“Pfizer believes it can significantly alleviate the problems facing the country’s overstretched health services,” said Luksanawan Thangpaiboolm head of its vaccine unit in Thailand and Indochina.

“Ageing and obesity are placing greater stress on the health system, which suffers annual shortfalls. It will hurt the economy as productivity falls as more sick leave is taken,” she noted.

Obese children face a host of ailments quite different from their parents, Luksanawan. Ageing citizens will likely not receive the care they need as the budget is not structured to meet new threats.

Even the Bt129 billion set aside last year for the Public Health Ministry’s budget, failed to cover the requested Bt142 billion sought.

Worse, the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI), a respected think tank, warned that in 15 years the ministry would need Bt1.4 trillion, which it will not be able to raise.

The TDRI gave a worst-case scenario where billings top Bt1.8 trillion as the country’s elderly now live longer and require more medicines and care. At best, the ministry can only cover a third of that cost.

“We recognise this problem and do not blame officials for deliberating hard before purchasing new drugs,” said Dr Nirutti Pradubyati, a medical director at Pfizer. “They have constraints to expand new vaccines in the national immunisation programme.

The cost of vaccines is about Bt1.3 billion per year, a small fraction of the budget. Some 40 per cent of the budget goes to pay for the universal healthcare scheme known as the Bt30-a-visit plan created in 2002 for the uninsured and poor.

Luksanawan noted most of the vaccines in the state-funded vaccine scheme are aimed at infants and mothers, not the elderly and other adults who are prone to suffer sicknesses that can cripple or kill.

“There has been a big demographic shift that planners need to address before it is too late,” she said.

Pfizer has new breakthrough vaccines for pneumococcal disease caused by Streptococcus bacteria. The disease brings on pneumonia in infants and the elderly, often fatal,

Luksanawan says the vaccine is available at hospitals but not reimbursable.

“Another vaccine for meningitis is recommended for people travelling to undeveloped areas and on pilgrimages like the Haj. Meningitis is brought on by unsanitary conditions and overcrowding and can be fatal,” she said.

For the moment they are viewed as second priority and are unlikely to make the national immunisation plan yet. These diseases will affect far more people now and in the future, she warned.

“Today one in five people are 60 years old or over. The number of elderly will rise so such infections rise with it. The number of cases and the cost of treating them will escalate alarmingly.”

“A pneumonia shot costs about Bt2,000, cheaper than millions of baht to treat each serious case,” she observed.

“In the medical field, doctors realise prevention is far better than cure,” she said. “We need to review the problems with this solution in mind and not be confused by purely bringing down cost alone.”

Dr Nirrutti agrees. “There are so many new trends in Thailand and the shortcomings of urban lifestyle that will harm health,” he said. “The scope has to be expanded but we are still using old scenarios such as reducing mortality rates and old scourges.”

“A third of the population today live in cities and urban children have become addicted to smartphones, Internet and fast foods. They live a life of inactivity which is bad,” he noted.

“A recent survey showed Thais spend 12 hours on smartphones. “This can be crippling,” he noted.”New problems arising are obesity.

“When confined indoors and lacking exercise, these children and young adults become excessively overweight and suffer many ailments such as diabetes, heart diseases and deteriorating physiology.

“Because they do not go outside much, their bones will wither without sunlight to produce Vitamin D, vital to strong bones.”

The body replaces bone every 7 years and without sunlight, such children can develop skeletal deformity, Pfizer experts noted.

One other aspect often overlooked is the rise in mental health illnesses in the digital age where depression and lack of sleep brig on stress an sometimes suicidal tendencies, they observed.

Watsons believes its strong store network, digital capabilities and growing eCommerce platform means it is well placed to meet customer expectations as they evolve in this new retail world. Highlighting this strategy as “O+O” or “Online+Offline” Watsons outlined it’s significant investments in its Store network and eCommerce capability.

Rod Routley, Regional Managing Director/Asia says, “Watsons vision is the integration of the offline and online shopping experiences to create a seamless and exciting experience”. Watsons physical stores have always been a key part of our success as we expanded rapidly to serve our customers in Thailand. We have built a brand known for innovation, trust, great value and a wide range of beauty and health products and our focus on O+O will enable us to seamlessly deliver our Watsons concept to more customers across a wider geographic spread with more convenience.

Fully operational since 2017, our online business has received excellent feedback from both new customers and Watsons regular shoppers. Our sales continue to grow exponentially with volumes now three times what they were 12 months ago. Our online platform is complementary to our store offer in that it offers expanded ranges, exclusive products, and an exciting promotional programme combined with the convenience of 24-hour access and convenient payment options. Watsons is confident these high levels of growth will continue and this has been supported most recently by its 5-5 campaign on May 5 to raise awareness and attract new customers.

Watsons is continuing to invest strongly in its store network. After opening 50 stores in 2017 Watsons will open another 50 stores in 2018 ending this year with around 515 stores.

Our store concept is also being substantially updated with our latest version evident in Central World. This new concept store is designed to appeal to modern consumers that demand more exciting shopping environments. Improved categorisation, brand presentation, lighting and digital integration are all very evident in this new store.

“In addition to our new store expansion we will refit approximately 75 existing stores, invest substantially in our digital and eCommerce capability with an overall investment budget of Bt600 million.

The increase in online shopping has not affected our new store opening plan. Beauty and Health Products are still a growth category in Thailand and we see continued growth in physical store distribution as a way to serve our customers in Thailand better,” Routley says

The Watsons Membership programme has continued its success of recent years. Now with over 4 million members that have the advantages of improved communication, exclusive promotions and special event invitations . In addition we have recently launched our new Watsons Elite Card. This upgraded membership is awarded to our most loyal members and brings with it another exciting range of benefits.

Social Media engagement remains an important part of Watsons customer strategy. Now with over 2.3 million facebook fans and nearly 4 million Line friends Watsons believes this combination with it growing membership base will help it engage with customers better than ever.

Watsons Own Brand product development will also see another exciting year in 2018. Now with over 770 SKU’s we have plans to launch over 150 new products from various countries including Korea and Japan. In 2017 we had great success with our Dermaction Plus Brand (DAP) as we expanded “DAP Advanced Sun”, introduced “DAP Alive Plankton” and continued to evolve our “DAP Cleansing Water” range.

Highlighting numerous business initiatives, the event also showcased Watsons’ focus on the seamless connection of its offline and online customers.

The company believes its strong store network, digital capabilities and growing e-commerce platform mean it is well placed to meet customer expectations as they evolve in the new retail world.

Highlighting this strategy as “O+O”, or “Online+Offline”, Rod Routley, regional managing director – Asia for Hong Kong-based AS Watsons, outlined significant investments in the business’s store network and e-commerce capability.

The signing ceremony was held May 11 in Ho Chi Minh City, with BHMA represented by chief executive officer Anthony McDonald, and Ixora represented by its founder, David Chang.

BHMA Hotels is headquartered in Bangkok.

Meanwhile, Thai AirAsia had revenue of Bt11.64 billion and a record net profit of Bt1.83 billion in the period, with a load factor of 91 per cent, up 2 percentage points.

The number of passengers carried was 5.64 million, up 16 per cent year on year and higher than the carrier’s 15-per-cent growth in seat capacity.

Thai AirAsia delivered three aircraft during the quarter, taking its fleet to 59, said Tassapon Bijleveld, chief executive officer of both Thai AirAsia and Asia Aviation, which is a listed company.

Thai AirAsia saw continued growth in the first three months of the year, mainly due to its enthusiastic work in the domestic market, especially in secondary provinces in support of government policy, Tassapon added.

The airline also started operating seven new routes during the quarter: from Bangkok (Don Mueang) to Ranong, Johor Bahru, Chengdu and Chumphon; from Phuket to Macau and Kunming; and from Chiang Mai to Udon Thani.

It also increased flight frequency on 12 routes from Bangkok (Don Mueang) and Pattaya (U-Tapao), while the routes from Bangkok (Don Mueang) to Tiruchirappalli, Chiang Mai to Ubon Ratchathani and Ubon Ratchathani to Pattaya (U-Tapao) were suspended as a result of route revenue and capacity management.

For the international market, Thai AirAsia continued to focus on the CLMV countries of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam by increasing flight frequencies to offer more options to a variety of customer bases, Tassapon said.

Together with a strong base in the Chinese market, the company sought new opportunities in the high-potential market of India in order for Thai AirAsia to grow and be able to compete in the future, he explained.

For the current quarter, Thai AirAsia is set to continue in accordance with its plan, including increased flight frequencies on popular routes, the CEO said.

Thai AirAsia aims to serve 23.2 million passengers this year and maintain its load factor at 87 per cent, and plans to add seven new aircraft to bring its fleet to 63 overall, he added.

He will serve as executive chairman, with Santisuk Klongchaiya – the current commercial director – taking over as CEO of the airline.

Tassapon Bijleveld, now executive chairman of both Asia Aviation – the carrier’s major shareholder – and Thai AirAsia, said the changes to the leadership positions would improve business flexibility within the carrier.

In his new role, he will be in charge of executive policy in the interest of sustainable growth. The company’s executive board and management directors have given their full support to the leadership changes, voicing confidence in promoting Santisuk, who has been instrumental in the airline’s growth from its inception, to the role of chief executive.

Chief executive Suphajee Suthumpun credited the firm’s new business model in launching its new brand Asai.

She said the company was confident of continued strong growth for the rest of this year.

The MCPC platform provides broadcasters in Europe with direct access to Thaicom’s content-distribution platform at 78.5 degrees east longitude on the Thaicom-6 satellite.

European and other programmers will also gain access to Mediavision’s services for linear and non-linear content distribution including Internet Protocol TV (IPTV).

Thaicom chief commercial officer Patompob Suwansiri said on Monday the firm launched its MCPC broadcast platform for Africa in 2016 and would now be able to provide European and other programmers with immediate access to the African market and TV households.

“Our African C-band MCPC platform on Thaicom-6 is ideal for broadcasters to enter the African market,” he said.

Telespazio, a joint venture between Leonardo and Thales, will provide uplink services for the platform from its teleport facility in Fucino, Italy.

Fucino, with its 170 antennas and 370,000 square metres of operating facilities, is recognised as the world’s most important teleport for civilian use.

Broadcasters will be able to contribute standard (SD) and high definition (HD) content from Europe to Africa via that facility and the Thaicom-6 satellite.

Chief executive Charoen Rujirasopon attributed the gains to rising demand for food-processing services.

He said the company was confident that total revenue would rise this year by up to 10 per cent over last year.

Total revenue at the end of 2017 was Bt2.77 billion and net profit Bt136.4 million, the company advised the Stock Exchange of Thailand earlier.

Eight properties have also been renamed WHA Chonburi Industrial Estate 1, WHA Chonburi Industrial Estate 2, WHA Eastern Seaboard Industrial Estate 1, WHA Eastern Seaboard Industrial Estate 2, WHA Eastern Seaboard Industrial Estate 4, WHA Eastern Industrial Estate (Map Ta Phut), WHA Rayong Industrial Land and WHA Saraburi Industrial Land.

Only the Eastern Seaboard Industrial Estate in Rayong will retain the same name, the company said on Monday.