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asiabulletin no8 2006 11

A bulletin by Chalmers students in Asia

/japan - just in time /welcome to götheborg in shanghai

/tokyo game show 2006 /korea, manufacturing heaven? /laos - rural development/

/want to succeed in asia?

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asiaContents

Chalmers Asia was opened in March 2003 and is the result of a bilateral exchange agreement between National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) and Chalmers University of Technology. The Chalmers Asia office is strategically located at NCTU, near Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park.

PURPOSE- Increase awareness at Chalmers about the development in East Asia, with focus on Taiwan.- Support mobility of students and staff between NCTU and Chalmers- Enhance Chalmers’ visibility in Taiwan and the neighbouring region

web www.asia.chalmers.sephone +886 (0)3 573 73 69 +46 (0)3� 780 4� 55fax +886 (0)3 573 74 69

CONTACTChalmers AsiaNational Chiao Tung University�00� Ta-Hsueh Rd.Hsinchu 300Taiwan, R.O.C.

THE CHALMERS ASIA BULLETINThe purpose of this publication is to increase the awareness of Asia among the students and the staff of Chalmers. The articles are written by the Chalmers exchange students in Asia.Editor in Chief, Design:Fredrik Ramberg fredrik.ramberg@asia.chalmers.seAnders Perntz anders.perntz@asia.chalmers.se

WHAT IS CHALMERS ASIA?

asiaContents

Editorial

Life and times at the office

Representatives Autumn 2006

NCTU Europe

Japan - Just in Time

Want to succeed in Asia?

Welcome to Götheborg in Shanghai

Tokyo Game Show 2006

Korea, manufacturing heaven?

An engineer’s playground

The Thai market in a Swedish perspective

Laos - rural development in a South-East Asian backwater

Shanghai international automotive city

The leading issue

Sino - Swedish campus at Fudan University, Shanghai

From imitation to innovation

Chalmers in Asia

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asiaOffice

asiaReport

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So there I was, sipping fresh fruit juice in the Taiwanese sunshine and studying strange looking characters. It was the end of June and this one year adventure in Taiwan was just about to start with a six week summer course in Mandarin.

Taiwan, the independent economy off the coast of China, has seen a great economical development over the last few decades. Originally a mass producer of low end products, Taiwan is today world leading in the semiconductor industry and is also putting great efforts into biotechnology. Chalmers saw the importance of being present in this booming part of the world. Therefore, our university started up an exchange program and an office managed by Chalmers exchange students at National Chiao Tung University.

After a summer in good company and with lots of fun, we started up the fourth year of Chalmers Asia – Taiwan Office, this time with a little different approach then before. We want all Chalmers students and staff to be aware of the great possibilities of Asia and help those interested in taking a closer look at the region.

The Chalmers Asia Promotional film has just been finished, and will be out in November; showing you all the best of what one year in Taiwan has to offer. The film will be published at the new Chalmers Asia website, which contains a lot of useful information. The website has recently been redesigned, so if you are interested in studying in this region, interested in doing your thesis here or if you simply want to see a great film, do not hesitate to visit www.asia.chalmers.se.

KAJSA TORRING Head of Office

What are the future opportunities for a Chalmers stu-dent in Asia?One year ago we asked ourselves this question and in this bulletin we are trying to give you some hints about the answer. As you will see there are many ways of becoming successful in Asia, but what we have learned during our short time here, is that the number of op-portunities are infinite. A good start for a future in Asia is to study your fourth year here. Take the chance and apply today!

Before we started to work with the bulletin we asked ourselves the question, “to whom is this bulletin dedi-cated to”. We came to the conclusion that now, the readers are different from before. Last year was the first year that this bulletin was printed in 500 copies and published at Chalmers for the students. Previous years, this was just a bulletin published in 30 copies and read by the staff at the Chalmers head office. The conclusion was that we have to change the content to be more interesting for a Chalmers student. So, in this bulletin we have an additional topic, “to report about the opportunities for a Chalmers student in Asia”, as mentioned above. But we still have the old theme left, “to analyse Asia from a economic and technological perspective”. We have tried to mix these two topics to give the bulletin a wider and more interesting coverage. We have also worked hard on making the articles more easily read, no matter of your background.

Considering the layout, our focus has been to make the design more alive with adequate pictures in the arti-cles. Comments about the Bulletin are always welcome and we would like to hear what you think of this issue. If you have any topics you would like to hear about in the next issue, please let us know.

When summarising all the articles, we see that the fol-lowing countries are represented: Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Laos, Korea and China, in total eight interesting places with a lot of opportunities. Our hope is that after reading this bulletin, you will have become inspired by Asia, and that those of you with interest in coming here have gotten some information on how to realise your future in Asia.

FREDRIK RAMBERGANDERS PERNTz

LETTER FROM THE EDITORS

LETTER FROM THE HEAD OF OFFICE

Editor in ChiefDesign

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asiaOffice

The Chalmers Asia team of this autumn is finally complete here in Taiwan. For the reader who is not familiar with our office, we would like to give you a brief introduction. Afterwards, we will tell you all about our activities so far this autumn.

The official name is “Chalmers Asia - Taiwan Office”; it is located in the campus of National Chiao Tung University, in short NCTU. NCTU lies in Hsinchu, a town similar in size to Gothenburg, not far from Taipei on the north-eastern coast of Taiwan. To be more precise, the office is a beautiful, spacious room inside NCTU’s new library building. We, the seven students from Chalmers taking part in the exchange between NCTU and Chalmers, manage the office during our exchange year. We have a bunch of computers here, a small exhibition of Chalmers-Gothenburg-Sweden posters and artifacts, a small meeting room and a couple of sofas and armchairs.The office is open to everyone three afternoons a week. During these times, at least two of us are in the office working and gladly welcoming all visitors. However, as the office also serves as our refuge and meeting point, we spend a lot more time here than those three afternoons. This is very appreciated by students, teachers and other visitors from Taiwan and afar that happen to stop by.

First big event to take place was the official inauguration of September 28. A few small speeches were held, and then all our honoured guests were treated to Swedish specialties such as salmon dainty sandwiches, Swedish chocolate, sweets and cookies. Being our first official event, we were all happy that our careful preparations and hard work was well received by the visitors.

Among the many things we have done so far, our main effort has been put into making a promotional film and a new website. This film and website is directed to Swedish students in order to inform them about Chalmers Asia and Chalmers’s exchange program at NCTU in Taiwan. In addition to this, we have welcomed and informed students and teachers from different universities in Taiwan about us, Chalmers and Sweden. We have helped an NCTU-professor setting up a meeting with a Chalmers teacher and a visit to Volvo Cars, we have visited the Swedish Trade Council in Taipei and we have received a group of visitors from an Indonesian university. We have been preparing for the reception of “Chalmers Fastigheter” and “Innovationsbron” in October/November and we have also been preparing to help the next batch of NCTU students about to go to Chalmers. Last but definitely not least; together with other Chalmers students in Eastern Asia we have created this bulletin.

In order to give you a deeper insight in Eastern Asia, we at Chalmers Asia have the opportunity to travel all over the region. In September, three of us went to Japan, in October, two others went to Hong Kong and Shanghai. November brings a planned visit to Indonesia and the Philippines. Unfortunately, the Asiabulletin is not big, Eastern Asia is. So, we have not had time to go everywhere, yet. However, a new issue is already in the making, coming to you in the spring of 2007.

LIFE AND TIMES AT THE OFFICE

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asiaOffice

KAJSA TORRING, Head of Office, is a student at NCTU’s Management of Technology department and has a background in Technology Management and Economics at Chalmers University of Technology.

AXEL JANSON, Deputy Head of Office,is a student at NCTU’s Management of Technology department and has a background in Technology Management and Economics at Chalmers University of Technology.

ANDERS PERNTz, representative, is part of the Project Report and Corporate Relations group and is and is primarily responsible for the making and the layout of the Chalmers Asia Bulletin. Anders is a student at NCTU’s Electrical Engineering department and has a background in Engineering Automation and Mechatronics at Chalmers University of Technology.

LARS ANDRÉN, representative, is part of the Academic Exchange and Alumni group. Lars is currently working on his Master thesis concerning Event Marketing at the Computer Science department at NCTU. He has a background in Computer Science and Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology.

YEU-FWU HUA, representative, is part of the Project Report and Corporate Relations group and is primarily responsible for the Chalmers Asia contacts towards companies in the region. Yeu-Fwu is a student at NCTU’s Management of Technology department and has a background in Technology Management and Economics at Chalmers University of Technology.

MARCUS LINDEBERG, representative, is part of the Academic Exchange and Alumni group, he is also webmaster of the Chalmers Asia web site. Marcus is a student at NCTU’s Electrical Engineering department and has a background in Engineering Automation and Mechatronics at Chalmers University of Technology.

FREDRIK RAMBERG, representative, is part of the Project Report and Corporate Relations group and is primarily editor in chief of the Chalmers Asia Bulletin. Fredrik is a student at NCTU’s Electrical Engineering department and has a background in Engineering Physics at Chalmers University of Technology.

ANDERS MARCUS FREDRIK KAJSA FWU AXEL LARS

REPRESENTATIVES AUTUMN 2006

Anders Marcus Fredrik Kajsa Yeu-Fwu Axel Lars

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On September 14th, NCTU Europe held its 2nd anniversary celebration. Many Swedish students and faculties in Chalmers joined and had fun with us on that day. We had a short introduc-tion about Taiwan and served Taiwanese food, which everyone seemed to enjoy. We were glad to show them the beautiful scenery and prosperity of Taiwan and we also shared differences between Sweden and Taiwan, both cultural and academic, with them.

Yes. We always do our best to be a bridge between NCTU and Chalmers, additionally, between Asia and Europe. We hold many activities in the campus every year, and every day from 12:00~13:00, we are ready in our office with passion to welcome everyone who is interested in Taiwan.

In addition to improve the connection between two countries, we, the members of NCTU Europe, learn knowledge by heart in our majors, and improve our English ability. We are lucky to have this opportunity to be exchanged students in this beautiful city. We will treasure this experience to broaden our horizon to the world.

NCTU Europe’s Column asiaOffice

NCTU Europe is located at Chalmers in Gothenburg, Swe-den, and is run by exchange students from NCTU. NCTU Eu-rope has many missions. First of all, it promotes and supports the exchange of staff and students between Chalmers and NCTU. In addition, it enhances NCTU’s visibility in Sweden and other European countries. Moreover, it provides interest-ed students with information about National Chiao Tung Uni-versity, Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park, and introduces recent development in technology in Taiwan. Furthermore, via NCTU Europe office, Taiwanese companies can expose them-selves to Chalmers and other institutions in Sweden.

To achieve our goals, NCTU Europe members arrange many activities. To support the student exchange program be-tween NCTU and Chalmers, we hold an information evening to provide information about opportunities for Chalmers stu-dents. Apart from this event students are welcome to our of-fice for more information every weekday lunch. Furthermore, we aim to deepen the knowledge of the Taiwanese culture at Chalmers through activities linked to Taiwanese holidays. To enrich NCTU’s understanding of Europe, the members also report to NCTU about the recent development in Chalmers, Sweden and Europe. We also identify opportunities in both ways between NCTU and Chalmers. To enhance NCTU vis-ibility in Europe, the members establish contact with different academic institutions and industries. We also publish a bulletin on NCTU Europe’s official webpage to let everyone at NCTU know what we are doing and what is happening in Europe.

NCTU EuropeChalmers University of TechnologyHörsalvägen 7412 96 GothenburgSweden

web www.europe.nctu.edu.twphone +46 (0)31 7722588e-mail yuanting@student.chalmers.se

Opening hoursMonday – Friday 12.00–13.00

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A couple of hours south of Tokyo, in the heart of Toyota City, lies the headquarter of the enormous Toyota Motor Corpora-tion. The city has a population of 400,000 and is famous for being built around and named after the, by far, largest employer in the city. The impression an outsider get from coming to the city is the major role Toyota seems to play in the everyday life of the people in the society. There are not only sports centers for the employees at Toyota but even schools, hospitals and other amenities. Not very far from the city center lies the headquarter and several of the manufacturing plants. After an extensive factory tour through one of the assembly plants and an interview with Mr Daigo Umeki, a group manager at Toyota, seve-ral of our questions were answered. The widespread image of harsh working conditions in the Toyota factories seem to be a common misunderstanding. According to Mr Umeki, the factory em-ployees work for eight hours, not more. The night shifts have been taken away and additional breaks have been added all for the sake of the employees’ health. Condi-

tions as good as these would probably be hard to find in many Swedish factories. To the question of whether it is the Japanese culture that allows Toyota to be so efficient or not we got an interes-ting answer. Apparently the culture plays a noticeable role during the introduction phase of new employees. Mr Umeki says that compared to a western factory wor-ker a Japanese factory worker often show a higher level of work discipline in the initial phase. However, this changes when employees are introduced to, and taught about the production philosophy of the company, The Toyota Way. According to Mr Umeki, when it comes to effectiveness and precision it is all about the company culture.

For many years the production system and management of the Toy-ota Motor Corporation has been a hot topic in universities all over the world. Marvels regarding the effectiveness and precision of the production have been mixed with criticism of the hard working condi-tions. Have these impressions created an image of Toyota that might be false? Are the working conditions that much harder compared to western companies? Is it the culture in Japan that allows Toyota to be so efficient? A key factor to the success of Toyota comes from solid suppliers, competitive prices and quality control. What makes the bond to suppliers so strong and just-in-time so effective? Toyota strives to reach the whole world but do they have contacts with inter-national universities? What do you have to consider when establish-ing your company in Japan? We went to Toyota to get the answers about their production and The Swedish Trade Council for additional information on general economic conditions in Japan.

Japan - Just In TimeasiaReport

BY MARCUS LINDEBERG, ANDERS PERNTz

“The widespread image of harsh

working conditions in the Toyota factories

seem to be a common misunderstanding”

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Toyota is very dependent on relations with their suppliers and that is one of the most important factors contributing to its leading position. Mr Umeki explained the necessity to fully incorporate the supplier in the Toyota Production System to main-tain production balance. A strong connec-tion means control, and that is what Toyota is aiming to achieve. Toyota is not winning by itself. It is winning with its supply chain. There is a huge lesson from Toyota on how to manage supplier relationships. The win-win situation is created with mutual under-standing, and is not derived from Toyota pushing their suppliers against the wall to cut their costs. Suppliers are seen as a part of the Toyota family and sometimes Toyota has ownership stake in the supplying com-pany. To ensure control and just-in-time delivery most of the first tier suppliers are located within 15 minutes by car from the Toyota plants.

As a part of its efforts to foster hu-man resources for the future, Toyota sup-ports and works together with overseas educational institutions. A co-operational center has been established in China and a research exchange program in South Ko-rea for students taking on issues related to Japan. Mr Umeki said that Toyota run their own schools and universities in Japan to enhance the bond between the countries. As a Chalmers student interested in lean production it would be highly desirable to gain experience by writing a Master thesis or work as a trainee at Toyota. However according to Mr Umeki there was no such program to enroll in at the time being.

A visit to the Swedish Trade Council in Tokyo put Toyota and general economic conditions in Japan in a wider perspective. As trade commissioner Johan Rugfelt told us; the Japanese economy has been rising since 2002. Swedish design has gained pop-ularity among the single most important customers, young Japanese women, making it easier for Swedish companies to establish their business in Japan. Key factors to suc-cess are good Japanese partners, high qual-ity, the will to modify the product/service

towards Japanese standards, sustainability and devotion to the market and previous experience of export.

During a meeting with Keisuke Ryu, a senior project leader at the Swedish Trade Council, we were given an example of what the consequences for not paying full atten-tion to the needs of Japanese companies might be. In the mid-eighties a Swedish company introduced a new unique ma-chine to Toyota, fulfilling needs of the com-pany’s production. The machine was soon incorporated in the manufacturing process but a number of errors occurred shortly. Corrections were made by the Swedish company but without leaving any docu-mentation about the origin of the problems to Toyota. Toyota requested documenta-tion to prevent the errors from happening in the future but the documentation never came. The Swedish company lost its hold of Toyota and because the business was not profitable enough at that time, the Swed-ish company decided to withdraw from Japan in 1991. After several machine stops and no adequate technical support, Toyota

engaged a Japanese company to try to de-velop an equivalent machine. Lack of un-derstanding the minor issues and not show-ing devotion became a great loss in market share for the Swedish company. They tried to get back into the Japanese market and Toyota in 1993 without success.

Seeing and hearing about all the Toy-ota operations and working conditions, often lectured at Chalmers, strengthen the picture of a highly effective, organised and profitable company. Unless you, as a foreign company, understand the striving for perfection or have a unique product, the Japanese market will refuse your of-fer. In order to fully understand that reli-ability and bonds to suppliers, vendors and customers is vital, there is no better lesson than going to Japan.

Meeting with Keisuke Ryu at STC Tokyo.

Anders Perntz majors in Engineering Auto-

mation and Mechatronics at Chalmers and

is currently studying in Taiwan.

Email: anders.perntz@asia.chalmers.se

Marcus Lindeberg majors in Engineering

Automation and Mechatronics at Chalmers

and is currently studying in Taiwan.

Email: marcus.lindeberg@asia.chalmers.se

asiaReport

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WANT TO SUCC

Axel Janson and Fredrik Ramberg from Chalmers Asia Office had a mission to find out how a young Swede can become successful in Asia. So they went to Hong Kong and Shanghai to see some company representatives, not to learn about the corporations itself, but rather meet the people behind the every day business. In these articles, these professionals will share their hottest tips on how to start your carrier in this part of the world. You will meet a trade lane manager in Hong Kong, a Chalmers student doing his Master thesis in Shanghai and a former Chalmers Asia student who have been working in Beijing and Shanghai for about four years and recently became an entrepreneur.

“It is not what you know, it is who you know.”

asiaReport

BY AXEL JANSON, FREDRIK RAMBERG

Fredrik Nyberg BALtrans, HongKongMeet Fredrik Nyberg, who seven years ago sold all his belongings and moved to Hong Kong to look for a job.

Fredrik had an IT company in Sweden for six years but when the IT crash 1999 destroyed the market he wanted to start his life all over again. He sold all his belongings moved to Hong Kong and put everything on one card. Fredrik could live in his friend’s house for the first three months, so that was the time he had to get a job and find a place to live. When we asked him whether this was the right thing to do, his answer was clear, “I was sure! If you are fully motivated everything will turn out well”. We meet Fredrik at his current job at BALtrans in Hong Kong, were he work as a trade lane manager for Scandinavia and is in charge of all the traffic concerning Scandinavia. BALtrans Group was founded in 1982 and is one of the largest Asia-based freight forwarding and logistics companies. They have an international network spanning all key markets in Asia, North America, the UK and Germany. It is headquartered and listed in Hong Kong and have more than 1,700 employees in over 51 branches.

We asked Fredrik some questions about his experiences from sev-en years of work in Hong Kong:What’s the difference between doing business in Sweden com-pared to Asia?

-This is a more fast paced business environment compared to Swe-

den, where decisions can take a long time.”

What mistakes do Swedish people do when they get here?-We are to trusting.

What’s the biggest culture difference?-Face value is very important here, it should never be underestimat-

ed. Here, you are loyal to a person not to the organisation. There is

a lot of hierarchy here, but the subordinated titles do not mean that

much, the highest boss still decides everything.

How much does people in Hong Kong work?-Much more than in Sweden, but the output compared to the work-

ing hours is not necessarily high. The hours at the office and to be

loyal to your boss can be more important then how much work you

actually get done.

What kind of person do you have to be to work in Asia?-You have to like challenges, have good social competence and be

intrepid; you have to speak for yourself, you get nothing served

here.

What advice would you like to give to Chalmers students which are interested in working in Asia?-You need some work experience, it will be hard otherwise. Visit

www.asiaexpat.com and you will get a lot of information.

What do you think about going to Hong Kong and look for a job once you get here?-You need to be prepared to take a low income job the first year

and then you can start to build your contacts, since contacts are very

important here. The easiest way to get a job here is through head-

hunters. Write a CV and let a headhunter sell you as expensive as

possible.

Fredrik Nyberg about business in Hong Kong

Here is the way

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EED IN ASIA? to do it!

Meet Peter Abramsson, a 25-year old student from Civil Engineering at Chalmers currently doing his Master thesis at NCC in Shanghai.

Peter Abramsson NCC, Shanghai

We meet Peter at the NCC office located just beside Nanjing Lu in central Shang-hai. The view from the office is really nice and Peter seems to be happy about the situation. We start by small talking about Chalmers, Shanghai and our evening plans, then we start the interview:

and I even visited him in Stockholm. Then

I talked to his boss, who said definitely no.

After that, I talked to loads of people and I

even went with some NCC persons to a con-

struction exhibition held in Canton, a trip

which I paid for myself. I wanted to show

that I really was interested in these subjects

and eventually I got to know the people who

could fix it for me.

But you were focused on getting to NCC China all the time?-Absolutley, I think you have to be focused

in some way if you want to succeed.

Did you specify the subject yourself?-No, I said I wanted to work for NCC in

China.

What is your advice to Chalmers students who wants to do their master thesis in Asia?-Do not give up! You

have to work hard and

do not take no for an answer. Remember,

nothing comes for free. It will take some

time and you will get many no-answers. I

think I got a NO for about four times before

I finally got a YES.

You are just back from a business trip to Vietnam. What did you do there?-Well, I lived in a taxi sort of. My goal was

to meet as many suppliers as possible and

see what they had to offer. I visited all kinds

of “plants”, from big production lines to

garage-style production facilities. The com-

munication was an interesting task, in some

places English worked, sometimes I wrote

down what I wanted and sometimes you

simply had to point to what you wanted.

What kind of person do you think you need to be in order to do your Master thesis in

China?-You have to be able to work independently.

Do not expect someone to take care of you.

There will be no schedule, you have to get

started yourself. The companies down here

are often newly established in this market

and they simply do not have time with some

Master thesis student. Because of that, you

have to help them from the first day on, not

the other way around. And you even have

to be ready to work with things that do not

necessarily concern your specific master

thesis.

Do not expect to get paid or to get an apart-

ment arranged for you. If you want to get

compensated in

those ways, they

companies can eas-

ily pick a local stu-

dent before you.

The Master thesis it-

self is the thing. This

is what I believe in and then you have to go

for it!

-Is it hard to get an apartment in Shang-hai?No problem. Once you get down here, you

simply go to the different apartment brokers

in the city and choose your pricing level

when it comes to the rent. It should not be

any problem.

Would you like to stay in Shanghai?-I would definitely like to stay. I am working

on it, but it is not finished yet. Shanghai is

the place where lots of things are happening

at the moment, and I will not look at it from

outside. This is a very nice city to live in. But

do not get me wrong, there is a lot of hard

work once you get down here. There is no

such thing as an ordinary 40-hours working

week!

“The master thesis itself it the thing. This is what I believe in and then you

have to go for it !”

Ok, tell us about your master thesis:- My Master thesis concerns evaluating Viet-

nam as a potential supplier of construction

materials. The country is interesting because

you can find almost the same materials as

in the rest of the world, but to a better price

together with lower labour costs.

How did you get this opportunity to work here?-Well, I did not get it for free. To make a long

story short: I started to plan for my Master

thesis about a year before I had finished at

Chalmers. I worked for NCC during two

summers and got to know a few people who

knew a person who I thought could help

me. I called and e-mailed him for a while

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Daniel Hahn, entrepreneur, Shanghai

After a while we find out that Daniel is not the kind of person you need to push in order to get answers. When we asked him about his background and how he ended up in China, he talked for ninety minutes straight. Here is his story:-Well, I started at Chalmers Mechanical Engineering and went

there for two years. Then I did my military service as a technician

and I became elected representative for my unit. Later on I got in

contact with something called “värnpliktsrådet”, an organization

that represents the conscripts, and I got elected for one year to be

vice chairman of that organisation. During my time there I had the

opportunity to meet many interesting people with different back-

grounds, as compared to people I had met at Chalmers. We also

had meetings with important people like the Minister of Defense

and the Commander-in-Chief.

Then, after being away for two years, I got back to

Chalmers. At this time, I had also started my BS in Business Ad-

ministration at Gothenburg School of Economics. This was in

2000 when there was this IT-boom, so I got involved in lots of

side events concerning venture capital and entrepreneurial stuff.

All this made me more interested in doing business and work with

those kinds of questions.

Some people suggested that I should be the project man-

ager of CHARM, the annually company exhibition at Chalmers

University. I hesitated for a while, since I already had been away

for two years, but then I decided to do it. My vision was to rear-

range the whole thing, so I recruited an almost totally new crew to

the CHARM-team. We found out that the schools of economics

Meet Daniel Hahn, a 3� year old Chalmers Asia alum-nus who has been living in China for many years. We meet him over a few drinks in an elegant apartment at the 24th floor, with the wonderful Shanghai skyline surrounding us.

charged their costumers more than Chalmers, so I raised the prices

and gave the companies less space in the exhibition. But they were

still interested in Chalmers students and the whole thing sold as we

hoped, bringing in a lot more revenue than previous years.

So far I had always wanted to become a management

consultant like many other students at that stage in their educa-

tion. But during the CHARM project I got the opportunity to visit

many large corporations and I realised that they had many inter-

esting tasks to offer. Working for these corporations also gives you

the opportunity to go global.

Anyway, the CHARM-fair of that year attracted some

attention at Chalmers and it was at this time the headmaster’s ad-

viser Jörgen Sjöberg asked me if I was interested in starting up

Chalmers Asia in Taiwan together with some other students. The

university’s aim at that time was to start up three international of-

fices.

I wanted to go abroad in those days, so I could not resist this offer.

And Taiwan was of course an interesting and challenging place to

go. I did not get to pick my crew this time, but we were a good team

that started the work with setting up the office. I arrived to Taiwan

in the summer to attend a summer course in Mandarin. We had

few directives about the office, which was a good thing since that

gave us freer hands in our work. We pursued studies at the univer-

sity in parallel with the office work throughout the whole year.

We sat down and came up with three main tasks for the

office, namely:

• Support the exchange of staff and students between Chalmers and NCTU. • Analyse the technological and economical develop-ment in the East Asian region with focus on emerging technolo-gies. • Create possibilities to cooperate, mainly with compa-nies in the region.

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asiaReport

As often when you start up something com-

pletely new, lots of things went wrong. How-

ever, the office was not meant to open until

March so we managed to keep the deadline

even though it was tight. At the opening

ceremony everyone was there, including

Chalmers Headmaster, NCTU Headmaster,

the Hsinchu mayor as well as a Taiwanese

TV-team.

During my time in Taiwan I got

to know Swedish expatriates working there

and in China, and later on I got in con-

tact with a man at ABB, who was later to

become my boss. He was in charge of the

Automation and Process Automation busi-

ness in the company. I did my Master thesis

for ABB together with

another student, begin-

ning in March. It all

started with a feasibility

study and then we went

to China to finish the

project after the sum-

mer.

My boss asked me what I wanted

to do after that project, and I told him I

wanted to be something like executive offic-

er’s adviser. One evening a few months later,

when we were sitting at the club Thousand

And A Night in Beijing, he told me that he

would offer me a job as “executive officer to

vice president”. I started right away.

Part of the job at ABB was to cre-

ate value through engineering and by sell-

ing hardware, produced not only in China,

but also in Europe etc. I really got a lot of

responsibility from the first day on. As an

example a main task was to develop busi-

ness models for cost migration, in this case

moving whole business areas to China. In

in example, a project could concern mov-

ing the business area “processing lines” to

China. So the international customers buy

the business out of China instead of Germa-

ny for instance. They will then buy a whole

plant from China in terms of engineering

and hardware.

Another interesting thing was

when we started up an engineering centre in

Novosibirsk. In order to get a more opera-

tive experience, I also

worked as project

manager setting up

a steel plant. It was

a tough but instruc-

tive experience to be

in a project like that

from the very beginning, and to see the plant

emerge.

Then I realised that I wanted to do

something new and get my own profit loss.

So currently I have two projects in the pipe.

The first one concerns a business selling fur-

niture. The concept has turned out well in

Norway so I will try to introduce it in Swe-

den. Hopefully, the first shop will open in

Januari - Februari 2007. Visit www.isaklife.

com for more information.

The second idea is about letting

Chinese employees create 3D sketches of

Swedish apartments here in China, and

then send them to costumers in Sweden. It

is almost standard today among the estate

agents to be able to provide their clients with

some sort of 3D-sketch of the apartment.

Oh, so that is the way to do it! So finally, what are your tips to Chalmers stu-dents wishing to work in China?-Well, it is a lot about coincidences. But if

you look for the opportunities there is a

much greater chance you will find them.

When you are down here, try to think: Can I

make a business out of this?

Another thing that you get to hear

all the time is to widen your network. But it

is really very important to know a lot of peo-

ple. You should go global; in the dynamical

world we live in there will always be oppor-

tunities. Be positive and do not be afraid to

go hard in business, you might get punched

in the face sometimes, but in the end it is all

worth it!

Axel Janson majors in Technology Manage-ment and Economics at Chalmers and is currently studying in Taiwan.Email: axel.janson@asia.chalmers.se

Fredrik Ramberg majors in Engineering

Physics at Chalmers and is currently study-

ing in Taiwan.

Email: fredrik.ramberg@asia.chalmers.se

“A night in Beijing, he told me that he would offer me a job as executive officer to

vice president”

A day at the Races, Hong Kong.On the way to the interview, Shanghai.

�2

The Bund is the most impressive mile in Shanghai. As a part of the Zhongshan No 1 Road the Bund stretches along the Huangpu River, the city’s mayor river. One of the most popular things to do is to amble along the elevated riverside promenade. This offers all the tourists and visitors the best possible view of Shanghai’s skyline. Toy sellers, photographs, coin operated telescopes and hundreds of people are packed on this promenade. Always when I am walking on the Bund I am astonished by the view of this city. Right now however, just north of the Bund, an old ship has moored and catches the eye by falling out from the rest of the city. This contrast makes it look like a ship from “Pirates of the Caribbean” if it was not for the huge Swedish naval flag. We are walking along Huang Pu Road and banners are starting to show up saying “Welcome to the Swedish ship of Götheborg”. After a few more minutes walking we are at a gate leading out towards the river and the ship. It costs 30 Yuan to enter the area and additional 50 to actually enter the ship. There are quite a lot of people there, surprisingly, because today is a national holiday (when most Chinese people travel home to their parents).

The first thing we encounter is some “Stockholm influenced” fake buildings probably meant to set the right atmosphere! Then the walk towards the ship is lined with different souvenir shops and Swedish company representatives. Just next to the

ship there is a big poster telling the story about the East India Company written in English and Chinese. Onboard the ship you will need to hand over your ticket as well as deposit your passport or id. This makes sense since once you are onboard the ship you are on Swedish territory.

We run into two Swedish volunteers Lisa and Dennis at the quay. They have been on the ship all the way from Canton.What do the Chinese people think of this event?

-Well, honestly they do not know too

much about it or the story behind it. And

even if they do we are having a hard time to

communicate! Some have asked us which

country we are from!

So they might miss the reason why this ship is here?

-Well ordinary visitors might not be so

interested, but then we have companies and

sponsors booking the ship and these people

are more aware of the story etc. So I am

sure these events are good promotion for

Sweden!

Alright, so how was the welcome here in Shanghai?

-Good, but it has been a lot of struggle

with the bureaucracy. People were not

allowed to enter the first days due to

paperwork. When we were in Canton things

were easier, our visit was probably a bigger

event for the city of Canton than it is for

Shanghai.

What sort of people are visiting the ship?

-All kinds of people but mainly families.

The kids seem to be so excited!

Ok, so what catches the interest of the Chinese people onboard this ship?

-Oh, that is probably standing at the

steering wheel or the cannons, ha ha!

Have you had any fun questions from the visitors?

-Surprisingly many have asked how

this ship is powered. When you say that it is

powered by the wind they seem to be really

confused!

The visit onboard the Götheborg was interesting, however the impression was that most of the Chinese visitors came there to see the ship itself and they were not really interested in the background. Although I think the crew could have been a little more enthusiastic and helpful. This would make the experience much better. At least one of the crew members could have 19th century clothes, this would be greatly appreciated by the visitors.

Overall the event does not really build up a historical atmosphere, but the Chinese visitors seem to be satisfied anyway!

Welcome to Götheborg in Shanghai

Shanghai, one of the most futuristic cities in the world. Thousands of skyscrapers rising all the way to the horizon. Shiny buildings with famous multinational logotypes on the tops. Almost 20 million citizens and stuck in the streets between the masses are 45 000 cabs! But at the quay of the Huangpu River there is something that remarkably differs from this modern city.

BY ERIK JANSON, GUSTAF LJUNGMARK

Erik Janson major in Technology Mana-

gement and Economics at Chalmers and

is currently a Chinese Language student at

Fudan University, Shanghai.

Email: erjan@itek.chalmers.se

Gustaf Ljungmark major in Technology

Management and Economics at Chalmers

and is currently a Chinese Language stu-

dent at Fudan University, Shanghai.

Email: ljungmar@itek.chalmers.se

�3

Located at the giant convention Maku-hari Messe, in the outskirts of Tokyo, this year’s show was the biggest game show ever in regards to number of visitors. With an impressive count of 192,411 attendees over three days, it outdid both the Electronic Entertainment Expo (60,000 attendees) in the USA and the German GCDC (183,000 attendees). The theme for this year was “New excitement, new sensations, a new generation” - with a shift to a new genera-tion of gaming platforms, it was a perfect description of the show. Sony showed off their Playstation 3, Microsoft continued to impress with the Xbox 360 and Nintendo’s revolutionary console, the Nintendo Wii startled the attendees with its uniqueness.

The first thing we noticed about the ex-hibition hall was its size. We were doubtful that a place of its size could fill up but a mo-ment later the exhibition hall was packed with people. It was breathtaking to see the massive crowd craving for the stimulation offered by the hundreds of software titles displayed at the show.

So what about the games? The sheer amount of people there made it difficult for us to approach the games – only a few games had lines with a waiting time be-low one hour and many had well beyond that. The longest line was for Capcom’s

Devil May Cry 4, which spanned an awe-inspiring 3 hours and 40 minutes. Second place was taken by Gyakuten Saiban 4, a lawyer simulation game for the Nintendo DS, with an impressive waiting time of 3 hours and 20 minutes. Although we were not able to play the most crowd-attracting games there were plenty of other games, trailers and booths available. Sony set up a big theatre-like booth showing trailers for upcoming Playstation 3 games. Nin-tendo Wii titles, such as Sega’s Bleach Wii and Konami’s Elebits, were demonstrated and Square Enix displayed their upcoming line-up of games at a giant private theatre booth. Games for mobile phones, geared to the high-tech Japanese and Korean mar-kets were a plenty, as were PC games.

The show was dominated by domestic exhibitors, but there were many represent-ing other regions. Most notable were the game pavilions which hosted exhibitions from the same regions, such as the Canada pavilion, Seoul City pavilion and the Tai-wan pavilion. Besides game developers and publishers, several domestic game schools attended to exhibit their work in the area. All in all, there was a great mix of exhibi-tions from different regions and for differ-ent platforms. Leaving the show was a sad experience, but the desire to try all games was overcome by the weariness of an en-tire day’s worth of navigating the crowded show floor.

Today’s video and compu-ter game industry has become a huge market. During the past ten years, it has become large enough to compete with the mu-sic and movie industry. This year was the 10th anniversary of the Tokyo Game Show (TGS), one of the major annual game shows in the world. Chalmers Asia Office attended the show to observe the game phenomena first-hand in the land of the rising sun.

Tokyo Game Show 2006: New Excitement. New Sensations. A New Generation.

asiaReport

BY YEU-FWU HUA

Yeu-Fwu Hua major in Technology Mana-

gement and Economics at Chalmers and is

currently studying in Taiwan.

Email: yeufwu.hua@asia.chalmers.se

�4

KO

RE

A , MANUFACTURING HE

AV

EN

?In our attempt to spread curiosity about Asia, our attention has now come to a country in the far east, South Korea. With the currently huge hype about China it is important to remember that there are also other countries in East Asia. Chalmers Asia has chosen to take a closer look at what the pros and cons with operating in South Korea might be. We visited Korea in May 2006 and gained some intelligence by visiting Volvo’s manufacturing plant for excavators and by talking to experienced representatives of embassies and universities in the country.

BY JACOB LINDMARK

Many Swedish companies are present in Korea; some with both produc-

tion plants and of course many more with sales offices to target the Ko-

rean market. The major reason why the Volvo factory caught our inter-

est was that it is the largest excavator factory that Volvo Construction

Equipment uses and the final products are shipped all over the world

giving Volvo a third place worldwide in terms of market share for ex-

cavators.

In 1998 Volvo AB bought Samsung Heavy Industries and

formed Volvo Construction Equipment Korea. The facilities are located

close to the harbour in the city of Changwon in the southeast part of

the Korean peninsula. There we met Kim Kil-won and Yun Heon-jong

who showed us around the facilities. We were free to choose what we

wanted to see and had full access to all the production facilities. This

openness and hospitality, it should be noted, is not shown in all compa-

nies and usually motivated by security reasons. It was obvious that Volvo

has tried to diffuse its business culture also to its units far away from

the headquarters in Sweden. Wherever we were, whether in the office

or in production, we were met by large signs saying “We must repay our

customers for our employment with superior quality products” and “Our

core values: Quality – Safety – Environment”. The signs were written in

both Korean and English.

We explained to Mr. Kim and Mr Yun, how an engineering

Master thesis is done in Sweden and asked whether it would be possible

to perform one with them. They were positive about this but seemed to

believe that the purpose is to get a general knowledge about their opera-

tions. We draw the conclusion that it is probably possible to do a thesis at

their facilities, but it might be hard to make them understand what you

want to do. If you want to do your thesis at the Changwon plant you are

advised to go through the headquarters in Sweden. Other representa-

tives of Swedish companies expressed that the language barrier is a big

problem. In most companies only a few speak English and thus it might

be very hard to do a thesis in Korea unless you speak Korean. It should

not be neglected though that the experience of doing a thesis abroad

might be very valuable so even if the quality might be a bit lower than if

it was done in Sweden, it can still be worth it.

When comparing Korea to countries like China, the feature

first noticed is that the labour costs are much higher in Korea. However,

the Chinese business environment is very complicated and not yet well

regulated. For many companies interested in buying a part of produc-

tion as a service, so called outsourcing, or moving their own production

unit to another country, off shoring, it might be better to choose another

country than China. This is especially true for companies that demand

extraordinary quality. Japan and the Asian tigers (Singapore, Hong Kong,

Taiwan and South Korea) are all industrialized and offer smoother op-

erations than the more recently developed economies. In short, there is a

trade-off between low labour costs on one side and higher reliability and

a more educated workforce on the other.

According to Anders Backman at the Swedish Embassy in

Seoul, complaints from Swedish companies about the Korean business

society include a complicated regulatory environment and weak enforce-

ment of intellectual property rights. He stresses though that the Korean

workforce is highly educated and has high morale and work ethics. The

country also has an attractive location in East Asia. From Seoul you can

reach both Shanghai and Tokyo in about two hours.

However, a factor that of course cannot be forgotten is the

tense relation between the two neighbours on the peninsula. The current

state of these relations must be observed and evaluated before investing

in South Korea. The case of Taiwan has shown that as long as the country

is not at war, the economic society can prosper in spite of threats and

tense relations. Even if Korea might not be a manufacturing heaven, it is

an alternative well worth considering.

Jacob Lindmark majors in Engineering Physics at Chalmers and studied

in Taiwan 2005/2006.

Email: jacob.lindmark@asia.chalmers.se

�5

Even though the administrative centre has

always been located on Hong Kong Island, dur-

ing the last decades what is to be considered as

the “real” centre of Hong Kong has changed a

few times. In the 70’s, the flourishing so called

Golden Mile on the Kowloon peninsula was the

place to be, but that was to change in the 80’s.

Although the first skyscraper in Hong Kong was

finished already in 1935 (replaced in 1985), it was

now things really started to happen. Skyscrap-

ers were growing up like mushrooms, moving

the city centre back to Central on Hong Kong

Island. Since then, hundreds of skyscrapers have

in an accelerating pace been built on Hong Kong

Island. Today, the city’s skyline is world famous

and houses four out of the top-15 tallest build-

ings in the world, with the 2IFC (Two Interna-

tional Finance Centre) as the currently tallest

with its 88 storeys and 415 meters.

With the airport situated in Kowloon, strict

height restrictions limited the development of

high-rise buildings on the Kowloon side. Situ-

ated on reclaimed land in the harbour, with

mountains and densely populated areas next to

it, the airport had one of the most spectacular

and challenging landing approaches. Some pas-

sengers claim they could see the flickering of tel-

evisions inside apartments during the approach.

When the airport was built in 1924, it was far

away from the populated area. In the end of its

usage it was more or less in the middle of the

city. Apart from that, the airport had since long

run out of capacity and was finally replaced.

The new airport of Hong Kong opened for

commercial use in 1998, and was built outside

Lantau Island on an artificial island. Two small,

but hilly, islands became one big, flat, island

when Hong Kong increased its total surface

area by almost 1%. However, not only was there

an island to be built. To reach the new airport,

new infrastructure was needed. The rail- and

highway link to central Hong Kong demanded

further major land reclamation (the size of the

Kowloon peninsula was increased by one third).

In addition to this, a new cross-harbour tunnel

(Western Harbour Crossing), bridges including

the world’s sixth largest suspension bridge (Ts-

ing Ma), the world’s longest cable-stayed bridge

carrying both road and railway traffic (Kap Shui

Mun) and the world’s first major four-span ca-

ble-stayed bridge (Ting Kau) were constructed.

The project is the most expensive airport project

ever, and has been voted one of the top 10 con-

struction achievements of the 20th century.

The construction of the new airport made

it possible to lift the height restrictions in Kow-

loon and allow high-rise buildings. Today’s busi-

est construction site is in the reclaimed part of

the Kowloon peninsula. On top of the Kowloon

Station, a new urban centre takes form with a

490 meter tall skyscraper as its most spectacular

part. The 102 storey skyscraper, called ICC (In-

ternational Commerce Center) will be the tallest

in Hong Kong and the third tallest in the world

when finished in 2010. Together with 2IFC it will

form a gateway to Victoria Harbour and once

again displace the city centre. It is not likely and

not intended, to take over the role of Central,

but to complement and let both sides of the har-

bour shine equally strong.

Hong Kong is a city based on the idea of creative destruction, which makes it a nightmare for those trying to defend the herit-age, but a playground for archi-tects and engineers. In this article we will have a glimpse of what has happened in the last decades with the stress on skyscrapers and the new airport.

BY ERIC LINDBOM

HONGKONG 1978

HONGKONG TODAY

NIGHT SKYLINE

AN ENGINEER’S PLAYGROUND

Eric Lindbom majors in Civil Engineering and is currently studying in Hong Kong.Email: v02lier@vtek.chalmers.se

�6

Volvo has an assembly plant in the northern suburbs of Bangkok where they put together cars and buses. From manufacturing plants outside of Thailand, parts arrive to the factory where each vehicle is put together by hand; the volumes are too small to use robots on the assembly line. But even though having the plant in Thailand reduces the import taxes dramatically and the personnel cost being around one tenth of the Torslanda plant in Sweden, everything included, a car has to be sold at twice of what the same

As Thailand always has been a country very open to foreign influences, Swedish companies have had a long presence there. ABB, for example, has sold equipment to Thailand from 1913 and has had a local office in Bangkok since 1973 (then as Asea and before the merger with the Swiss’ Brown Boveri).Now they employ 5-600 people in their office and their factory that manufacture transformers. They not only serve the Thai market, but most of Asia. To do that, Thailand has a very unique advantage.The manufacturing cost is that of an Asian country, but in a customers view, the quality is that of a western country making it possible to charge corresponding prices. If the manufacturing had been taken place in China instead, the prices would have to be set much lower. Like many other Asian countries, Thailand has taxes premiering locally produced goods. These taxes make it virtually impossible to import, for example, foreign vehicles. This has forced most car manufacturers to set up shop in Thailand. For example,

car would cost in Sweden. As much as a Volvo is a car of the middle class in Sweden, it is only a car of the very wealthy in Thailand.In Ericsson’s case they have outsourced most of their manufacturing to Flextronics and in Thailand they only have a sales office. Still, most of Ericsson’s R&D is done in Sweden but they realise this has to change eventually so as not to loose out of all the knowledge existing in other countries. Moving down from the employers viewpoint to that of the employee, one realizes that there are hardly any Swedes, or foreigners in general, working in these companies. Most often, only the people in the very top of the chain of command are Swedish. This is not by accident. There really are very few benefits of having foreign personnel around. It is possible to move in foreign personnel, with salaries from their home branches, but only for short periods. In the long run they have to be given local contracts, with local salaries. Understandably, this is not very attractive for someone used to earning many times more doing exactly the same job. Some branches are even moving to having local people on all levels of the organization but this does not seem to be the norm. As useful as it is to have people in the head office with international experience, having a few people with the language and culture of the head office abroad is also very valuable. Taking this into account, it is not strange that the trainee programs of many large corporations include giving the participants the opportunity to go to a foreign country and prepare themselves for culture shocks.

Concluding, Thailand is a very important market for foreign companies to participate in. To reap the benefits however, one needs to understand what makes the market unique and use that as an advantage. It is clear that ABB, Ericsson and Volvo has done just that, and are now doing very well indeed.

Tomas Björklund majors in Engineering Physics at Chalmers and

studied in Taiwan 2005/2006.

Email: tomas.bjorklund@asia.chalmers.se

With its beautiful white paradise beaches, Thailand is mostly known to Swedish people as a traveling destination perfect for escaping the darkness and the biting cold a northern European winter. But for Swedish companies, Thailand is much more than that. Talking with representatives for the large Swedish companies Volvo, ABB and Ericsson another picture emerge.

The Thai market in a Swedish perspective

BY TOMAS BJÖRKLUND asiaReport

�7

Outside the famous high tech metropolises of Singapore, Hong

Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo, many places in Eastern Asia are far behind;

places where people are struggling against famine, draught and oppression.

Landlocked in old French Indochina lays remote and mountainous Laos,

one of the least developed countries in South-East Asia, a land with a

turbulent history.

Land of a million elephants

In the 14th century, a prince of the ancient Khmer empire welded together

a kingdom consisting of northeast Thailand and present day Laos. The

king named his kingdom Lan Xan – “Land of a million elephants”. On the

day of his marriage, the king of Lan Xan was given the sacred Pra Bang

statue from the Khmer court, after which the capital was renamed Luang

Prabang. In the 18th century, Lan Xan was laid under the rule of Thailand.

Following a war with France in late 19th century, the Thai king ceded large

territories to the east and south of the Mekong River to French rule in

order to maintain the independence of Thailand. This territory makes

up today’s Cambodia and Laos, and along with Vietnam formed French

Indochina at that time. During the Second World War, Japan took control

of French Indochina, and the French fought back by equipping and training

aboriginal Hmong-tribesmen in Laos as guerrillas.

Laos was granted full sovereignty in 1953, and the French withdrew totally

from Indochina one year later, following their final defeat to the

Hoping to do something challenging and mea-ningful in the future? Interested in working with development? As a Master’s level student of any discipline in Sweden, you have the opportunity to write a thesis concerning development issues on location in a developing country. This can be done in cooperation with your university or a non-govern-mental organisation, and the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) provides a scholar-ship for this particular purpose. Furthermore, your future employer could be one of the several Swe-dish companies and governmental organisations that operate in developing countries handling de-velopment problems, among them SIDA, Sweco and Ericsson. In this article, we will try to give youa small insight into the workings of rural develop-ment aid in Eastern Asia.

Laos - rural de-velopment in a South-East Asian backwater

asiaReport

BY LARS ANDRÉN

Facts about Laos

Population: est. 5.9 million

Ethnicity: 65% ethnic Lao, 35% minorities such as Hmong, Akka, Chinese

Capital: Vientiane

Neighboring nations: Thailand, China, Vietnam, Cambodia and Burma

Languages: Official languages are Lao, French and English, but several ethnic languages are also spoken

Av. life expectancy: 55 years

Percentage of population without pure water supply: 57%

BNP/capita 2003: 340 USD (Sweden 2005: 33500 USD)

Seasons: Dry season October-May, rainy season June-September

�8�8

communist Vietnamese at Dien Bien Phu. In the sixties, Laos was dragged

into the Vietnam War. USA had then previously picked up where the

French left, supporting the non-communist regimes of Cambodia, Laos and

South Vietnam in their struggle against each nation’s communist rebellion.

In order to fight the Laotian communists, the CIA further equipped and

trained the Hmong-tribesmen, even providing them with their own air

force. Finally, in 1975 after the fall of Saigon, the Laotian communists

controlled the whole country, and established Lao People’s Democratic

Republic.

The complicated path into the 21st century

For many years after the founding of Lao PDR, Laos was kept isolated

from the rest of the world. As the Vietnam War wound down, peace did not

reach Laos. Following the departure of the Americans, the new communist

regime persecuted and massacred thousands of the Hmong minority that

had been enlisted by the Americans. The more remote Hmong villages

were attacked from the sky with poisonous gas. In some areas the civil war

continues still; up to this day there is still a Hmong guerrilla fighting the

government. The Vietnam War has in some areas left another legacy in the

form of vast amounts of undetonated bombs (also known as Unexploded

Ordnance, UXO), that maims and kills many people every year. A local

interpreter for a UN UXO-clearance squad in the very heavily bombed

Plain of Jars in the northeast told us that there are an estimated three

undetonated bombs for every square meter of the country; the highest

UXO-density in the world.

For decades, foreign investment

was minimal, and development was

lacking in most areas. Today, Laos is open

to foreigners, and was visited by close to a

million tourists in 2005. However, in large

parts of the country, people are living

very much like they did hundreds of years

ago. Different nations and organisations

are helping the nation with various

kinds of aid; clearing of unexploded

ordnance, road building, water supply

etc. Among these donors is the European

Union, who is currently financing a rural

development project, called “Micro-

projects Development through Local

Communities”. This project, now in its

third stage and region, aims to alleviate poverty in mountain communities

of northern Laos, a region containing many villages of several different

minorities. The central office of the project is located in the old royal

capital of Luang Prabang, and the European director of the project is Dr

Frank Bolton. Dr Bolton has a long background of working with rural

development for several commissioners in Eastern Asia, and has been

working on different projects in Laos for some years now.

Some people may have the impression that money spent on

development aid is wasted since great parts of it simply disappears through

corruption and fraud in the target countries, is it?

Although fraud and corruption exists, only a few percentages of the money

are lost that way. What people should worry about is the amount of money

spent on aid that is lost through all the levels of administration in the EU.

Is it difficult to work with development aid in an undemocratic country?

In Laos it is not, as there are not as many laws and regulations as in Vietnam

or China and corruption is not as widely spread as in Cambodia. Laos

is more dynamic, like Thailand. For instance, your final tax, compared to

western countries, is not a set figure; it is negotiated.

In which order should different development problems be prioritised?

One must bear in mind that it is the very basic necessities that are generally

needed in rural development. The most basic form is relief, such as UXO-

clearing. Without that nothing can be done. Following that in descending

order of importance is road access, water supply, a school, irrigation,

livestock and finally vaccinations and general health care, such as mosquito

nets and education on how to use them. Road access allows the villagers to

travel into larger towns and sell some goods, a pure water supply is vital for

health reasons. Irrigation reduces the risk of famine during the dry season

and livestock provides the village with a “living bank”; an investment that

gives both profit and further growth. The villagers themselves often think

that a school is most important; the chieftain of one of the villages here told

me they want to give their children a better chance than they themselves had

in life.

How and when can changes be seen in a village that you have reached?

In only a couple of months you can see improvements for the villagers; the

most immediate result is less skin diseases and less coughing that are due to

the lack of a pure water supply.

How many people are working with this

project?

50 people are working with the project.

There are six Europeans in total, two here

at the main office in Luang Prabang, four

younger ones in the districts. In addition

to this we also employ 44 Laotians for

various tasks.

Could you say something general about

rural development projects such as this

one?

The complexity is very high. This project

is involved in the management of some

900 individual “microprojects”. An

example of a “microproject” could be the

construction of a bridge or a school. Each

of these projects goes through four or five phases, gathering a workforce,

getting materials, the construction itself, maintenance afterwards and so

on. Adding to the complications is that our target villages are inhabited

by different minorities, so we sometimes have to use one translator for

that particular minority’s language to Lao, and another one from Lao to

English.

How is the administration of a project such as this managed from above?

We are to write reports every three months, and at different intervals we are

visited by people from the EU-office in the Laotian capital of Vientiane,

people from the EU-office in Bangkok and finally by people from Brussels.

This is obviously a terrible waste of money, caused by the EU-bureaucratic.

Three brothers on their way home on a dirt road constructed by SIDA.

�9�9�9

Most of the monitoring from above is pointless anyway, as the monitors are

going to say that everything is fine, since that is the only thing the donors are

going to listen to.

So in your opinion money is not as well spent as it could be?

No. Out of the 10 million euros assigned to this project only some 20-40% of

the money reaches the people it is meant for. Right now we are able to reach

84 villages with this project. Without the extensive EU-bureaucracy, I believe

we could reach all of the 200 villages in the area. I think it is better when a

single country finances development aid, like Sweden through SIDA. It was

very different when I was working on a project that was directly financed by

the British government on Sri Lanka; the British administration is based on

trust and honour. In my opinion, the European Union is based on mistrust

and fear.

On the far shore of the Mekong River across from Luang

Prabang lies the small village of Xiengmaen and in the project’s regional

office we meet Richard Humphrey, one of the four European Technical

Advisors placed in the target districts of the project.

How can one get into development aid?

It is quite hard to get into when being outside any organisation. I myself

started out working as a volunteer in the pacific for two years, and I am

now employed by a consulting company that staffs the EU development aid

projects among others.

What kind of qualifications is necessary in order to work with rural

development like this?

The primary thing is previous experience in working with development aid

in some form. Your educational background has a meaning as well, but

in my position it is more important to be able to get material and people

together in order to construct a small bridge, not being able to know the

theory of building a skyscraper.

How is the actual construction of, for example, a school performed?

We, the ones employed by the project, act as the general managers of the

construction; providing the building materials and some skilled labour,

such as carpenters. The target village is responsible for providing unskilled

labour. The villagers will also be told how to do some maintenance in order

to take over the responsibility of the construction when we have left.

How is management at your level done?

All European Union aid is based on so called co-management, meaning that

there has to be two people for every major decision, both have the right of

veto. It has been like this for many years, but this will change in the future

though. The reason is that with this system, the EU will have to pay for more

Technical Advisors in the field. They don’t want that, and will employ more

bureaucrats instead.

Do you share Dr Bolton’s view on the EU-bureaucracy?

It is a bit restraining at times. For example, anything that costs more than

5000 euros has to be approved directly from the EU. A school with two

classrooms, the smallest ones we build, costs more than that. Once we had to

wait 18 months for a single payment to be approved, and you can imagine

how frustrating that can be. However, on a brighter point, this project is

having a visible effect. We are actually reaching many villages, and we are

helping to improve life for the villagers.

asiaReport

In Luang Prabang, the ancient royal capital by the Mekong River, French colonial influence is highly visible in both architecture

and food.

Lars Andren majors in Computer Science and Engineering at Chal-mers and is currently working on his thesis in Taiwan.Email: lars.andren@asia.chalmers.se

Minor Field Studies (MFS) scholarship

– one way to get a taste of working with development aid

MFS is a scholarship program for undergraduate and graduate students at university level, financed by SIDA. The purpose of the scholarship is to provide students with the opportunity to gain knowledge of developing countries and development is-sues. The MFS scholarship is spent on the travel to and from, and expenses in a developing country when performing a minor field study that will be the foundation for a thesis. The adminis-tration of the scholarship is decentralised and applications for the scholarship are handled by the approved institutions.

Further information on application procedureswww.programkontoret.se/templates/ProgramPage____2002.aspx

Swedish organisations or branches, of interest to engineers, operating in Laos and Eastern AsiaABBSkanskaEricsson www.ericsson.com/ericsson/corporate_responsibi-lity/ericssonresponse/SWECOLO-TCOSwedish International Development Agency, SIDAMedecins sans frontiers (Läkare utan gränser)

20

In September 2001 the Shanghai government presented the

Shanghai International Automotive City (SIAC) as one of their key

projects in the new five year plan.

The automotive industry had been selected as one of Shanghai’s industry

bases and will together with petrochemicals, microelectronics and steel

form the cornerstones of Shanghai’s industry in the future. To support the

industry, the government had decided to build a city entirely devoted to

the automotive industry. By gathering all the functions of the automotive

industry in one city, Shanghai aimed to create a perfect environment for

the development and growth of an industry that would attract local and

foreign investors. The city was chosen to be located in the Jiading-district

30 km west of Shanghai’s city centre, where Volkswagen and some local car

manufacturers have been located since the mid 80’s.

Since the start in 2001, the new city has been nicknamed

“Chinese Detroit”, and has gone though a period of intense construction

in the last five years. SIAC now has a new business district with a trading

area, an R&D area and a golf course to make business run smoothly. The

first Chinese International Formula 1 circuit opened in SIAC in 2004, and

a new car museum has been built close to the racing circuit.

In the new production zone foreign and local companies have opened

manufacturing facilities, and a residential area has been built to host the

people working in the industry. The residential area is named “Anting New

Town” and is patterned after traditional German cities with architecture

created by German firms. When finished, the town will host some 50 000

residents.

In SIAC’s educational park, one of Shanghais biggest technical

universities, Tongji University, is building a new campus that will host their

College of Automotive Engineering - a college that is entirely dedicated

to the automotive industry. Rather than focusing on a specific educational

discipline, this college focuses on a specific industry and offers a variety of

Bachelor and Masters Degrees in marketing, electronics, materials, logistics

etc; all with a focus on the automotive industry. When the new campus is

finished the college will host around 10000 students and researchers.

In May 2006 students from Chalmers Asia where invited to visit

Tongji University’s new Campus. Mr Hui Chen met us at the Campus main

gate and guided us through the campus driving us in his car. The whole

campus area with classrooms, testing facilities, laboratories, dormitories,

administration buildings and dining halls was brand new and mostly

empty. We passed a huge building that was still under construction, and

Hui Chen explained that “This is our library building. It will have twelve

floors when finished”. “The building of this campus started in 2004 and

everything is going as planned”, he assured us. We stopped at the Clean

Energy Automotive Engineering Centre where Hui Chen is a professor.

Hui Chen explained that the research facilities of this department was

already up and running. They had been given high priority since they had

worked on a project that was on a tight time schedule.

He then took us to one of the research facilities of his department

and showed us prototype cars that were based on an old Volkswagen

model. It looked just like an ordinary car on the outside, but the inside was

different. The cars used hydrogen fuel cells to power separate DC-motors

in each wheel of the car. The steering was controlled by wire, and there was

no mechanical connection between the wheels and the steering wheel.

The aim of this research project is to have a first generation of these cars

ready to show at the 2008 Olympic Games in Peking. Two years later, the

cars will be used at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai for all transportation

to and within the Expo area.

“The automotive industry is growing rapidly in China” says

Hui Chen. “But there are still very few cars here if you consider our big

population. We have the benefits of developing our auto-industry from

the start at a time when there are a lot of new promising technologies

available. We will take advantage of that and try to avoid being caught in

an old thinking that is not environmentally sustainable. “

So far Tongji’s college of automotive engineering does not have

any plans to start regular education in English, and therefore has very few

exchange students. But they are hoping to attract more in the future.

“There are some foreign doctoral students doing research at our college

and many of the professors are old professionals that have been working in

Germany and USA and therefore speak good English. When this campus

is fully up and running we will have world class testing and researching

facilities, and I hope this will attract foreign students and researchers”, says

Hui Chen.

Eric Zotterman majors in Mechanical Engineering at Chalmers and studied

in Taiwan 2005/2006.

Email: erik.zotterman@asia.chalmers.se

Shanghai aims to create a perfect environment for the development of the automotive industry that will attract local and foreign investors; Shanghai International Automotive City, or “Chinese Detroit”.At this city, one of Shanghai’s biggest technical universities, Tongji University, is building a new campus, which was visited in May 2006 by students from Chalmers Asia. They met Professor Hui Chen, who said “We have the benefits of developing our auto-industry from the start, at a time when there are a lot of new promising technologies available. We will take advantage of that and try to avoid being caught in an old thinking that is not environmentally sustainable. “

Shanghai International Automotive CityBY ERIC zOTTERMAN

2�

Construction workers standing in attention for morning inspection.

Singapore is an island located just be-low Malaysia. The country is populated by Chinese, Indians and Malays. It was oc-cupied by Japan during the Second World War, and was once a British crown colony. Singapore is conveniently located along the seaway to China, which has brought foreign trade from overseas ever since the Europeans started roaming the oceans. Sin-gapore was also one of the earliest South East Asian countries to adopt what is com-monly known as western capitalism, and has had an early mover advantage in the competitive game of nations compared to its neighbours. This constitutes an interest-ing mixture of cultures.

So what about the school? The Nation-al University of Singapore (NUS) boasts Asia’s top business school, and the seventh best engineering school in the world ac-cording to the practitioners of the uncer-tain art of university ranking. It is one of the prides of Singapore, and draws some of the brightest minds from all of Asia.

Singapore is maybe the most “western” of all Asian countries, and it is easy to see it as somewhat of a haven on the border between east and west. This is also a place where the Asian collectivism collides with western individualism. Singapore is also well known for laws and regulations that encompass all aspects of life, the $500 fine for spitting on the street being just one well known example. This has also inspired oth-er organizations to create their own rule-books. One effect of this is that rules tend to replace common sense. If there is no rule regulating something, there is no reason to

refrain from doing it. Take the following example:

A Japanese teacher in one of my cours-es recently defined the difference between eastern and western leadership. He said that “in western leadership style people are given orders. With eastern leadership noth-ing is voiced but things happen anyway. If you have to tell someone what to do you both lose face”. I have seen this leadership in action, but I have also seen it fail. I par-ticularly remember a lecture where a class-mate of mine was speaking on the phone, loud and clear and seemingly calm to the fact that the lecture had started. The teach-er paused, stared at him but said nothing as he finished his phone call. Needless to say

there is no rule against making phone calls during lectures.

Singapore is currently taking a great initiative to boost entrepreneurial spirit and leadership skill, and wants to be associ-ated with cutting edge innovation in areas such as medicine and biotechnology. For-eign companies doing R&D in Singapore have greatly benefited from this. But are the Singaporeans themselves disposed to take advantage of these initiatives? Man-agement schools, leadership institutes and business incubators pop up all over town. How does this fit with the bureaucratic red tape encompassing most aspects of life? In another of my courses we talked about societal culture. Singaporean culture was established as having low tolerance for error, and therefore preferring a strict by-the-book approach to ensure adherence

to standards, minimize risk of failure and avoid breaking any rules. Now imagine a childhood where leadership was something distant and unquestionable which asserted itself through rules, and where you were encouraged to stay in line, not take risks and never stick your head out. Imagine living with your parents until age 26 be-cause a heavily regulated market makes it virtually impossible for young unmarried people to get an apartment. Perhaps such a childhood is not the most fertile soil for an innovative spirit or for visionary leader-ship. Perhaps it does not help to go to the best leadership schools later on in life. The study of leadership has its roots in psychol-ogy. Any psychologist would agree that a personality is largely shaped during child-hood, and that leadership qualities and out-of-the-box thinking are parts of an individ-ual’s personality. So why are such opinions not voiced? There is one academic field in which the universities of Singapore are be-hind. When I asked a professor about psy-chology at NUS he said that “Asians do not believe in psychology. Therefore we don’t tend to pay it much attention”.

So what about the bureaucratic man-agement thriving in Singapore? Is that not leadership? Harvard leadership guru Professor John Kotter once defined lead-ership as “Creating change, inspiring and motivating people through charisma and vision” whereas management is concerned with “creating order and stability through planning, control and supervision”. The last description rings a bell, and we come to the realization that Singapore is a country of many skilful managers but fewer leaders. Where the opportunities for Chalmers stu-dents lie I leave to the reader to conclude.

“Asians do not believe in psychology. Therefore we do not tend to pay it much

attention”

Singapore is somewhat of a contradiction. The country has strong bureaucratic tendencies yet a reputation for innovation. It is also a place where east and west, collectivism and individu-alism, and different leadership styles collide and mix.

BY MARTIN EKSTEDT

Martin Ekstedt majors in Technology Ma-nagement and Economics at Chalmers and is currently studying in Singapore.Email: mareks@itek.chalmers.se

The Leading Issue

22

A brand new opportunity for studies for Swedish students has now appeared in China, in China’s largest city; Shanghai. The Sino-Swedish Campus at Shanghai’s Fudan University, inaugurated October 2005 is an innovative platform for research and education collaboration between Chalmers University of Technology, Karolinska Institute (KI), KTH (the Royal Institute of Technology) and Fudan University. The campus has been founded to promote academic excellence via Sino-Swedish collaborations and explore innovations of joint education. The campus will provide educational programs at Bachelor of Science and Master of Science levels as well as tailor-made courses and joint Ph.D. training. It aims to be a base of future technical leaders and entrepreneurs that will accelerate the process of “research to business”. The Sino-Swedish Campus at Fudan will also be a platform for joint research initiatives open to Chinese universities, research institutions and private businesses.

An International Master’s Degree Program in Electronics is offered through the Sino-Swedish Campus. At the moment there is only one program available through this collaboration, but more are coming. The one currently available is called “International Master’s Degree Program in Electronics with specialisations in System-on-Chip Design and Microelectronics Technologies”. All the specialisation courses will be given in English, and the main location of the program is located at Fudan University in Shanghai, P.R.C. However, a number of exchange students from Fudan will study at KTH for 6-12 months. KTH takes responsibility for 50% of the total specialisation courses, the rest will be taught by Fudan’s top professors. The program aims to annually enrol 60 students with a Bachelor of Science Degree from all over the world. Should you be interested in applying for this program, contact Ms. Lovisa Yang at the office.

Top: Signing the papers.Bottom: Selling books outside Fudan University.

Sino-Swedish campus at Fudan University, Shanghai

Contact information

Location: Room 229, Administration Building, Fudan

Zhangjiang Campus, 825 Zhangheng Road, Shanghai

200433, P.R. China.

Contact Persons: Ms. Lovisa Yang

hy_yang@fudan.edu.cn

86-21-55664269

Mr. Cris

hanslindh@gmail.com

86-21-61355038

23

Not long ago, the belief was that innovation was culturally determined, that Confucian cultures could not innovate. They were said to be too hierarchical and too rigid in their educational system to produce anything new. However, innovation can be taught, look at Korea, now a leader in digital displays, electronic gaming, and wireless telecom. Many parts of Asia show that they can indeed do better than to just imitate. The threat of competition from low-cost countries like China worries Western executives in virtually every product and service industry. Up until now, the chief concern for most has been the impact of cheap Chinese manufacturing and Indian services on global pricing. The reality of today however, is that Asian countries are no longer merely a source of comparative advantage based on low-cost labour; they are quickly becoming a source of competitive advantage based on innovation. Asian design teams grabbed a quarter of this year’s gold awards in the Best Product Design of 2006 awards, showing their remarkable investment in design and strong wish to build global brands. It is easy to get carried away in the Asian hype that has had companies rush en masse to chase the first mover advantages in the East, and that has filled Chinese classes all over the world with students eager to make it big in Asia in general and China in particular. The performance of these economies has indeed been remarkable, but the gap between an economy like China and the the economies of the West in terms of ability to create innovation is still large. China indeed accounts for key inventions, like the compass and gunpowder, but has failed to develop the scientific and educational foundation to permit a solid stream of innovation. The country is weighed down by an education system that has traditionally encouraged rote learning, and by the lack of intellectual-property protection, which effectively reduces the incentive to innovate. Still today, Chinese firms are by and large followers and imitators rather than innovators. The country’s R&D

expenditure of about 1% of GDP is low by developed nations’ standards, though it buys more, given wage levels for scientists, and is growing with the Chinese economy. The issue of creating innovation is troubling academics, business leaders and politicians throughout Asia. The Chinese government is undertaking educational reform and is enticing the best and brightest among its overseas graduates and scientists to return home. However, inventions are useless unless commercialized, what China needs is a whole support system to ensure that inventions are successful in the marketplace. In China, as in many other countries that have built their recent success on imitation, or OEM/ODM contracts, marketing is seen as a cost and not an investment. To be able to successfully build innovative companies and global brands, China, and many of its Asian neighbours, need to couple their inventions with the right marketing organization. It is unlikely that China will have much luck in producing Nobel Prize winners in the near future, despite a promising outlook, but putting things in perspective, with a per capita GDP of less than $1,000, and so many still living in deep poverty, China may settle for being a follower if they can maintain a good pace of economic growth to meet the challenges posed by the huge population. To sum up: Nobody can predict the future. A successful transformation into an innovation economy will mean that China may become a global leader in certain technologies. Failure will entail continued dependence on foreign investors, who account for the bulk of China’s technology exports.

Karolina Norstedt majors in Technology Management and

Economics at Chalmers and studied in Taiwan 2005/2006.

Email: karolina.norstedt@asia.chalmers.se

Large parts of Asia have long been the factory of the world. Moving from country to country, from cheap to cheaper, cost cutting has been the dri-ving force for companies to establish production facilities in the East. However, being cheaper only takes you so far, as price, and even quality, has shifted from being order winners to merely being qualifiers.

From imitation to innovation

What you get when mixing Louis Vuitton, a homemade version of Versace medusa and Burberry.

BY KAROLINA NORSTEDT

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Chalmers in Asia

Hsinchu, TaiwanNational Chiao Tung University

Hong Kong, China The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

SingaporeNanyang Technological UniversityThe National University of Singapore

Tokyo, JapanTokyo Institute of Technology

Sendai, JapanTohoku University

Studying at Chalmers does not limit you to Gothenburg, Sweden. Through many exchange programs Chalmers students are given the opportunity to study at a range of Asian universities. Likewise, students from many different countries are invited to study at Chalmers in Sweden.

Shanghai, ChinaSino-Swedish campus at Fudan University

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AN asiaOffice PRODUCTION

National Chiao Tung Universityen sån riktigt god skola

now on www.asia.chalmers.se

Ekonomierna i östra Asien har visat en enastående ekonomisk utveckling under 1900-talet. Japan har fått sällskap av Kina bland världens ekonomiska giganter. Regionen är intressant, dynamisk och utmanande. Allt fler med teknisk utbildning kom-mer att i sitt yrkesliv ha kontakter i hela området från Japan till Singapore. Därför har Chalmers utvecklat ett specialprogram som ger studenter möjligheter till studier och erfarenheter från dessa ekonomier.

Programmet består av följande delar:Intensivkurs i kinesiska, 6 veckor i juli – augusti 2007. Kursen är förlagd till Hsinchu,Taiwan.Kurs i Ostasiens ekonomi och teknik, som planeras till våren 2007.Studerandeutbyte med National Chiao Tung University i Hsinchu,Taiwan.Utbyten med andra partneruniversitet i Asien: Japan, Singa-pore och Hong Kong.

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CHALMERSASIENPROGRAM 2007/2008

Sista ansökningsdag 1 december

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Chalmers University of TechnologySE-412 96 Gothenburg, SwedenPhone +46 31 772 1000Internet www.chalmers.se