News from the Chairman - Nils Foss

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Through the generosity of the New Carlsberg Foundation, The A.P. Møller and Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller Foundation and the Oticon Foundation, a large gift of art was presented to the Chinese Academy of Fine Arts. The gift consisted of sixteen selected plaster casts of masterpieces from the Royal Cast Collection, Statens Museum for Kunst. The gift was received with great enthusiasm by the Chinese Academy of Fine Arts at a ceremony where the Prince Consort was one of the keynote speakers. Later Bjørn Nørgård was given a 3-year professorship at the academy and in addition a working contact was established between Carsten Ohrt, our new head of Statens Museum for Kunst, and his Chinese counterpart.

Both Chambers hosted well-attended dinners where we presented our case. In Beijing it took place at the premises of Novozymes where we started by visiting the new and impressive building of Novozymes, while in Shanghai we had dinner at the Hyatt Hotel with an impressive view of the towering Shanghai.

We hope to increase our cooperation with the two chambers and this includes adding more information to our knowledge base and more visits from Chinese business people.

I went to visit several ministries. They were all well informed about our Forum and interested in using our organisation and our facilities in connection with doing business in Denmark.

Like everybody else I was impressed by the growth in China, especially with their many new buildings. To illustrate the development, I cannot help telling you about our guide in Shanghai, who was 24 years old. Only eight years ago she lived in an apartment of 28m². There were three families living in this space sharing one bathroom and one toilet. Her family of six, including her grand parents had a room of 8m² and only one bed. When the city decided to build a new skyscraper they were offered either money or a new apartment in the outskirts of Shanghai. They took the apartment – with 3 rooms, bath and toilet. “It was like being reborn” she said to me.

This coming year will be a busy year for our staff with many activities. Among other things we shall be active in enlisting more members from Southern Sweden and ensure that they also get value for their money. In addition we will be working hard to make the Knowledge Base an even more valuable tool for our members.

Yours sincerely
Nils Foss
Chairman


 

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