ADB-DutchCham Magazine #1 2019

issue 1 • 2019 www.adb-dutchcham.sg

magazine

dutch embassy

On autonomous vehicles: get ready for an empty driver’s seat! ... page 18

event

event

AI Roundtable: Corporatestartup Collaboration ... page 10

Dutch Drinks King’s Night Party 2019 … page 14

Board member Message

Linking entrepôts Dear members,

Ton van den Bosch

I am incredibly excited to join the board of ADB-DutchCham.

As incoming board member, my goal is to strengthen the business ties between Singapore and the Netherlands and to help you in achieving your business objectives.

I would like to take this opportunity to briefly introduce myself. Having worked as a corporate lawyer in Jakarta, Singapore, Amsterdam, New York and Manila, my young family and I moved to Singapore two years ago. The first time I worked in Singapore was during the Asian financial crisis in 1998 and a lot has changed since (ferries still departed from the Clifford Pier, the Marina Bay was not yet reclaimed and the conversion of the General Post Office into the Fullerton Hotel had just commenced). My wife Marjolein is a lawyer as well and she is Head of the Singapore office of a global litigation funder. A few months ago, I joined international business law firm Addleshaw Goddard LLP as partner and continue to work with our clients on transactions and projects in the energy, offshore, logistics, ports and terminals sectors in frontier and emerging markets in Africa, the Middle East and here in Asia.

I have always been intrigued by ports and global trade routes and believe we can identify some similarities between Singapore and the Netherlands. In the early 17th century, the Netherlands established ocean trade routes and settlements and it has remained one of the world’s leading trading nations.

Singapore has been an entrepôt for centuries and with its strategic location on the Strait of Malacca, is the world’s second busiest container port and a thriving global financial hub.

Board Members

Ad Ketelaars

President CEO at Spinta Pte Ltd

Aleid de Savornin Lohman Honorary Secretary Senior Legal Counsil at LOD Law

DanIël Heerkens

Board Member • Marketing & Communications Digital Marketing Strategy Director at 2Stallions

Wouter Muis

Board Member • Social events Founder at Bundies & Bamboo Branding

Paul Bloemendal Vice-President & Board Member • Sponsorship Managing Director at PRETB Pte Ltd

Mark van Rooijen Honorary Treasurer CFO South East Asia at Randstad

Ton van den Bosch

Board Member - Corporate members Partner at Addleshaw Goddard LLP

Ingrid Klaassens

Board Member Head of International Desk at ABN AMRO Singapore

Using Singapore as a hub, Dutch companies have for decades developed businesses, constructed production sites, explored oil & gas reservoirs and established good relationships with suppliers, governments and customers in Southeast Asia and beyond.

Hajo Provo-Kluit

According to the geopolitical strategist Parag Khanna in his new book “The Future Is Asian”, this century belongs to Asia. The book explains that Singapore is the unofficial capital of Asia and how Singapore has the potential to make the most of the commerce and cultural exchange within Asia and with the rest of the world.

With a full calendar of upcoming activities, ADB-DutchCham offers opportunities to collaborate with our members and we hope that we can continue to support your business with information, education, networking and introductions. I hope that I will have the opportunity to meet you soon at one of the upcoming events.

Observer Deputy Ambassador at the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands

Executive team

Maarten van Wel

Myrthe Brakel

Executive Director

Marketing & Social Media Manager

Charissa Riemeijer

Saskia Kops

The new board and I look forward to working with you.

Your Board Member, ... Ton van den Bosch ...

Business & Committee Manager

Admin Officer

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Editor’s NOTE

Contents 1

Board member message

For the love of magazines

2 Editor’s note 3

Join the 5th edition of the Winsemius Awards

4

Cheers to the New Year!

7

Digital Innovation for Mental Health

8

Tech Talent Crunch – Startups and SME’s

10 AI Roundtable: Corporate-Startup Collaboration 12

Roundtable discussion with Rob Carnell

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Dutch Drinks King’s Night Party 2019

It is with great pleasure and pride that I take over the reins of Daniël as editor of the ADB DutchCham magazine. Magazines have been a constant factor throughout my life, from an early age on and from different perspectives. My first writing and editing experience was a bright coloured newspaper that I devotedly crafted all by myself at the tender age of eight, with spectacular news scoops such as “today my brother Joost was late for hockey again” and well-founded opinion pieces on why I should get a hamster.

In the course of time, I must have been around ten, I remember very well that I chose to spend my pocket money on a Vogue magazine at the tobacco shop around the corner; my friends buying candy instead.

The rush of going through hundreds of pages of glossy paper with impressive-looking articles and glamorous fashion ads got me instantly hooked to the world of magazines.

16 Sustainable Business Committee: brainstorm about this years’ agenda 17

Join The Orange Grandstand at the Singapore Formula 1

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From the Dutch Embassy: Get ready for an empty driver’s seat!

22 Getting to know BlueMeg & Jan-Arie Bijloos 24 ADB-DutchCham News – Announcements, member info and more

Ready for an empty driver’s seat?

Show me your instagram and I will tell you who you are: someone that loves coffee and magazines!

My humble ‘career’ in this area slowly but steadily progressed from contributor to school and student association newspapers (all hard copy in the nineties and early zero’s – printing and stapling was most of the job!) to contributor to ELLEgirl Magazine and columnist for Haarlems Dagblad around 2004. I even made an adventuresome move to TV as reporter and editor for Nyenrode University’s campus TV channel, which was a lot of fun but not what I had in mind career-wise.

Once I started working in Branding and Marketing Communications for a.o. L’Oreal, Shiseido Group and Nespresso, my journalistic hobby was somewhat sidelined and limited to fighting over advertising deals with media groups.

Since I have moved to Singapore in 2015, I’ve been writing as a freelancer for several blogs, websites and social media channels, but coming back home to an actual magazine is like coming home for someone who loves magazines as much as I do. I am super excited to be on board and hope to add some exciting new angles to the magazine soon!

See you around,

Cover photo: Shutterstock.com 2

... Myrthe Brakel ...

ADB-DutchCham EVENTS

Join the 5th edition of the

Winsemius Awards on Thursday 30 May at Ritz-Carlton ... Photos by Thomas Haverford ...

The perfect opportunity to network and to bring your clients, colleagues and partners.

The Winsemius Award Gala Dinner celebrates the strong business ties between Singapore and the Netherlands, and recognizes innovative and impactful achievements. This year’s theme is Sustainable Business: Collaborate to Innovate.

Special offer for Young Professionals: get your seat for S$199 Get to know new people and expand your professional network during the Winsemius Awards Gala Dinner.

Meet with multinationals, SME’s and startups.

We encourage Young Professionals to attend the Winsemius Awards and therefore we offer a special seat rate for members and non-members with a maximum age of 36 years.

Program 06:00 pm Networking reception 07:00 pm Opening remarks 07:30 pm Awards ceremony & 4-course dinner 09:30 pm Celebration cake 10:00 pm Networking cocktail & live music What to expect • The networking event of the year • Discover the latest achievements during the awards ceremony • Pitches and live voting for Small Business Rising Star award • Canapés, delicious 4-course dinner accompanied with sparkling wine, wine, cocktails, Heineken beer and soft drinks • Live band during networking reception and networking cocktail • In the heart of Singapore at the Ritz-Carlton Millenia Hotel • More to come...

Don’t miss out and book your table or seat at adb-dutchcham.sg/event/winsemius-2019-tickets/

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ADB-DutchCham EVENTS

Cheers to the New Year! ... Photos by Ian (ugotshotby.me) ...

It already seems like a while ago, but how can one better celebrate the start of a new, exciting year than by attending the ADB-DutchCham New Years Drinks at the residence of our Ambassador? Welcoming the New Year with fellow members while enjoying some Heineken beers, Dutch cheese, broodje kroket and of course bitterballen is a genuine treat and tradition to be treasured in the tropics.

By Alexis van Dam

Senior Account Manager & Digital Strategist at Convertium Pte Ltd

Besides a festive toast, Her Excellency Mrs Margriet Vonno shared the outlook on the cooperation between The Netherlands and Singapore for the year(s) to come.

There is a lot of interest from both countries to strengthen cooperations and facilitate business. In addition, the board members of ADB-DutchCham touched upon some exciting highlights of the 2019 event calendar.

Since ADB-DutchCham joined forces, this annual event allows for the perfect opportunity to network and talk with the movers and shakers in Singapore more than ever before. It is also a great opportunity to learn more about the Dutch companies that have operations in Singapore and South East Asia.

Again, a big thank you to all sponsors and to the hospitality of the ambassador to open her residence once again to the members of ADB-DutchCham and making the event a great success!

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ADB-DutchCham EVENTS

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ADB-DutchCham EVENTS

Digital Innovation

By Dirk de Korne

for Mental Health

Deputy Director at KK Women’s & Children’s Hospital

... Photos by ADB-DutchCham ...

Mental health issues are on the rise globally and in particular in Asia. This has dramatic effects on personal life, family and work. Continuous engagement and insight in vital characteristics is an important part of both prevention and recovery.

In recent years patients and health professionals are increasingly supported by digital technology that assists in diagnostics and monitoring of health indicators. Less visible so far is its implementation in mental health.

Portable devices and AI start to predict depression and can indicate when support is needed.

In an interactive breakfast chat 29 March, the ADBDutchCham Health Committee invited start-ups that are at the forefront of applying innovative technology to better the management of mental health conditions. KK Women’s & Children’s Hospital, a large tertiary centre known to many us, kindly hosted the meeting.

To kick off, Megan Lam, CEO and Co-Founder of Neurum Health from Hong Kong gave a general overview on the role of technology in mental health solutions. It was impressive to understand how issues in her own family sparked her to start this business. Neurum’s app Clara provides corporate mental health solutions for better employee mental wellness. They develop technologies to quantify and detect mental health detriments and providing just-in-time personalised care.

Second, Neeraj Kothari, Co-Founder and Chief of Technology and Sales of Singapore-based Cogniant shared more on their platform, which focusses more on mental health providers and the collection of automated patient experience and outcome data. As with Clara, the Cogniant platform collects thousands of data points of patient’s daily routines with smartphone sensors.

To close, Aaron William De Silva and Dr Harry Nguyen from the School of Computing Science, University of Glasgow Singapore shared about a recent project on real-time depression detection with deep learning on mobile. Interestingly, in a controlled study setting voice detection technology (speed, pitch, tone) was used to predict depression.

ADB-DutchCham participants from various sectors enjoyed this very informative session and discussed various related ethical and technological aspects. If applied will, new technologies might have a good chance to early detect and prevent mental health issues, in particular in the Asian context.

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ADB-DutchCham EVENTS

Tech Talent Crunch –

Startups and SME’s

By Robbert-John Sjollema

Consultant at IndaHash, Mentor at Techstars, Co-Chair of the Startup & SME Academy, Owner of Continae

By Hareld van den Brink

... Photos by AmCham ...

Co-founder, Director at Baeld & Co-Director Asia Metabolic

On Wednesday the 30th of January, ADB-DutchCham and AmCham co-hosted the event ‘Tech Talent Crunch

By Emma Fabius

ADB-DutchCham Startup & SME Committee

– Startups and SME’s .’ The event - in the form of a panel discussion - focused on how to overcome today’s and future challenges in attracting skilled tech talent.

Technological advancements may have opened up many opportunities for business transformation, but without the right people, startups and SME’s will not be able to successfully leverage technology to maximize gains. How to overcome these challenges? Multiple speakers shared their experiences and best practices for startups and SME’s on the reality of the current tech talent crunch. We would like to thank AmCham for organising this event together and for hosting it!

The event took place at the Stamford American Auditorium at the American Chamber of Commerce. The Americans and Dutch were both well-represented. It was inspiring to see both associations come together to learn from and about each other! The event was opened by Ravi Alfreds, Director for Government and Public Affairs at American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore. After his warm welcome, the panel discussion was started by moderator Nathan Smit, Senior 8

Consultant, IT – Applications & Emerging Technology at Robert Walters. He welcomed the panel which consisted of Jan-Arie Byloos, Chief Operating Officer at Bluemeg, Lynn Tan, Co-Founder of Blonk Group and Onno van Paridon, Deputy Head of Engineering at Adyen.

After introductions, the speakers shared their ideas and experiences on the challenges of attracting tech talent.

The different perspectives brought interesting discussions to the table. It seems that the way in which a company will attract the ‘perfect (tech) candidate’ mainly depends on the company’s and the manager’s preferences. One company might value cultural fit above all, where another company might solely look for certain hard skills. As such, finding the right candidate will only succeed when there is understanding of the expectations of the organisation, the manager and the role. Furthermore, it was discussed that the ‘perfect candidate’ simply might not exist. Especially with technology evolving so rapidly. The key to attracting the right people might therefore be to focus on the candidate’s potential rather than to solely focus on where he or she is today.

What role does Artificial Intelligence play in recruitment?

The panel members and some of the attendees had an interesting exchange of ideas and experiences on this. For one it was argued that an organisation should have enough data in order to be able to attract the right talent through Artificial Intelligence. Will this be possible for startups and SME’s to achieve? It could also be questioned to what extent it is desirable that Artificial Intelligence facilitates the recruitment process. Will Artificial Intelligence ever be able to also account for ‘the human touch’? The answer may, again, depend on the characteristics of the organisation, manager and the role.

After the closing remarks by Emma Fabius representing the Startup & SME committee of ADB-DutchCham, there was the opportunity for networking. Over food and drinks the attendees created new connections and continued to

share and discuss ideas. It was the first time that ADBDutchCham and AmCham organised an event together and we would like to thank the AmCham for the great collaboration. We sincerely hope that the event inspired fruitful connections and ideas, and we are looking forward to organise events together in the future!

ADB-DutchCham would specifically like to thank BlueMeg sponsoring the attendance of the ADB-DutchCham members!

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ADB-DutchCham EVENTS

AI Roundtable:

Corporate-Startup Collaboration ... Photos by ADB-DutchCham ...

By Robbert-John Sjollema

Consultant at IndaHash, Mentor at Techstars, Co-Chair of the Startup & SME Academy, Owner of Continae

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is on the rise, and very rapidly so. This technology for nextgeneration intelligence and decision making is permeating every industry and much of human activity. AI technology is also getting more advanced increasingly fast, creating more and more possibilities and opportunities.

Large corporates are adapting to this development. Many run ambitious internal programmes to develop and implement AI solutions. In addition, they are increasingly looking to co-create solutions with AI entrepreneurs, and want to know how to effectively engage with the startup ecosystem.

To contribute to this, SGInnovate and ADB-DutchCham organised a by-invite-only AI Roundtable: CorporateStartup Collaboration. This took place on the 22nd of March at the ADB-DutchCham office.

We brought together senior executives of large corporates and deep tech entrepreneurs for knowledge sharing and discussion on how to work together to accelerate AI adoption. Steve Leonard, Founding CEO of SGInnovate and Ad Ketelaars, Chairman of ADB-DutchCham, have hosted the roundtable.

The roundtable discussion focused mostly on success cases of corporate-startup partnerships, on enablers, obstacles and risks in implementing AI, and on how corporates and startups may come closer together and co-create AI solutions.

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Enablers and Barriers

During the roundtable we noticed that startups and corporates operate on very different time scales: a few months may be considered a very short duration for corporates but could represent a lifetime for startups.

Startups generally have a high burn rate with a short runway (that’s startup lingo for not having enough money to survive for a long time), which means that time is always of the essence. Projects have to be executed effectively and at a fast pace.

It was generally agreed that by combining the agility of startups with the resources of big enterprises earlier, AI solutions can be developed and scaled more rapidly. For this to happen, some key success factors include: • Clear corporate business owner or lead team • A (small) budget for startups to work with (this can also be an in-kind budget like allocation of time or resources) • Knowing what is next after the pilot project During the roundtable, a few key requirements for startups to successfully complete a project came up: • Platforms or workshops to understand the corporate’s

“

The roundtable discussion focused mostly on success cases of corporate-startup partnerships, on enablers, obstacles and risks in implementing AI, and on how corporates and startups may come closer together and co-create AI solutions.

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Their resources may be limited because of the lack of clear ROI from startup engagements.

• For corporations it is important to not implement AI projects for the sake of vanity. It does not benefit startups as there is likely insufficient budget, startups will also not be able to “solve” anything as the problem is not properly defined, and the solution will most likely not be implemented into the business, thus startups will not be able to create a track record.

How corporates, startups and the ecosystem should work better together

The overall opinion around the table was that the corporate mindset to embrace change and innovation might need cultivation. This is of course an age-old issue; people are afraid of change, and innovation might mean that someone loses their job.

business problems would be useful as it helps startups to identify a clear problem statement from the corporates.

• Corporates need to have an idea of which startups to engage before engaging them, and what tools can be best used to solve this problem.

• It is more efficient for startups to engage directly with the business owner or with a champion at the leadership level of large corporates.

Corporations have their own unique obstacles and requirements: • It is important that startups understand their businesses to suggest meaningful solutions.

A few corporates shared how their collaboration with startups is more effective as their engagement model depends on which stage the startups are in. A clear indication about a startup’s age, track record and number of employees gives the corporates a better indication on how much support they have to give the startup to succeed.

All parties agreed in unison that entities such as Chambers of Commerce, SGInnovate and AI Singapore could help bring corporates and startups closer together (through events, workshops, co-creation challenges).

With this in mind, we are planning to create more events together with SGInnovate, to bring parties together, discuss about how to optimise collaborations, and to improve the success rate of pilot projects.

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ADB-DutchCham EVENTS

Roundtable discussion with Rob Carnell

... Photos by ADB-DutchCham ...

On Monday 1 April 2019, a group of around 35 members mainly active in the financial industry attended the roundtable discussion with Mr. Rob Carnell at the ING office.

Mr. Carnell is Chief Economist and Head of Asia Research at ING Asia Pacific. Prior to his current role in Singapore, he led the coverage of the U.S. economy and covered Eurozone economics for ING financial markets. Mr. Carnell and his team were one of the first to accurately forecast and time the U.S housing collapse that eventually led to the global financial crisis in 2008.Â

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By Wouter Muis

Founder at Bundies & Bamboo Branding

At the time of the event, the Brexit had just passed its first deadline on 29 March and with Mr. Carnell being British, this was a hot topic for discussion. The audience was challenged to give its opinion via a digital questionaire on the Brexit, but also on the trade war and other global trends.

Is there going to be a global recession within the next year and what does that actually mean, a global recession? Most of us were not too optimistic about the global economy, but, on a positive note, the general opinion on the trade war was that it is nearing its end. The presentation was interactive and provided some interesting insights. Although the topics could have been heavy food for thought, Mr. Carnell brought his views with a typical British sense of humor and a light touch. Therefore, the session ended with most of us in a good mood and enough positive vibes to stay for a drink and a snack. We thank ING for making this event possible and look forward to the next financial forecast.

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ADB-DutchCham EVENTS

Dutch Drinks King’s Night Party 2019

By Eline van Dijke

International Tax Manager / Luther

On Friday 26 April 2019 we celebrated our King’s 52nd birthday in Singapore. For the second year in row ADB-DutchCham and Dutch Drinks combined their forces to throw a Kings Night Party that Singapore have never seen before. The party sponsored by DSM was held at Monti with an enchanting view over Marina Bay.

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Before the party started, people dressed in orange were already gathering for this typical Dutch celebration. Once the registration was opened at 7 pm, people from various nationalities, all dressed in orange continued arriving. For those who registered via the ADB-DutchCham website and arrived before 8:30pm, Heineken provided a warm welcome with two cold beers per person.

With Marlies Gerritsen-Feenstra as photographer some great pictures of the party were taken and can be found on the Dutch Drinks Facebook page. Around 9 pm the rooftop was a sea of orange, celebrating our King’s Birthday together as one. Many people passing by were curious to see the orange mass from a distance - we are probably featured on social media channels all across the world. Around 11 pm the orange crowd moved to Monti’s dancefloor to enjoy the performance of Mathilda D’Silva & band, sponsored by Philips. The last partygoers left Monti in a conga line at 3.15 am.

We look back at a very successful King’s Night Party in Singapore and hope to see you all again next year. We would like to thank our sponsors, Heineken, DSM and Philips, for their support.

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ADB-DutchCham EVENTS

Sustainable Business Committee:

brainstorm

about this years’ agenda

By Maarten van Wel Executive Director, ADB-DutchCham

... Photos by Maarten van Wel ...

On Thursday 11 April 2019 the Sustainable Business Committee hosted a brainstorm session at the ABN AMRO office to determine this year’s agenda.

The session started with a presentation by Liesbeth Kanis (Managing Director Brill Asia Pte Ltd) who talked about an academic publishers’ involvement in Corporate Social Responsibility, and what they do to help to implement the Sustainable Development Goals within public-private partnerships.

research information and access to justice to further the rule of law globally.

She also talked about Research4Life and the recently launched programme, ‘Global Online Access to Legal Information’ (GOALI), which focuses on access to legal

The objective was to determine the topics and type of events for this year’s agenda. With a variety of companies present, it became clear once more that Sustainability means different things to different companies.

After the presentation, the brainstorm followed and was led by the Sustainability Committee Chairs: Ghislaine Nadaud (ABN AMRO) and Tias van Moorsel (Steward Redqueen).

The output from the session will be further finalised by the committee, but a few of the conclusions were that we should focus on two types of events: • Inform and inspire our members with presentations by subject matter experts or company visits.

• Connect and actively look for solutions in roundtable sessions. The topics can be more specific for an industry sector.

We thank the members actively participating in the brainstorm session and look forward to the Sustainability events to come!

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ADB-DutchCham EVENTS

Join The Orange Grandstand at the Singapore Formula 1 Support to the Max

Under the slogan ‘Support to the Max’ we will become the first Formula 1 Orange Collective in Singapore, similar to the ‘Oranje Tribunes’ in Hungary and Austria.

The Orange Grandstand is for everyone that loves Formula 1 in general, Max in particular or just wants to enjoy the vibe of this Orange collective!

More than 300 tickets sold…and counting

With more than 300 Orange Grandstand tickets sold already, Singapore GP agreed to construct an extra block (A5) for the Orange Grandstand. These newly released seats are however limited, so make sure you don’t miss out and get your tickets in time.

GET YOUR TICKETS

Go to https://adb-dutchcham.sg/event/orangegrandstand/ to order your tickets!

The tickets give you 3-Days access to the Orange Grandstand, Zone 4 and is close to Padang Stage to enjoy

performances of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Muse, Fatboy Slim, Swedish House Mafia and many others.

But the Orange Grandstand Package offers more than just watching a race: it is about atmosphere, fun and includes free entry to the afterparty on 21 September. Thanks to our sponsor ProLiquid, everyone can attend the events in style with a limited edition Orange Grandstand Polo or Female tank top that can be collected during the Dutch Drinks Singapore event on Friday 23 August 2019 from 19:00-20:00 in CBD. For news and updates about the Orange Grandstand Package check Facebook Dutch Drinks: https://www. facebook.com/events/462472474160010/

Thank you Jacinta & Daniël On behalf of everyone at ADBDutchCham, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Daniël Heerkens and Jacinta Noonan for all their hard and dedicated work for our ADB-DutchCham magazine!

You have both played an important part in creating our magazine and bringing it to the level where it is now: great and easy to read articles (thank you Jacinta!) with a stylish design and lay-out (thank you Daniël!). Over the past 10 years, Jacinta has put a lot of her time and effort in the magazine. When she first moved to Singapore

By Charissa Riemeijer

Business & Committee Manager ADB-DutchCham

she helped Frank Kuijsters and continued to be part of the Magazine even after she moved back to the Netherlands. She recalls her time at ADB-DutchCham as a wonderful journey, riding the waves of many changes and being part of ADB and its growth. Daniel too has put a lot of his time and energy in the magazine over the past 5 years and worked with great dedication with a broad variety of contributors to the magazine. We are very proud that we had both of you on board for so long and you will both be truly missed!

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from the dutch embassy

Get ready for an empty driver’s seat! ... Photos by Shutterstock & NTU Singapore ...

Imagine a car pulling up without a driver.

Would you get in? Do we trust technology enough to make autonomous vehicles part of our daily commute?

Not all of us are fortunate enough to drive a car in Singapore. But we do see and hear about the rapid technology developments. Advanced driver assistance systems already help to keep us safe.

For instance by sending a warning when we are too close to the car in front of us. And there is more in store. Although it will take a while before the streets are roaming with autonomous vehicles, Singapore and the Netherlands are taking a lead.

By Astrid Seegers

Advisor for Innovation, Technology and Science at Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Singapore

ranked number one, because of the excellent infrastructure and high consumer acceptance.

Perhaps this high consumer acceptance has something to do with time spend in Dutch traffic jams. Time that could be used for more meaningful purposes, such as reading a newspaper.

Singapore is ranked number two in the index.

The country’s government has a high score when it comes to policy, rules and regulation.

The goal of the government is to create a car-lite city state, where everyone has easy access to public transport. The autonomous car will be used as last mile solution. Privately owned cars will be a luxury of the past.

The Autonomous Vehicles Readiness Index

The recent edition of the KMPG Autonomous Vehicles Readiness Index shows how the Netherlands and Singapore are dominant in the smart mobility arena. The Netherlands is

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What more can we expect in Singapore?

Recently Volvo and NTU launched the world’s first 12 meter long autonomous electric bus. And there have been autonomous taxis

driving around in the One North area for a few years. Autonomous technology is also being introduced for service vehicles. The National Environment Agency of Singapore announced the environmental robotics programme in 2017. Two consortiums are developing so-called driverless road-cleaning vehicles, it is expected trials will start next year.

Great minds think alike

The similarities and shared interests of Singapore and the Netherlands are not new.

Dutch companies and research institutes already found their way to Singapore. Dutch applied research institute TNO is a partner in the Centre of Excellence for Testing & Research of Autonomous Vehicles at NTU (CETRAN).

CETRAN is developing test criteria and safety standards for the deployment of autonomous vehicles on the public road in Singapore and adopted TNOs Streetwise Methodology for a scenario based safety assessment framework.

SMRT and Dutch company 2Getthere to test automated shuttles at the campus.

Holland Innovation Network

From 21 – 25 October ITS World will take place in Singapore. The event brings together international players in the field of mobility and transport. The Holland Innovation Network (HIN) of the Netherlands Embassy in Singapore supports the incoming Dutch delegation with additional meetings, seminars and matchmaking.

Goal of HIN is to help identify possible R&D collaborations and partnerships between Singaporean and Dutch knowledge institutes, government and companies.

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For more information check the weblog of HIN www.hollandinnovation.sg or contact Natalie Koot and Astrid Seegers, Advisors for Innovation, Technology and Science via sin-ia@minbuza.nl

Another example of Singapore and Dutch collaboration is focused on intelligent transport systems (ITS). Together with the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Dutch company NXP launched the NTU NXP smart mobility testbed in 2017. The backbone of the test bed at NTU is supported by NXP Semiconductors, whose secure communication systems can link cars, traffic lights and other infrastructure in a campus-wide network. NTU also partnered

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your key to

success in 2019.

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The Little Red Dot had one of its best years in 2018 when it comes to both economic and labour markets. For the first time in five years, the Ministry of Manpower reported that there are 104 job vacancies to every 100 job seekers1. This was the first time since March 2016 where the number of available jobs surpassed the number of unemployed people, prompting many to take advantage of the situation and return to the workforce.

Companies reported stellar profits last year as well, with many attributing their growth to favourable economic conditions, successful integration from transformation projects as well as, a productive and talented workforce. another year of strong, positive growth Singapore’s gross domestic product is forecasted to grow by 1.5% to 3.5% in 2019 2 . The pace of economic expansion will ease in 2019, in part due to repercussions from the ongoing trade conflict between the US and its key trading partners.

The tightening of global financial conditions could result in some pullback in investments and slower consumption growth as well, amid falling business and consumer confidence.

The technology and healthcare industries will remain resilient despite this volatile market. The expected growth is attributed to the increasing local and global demand for high-quality solutions and services. Even though the market outlook is a cautionary one, 2019 could still be another year of strong, positive growth.

getting the foundation right for work-life balance Employers will be expected to play a more supportive role to help their staff strike a balance between work and life.

The Randstad Singapore’s 2018 Employer Brand research indicated that 64% of locally-based workers look for companies that have good worklife balance policies and initiatives when choosing an employer – a seven point increase from 2016.

Companies are beginning to recognise this key motivator with many investing in cloud integration and the development and implementation of new technology to support collaboration and remote working.

These transformation projects lay the foundation for employers to introduce new flexi-work policies that promote a healthy work-life balance.

Employees can choose to work during a time and at a location that best suit their lifestyles.

With more autonomy, employees will take greater responsibility for the quality and productivity of their work.

companies building a team of highly-skilled talent Moving into 2019, we expect the search for the right talent to become even more challenging for employers. Instead of hiring generalists, companies are more likely to build teams of talent with niche and specialised skills to ensure their competitiveness in a saturated market.

However, these experienced specialists can be hard to come by as some of the new skills are based around technology that did not exist in the past. Employers first need to understand what motivates and attracts an employee. In 2018, the annual Randstad Employer Brand research highlighted that besides inclusive work-life balance policies, job seekers are drawn to companies that are able to support their professional development.

In order to secure these specialists, HR teams will need to partner closely with their internal hiring managers to gain a deeper understanding on the scope of each role and type of skills and experience required. Line managers will also play a crucial role in the recruitment process as they have the strongest awareness of market changes and customer demands, and are ultimately responsible for the team’s capabilities to address them.

randstad singapore 2019 market outlook This annual report highlights key economic factors impacting Singapore as well as insights from our leaders on key employment trends for both employers and job seekers.

The Randstad Singapore 2019 market outlook focuses on three areas where we expect to see most changes and growth: •

information technology and communications

•

life sciences

•

digital marketing

Request a complimentary copy of the 2019 market outlook at randstad.com.sg/marketoutlook2019

References: 1. Ministry of Manpower Singapore. Labour Market Report, First Quarter 2018. Released on 13 June 2018. 2. Ministry of Trade and Industry Singapore.

Newsroom, Press Release. MTI Forecasts GDP to Grow by “3.0 to 3.5 Per Cent” in 2018 and “1.5 to 3.5 Per Cent” in 2019. Released on 22 November 2018. Available at: https://www.mti.gov.sg/Newsroom/Press-Releases/2018/11/MTI-Forecasts-GDP-to-Grow-by-3_0-to-3_5-Per-Cent-in-2018-and-1_5-to-3_5-Per-Cent-in-2019

BusiNess

Getting to know BlueMeg

& Jan-Arie Bijloos ... Photos by BlueMeg ...

Jan-Arie Bijloos, together with the other co-founders of BlueMeg, started business in Singapore to enable others to do the same. As digital corporate services provider, BlueMeg takes care of all the administrative burdens that come with owning a company and helps companies with mandatory compliance, such as filing requirements with Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (“ACRA”), tax compliance with IRAS, accounting, work visas, and providing local directors.

They do so digitally, making all information accessible online.

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By Robbert-John Sjollema

Consultant at IndaHash, Mentor at Techstars, Co-Chair of the Startup & SME Academy, Owner of Continae

By Emma Fabius

ADB-DutchCham Startup & SME Committee

Jan-Arie studied hotel management, but started working for a bank instead. He continued his education by attaining a master’s degree in international finance and moved into the field of entrepreneurial fintech around 2011. “After having worked through the financial crisis within the traditional financial industry, it became apparent that growth and looking for new opportunities were no longer at the top of the agenda. It was all about mitigating risk, preventing further reputation damage, and divesting assets and reducing risk.

This caused a very negative atmosphere where everyone was just trying to hold on to their jobs and showed no initiative”, Jan-Arie explains. “In my opinion this opened the space up for competition from new entrants and people with a vision using the latest technology.

“

In business in general and for BlueMeg particularly, transparency is key. BlueMeg strives to make everything as transparent as possible, both from a pricing perspective as well as what services are included or not.

”

Before co-founding BlueMeg, Jan-Arie worked in various other FinTech start-up companies and was a mentor at Startupbootcamp. His involvement with the latter exposed him to a much wider field of FinTech players and allowed him to venture into areas that were new to him.

The team behind BlueMeg recognized the huge opportunity in digitizing corporate governance and in helping clients making this process a lot more efficient. The other cofounders of BlueMeg are Kiana Maggiolo who leads operations and strategy, Paul du Long, who is responsible for building all their technology, Carlo van den Akker who leads Legal & Compliance, and JP Koolmees, who is the company’s CEO. JP has been in this industry for a long time, having worked for a few of the major players in the last 19 years. The company currently has offices in Singapore and Hong Kong.

walk them through the process. BlueMeg’s services are not only applicable to new companies, also existing companies can move their administration over to BlueMeg. In business in general and for BlueMeg particularly, transparency is key. BlueMeg strives to make everything as transparent as possible, both from a pricing perspective as well as what services are included or not. The traditional corporate services industry can be somewhat opaque, making things appear much more difficult than they actually are. At times, this results in charging of high retainer fees, with hourly fees for additional services on top of that. Jan Arie: “At BlueMeg we don’t believe in such models. Instead, companies can select a basic, premium or comprehensive package, based on the complexity of the shareholder structure, and that package is all-inclusive.”

The key advantage for the Dutch Community to work with BlueMeg is that they are very familiar with Dutch company structures and Dutch notarial, legal and ‘Kamer van Koophandel’ documents. BlueMeg supports all its BlueMeg offers digital corporate services to a variety of Dutch clients in Dutch and does not require certified people and businesses who want to set up a private limited translated documents. This also goes for Italian, French, entity in Singapore or Hong Kong. People who already Spanish and Chinese clients and documentation. Moreover, know what they want to do can simply order their company BlueMeg leverages its own client base to help new clients online at ‘bluemeg.com’ and incorporate their business fully set up business. With many Dutch companies under automated. Other people might have never set up a business administration and by thinking like entrepreneurs, BlueMeg before and need more assistance. They can approach BlueMeg is always on the look-out for new business and very online after which a call, meeting or chat will be scheduled to much willing to help with introductions between Dutch, Singaporean and other business owners.

Jan-Arie and the BlueMeg team have now ran BlueMeg for about a year and they are excited for the future. Even though there is a lot of competition (some say that there are 2000 filing agents in Singapore alone), the market is still very fragmented. BlueMeg thus sees a lot of potential to grow organically by offering better and, most importantly digital and transparent services. BlueMeg’s business in Singapore and Hong Kong is already growing healthily, and overseas expansion is planned for Australia in Q3 as well as the UK. After that BlueMeg will slowly but surely looking at venturing further into Europe.

•

23

ADB-DutchCham newS

New Corporate member

Global Corporate Management & Fiduciary Services Boutique since 1972. Corpag continues to expand and currently has its own, fully staffed offices in and provides services from Curaçao, United States (Miami, New York), Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Cyprus, Turkey, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Spain, Chile, Peru, New Zealand, Uruguay, BVI, St Lucia, and Singapore. With local partners Corpag can also provide services from most other jurisdictions.

Vanderlande is the global market leader for value-added logistic process automation at airports, and in the parcel market. The company is also a leading supplier of process automation solutions for warehouses.

Vanderlande’s baggage handling systems move 3.7 billion pieces of luggage around the world per year, in other words 10.1 million per day. Its systems are active in 600 airports including 13 of the world’s top 20. More than 39 million parcels are sorted by its systems every day, which have been installed for the world’s leading parcel companies. In addition, many of the largest global e-commerce players and distribution firms have confidence in Vanderlande’s efficient and reliable solutions.

CORPAG

Vanderlande Industries Singapore Pte Ltd

137 Telok Ayer Street, #08-01, Singapore 068602 T: +65 6260 2781

#B1-07B, 80 Airport Boulevard, Changi International Airport Terminal 1, Singapore 819642

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE

Myrthe Brakel, Chief Editor Marielle van Mierlo, Editor Alexis van Dam, Writer Email

2Stallions is a Regional Full Service Digital Marketing agency based in Singapore, Philippines, India & Indonesia, focused on driving results for our clients.

The 2Stallions management team brings a combination of European expertise and Asian market insights. Our clients are diverse – ranging from government agencies, start ups and globally recognized brands like: Axa, Bosch, BASF, Red Bull, CNN, Thomson Medical, Royal Friesland Campina, Wavin, InterContinental Hotel Group, Unit4, UBS, Stanley Black & Decker.

2Stallions The Centropod, 80 Changi Road, #05-03 Singapore 419715

info@adb-dutchcham.sg ADB-DutchCham office ADB-DutchCham Singapore, c/o 541 Orchard Road #13-01 Liat Towers, Singapore 238881 www.adb-dutchcham.sg DESIGN & PrePress

Jennifer Phua © ADB-DutchCham (UEN: T08SS0125G). The contents of this magazine are partly based on information received from third parties and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of ADB-DutchCham. The Committee does not take responsibility for the correctness of the articles.

MCI (P) 148/05/2015

All new members Emiel Eijdenberg Gustaaf Reerink Harold van Vugt Hayley Bakker Maaike van Rij - van Ooststroom Martijn van Bemmel Mathilde Monmont Martijn de Jong Maureen DeRooij Meike de Both

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James Cook University ABNR Counsellors at Law W&O Asia Colibri Growth Kranji Solutions Pte Ltd Conergy / Macquarie Capital Fiovana Standard Chartered WWF Singapore ADB-DutchCham

Nadia van Dam Paul van der Hulst Peter DeMeo Ronald Dooremalen Roel de Both Ruud Dautzenberg Serene Law Shivani Thapar Tamara Buijsse Vincent Bakker

AET Tankers Aquipe Invest IBM Raffles Hotel Singapore Cushman & Wakefield Asia Capital Reinsurance Frozen Lime Asia Pte Ltd DB ALE Heavylift Positive Energy Ltd.

Hollandse_ExpatLiving-ad_Jul-Edit.pdf

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