On February 22, the Nordic Innovation House (NIH-SG) celebrated its official opening in Singapore.
NIH-SG, which had its soft launch in September last year, is a soft-landing, community and resource center as well as networking hub for Nordic tech scale-up’s seeking to expand their network and speed up their market growth in South East Asia. The project is a collaboration between the Swedish and Finish Embassies, Innovation Norway, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Iceland, and Business Sweden (overall coordinator).
The keynote speech was delivered by Ms Darja Isaksson, Director General of Vinnova – the Swedish Innovation Agency. A panel discussion with three different panels followed where a number of Nordic start-ups, including some early members of the NIH-SG, shared their journeys in Singapore. There were also representatives of Singaporean stakeholders on the panels sharing their thoughts on why Singapore welcomes more Nordic entrepreneurs.
Dr Janil Puthucheary, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Communications and Information and Minister-in-charge of GovTech was the guest of honor. In his closing remarks, he talked about the importance of having a spirit of openness and reinvention to be able to face future needs. Given that Singapore and the Nordic countries face many similar future challenges there is much to be gained from dialogue and collaboration.
Ambassador Niclas Kvarnström, together with fellow Nordic ambassadors Anita Nergård, Ambassador of Norway, Paula Parvianinen, Ambassador of Finland, Sigríður Ásdís Snævarr, Ambassador of Iceland, as well as Senior Minister of State Dr Janil Puthucheary, Svein Berg, Managing Director of NIH and Sami Jääskeläinen, Community Director at NIH-SG, cut the ribbon to officially declare NIH-SG open!
