mean it isn’t overcooked - pork can be terribly boring if you have to gnaw your way through it.

• Let the roast rest uncovered for about 10 minutes. While that’s happening, make the gravy from the fat and stock - use gravy browning if required.

18 ScandAsia.Singapore • December 2017

Brunkartofler Caramelised potatoes A traditional accompaniment to Danish roast pork. It’s a bit sweet so we only eat these once a year.

Ingredients:

• 85g sugar • 25g butter • 1kg peeled and cooked small new potatoes (don’t be afraid to use tinned potatoes for this) - must be COLD.

Method:

• Add the sugar to a cold frying pan and spread it evenly across the bottom.

Melt it on a high heat while you stir for about 2 minutes, then turn the heat down to medium while you add the butter. Turn up the heat to high again.

• Put the potatoes in a colander or sieve and run them under a cold tap, then add to the pan. As you can imagine, it’s going to splutter and spit a bit, so be careful.

• Get the potatoes covered in caramel and brown them for between 4-6 minutes, turning them carefully. If it looks like they’re getting a bit too dry, add a drop of water (again, take care doing this).

• Serve the caramelised potatoes along with normal boiled potatoes - as these are very sweet, they’re more of an extra side dish for the pork rather than a replacement for potatoes altogether.

NOTE: Always use potatoes that are completely cold. If you’re preparing them yourself, peel and cook them the day before. Each potato should be about 3-4cm in size - think salad potatoes. Tinned really is a good option for this dish.

Serve with warm, red cabbage.

Leftovers? Make Pyt-i-Panna.

“Shahi Maharani”

fit for Kings and Queens.

S

hahi Maharani is proud to present, its rich heritage of Indian culinary fit for royalty. Be treated like Kings and Queens, as the chef ’s concoct a sumptuous meal amidst live Indian classical music and furnished interior of Indian royal palaces.

Dining at Shahi Maharani will always be a royal experience for all. Welcoming and peaceful, rich colors of deep cream, muted orange, accents of rich red, carved wooden tables and chairs gives each diner a royal feeling.

Diners receive the royal treatment from

Shahi Maharani’s professional and knowledgeable ser vice team. The warmth of India comes through the earnestness of the capable staff as they patiently explain the menu while making recommendations to suit the needs and wants of each diner. The service team is supported by a very strong kitchen brigade; each chef is equipped with their own unique talents and creativity.

A private room big enough for 20 persons is available to provide a great venue for parties and private business meeting over meals, for multi national companies and government bodies.

Shahi Maharani has a wine list of 48 labels of both old and new world wine.

Catering services are also available. Guests may choose from the restaurant’s selection of vegetarian and non-vegetarian menus. Mobile tandoors are also available for outdoor caterings.

Address: 252 North Bridge Road #03-21B Raffles City Shopping Centre, (Level 3, Fairmont Singapore) Singapore 179103 Telephone: 6235 8840

“Party Under The Stars and Feast

By The Beach This New Year’s Eve”

R

ing in the new year in a unique and charming setting by the beach as Coastes and Sand Bar team up once again for a bigger and better countdown beach barbecue par ty. Boasting a newly-restored beachfront and tucked away from the hustle and bustle of the city, Coastes and Sand Bar promise an unforgettable New Year’s Eve celebration with family and friends.

For $70 NETT per person, indulge in a buffet spread of freshly-grilled seafood, succulent meats, hearty mains and sweet treats. Entertainment will be provided by Stephen Francis & Friends

featuring Beverly Morata as they fill the night with upbeat Pop classics while adding a twist of Jazz, Funk and Soul.

Topping off the year-end festivities are a wide selection of premium drinks. Toast to a new year with a bottle of Martini Prosecco at $60 NETT or pace yourself and grab a partner to enjoy the following promotions: • Heineken Draft: $16 NETT for 2 • Housepour Spirits: $16 NETT for 2 • Red or White Wine: $20 NETT for 2

Date : 31st December 2017, Sunday Time : 6pm till late BBQ Buffet Price* : $70 NETT (Adult), $35 NETT (Children aged 12 years and below) *BBQ Buffet Price includes a choice of soft drink, juice or iced tea Address: 50-52 Siloso Beach Walk, Singapore 099000 Email for tickets availability: reservations@coastes.com December 2017 • ScandAsia.Singapore 19

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