Can you tell us more about Skeppsbron Skatt?
Skeppsbron Skatt is Sweden’s largest independent tax advisor with about 70 employees at our offices in Stockholm,  Malmö and Gothenburg. We are a full service advisor and we handle all types of tax issues for both large, small companies and individuals. Our consulting is independent from auditing and we offer a unique alternative to the tax advice provided by audit firms. 
Skeppsbron have the sector-specific expertise needed to provide advice that is tailored to our customers’ business – advice that adds value. We provide clear, specific advice, whatever the question is. We give honest answers and have long experience of advising on a broad spectrum of complex tax issues.

Skeppsbron Skatt is part of Taxand, the world’s leading international network of independent tax advisers, which currently includes over 2,000 tax consultants in about 60 countries. This enables us to offer high-quality advice regardless of where in the world you as a customer have your business. The connection with our network colleagues in the Netherlands is strong due to the large amount of Dutch individuals working in Sweden and vice versa. Through the merger with Aspia, we are now part of Sweden’s new leading business partner for business-related services. For you as a customer, this means that you get access to an additional 1,450 specialists in payroll management, accounting and consulting in more than 70 locations throughout Sweden and specialists throughout the Nordic region. In other words, a one stop shop for Dutch companies taking their business to Sweden and the Nordics.
 
Your last name sounds Dutch. What is your own connection with the Netherlands? 
I have a Dutch mother and have grown up with the Dutch language. I decided to take my mother’s surname to state my Dutch inheritance and ensure the survival of our branch of the family name, dating back to the 13th century. Whenever I come across a Dutch native, either via work or in the street, my heart beats a bit extra hard. Even though Dutch are all excellent English speakers, it gives that extra feeling and connection to be able to use the Dutch language. My call is and has always been to help and facilitate so that my clients can focus on what they do best. Tax is hard and tax is important. Being strategic up-front makes life simpler and even though most situations can be sorted out afterwards, the price and frustration connected to this, is preferably avoided. With Skeppsbron and Aspia’s broad offer, I hope to get to assist Dutch companies who wish to expand their business to Sweden and the Nordics and also the owners and employees of the business, to ensure full compliance across the whole organization.
 
What are your expectations regarding your membership with the Dutch Chamber?
For me the expectation is both from a personal and business level. I hope to make many new acquaintances via the Chamber to broaden my Dutch network. Firstly, as I have little close family left in the Netherlands I would like to build a new circle; make new Dutch friends to spend time with both here in Sweden and the Netherlands. Secondly, I hope to be able to be that supporting pillar that newly arrivers need in Sweden. Someone to explain the culture (both business and leisure), how to communicate with authorities, how not to get scared off by the “extreme” tax rates, someone who supports with all the millions forms etc. In short, someone to facilitate life in the Swedish (tax) environment.
 /M.N.

55 members and guests were welcomed on 7th December at the Armé Museum. A night to remember with lots of time to meet, connect and mingle.
Jeroen van Halder, metal conservator at the Museum introduced himself and the professional journey he made, ending with some anecdotes about the work at the museum.
Chair Els Berkers looked back on the good year for the Dutch Chamber with 25 events during the year and on 7 December 116 members, an unique moment in the history of the Dutch Chamber. 
Els announced as well how the DC is going to celebrate 20 years of Dutch Swedish business networking. The Dutch Chamber will organise 3 Anniversary dinners: in Stockholm on 13 May,  in Malmö on 2 September and in Göteborg 18 November 2022. There will be a day programme to make it attractive for members and network to travel to this city.
The Dutch Chamber said goodbye to Håkan Westin, our secretary for the last 2 years and to Norah Jing Chu, or online event manager who is moving to the Netherlands.
It was a pleasure that our ambassador Bengt van Loosdrecht was present and said a few words on the importance of innovation and taking risks.  Then the glasses were raised and we all toasted on a good year to come.

Almost 30 guests followed to the restaurant Artilleriet, where we had a lovely dinner and much more time to catch up.

We thank Jeroen van Halder for the very interesting presentation, Frank Cleeren for organising and Dirk Carlier for the help during the evening.

Could you spare 10-12 hours over 3 months to support a good cause? Do you want to get your company engaged or do happen to have a friend or colleague that is looking to make a difference? War Child Sweden are seeking mentors for the mentorship programme Framtidshoppet.
Framtidshoppet seeks to provide youth impacted by Gymnasielagen with the tools and support required to secure long-term employment and a sustainable future in Sweden. Gymnasielagen (‘the high school law’), established after the 2015 refugee crisis, offered youth who had received a rejection on their asylum application an opportunity to stay in Sweden and finish high school. It also provided the chance of obtaining a prolonged residence permit. However, the regulations for obtaining this permit often prove near impossible which has left many young people anxiety-ridden and depressed.
Please see the text below for further information on the programme and how you can play a pivotal role in transforming the lives of some of Stockholm’s most vulnerable. In order to participate in the mentorship programme, you need to be a proficient Swedish speaker.
For further information on how to get involved please contact War Child Sweden on 0761-745307 or Jolande Svensson-Klijn.



Background
Gymnasielagen (in English‘the high school law’) was initiated after the refugee crisis in 2015 to allow youth who had received a rejection on their asylum application to stay in Sweden and finish high school, and in the long run, possibly get a prolonged residence permit. The law affects about 7.500 youth who have suffered from lengthy processes. They all arrived in Sweden as unaccompanied children before the 24th of November 2015, which means they have lived here for at least six years.
 
The regulations for getting a prolonged residence permit are tough. The youth must find a job within six months after graduation, and the contract must be long-term (at least two years) and the salary in line with collective agreements in the specific field (or other field standards). 
 
The youth affected by this law report high levels of stress and concern for the future. A large majority of the affected youth are of Afghan origin, however, many have never lived in Afghanistan and have instead resided in countries such as Iran or Pakistan. Many of these youth do not see a future in Afghanistan as an option. Instead, they choose to flee to other European countries or stay in Sweden without a permit. 
 
The project
Framtidshoppet (Hope for the future) is a collaboration between War Child Sweden, Arbetskraftsförmedlingen and Nordisk Kompetens. Arbetskraftsförmedlingen is a civil society organization working with job matching. Through their campaign REDO, they focus specifically on finding work for youth covered by the Gymnasielagen. Nordisk Kompetens is a staffing and recruitment firm. 
 
The overall purpose of Framtidshoppet is to give youth covered by Gymnasielagen the support and tools needed for them to build a sustainable future in Sweden.
 
To support youth covered by Gymnasielagen, Framtidshoppet rests on four pillars: 
 
1) A mentorship program 
2) Support in job searching
3) Collaboration between the civil society organisations and the private sector
4) Advocacy 
 
Through the mentorship program, youth who are experiencing mental turmoil are supported by mentors trained by War Child Sweden. The support these youth receive is implemented by partner organisations. This includes supporting the youth emotionally as well as engaging companies to employ young people from this target group. As many of the youths have studied and worked in professions that are facing staff shortages, the project will also play an important role in maintaining industries threatened by a high staff vacancy rate. 
 
Throughout the project, open houses will be arranged two times per month, where the youth can receive practical help with cover letter and CV writing, LinkedIn and Yobber registration, and interview training. Once a month, joint activities for all mentors and youth will be arranged, creating a possibility for the participants to share and discuss difficulties and successes.
 
Pillars 3 and 4 aim to broaden the impact of the project, by bringing awareness to the wider public of the issues faced by the youth impacted by the Gymnasielagen. By creating a model of united action between organizations within the civil society and the private sector, the outcomes and learnings of Framtidshoppet can be scaled and spread to organizations and businesses in other areas of expertise. We will also investigate whether organizations find the model useful and how they intend to use it. This will create far-reaching benefits for the Swedish society and contribute to creating a sustainable future for other groups too. Through campaigning on youth issues, we will seek to raise awareness of the key issues affecting this particular youth population to the general public, civil society and the business sector. Moreover, it is hoped that the likelihood of this youth group receiving a job within the six-month period prescribed by Gymnasielagen will increase. Indirectly, the campaigns may also contribute to a shifted view on the legislation among decision-makers and the general public. 
 
 
                                           
 

When did you live and work in Sweden?
I worked and lived in Sweden between 2014 and 2019. I started with an HR internship at Air France KLM followed by a 1 year contract supporting Denmark and Cargo for the Nordics. After travelling New Zealand, Australia and parts of Asia I joined bp as an HR business partner for the Nordics, funnily enough in the exact same building just one floor down from KLM.

What are you doing now? And why did you move to London?
I’m a business advisor to the SVP People & Culture for Trading & Shipping & Culture in bp, which effectively is running the executive office with a broad portfolio ranging from business partnering for our trading and shipping community as well as the operational aspect of running our workplaces globally, capital projects and culture team. As you can read, I moved to London as there were some great career opportunities.

Why did you become a member of the Dutch Chamber? Was there a favourite event you joined or organised?
I joined the Dutch Chamber after having found an internship via the Dutch Chamber network and wanted to actively support this network as it helped me land on my feet when I arrived in Sweden. How great if I could do the same for other people with a Dutch-Swedish connection. 

What was your biggest learning from your time in Sweden that you would like to share with our Dutch Swedish network?
Some of you might appreciate this, we always take our shoes off indoors. Welcome to the big pile of shoes at the door entrance  On a more professional note, I’ve really come to appreciate the importance of  bringing people into the conversation, the Swedes do this brilliantly and is aligned to the Dutch “polder model”. It has helped me in my career, working in a high paced environment and with many nationalities, sometimes needs you to slow-down and make sure everyone is onboard before you speed-up again.

Do you still keep in touch with the Swedes and have you been here again since you left?
Less often than I would have liked but we’ve been back in February 2020 for some skiing (yes my cross-country skies are now in the UK, ready for our trip in March) and visiting friends.

 /M.N.

On Tuesday 19th October, The Dutch Chamber of Commerce organised the webinar “How to find your dream job in Sweden”. The many participants showed great interest in this webinar and our panelists shared their knowledge and professional experiences in the field of HR and recruitment.
Our panelists Karin Björkman from Undutchables, Chris van der Schoor from Netflix and Johannes Pastoor from Volvo discussed this theme from different perspectives, including Swedish company culture and Do's and Don’ts at interviews.
The panel discussion covered several crucial questions regarding job application such as: Is it important to speak Swedish? How to get attention from the hiring manager when you switch industries? How to network efficiently ? The webinar recording is available on demand.

/Norah Jing Chu

On Wednesday 27 th October, the Dutch Chamber together with our corporate member Optimizers Nordic AB organised the webinar “How to jump start transformation of your sale
channels?”
During the webinar, our panelists, Miguel van Bussel from ANWB, Timen van der Horn from Chronobay and Thomas van Bunningen from Ericsson discussed how digital transformation is integrated in the daily business, how this transformation has effectively improved clients’ experiences and what the
lessons-learned are.
Mike Peters, manager from Optimizers Nordic AB moderated the panel discussion. Optimizers is a cloud software provider within the Order toDelivery supply chain and their main product area in Sweden is App4Sales, a B2B digital sales platform for SME companies.

/Eventmanager
Norah Jing Chu

On 14 October we organised a networking event with a pinch of local Dutch history in Gothenburg. 
​The Dutch Chamber is all about networking, getting to know new people and enjoying exchanging business ideas. During the first live event of 2021 in Region West a group of enthusiastic (future) members walked and talked and mingled in the wine cellar. No one showed any signs of having forgotten how to small talk, many ‘hands were shaken’ and new ideas were born. The guide focused on the influence of the Dutch in Gothenburg. This collaboration started 400 years ago and will continue to develop the coming years. 

We thank everybody who joined the event. A special thank you to ambassador Bengt van Loosdrecht and deputy ambassador Kim de Jong for joining. And a big shout out to Gothenburg itself for showing itself from its best side. 

 /Viola Vergouwe, director Region West