There are more than 200 public companies established under the Myanmar Companies Act, but only six of them are short-listed for the listing, said Htay Chun, a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Myanmar (SECM). He noted that these six are being examined whether they meet the listing criteria.

He added that public companies stand a high chance to win new investment through YSX, but that requires an improvement in their corporate governance practices. To him, public companies must have efficient, transparent and auditable management that creates trust and confidence among its shareholders, investors, other stakeholders and all relevant parties. And they also need to prevent systemic risks and crisis, reduce investment risks, and ensure good returns for sustainable growth.

“Improving corporate governance policies and supporting good corporate practice will contribute not only to the development of the companies but also economic efficiency, sustainable growth and financial stability. Companies without good practices will face difficulties for sustainability,” he said at the conference titled “Strengthening Myanmar’s Private Sector Through Good Corporate Governance” last week.

YSX was opened in December but trading is slated to start in March. There are doubts whether the trading could start then. Only temporary securities licences were issued to four securities companies, while there is concern on the quality of listed companies and level of understanding among local investors.

At the event, Serge Pun, chairman of First Myanmar Investment Co and Yoma Bank, said that Myanmar received overwhelming interest from international businesses with a huge pool of working-age population but lost many opportunities due to too little institutional capacity to handle high volume of inflows. He said that Myanmar enters a new era after the election and the political climate is improving, boosting the economy. High growth can be expected and companies with good practices would gain the most over the next five years.

Pun said that a company’s reputation will lead to investor trust and trusted firms will have the ability to do business successfully and profitably. Good reputation would also draw skilled labour, just as how his group appeals to Myanmar natives who grew up overseas and return to their home country.

“Once trust is integrated, then benefits will flow,” he said, adding that FMI would be one of the first firms to list on YSX.

“Opening of YSX marks the modernisation of Myanmar’s economy. We should bring our economy to the global stage as Myanmar might never have such a good opportunity again,” he said.

Bandid Nijathaworn, president and CEO of Thai Institute of Directors Association, said that companies should promote trust from investors to bring in more capital. He said companies needed to promote stakeholders’ clear understanding of its activities and must truly commit to transparency. To him, a firm’s business plan must focus on risk management, attracting skilled staff and training.

“Many successful listed companies in Thailand are family businesses which have been able to adopt good corporate governance practices. I hope Myanmar can do the same thing in the future… It should start with top companies first, and then expand to other companies,” he said.

Chris Razook, International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) corporate governance lead for East Asia Pacific, stressed the need to change people’s mindset. He also backed eliminating bribery, which has been deeply rooted in Myanmar for the past two decades. He said local companies should focus on social and other issues, reduce unnecessary risks, and introduce best practices.

ACCORDING TO KAN, the innovations and productivity steering committee is focusing on promoting start-ups, while the legal-issues committee will push for a “regulatory guillotine”, a sweeping method of reviewing laws that was applied successfully by South Korea in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis in 1997.

“We spend much of our time discussing start-ups,” he said, adding that the ones the committee would focus included not only technology enterprises, but also entrepreneurial ventures in other areas such as the service industries.

He said Somkid Jatusripitak, deputy prime minister in charge of economic affairs, had give much importance to start-ups, and the government might unveil a promotional scheme called “Start-ups Thailand” late next month.

Nevertheless, to achieve the government’s target to boost Thailand’s research and development spending to 1 per cent of gross domestic product by next year, or about Bt130 billion, up from 0.44 per cent in 2014, the committee will also have to focus on encouraging big companies to increase their R&D budgets. About 70 per cent of the total R&D spending targets are expected to come from the private sector.

“We have to hinge [rely] on large companies. As they increase their R&D investments, there will be more jobs and career paths created for researchers,” he said.

Multinational companies are also being persuaded to make more R&D investments in Thailand, especially in the special economic zones, where they can engage educational institutes or invest on their own, and earn extra tax and non-tax privileges.

On top of these privileges, the committee is considering giving MNCs’ lead researchers a reduced personal-income-tax rate, perhaps as low as 10 per cent, compared with the current 35-per-cent maximum rate.

A separate plan for strengthening innovative capacity of small and medium-sized enterprises is being drafted by the Industry and Science and Technology ministries, he said.

Kan said he thought the government’s incentives were already sufficient to attract investments in R&D and innovation-related projects, as it has recently approved an increase in the tax-deduction allowance for R&D projects to 300 per cent of their actual expenses, up from 200 per cent previously.

Another key issue is unleashing the potential of researchers working in the public sector through amending their key performance indicators to provide incentives for them to commercialise their research work or to allocate their time for working for the private sector. This is because Thailand currently has only around 9,940 science and technology researchers, and only 730 of them are working for the private sector (more than 100 at SCG).

Other issues being discussed by the innovations committee include additional tax-incentive packages for venture capitalists, establishment of a “fund of funds” to provide financial support to venture capitalists and innovative projects, and setting up an agency to take direct responsibility for providing knowledge to and grooming start-ups.

For the committee on laws and government mechanisms, which Kan co-chairs with Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam, the most important job will be the introduction of the so-called regulatory-guillotine process to review and update laws and regulations that impose huge administrative, legal and political costs, estimated to cost Thailand about 5-15 per cent of GDP.

Former Bank of Thailand governor Prasarn Trairatvorakul, who also sits on the innovation committee, has agreed to chair a working committee to study and push for the implementation of the “regulatory guillotine.”

Kan said South Korea had successfully used this process to review tens of thousands of business regulations and eliminate half of them in less than a year, as part of its economic restructuring programme launched in the aftermath of the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

In addition, the law committee will focus on amending laws and regulations in five key areas: im-migration procedures, customs procedures, Food and Drug Administration procedures, town and city planning codes, and environmental impact assessment (EIA) processes.

The amended customs laws are under the consideration of the Council of State.

To comply with the expected remaining tenure of the current military-imposed regime, the tentative timeframe of these 12 public-private steering committees is about 18 months. Each of these committees works with all relevant ministries to achieve its agenda.

“In 2016, NMG will be investing in content for news channel Nation TV and variety channel NOW26 after seeing a rising in the number of viewers and advertising income,” Duangkamol Chotana, NMG’s chief executive officer, said yesterday.

Although the digital television industry is facing difficulties, things are slowly getting better. She said NOW26 has become the No 1 documentary channel.

Nation TV is also still a popular news channel, offering credible news content 24 hours a day. This year, the channel has been preparing to expand its viewer base by adding a greater variety of news programmes.

“This year, Nation TV will gradually launch new programmes starting this quarter,” Duangkamol said.

NOW26 was rated as having the fastest-growing viewership in the past six months, according to the latest survey by AC Nielsen, while advertising income has surged.

“NMG has prepared an investment budget of around Bt200 million to develop news content and quality programmes for both channels,” Duangkamol said.

The group plans to make its own documentaries via NOW Studio and also support other productions.

“NOW Studio plans to produce at least three films and documentary programmes this year,” she said.

The group has set aside Bt60 million to support documentary producers in the country. NOW26 would take a step forward by providing quality content spanning documentary news, outstanding lifestyles, heritage and culture as well as entertainment, she added.

“This year is good for public-relations business, given the big fillip provided by the AEC,” said Hasan Basar, managing director of Bangkok Public Relations – one of the country’s foremost PR consultancies.

“In recent years, Thai companies have been taking away PR talent for their in-house teams because of the change in visionary leadership at those companies. The CEOs or even PR teams have to see that in-house and PR consultancy offer slightly different experiences. More importantly, two is always better than one,” he explained.

Over the last three to five years, Thai firms have either been branching out to neighbouring countries or building a business empire at home that is attractive for overseas customers, in order to capitalise on the integration of the 10 Asean markets, he said.

This is in line with the global trend, in which international firms are shifting more focus to building and strengthening their own in-house marketing communication and public-relations arm as a complement to PR experts outside the company.

Basar added that this development also could be seen in legal consultancy. Despite having a strong in-house legal team, global companies still need to work with outside legal consultancy to make sure that the outcome is the most satisfactory for the organisation.

“This has provided a considerably good opportunity for my company to work with talented clients,” he said, citing his client Siam Piwat as an example.

The Kingdom’s major luxury retail operator and real-estate developer has its own strong in-house PR team with visionary leaders, he said.

“Working with them can help my team gain more insights about their business direction. So, we are able to get on the right track in suggesting to them the best, compelling communication strategy aimed at the right target, impact-fully,” the PR expert said.

Another important issue to be addressed in terms of the PR trend is that, in the current hyper-communication age, a company needs to have a key ambassador or spokesperson, like a well-reputed CEO, to create and amplify the impact of its message, he explained.

Despite the economic slowdown, Bangkok Public Relations believes that PR activities remain important both for local and international brands, he stressed.

The Securities and Exchange Commission encourages listed |companies to undertake corporate social responsibility (CSR). SEC secretary-general Rapee Sucharitakul says such practices contribute to the sustainable growth of their businesses while gaining support from the communities around their plants.

In one such project, the SEC is collaborating with SCG Chemical Co to build fish habitats in Rayong province on January 23.

“We started a programme to build fish habitats in 2012 on the Eastern Seaboard, including Rayong and Chon Buri provinces. To date, we have built 400 fish homes,” an SCG Chemical staff member said.

The fish habitats, which are designed to replace coral reefs that have deteriorated or been destroyed, are built with waste material from the manufacture of polyethylene black compound 100 (PE100).

“When we produce PE100, |there are some products that are of substandard size or have been cut down lower than the standard. Normally, they will be waste, but they can be used to make fish habitats, thereby creating value while also being friendly to the environment,” he said.

He added that tests had found that PE100 can remain in the sea without causing pollution, unlike some other materials.

A senior figure in Rayong’s Baan Pla community said: “This is the second time for our community is building fish habitats after doing so successfully two years ago, when we set up 20 of them in the sea.”

She said that after those habitats were established near the Baan Pla community, local fishermen were able to catch more fish, shrimp and crab for sale than before.

“We welcome the chance to set up the next 20 fish habitats early this year, which will boost the number of sea products for our local fishing community,” she said.

When corporates undertake CSR programmes that support local communities, that will support sustainable growth for their businesses in the long term, Rapee said.

The move is in line with the French company’s plans to cut its debt.

The deal to purchase the controlling stake in Thailand’s leading hypermarket chain will cost tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi’s holding company Bt252.88 a share.

An agreement between the two companies could be announced before the market opens in Asia this morning.

Responding to the Casino Group’s decision to divest its shares in Big C, Warunee Kitjaroenpoonsin, director of corporate affairs at Big C Supercentre, said Big C was a public listed company consisting of many shareholders, with Casino the majority shareholder.

Warunee said the decision to divest the stake was in line with what public listed companies did.

Warunee said that despite having a new majority shareholder, Big C would continue to follow its strategic priorities set for 2016.

They include a business expansion, with the opening of six hypermarkets, three Big C Markets and 75 Mini Big C stores.

Major renovations of seven Alcudia outlets are also planned this year, while Big C aims to maintain its brand-price leadership in the market.

He succeeds Frank Krings.

In addition to his new responsibilities as chief country officer, Phumchai will hold the role of head corporate finance or Thailand.

He will report to Gunit Chadha, Deutsche Bank chief executive for the Asia-Pacific region, in his country management capacity and also Richard Gibb and Simon Roue, co-heads of corporate finance, Asia-Pacific. The appointment is effective immediately.

Announcing the appointment, Gunit Chadha said: “Deutsche Bank has a long and successful history in Thailand which is an important market for the bank in Asia-Pacific.

“Phumchai has led the bank’s investment banking business in Thailand with distinction and he is particularly well placed to provide leadership to develop and expand our overall business in Thailand.

“We thank Frank Krings for his sincere commitment and service in Thailand since 2011, during which our business has successfully deepened and widened.

“The bank remains deeply committed to its clients and business in Thailand and to Asia-Pacific overall, a position that was confirmed again by Co-CEO Juergen Fitschen at the bank’s 2016 annual press conference.”

At Deutsche Bank’s annual press conference in Frankfurt on January 28, Fitschen said: “Deutsche Bank Asia Pacific revenues in 2015 exceeded 4 billion euros [Bt159 billion], up 14 per cent on 2014, with all businesses growing at double-digit percentages.”

For Thailand, through five-year licence agreements, Robinson Department Store is committed to open more than 40 Aeropostale shops over the next five years.

Julian Geiger, chief executive officer of Aeropostale, said the US company’s international expansion began in Asia and it was pleased to announce further expansion across this key region. “Thailand will be an important market as we continue to expand globally across Asia. We are confident that our partnerships with Robinson Department Store Company will ensure that the Aeropostale brand will continue to expand and prosper internationally,” he said.

The company has signed a licensing agreement with Robinson Department Store to open about 40 standalone and shop-in-shop locations over the next five years in Thailand. The first Aeropostale location in Thailand will open at the Robinson Department Store in Fashion Island mall on February 18, followed by Future Park Rangsit on February 24, and at Robinson Sriracha on March 1. About 15 Aeropostale shops will be opened in the Kingdom this year.

Paresh Chauhan, executive vice president for international brands at Robinson, said the department-store chain was very excited to bring Aeropostale to Thailand, with the brand’s strong combination of trend-fitting merchandise at compelling prices.