The current situation in the financial world can best be described as a VUCA world. This term was thought up by the United States, in the 1980s, to describe the situation in the years following the Cold War. VUCA stands for “Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity”.

SK Hynix (Hynix) is a South Korea-based company mainly active in the production and sales of semiconductor memories. Its major products include dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), NAND flashes, as well as multi-chip packages (MCP), among others. Since piloting production of South Korea’s first 16kb static random-access memory (SRAM) in 1984, SK Hynix is now the world’s second-largest memory chipmaker (after Samsung Electronics) and the world’s fifth-largest semiconductor company. SK Hynix has consistently led the industry with smaller, faster and lower power semiconductors, mostly focused on DRAM.

Julius Baer recently published its first “Global Wealth and Lifestyle Report” that looks at the trends behind consumption patterns. Driven by a booming number of wealthy residents who are reshaping the global high-end market, Asia is now home to the three most expensive cities in the world. But as consumers worldwide begin to put sustainability in focus, the high-end market is set to undergo further transformation in the coming years.

At the end of 2018, Jair Bolsonaro was elected as the new president of Brazil. The election of Bolsonaro, sometimes called the “Trump of Brazil”, was seen as a shift to the far right and in fact one of the most radical political changes in decades. He certainly is a very controversial figure who exalted the country’s military dictatorship, advocated torture and threatened to destroy, jail or drive his political opponents into exile. Still, he managed to win the presidential elections by tapping into a deep well of resentment at the status quo in Brazil: a country whiplashed by rising crime and two years of political and economic turmoil. His promise was that he would change all of that and bring much needed change.

Shenzhou International Group is one of the few large-scale and vertically integrated fabric/garment suppliers in Asia, which has a concentration of high-quality customers such as Nike, Uniqlo, Adidas and Puma.

The luxury fashion house Kenzo is to open a standalone store on Alibaba Group’s Tmall Luxury Pavilion, a dedicated platform for luxury and premium brands. This makes Kenzo the first LVMH-owned fashion label to open a flagship store on Tmall even though the luxury group has already introduced a growing range of its beauty, accessories and wine subsidiaries on Tmall and the Pavilion, including Guerlain, Givenchy, Fresh, Benefit, Rimowa, Tag Heuer, Zenith and Moët Hennessy to engage online consumers.

One of the brokers we work with in Asia, CLSA, puts out an annual Feng Shui Guide as an alternative look at what’s in store for the new year to help luck flow in your direction. That also includes a forecast for what will happen to financial markets in the year ahead.

We recently came across data from the US National Science Board, highlighting what is called Science & Engineering Indicators 2020. It deals with the science & engineering articles that have been published around the world. Its latest data are for 2018 and these are the main takeaways...

Often overlooked in favour or its better-known neighbours, landlocked Laos remains one of Southeast Asia’s most enchanting destinations. Caught in the middle of the two Indochina wars and long isolated from the rest of the world, the country retains a slow, rustic charm, and its people -incredibly laidback and friendly- are undoubtedly one of the highlights of any visit. I was recently traveling throughout Laos and I can only recommend it. From Luang Prabang to the far north, its capital Vientiane and finally the far south, Laos is still somewhat different from most other Asian countries.

After having written about Santa Claus and the origins of the Finish gaming industry in our previous blog post, we will now zoom into the Finnish gaming industry a bit more.