ScandAsia South East Asia - June 2012

Vietnam:Improve Freedom of Trade

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The Scandinavian Society Philippines invites you to uncover the Philippine Weaving Traditions by attend-ing their next Day Social event, “Lakbay Habi: Weaving your way around the Philippines” with guest speaker Mr. Lawrence Charles E. Salazar, Project Development Officer of the National Commission for Cuture and the Arts (NCCA). Event and breakfast fee: PHP 600 per person. For registration please contact [email protected]

Date: Saturday, June 30, 2012Location: Vietnam Golf & Country Club(Thu Duc) East Course

Nordcham invite you to its monthly tournament. Price: 90 USD including green fee and caddie fee. For more infor-mation or to register, kindly contact Nick Jonsson – [email protected] or +84908077415

Lakbay Habi: Waving Your Way Around the PhilippinesDate: Thursday, June 6, 2012 9.30 am – 11.30 amLocation: The residence of Ms. Johanna Jonsson 41B North Tower, PacificPlazaTowers, 4th Ave. cor. 25th West, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig

Nordcham Monthly Golf Tournament

Rainforest World Music FestivalDate: 13-15 July 2012, 10.00 am – 12.00 MNLocation: Sarawak Cultural Village, Santubong, Sarawak, Malaysia

The Rainforest World Music Festival is a unique festival that brings together on the same stage renowned world musicians from all continents and indigenous musicians from the interiors of the mythical island of Borneo. The festival will featured some of the traditional music world’s top female fiddlers “the String Sisters”. Annbjørg Lien from Norway joins Catriona Macdonald from Shetland, Liz Car-roll and Liz Knowles from America, Mairead ni Mhaonaigh (Altan) from Ireland and Emma Härdelin from Sweden join together to celebrate each of their region’s musical traditions. The Sisters will be joined by some of Scotland’s leading instrumentalists- David Milligan on Piano, Conrad Ivitsky on Double Bass, James Mackintosh on drums- and from Norway, Tore Bruvoll on guitar. The Rainforest World Music Festival, a not-to-be-missed occasion, guarantees a smashing time in the heart of the Borneo Jungle.

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6 ScandAsia.South East Asia • June 2012

Happy Norwegians Celebrated Norway’s National Day

Norway’s National Day was celebrated with national flags, a children’s parade, Norwegian food and traditional games for

both children and adults in all over South East Asia. In Hanoi some 40 Norwegians came together to celebrate and take part in the parade and both young and adult did their best in several rounds of traditional games and fun. In the evening more than 300 guests attended a reception at Hotel Melia in Hanoi hosted by the Norwegian Ambas-sador, Mr. Ståle T. Risa. The guests also enjoyed a performance by the young violinists Ms. Do Phuong Nhi who played a Romance by the Norwegian composer Johan Svendsen. In Manila, the Philippines Norway Business Council (PNBC) celebrated 17 May with a dinner at the Peninsula Manila Hotel in Makati City. The 200 distinguish guests enjoyed an evening of great food, great music and speeches by President of PNBC, Mr. Ivar Thomasli and Chargé d’Affaires, Mr. Knut-Are Okstad of the Royal Norwegian Embassy. In Jakarta, the National Day was celebrated first on the 16th of May at the Royal Norwegian Embassy where Ambassador Eivind S. Homme and his wife Charlotte welcomed the 250 guests – and then again on the 17th of May for the Norwegian families living in Indonesia. Traditional Norwegian food was served before they went on parading the neighborhood streets with the Jotun Marching Band. This was arranged by the Nordic Club and the Embassy, with support from Statoil and Jotun. The evening before was sponsored by Hoegh LNG Asia, Q-Free, Timur Ship Managment and the Norwegian Seafood Council.

1-4 17 May in Hanoi5-11 17 May in Manila12-14 17 May in Jakarta

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June 2012 • ScandAsia.South East Asia 7

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MASBA’s AGM and Swedish National Day Celebration

The Malaysian Swedish Business Association (MASBA) held its 2012 Annual General Meeting on

Wednesday, 6 June in conjunction with the celebrations of Sweden’s National Day which was collaborated with the Swedish Honorary Consulate. The event took place at the Swedish Trade Council’s office at G Tower in KL City Center. Sponsors for the evening were Volvo Trucks and Intermovers. Some 100 guests of both Swedish and Malaysian origin listened to Mr. Ravindran Devagunam, the Director of Fighting Cor-ruption of the National Key Result Area (NKRA) followed by a speech by Mr. David Stenström, Managing Director at Volvo cars on the Swedish National Day. The guests were treated to traditional Swedish sandwich cakes to Strawberry cream cakes with the drinks and coffee. The evening closed with a lucky draw containing desirable Swedish prizes, such as some Swedish chocolate, glassware and cookbooks signed by Michael Elwing, Senses, Hilton.

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1. Mr. David Stenström2. Mr. Ravindran Devagunam


Danish Constitution Day Hash Run in Kuala Lumpur

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By Charlotte Donvang Parks

1. The run was officially started by Commercial Counsellor Helle Sejersen Myrthue, her second run with the KL Harriettes.

2. The Danish Embassy turned up strongly this year with several trainees enjoying themselves to the fullest.3. The hare Anette Andersson posing in the viking themes T-shirt designed by Charlotte Donvang.

A few Danish die-hard hash runners in Ma-laysia organized a Danish Constitution Day Run for their friends and the Danish

community in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, 6 June. The run was set at the beautiful Bukit Kiara followed by a party in the jungly setting of the Hash Heritage Site. Some 140 happy Danes and hashers turned up for a successful event. According to experienced hashers, the run was not outrageously special in terms of a hash run but everybody enjoyed, if nothing else, a splendid walk in beautiful surroundings in the greens of Bukit Kiara. And there were definitely a few tired legs afterwards too as the trail covered a magnificent hill!. The run was officially started with a red ribbon cut by Danish Commercial Counsel-lor and no. 2 of the Royal Danish Embassy in KL, Helle Sejersen Myrthue. As a matter of fact, a good number of embassy staff sup-ported the event this year, the 5th of such an event in KL. Also well represented with over 10 people were the Danish fronted IEN Con-sultants spearheaded by Gregers Reimann, a wellknown green name amongst Danes in KL. The official hare was Anette Andersson supported by longterm Danish KL residents Anker Nielsen and the artist Charlotte Don-vang plus newbie Alex Madsen, all helped out by spouses, kids and other friends. As usual, fun was had by all who went home with a goody bag including a Viking de-sign T-shirt with Danish flags on the shoulders, jam from Den Gamle Fabrik, drinks bottle, Vi-tagens, bisquits and more. Thanks to the spon-sors: Carlsberg, Emborg, IEN Consultants, Ken-well, Chr. Hansen, Suntonic, Tero Technology and friend’s donations. The KL Harriettes runs on Wednesdays at 6 pm all around Kuala Lumpur and both wom-en and men are welcome, please see more on http://klharriettes.org/

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Swedish National Day Celebrated in Phnom Penh

Scandinavian Society Malaysia Gathered before Summer Break

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Over 200 guests from the government and embassies, members of the Swedish community as well as business people joined Sweden’s Ambassador Anne Hoglund to celebrate the Swedish National Day

at Raffles Le Royal Hotel on Wednesday 6th June in Phnom Penh. The reception was opened with the Swedish and Cambodian National Anthems. This was followed by speeches by the Ambassador of Sweden and H.E. Mr. Mok Mareth, Minister for Environment. The guests mingled and enjoyed Swedish specialties like salmon and meatballs.

With the cancella-tion of this year’s Spring Ball that

should have been held on the 18th of May the Scan-dinavian Society Malaysia (SSM) used their free night to gather members and their spouses for a fun ‘get together’ evening before ev-eryone leaves for vacations during the summer. The SSM event took place in Kuala Lumpur at the Sri Langit Condo out-door patio where all guests brought their own food and beverages to share. Potluck as it is called in English. “It was an intimate eve-ning spent with good food and company, where dis-cussions covered everything from politics to movies,” writes Ms. Monica Grill, the Secretary of SSM.


Whilst European c o m p a n i e s have been pa-tient and re-main hopeful

for the longer term development of Vietnam, their confidence has been steadily declining since the beginning of 2011, as is evidenced by the quar-terly EuroCham Business Climate Index (BCI) survey for Vietnam. Over the last year, EuroCham’s BCI has declined from 70 to 53 points, and now stagnates around this low point, indicating an ongoing worry for Vietnam as an investment des-tination in the short term. Coupled with recent reduction in FDI and high inflation rate, it is fair to say that European companies remain concerned about the business and investment environment in Vietnam. At the same time, Vietnam has slipped eight places in the World Bank’s “Doing Business 2012” Re-port, to the 98th position out of 183 countries ranked. According to the “Doing Business 2012” Report, the ranking of Vietnam’s business

Improve Freedom of TradePreben Hjortlund, the Danish founding member and Chairman of EuroCham in Vietnam was keynote speaker at the mid-term Vietnam Business Forum held in Hanoi on 29 May 2012. Preben Hjortlund stressed the need for immediate economical, financial and educational reforms if Vietnam wants to follow an international competitive sustainable economic growth model. The following is his opening remarks at the event and the summary of his speech.By Preben Hjortlund Chairman, EuroCham Vietnam

Preben Hjortlund


climate has fallen this year because the country has failed to improve its electricity system. Also, this Report mentions the slow pace of administrative reforms in Vietnam. Overall, Vietnam has marginally improved in only three out of the 10 areas looked at: con-struction permits, investor protec-tions and contract enforcement. A worsening of conditions was seen in areas such as starting a business (licensing), registering property, pay-ing taxes and obtaining credit. What is the cause of this low business confidence over the past year? EuroCham believes it is a com-bination of slow progress on many of the issues that were addressed in last year’s Whitebook coupled with some new issues that are eroding confidence in the business environ-ment in Vietnam. Difficult access to credit, lack of adequate infrastruc-ture and administrative burdens continue. At the same time, a num-ber of new “market access” issues, which significantly interfere with the

importation of goods into Vietnam, have further harmed European per-ceptions of the business environ-ment in Vietnam. EuroCham believes that the Vietnamese Government has taken steps to stabilise the macroeconom-ic situation in the short term but that there remains a lot to be done to improve the longer term attrac-tiveness of the Vietnamese market for foreign investment. The international climate for in-vestment is not very good. Follow-ing 20 years of a credit bubble, we are now facing an unknown number of years where money – whether from FDI inflows, bank lending, or aid – is far more restricted than in the past. Which means that Viet-nam has to work harder to attract interest from investors who are far less patient and forgiving than in the past. These are uncomfortable facts, but they are realities which have to be faced. In conclusion, EuroCham con-tinues to stress the need for imme-diate economical, financial and edu-

cational reforms if Vietnam wants to follow an international competitive sustainable economic growth mod-el. In particular, EuroCham believes that to attract more and better-quality foreign investment, the Viet-namese Government should focus its efforts in 2012 on removing all unnecessary restrictions to market access that affect the freedom of trade. It should also continue tack-ling red-tape and corruption, and reducing and simplifying administra-tive burdens on all levels. The Government should also allow foreign companies to employ both Vietnamese and foreigners alike at their own discretion. The protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and efficient enforce-ment in cases of IPR violations re-mains of key importance to attract high-quality investment. Whilst action across a number of fronts is urgent and necessary, we would also warn against the imple-mentation of new laws, decrees and procedures without careful discus-

sion and consideration. There have been examples in recent years, some of which are cited above, where Government departments have rushed to publish new rules, decrees and guidelines merely to achieve a deadline set for them in a rigid central plan. Such an approach limits the possibility for discussion with affected parties and for mature reflection, and risks creating more problems rather than improving the situation. Our request is for carefully thought out legislation which con-siders all the consequences; fol-lowed up by systematic and consis-tent implementation. Let me close by saying that at EuroCham we will continue to work hard to promote Vietnam as a trade and investment destination for both European and Vietnamese enterprises, and we look forward to working with the Government of Vietnam and all our members and partners, both Vietnamese and Eu-ropean, to maximize their success in an ever more vibrant Vietnam!


The Horror Regime of Khmer Rouge

Some estimates say as many as close to two million ci-vilians died from execu-tions, diseases, exhaustion and starvation from 1975

to 1979 until the Khmer Rouge gov-ernment was overthrown by invad-ing Vietnamese troops, after a series of border confrontations. The ideology of the regime was a radical Maoist and Marxist-Lenin-ist transformation program. The Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot, and his close associates wanted to trans-form Cambodia into a rural, class-less society, organised in one huge federation of collective farms. To accomplish this, they abol-ished money, free markets, normal schooling, ownership of private prop-erty, foreign clothing styles, religious practices, and the traditional Khmer culture. There were no public or private transportation and no non-revo-lutionary entertainment. Leisure activities were severely restricted. People throughout the country had to wear revolutionary clothes, which were black costumes.

religious persecution and the forced migration of people from urban to rural areas were enforced. Many of the dead were former political prisoners who were kept by the Khmer Rouge in their Tuol Sleng detention center, the Security Prison 21. Also, children were killed so as to prevent any future revenge against Khmer Rouge. Security Prison 21The tuk-tuk took me back from Choueng Ek to Phnom Penh city were the S-21 is located, now named the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. S-21 was established by Khmer Rouge as a prison and interrogation center with a capacity of up to 1500 prisoners. Close to 20,000 people went through the prison with only seven known survivors. Chief of the prison was Kaing Guek Eav, called Comrade Duch. Life in prison was short as most prisoners were held between two and three months before being transported to Choeung Ek to be executed. Systematic torture was a part of the daily life in S-21. Elec-

Sightseeing in Phnom Penh, my tuk-tuk driver took me to Choeung Ek, the site where some of the world’s most horrendous crimes against humanity were committed in the late 1970’s. Here, 17.000 men, women and children were executed.By Steen Poulin Nielsen

The Killing FieldsChoeung Ek is located less than 20 km or about one hour by tuk-tuk from Siem Reap. The former killing field is today a memorial to honour the vic-tims and to remind the world never to forget the horror of the regime. The entrance fee covers an au-dio tour equipment. Around the site you will find numbered signs, and by pushing the matching number on your audio equipment you will get detailed information about the particular spot. The audio tour was excellent, very informative and pro-fessionally presented. You can stop, start, pause, replay and even listen to some extras like case stories and background information. Visiting Choeung Ek can be an emotional experience. Walking around in the beautiful and peaceful surroundings while listening - in con-trast - to the horrifying information given in your head phones about how children were bashed to death against a tree made me both sad and angry. To accomplish the Khmer Rouge’s vision, actions such as kill-ings, enslavement, forced marriage,


The Horror Regime of Khmer Rouge

tric shocks, searing with hot metal, cutting with knives or suffocating with plastic bags, pulling out toe and fingernails and holding prisoners’ heads under water were some of the technical torture methods de-signed by the Khmer Rouge only to force out confessions. Also, the lack of food, which were two small portions of rice por-ridge and watery soup given daily, quickly made the victims weak. Khmer Rouge took photos of every person at arrival at S-21 and many of these photos are now shown inside the building, often close to torture instruments and other frightening proof of the hor-ror. Looking into the eyes of these victims was an overwhelming expe-rience to me. The trialSince the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime, there has been some at-tempts to establish a way to deal with the leaders of the movement. Cambodia originally asked the Unit-ed Nations and the international community to help set up a tribunal

into the genocide in the mid-1990s.A joint tribunal was finally estab-lished in 2006 following long drawn-out negotiations between the Phnom Penh government and the UN but only one person has been convicted since then, Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Comrade Duch, who was the head of the no-torious Tuol Sleng prison, the S-21. Now three surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge stands trial at second round at the genocide tri-bunal in Phnom Penh; Nuon Chea, also known as Brother Number Two, the right-hand man of the late leader Pol Pot, former head-of-state Khieu Samphan and former foreign minister Ieng Sary, all of whom are in their 80’s. All three of them deny charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The trial has been questioned as putting just three people on trial for the deaths of 1.7 million simply has seemed inadequate to many peo-ple. A number of the former Khmer Rouge key personnel has since the end of the regime held positions in the Cambodian government.

An important lessonVisiting Choeung Ek and S-21 was a highly significant proof to me that civilisation is just like nail polish on a beast’s claws. Cambodia has made an important step by turning the two facilities into visiting sites and

the trial is at least an attempt to ad-dress the darkest time of their his-tory. Hopefully people will continue to visit the sites and spreading the word about what happened back in the 1970´s Cambodia.

Evil

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In my mind stewed rhubarb - rabarbergrød - is the essence of an early summer dinner on the terrace. It is also quite easy to make and if there is anything left it tastes great with plain yoghurt the morning after.

Rhubarb Desert

By Gregers Moller

INGREDIENTS• 1poundfreshrhubarb• 4deciliterwater• About175sugar• 1½tablespoonscornstarch or 4 spoons potato flour • Vanillasugar• Fullcreamfreshmilk

PROCEDURE• Washandcutthefreshrhubarbintosmallpieces.Cookinthewater

until soft and mushy - probably for about half an hour. If you don’t like the texture – I love it – you can put the mixture through a sieve. Sweeten to taste – it should be distinctly both sweet and sour.

• Blendthecornstarchorthepotatoflourwithalittlecoldwaterandstirgently into the pudding. Cook until clear and slightly thickened.

• Servedcoldoratroomtemperaturewithicecoldfreshmilk.Orwithvanilla ice cream.

I was once a guest in a home in Copenhagen where they served a variation. They made a sauce of whipped cream with an egg yolk folded into it. Then they beat the thickened pudding into the cream mixture and served it at once lukewarm. They also added a dash of cinnamon and sprinkled a few ground nuts over it. That was sophisticated – but the basic version is what I dream of when I miss early summer in Denmark.

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ScandAsia South East Asia - June 2012