Kim Nielsen, Head of the Bank’s Private Banking entity in Singapore.

Nordea Bank is the largest financial services group in Northern Europe.

The Bank, active in Singapore for more than 35 years, has been continuously increasing its presence in the city-state. Since 2013, Nordea’s full-service Private Banking entity has been delivering services to customers in the Lion-city.

“We are here to serve the growing community of Nordic individuals in Asia”, says Kim Nielsen, Head of the Bank’s Private Banking entity in Singapore. “Nordic businesses are growing here and Singapore is attracting more Nordic professionals who are looking to live and work in the region”.

Christian Clausen, President and Group CEO of Nordea Bank since 2007, recently visited Singapore. Clausen was President of the European Banking Federation(EBF) from 2011-2014 and is one of only two Presidents in the EBF’s history to hold the position twice.

The Chief Executive Officer of Nordea’s International Private Banking division, Thorben Sander, will also visit Singapore this year. In addition to meeting employees, Sander is a keynote speaker at the Strategy Forum Banking seminar being held in Singapore on May 13 and 14.

“Asia, with Singapore as a central hub, is growing in importance,” says Nielsen. “These two high level visits demonstrate Nordea’s commitment to the region and the offer we want to extend to our clients”.

Nordea’s clients are served by a dedicated private banker with an external network of international specialists to complement their own expertise in areas such as wealth and inheritance planning. Being agile and close to clients in Singapore is something which both Nordic and Asian clients have come to appreciate and Nordea is continuing to successfully strengthen its presence in Singapore.

With long-standing shipping activities, Denmark and Singapore are both leading global-maritime players with advanced knowledge-based maritime technologies.

By sharing experiences and knowledge and developing a ‘cluster-approach’, three leading Danish maritime companies are creating opportunities within the Singapore maritime industry.

The people behind Sea Solutions, a leading, global provider of maritime IT solutions and services have been active in Singapore for over twenty years. The company delivers seamless, optimized solutions between ship and shore organizations including Crew Management, Marine Payroll, Load Planning and Container Enterprise Resource Planning solutions.

“Through our continued commitment to Singapore’s maritime industry, we have developed a strong foothold in the market”, says Leif Nielsen, Managing Director of Sea Solutions. “We intend to continue driving our business forward as we strengthen our activities in Singapore”.

Having established a Singaporean subsidiary in 2010, Iver C. Weilbach & Co. (Weilbach) is strengthening its activities in Asia through its Singapore office.

Established in 1755 in Copenhagen, Weilbach has become a world-leading supplier of nautical data and charts, maritime publications and digital software products for the maritime industry.

As the shipping industry continues to evolve, so has Weilbach’s business. Electronic nautical charts and the electronic publishing of maritime hand books have provided new business opportunities for Weilbach and the company is successfully engaging with customers and partners across Asia.

Logimatic develops advanced software and IT solutions for fleet management, planned maintenance and procurement for the shipping industry.

Based on more than 25 years of experience, Logimatic offers the globally recognised IT-solution Sertica to shipping and fleet management companies. Sertica minimizes unnecessary downtime, increases productivity and reduces costs for maintenance, purchasing and fleet management.

With increasing worldwide implementations of Sertica, Logimatic recognizes a huge market opportunity in Asia and the company is looking at using Singapore as their Far East hub to strengthen its relations with partners across Asia.

With Singapore leading the way in the advancement of the global maritime industry, Sea Solutions, Weilbach and Logimatic are continuing to strengthen their commitment to Singapore and win new business.

“Danish maritime companies understand the importance of Singapore as a global shipping hub and want to increase their activities in Singapore,” says Nielsen. “As individual companies, and collectively, we recognise there are exciting opportunities in the Asian marketplace. Through our ‘cluster-approach’ we are seeing the benefits of being closely associated with maritime developments taking place in Singapore”.

Danish entrepreneur, EinarViggo Schou, acquired the Palsgaard Estate in Denmark in 1908 before inventing and patenting the world’s first commercial emulsifier in 1917. With a unique ownership structure through ‘The Schou Foundation’, Palsgaard delivers solutions toglobal food manufactures. The company is continuing to strengthen its ties to Asia through its regional hub in Singapore.

Palsgaard supplies emulsifiers and stabilizers to the global food industry forbakery, confectionary, dairy, ice-cream, fine-foods, and margarine and soy applications. Emulsifiers encourage the suspension of one liquid within another (oil and water in margarine) while stabilizers help maintain an emulsified state and improve food consistency and flavour.

Innovation is at the heart of Palsgaard’s business and the company’s independently held research and development company, Nexus provides Palsgaard with research, quality control and analysis services.

As the food industry in Asia continues to mature, following customers into Asian markets has proved successful for Palsgaard.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has played a central role in Palsgaard’s growth in Asia and the rest of the world. The company ranks in the Top 25 Danish firms for employee satisfaction and Palsgaard’s award winning CSR initiatives cover energy and environment (the company aims to become CO2 neutral by 2020), employees, corporate governance and products.

“The Asian market is today increasingly important to us and our strategic decision to establish a presence in Singapore proved to be the right choice,” says Thøisen. “We will continue to innovate and ensure we deliver the best solutions to Palsgaard’s customers across Asia”.

Today, Mycometer holds several patents and registered trademarks. The company’s technology has been verified by the United States Environment Protection Agency.

In Europe, the largest drinking water company in the Netherlands, Vitens, has spent two years working closely with Mycometer. 2015 will see the company run approximately 18,000 water analyses utilizing Mycometer’s technology.

In addition to offices in Horsholm, Denmark and Tampa, USA, Mycometer is successfully bringing its technology to Singapore and the rest of Asia through its new office in Singapore.

“Competent and skilled technicians have enabled Singapore to be at the cutting-edge of water technology”, says Dr. Morten Miller, Co-founder of Mycometer. “We appreciate the spirit of collaboration Singapore offers within our field of expertise and we want to continue partnering with technology-driven clients. We are a member of the Danish Water Technology House in Singapore and are working closely with Singapore’s Public Utilities Board”.

By actively driving water-monitoring technology into the future, Mycometer is in a strong position to work with both public entities and private businesses in Asia. Crucially, while international sales channels are being developed, Mycometer is continually innovating and developing new technologies.

“We are developing an automated water-sampler solution and are committed to delivering new innovation-driven technologies to our clients,” says Miller. “Our success in Singapore has inspired us to engage with other Asian markets. While we remain firmly committed to Singapore, we look forward to developing our activities across the region over the coming years”.

An increasing amount of J. Lauritzen’s business is being created and controlled in Asia. The company’s offices in Shanghai, Manila and Singapore are enabling J. Lauritzen to strengthen its position across the Asian market.
The company’s largest overseas office, with more than thirty five employees, can be found in Singapore and covers the company’s activities in the Pacific Rim.

“Over the last ten years, through our presence and activities in Singapore, we have been able to contribute to the economy by supporting the Singaporean people,” says Kastrup-Nielsen.

J. Lauritzen is actively creating opportunities for people living in Singapore through education and training and has recently launched a community engagement platform to attract talent and further strengthen the company’s ties with the industry.

“Throughout our time in Singapore, the Singapore Maritime Authority has proved to be extremely competent and transparent,’ says Kastrup –Nielsen. ‘Singapore continues to offer a friendly and welcoming business environment – fluent in English and well educated.It is crucial to develop a pipeline of talent and train young people in order to meet tomorrow’s needs within the Singaporean, and global, maritime industries”.

Denmark and Singapore continue to enjoy strong maritime relations. A bilateral double taxation agreement is providing both countries with financial benefits and is helping to further strengthen business ties.With a strong understanding of the global shipping industry, a rational approach to doing business and strong workforce, J. Lauritzen is focused on growth.
“While we are being tested as an industry, we will ensure that, as a company, we continue to conduct ourselves in a proper and ethical manner in order to run our business in the correct way,” says Kastrup-Nielsen.

“As we move forwards, the reputation of our company will be the key to our success and in Singapore; we see huge opportunities to strengthen and grow our business. We congratulate Singapore in this 50thanniversary year and look forward to continuing our close working relationships within the Singaporean maritime industry”.

Kurt Skov, Chairman, Blue Water

Since its establishment in Esbjerg, Denmark in 1972, Blue Water Shipping (Blue Water) has gained a reputation as the natural choice for project management and highly specialized transport and logistics solutions.

With 1,400 employees located in 67 offices in over 27 countries, Blue Water offers international clients a variety of unique solutions. Today, the company operates within dedicated business segments; General Cargo by sea, air and road, logistics for oil, gas and wind energy, marine logistics, reefer cargo and port service, stevedoring and chartering.

“The global transportation business has seen rapid developments over the years,” says Kurt Skov, Chairman and Founder of Blue Water. “Our success is based on the commitment of our people and the trust our clients place in us to get the job done by focusing on their needs”.

Blue Water’s comprehensive transport and project management solutions enable the company to transport any type of cargo worldwide, regardless of dimensions or special requirements.

“Over the years, we have gained a wealth of experience and have created a knowledge-based company built on in-house competences and resources,” says Skov. “We employ project freight forwarders, shipping and chartering experts, engineers, stevedoring foremen, customs and HSSEQ-specialists, lawyers and IT-developers in order to better serve our clients”.

Since establishing its first Asian office in Singapore in 1999,Blue Water has developed a strong reputation for delivering solutions to clients across Asia with Jason Goh as the regions Managing Director.

“In Asia, our main focus was initially transport and logistics for oil, energy and industrial projects. We have a long standing and close cooperation with Keppel FELS, a global leader in design and construction of offshore rigs,” says Jason Goh.
“We developed our project-orientated approach to the Asian market through our Singapore office. Asia is very important to the growth of our global business and our activities have expended to our other segment such as wind energy, cruise and marine”.

As Blue Water continues to successfully serve international clients, Kurt Skov remains passionate about the company’s future.

“While our industry is constantly developing and we face global economic challenges,our client focus and our commitment to keeping our promises will never change. Blue Water’s flexible approach to clients’ needs has enabled us to create a trustworthy business culture encompassing our people and our clients. Our philosophy within the company to work in partnership with our clients and deliver solutions will ensure we continue to move our clients’ cargo with passion”.