Bangkok Airways to launch three daily flights to Mae Sot from Bangkok
Dec 14. 2020
By The Nation
Bangkok Airways Pcl will launch a new route between Bangkok (Suvarnabhumi) and Mae Sot in Tak province, starting February 1, 2021.
The newly added direct services will be operated with the highest preventive measures and standards, the airline said.
The daily Bangkok (Suvarnabhumi) – Mae Sot (Tak) service will be operated using an ATR72-600 aircraft.
The first outbound flight, PG381, departs Bangkok (Suvarnabhumi) at 7.50am and arrives at Mae Sot Airport at 9.20am.
The first inbound flight, PG382, departs Mae Sot Airport at 9.50am and arrives in Bangkok at 11.25am.
The second outbound flight, PG383, departs Bangkok at noon and arrives at Mae Sot Airport at 1.30pm. The second inbound flight, PG384, departs Mae Sot Airport at 2pm and arrives at Bangkok at 3.35pm.
The last outbound flight, PG385, departs Bangkok at 3pm and arrives at Mae Sot Airport at 4.30pm. The last inbound flight, PG386, departs Mae Sot Airport at 5pm and arrives in Bangkok at 6.35pm.
GSB launches project to help revive Koh Samui’s economy
Dec 10. 2020
By THE NATION
The Government Savings Bank (GSB) has injected more than Bt1.5 billion in Koh Samui’s economy during the December 8-9 “GSB for Samui” fair, which was held to help the island’s badly affected tourism sector.
“About two months before the fair, more than 500 GSB executives and staff visited tourism-related businesses on Koh Samui to survey their financial needs and design suitable products,” GSB president Withai Ratanakorn said.
“This project, called ‘GSB’s Samui Model’, aims to help stimulate the island’s economy, which relies heavily on tourism, by providing funds to large corporations, SME operators as well as people at the grassroots level to help them overcome this economic recession.
“The fair itself was a huge success with more than 2,500 applicants seeking financial products from the bank,” he said. “We provided soft loans totalling more than Bt1.5 billion to boost the liquidity of some 2,000 businesses, and also provided debt-restructuring services to 500 customers with a combined debt worth Bt446 million and debt negotiation services with the Legal Execution Department for 30 customers.”
Withai said apart from financial services, GSB also offered help in the form of:
• Scholarships for 320 students whose families are suffering adversely from the fallout of Covid-19.
• Building chicken coops, mushroom growing barns and vegetable gardens at local schools to promote students’ agricultural skills.
• Buying community products such as fish, eggs, and vegetables to stimulate local economy and donating these products to low-income earners.
• Providing vehicles to 10 street food vendors and career-training courses to 300 people.
“The GSB for Samui fair and Samui Model project are products of GSB’s commitment in helping local communities overcome the hardship from the impact of Covid-19 outbreak,” Withai said. “In the next phase, GSB will organise ‘Travel Samui with GSB’ to promote tourism on the island by offering special discounts on hotel packages for holders of GSB credit cards.
“We also hope that the Samui Model will serve as a pilot framework for other agencies who are interested in organising similar campaigns to boost local economy in other provinces.”
Telecom major DTAC and engineering firm ASEFA on Tuesday launched Thailand’s first 5G smart energy solutions.
Using mmWave 5G on 26 gigahertz (GHz), the new technology brings ultra-fast and ultra-reliable connectivity to main distribution boards (MDBs), the key to stable power supply in factories, warehouses and large buildings, the companies said.
Trials are underway at the ASEFA headquarters ahead of production for industrial customers.
Rajiv Bawa, chief business officer, Total Access Communication Plc, or DTAC, said, “Stable and reliable power is a core foundation for Thailand 4.0 and smart cities. The solution DTAC and ASEFA have developed together leverages DTAC’s 5G mmWave spectrum on 26GHz to deliver ultra-reliable low-latency communications to main distribution boards. The speed and reliability of 5G ensures uninterrupted power and energy savings for businesses. It’s therefore a very important milestone in Thailand’s 5G journey.”
The DTAC-ASEFA 5G smart energy solution features 5G Internet of Things (IoT) to increase the capabilities of main distribution boards.
Data is sent in real-time to an app on the smartphone of an authorised technician for efficient power management. This can effectively reduce downtime by providing complete information for analysis, power quality monitoring and power demand trends, the companies said. The system also can trigger emergency alarms, all powered by 5G technology with massive IoT monitoring of temperature, humidity, motion sensing, smoke detection and access panels.
Phaiboon Ungkanakornkul, managing director of ASEFA Pcl, said, “We are confident that deploying innovation is the way to go in developing solutions for businesses, infrastructure and industries. We strive to innovate energy management for corporate clients to better serve consumers. For large businesses, factories and buildings, managing the main distribution board is key, as it is the controller of all the power supply from the grid. Any MDB downtime needs to be fixed immediately to minimise impact – in a factory it can mean sudden halt in production.
“Having an efficient monitoring system reduces issues and downtime, in addition to more efficient and sustainable use of power.”
On top of this smart power management, DTAC and ASEFA are also collaborating on 5G fixed wireless access for high speed internet in ASEFA’s offices and training centre.
VST ECS inks deal to distribute Thomas EV motorbikes in Thailand
Dec 07. 2020
By The Nation
VST ECS (Thailand) has signed a deal with Thomas Design to become the official distributor for Thomas EV Motorcycle in Thailand.
VST ECS (Thailand) is a member of VST ECS Group, a leading ICT distributor in Asia Pacific.
Under the agreement, VST ECS will be responsible for marketing and distribution through more than 5,000 company dealers throughout Thailand.
“The business cooperation has occurred because the company foresaw the direction of electric vehicle technology of the future. This is in line with the government’s policy to accelerate the change of fuel powered motorcycles at present to use electric motorcycles,” said Somsak Pejthaveeporndej, CEOof VST ECS (Thailand).
Possawat Thomas, CEO of Thomas Design, said: “Electric vehicles, especially motorcycles, are getting attention in Thailand’s market due to their affordable price and suitability for urban living. In addition, they are very economical for fleet companies. With this latent demand in the market, Thomas Group aims to be the leader in electric vehicles in Thailand’s market.
“Moreover, environmental concern is another factor boosting demand … since EV motorcycles are environmentally friendly both in terms of air and noise pollution.”
“Also, the use of electric vehicles can transform the Thai automotive industry and encourage direct investment in Thailand … in line with the government’s strategic plan to promote the use of EV and reduce EV tax policy.”
Thomas Design uses the technology from Taiwan to manufacture its electric vehicle at its two main factories in Chonburi and Nakhon Pathom, with 30 per cent local parts and 70 per cent imported from Taiwan. Next year it at aims to increase production and raise the proportion of local parts used to 70 per cent.
Government Savings Bank (GSB) has launched urgent financial measures to bring relief to people in the flood-hit South with a highlight of three-month debt suspension offer.
Dec 04. 2020
By The Nation
It has also offered loan for those experiencing the disaster at Bt50,000 per person with no interest rate charge in the first year.
Digital Marketing in 2021: How SEO Has Become an Essential Part of Online Strategy for Businesses
Dec 04. 2020
It is generally known that search engine optimization (SEO) is what a business owner does to ensure their digital properties (such as web pages) can be found online when their target audience searches the web with keywords related to their industry, products or services.
But, given that 68% of online experiences begin with a search engine, do business owners really realize just how essential SEO has become today as an online marketing strategy? Many actually don’t, and therefore tend to take it lightly.
No wonder the experts at Inspira Digital Agency here in Thailand see the need to highlight how SEO has become the key to digital marketing success for businesses in 2021 and beyond.
First, it’s important to understand that organic search today is the major source of website traffic for businesses, whether small, medium, or large. In fact, according to research by Bright Edge, up to 53.3% of all website traffic comes from organic search; and Google, as the organic search market leader, controls a whopping 92.96% of this organic search traffic.
What this tells us is that PPC campaigns, social media and other traffic sources pale in comparison to organic search when it comes to traffic generation, and SEO happens to be the only way business owners can claim their share of organic traffic.
When it comes to building trust and credibility, and being recognized as an industry authority, any business with an online presence simply cannot disregard SEO. As Cookie Veeratat, Account Manager at Inspira Digital Agency, states, “our clients are beginning to understand more and more, the necessity of SEO to strengthen their target consumers’ perception of their brand as an industry authority.”
She further explained that “this could be as a result of them coming to realize that the more their target audience keep seeing their brand name and web pages on the number one search engine results page of a leading search company like Google when they search for pertinent information, the more these consumers will regard their business as relevant, credible, and authoritative.”
For a brand looking to build authority and trust which are vital for success in marketing, ranking its web pages high on Google’s (or any other search platform’s) SERPs can only be achieved with good SEO, which accounts for optimized content and on-page elements, quality backlink profiles, positive user behavior, and machine-learning signals.
As the use of mobile devices to access the web continues to grow, so does the need for small and medium-sized businesses to optimize their web pages for local search. Consumer insights obtained from a study by Think With Google have it that 30% of all mobile searches are related to location, and 76% of people who use their smartphones to search for nearby products and services visit a business within a day.
So local SEO, which involves the optimization of digital properties for a particular locality such as a town or city, ensures consumers who are in the same vicinity as a locally optimized business can find it quickly and easily.
Commenting on how essential local SEO can be for businesses, Xavier Cloitre, Managing Director of Inspira Digital Agency, notes that “local SEO is a sure way to increase engagement, traffic, and conversions.” Going further, he revealed that “in order to boost engagement on the local level, the first thing our SEO pros do is to optimize a brand’s Google Business Profile, its Knowledge Graph panel, and its social media profiles…”
Ultimately, in order to market better to their target audience and position their brand for constant growth, business owners need a good knowledge of the web environment, the tactics used by their competitors, and their own level of performance at any point in time. The good news is that the process of SEO can equip them with such useful insights as it incorporates in-depth research, tracking, and analytics.
“The bottom line remains that the essentiality of SEO as part of the online strategy of businesses today and in the future cannot be overemphasized – it is absolutely necessary for successful marketing,” Cookie Veeratat concludes.
About Inspira Digital Agency
Inspira Digital Agency is a full-service digital marketing and SEO Company in Thailand focused on helping businesses achieve their online marketing goals. Find out more about how Inspira creates and executes effective digital strategies at inspiradigitalagency.com. You can also reach out via contact@inspiradigitalagecy.com, or call +66 (0)8 1466 7837.
Siriraj Hospital wins award for smart 5G hospital project
Dec 04. 2020Prof. Dr. Prasit Watanapa (left), Dean of Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, receives the CommunicAsia Award from Sanchai Noombunnam, Deputy Managing Director of Informa Markets Thailand.
By THE NATION
Prof. Dr. Prasit Watanapa, Dean of Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, on December 2 received the CommunicAsia Awards 2020 in the “Most Innovative 5G Trial in APAC” category from Sanchai Noombunnam, Deputy Managing Director of Informa Markets Thailand, during the “5G Powered Smart Hospital Enabled with Cloud and AI” MoU signing ceremony between the Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital and Huawei Thailand.
The distinguished award celebrates the hospital’s achievement in integrating Huawei’s 5G+Cloud+AI COVID-19 diagnosis solution into the hospital’s operations to enhance the efficiency of coronavirus diagnosis and treatment throughout the pandemic. The solution significantly helped the medical staff shorten the wait time of COVID-19 results, while providing a high-speed connection with low latency during remote operations, thanks to the fifth-generation network. The cloud-based system also improved patients’ data collection and resource allocation. Huawei’s tailor-made solutions have proven effective in reducing the workload of medical personnel and helping the country better control the pandemic.
The award celebrates a fruitful partnership between Siriraj Hospital and Huawei Thailand, under the “Building a Secure, Reliable and Smart 5G Hospital in Thailand” project, that resulted in a revolutionary COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment solution leveraging on the power of 5G, Cloud and AI technology.
The award also recognizes the success of the “5G unmanned medicine delivery vehicle” pilot project, developed by Huawei in collaboration with the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) and the Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital. The 5G driverless vehicle aims to reduce personnel contact, minimize infection risks, and improve drug delivery efficiency in the new medical era.
“I am deeply honored to receive this award on behalf of the hospital. At Siriraj, we always look for ways to improve efficiency of medical services and operations,” said Prof. Dr. Prasit Watanapa during his acceptance speech. “I would like to thank Huawei for its continuous support in helping us realize our vision for a 5G smart hospital. We will continue to jointly explore new opportunities in the 5G healthcare field. Together we will bring reliable and efficient medical services to the Thai people,” he added.
“This is a proud moment for the Hospital, and we are delighted to have contributed to this honor,” said Huawei Thailand CEO Abel Deng. “It is Huawei’s mission to accompany Thailand as it develops a strong, connected healthcare ecosystem through 5G and other advanced technologies and solutions,” he concluded.
Supernap brings Global Web Service cloud applications to Thailand
Dec 03. 2020
By The Nation
Data centre service provider Supernap (Thailand) and Hybrid Cloud provider eASPNet (Taiwan) have signed a deal to offer the Global Web Service (GWS) in Thailand.
GWS is a global cloud computing platform that provides services to help businesses grow rapidly and achieve their goals.
The partnership aims to cater to the cloud application needs of corporate clients in Thailand and the Asean region.
Cloud computing market revenue in Asean is forecast to reach US$30.32 billion (Bt915.6 billion) by 2025.
GSB, Social Enterprise ink pact to assist SMEs, start-ups
Dec 03. 2020
By THE NATION
The Government Savings Bank (GSB) signed a memorandum of understanding with the Social Enterprise Thailand Association (SE) under a campaign to promote small and medium enterprises and start-up companies.
“The GSB will work with SE in designing business training courses for social entrepreneurs as well as providing financial schemes that suit the needs of social SMEs and start-ups in the current economic situation,” GSB president Withai Ratanakorn said.
“For example, we have Bt10-million loans for businesses which wish to expand, renovate or fix equipment at a flat interest rate of 2.99 per cent in the first two years. After that the interest will be at a minimum overdraft rate, or currently 5.9 per cent annually,” he said.
“Those applying for long-term loans under a maximum 10-year repayment plan will be offered a grace period in the first year, 2.99 per cent interest in years 2-3, and then a minimum loan rate [MLR], currently 6.15 per cent annually, until year 10,” Withai said.
“For loans under Bt3 million, borrowers can use the Thai Credit Guarantee Corporation as a personal guarantor, while loans more than Bt3 million will require an asset as collateral,” he said.
“So far, applicants in social enterprises have signed up for loans of more than Bt17 million with GSB,” Withai added.
SE president ML Dispanadda Diskul said the MoU is part of the association’s mission, which aims to establish cooperation between its members and partner organisations in promoting Sustainable Development Goals among social enterprises in the country.
“One of the challenges that social enterprises are facing is the lack of funding. Now, the cooperation with GSB will help them progress sustainably in their respective fields,” he said.
“Under this campaign, SE will organise seminars and training courses by experts in social enterprises for its members and GSB’s clients, as well as exhibition fairs to promote products and services of social enterprises,” he added.
BECIS-Symbior secures Bt1.26-billion loan under UOB green project finance scheme
Dec 03. 2020
By The NationAsian solar power developer BECIS-Symbior has secured a Bt1.26-billion green project loan from UOB Thailand to finance its on-site solar photovoltaic (PV) projects, the firms said in a press release on Wednesday.
BECIS-Symbior and UOB Thailand execs sign loan documents at BECIS-Symbior’s office in Bangkok.
The deal, which will fund a total of up to 75 megawatts-peak in installed capacity, is the largest portfolio financing in Thailand’s commercial and industrial solar sector to-date, the press statement said.
BECIS-Symbior’s PV projects, when at peak production, will help reduce up to 41,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year, the statement said.
“In addition to supporting the shift to solar power, UOB’s green project finance loan will also enable BECIS-Symbior to expand their ongoing efforts in promoting the adoption of clean energy solutions and providing more affordable and energy-as-a-service solutions for commercial and industrial clients,” it said.
“The collaboration with BECIS-Symbior marks a significant step in sustainable financing for UOB Thailand under its U-Solar programme, Asia’s first integrated solar power platform across UOB’s key Southeast Asian markets. The U-Solar programme is part of the UOB Smart City Sustainable Finance Framework, which guides the bank’s financing efforts to support development of smart and sustainable cities across the region,” the statement said.
“BECIS-Symbior’s mission is to support our customers on their journey to reduce their environmental footprint and to achieve their sustainability goals while reducing operating costs,” BECIS-Symbior CEO Florian Bennhold said.
“The efficient and unique portfolio financing structure provided by UOB Thailand, combined with BECIS-Symbior’s singular expertise in delivering and operating solar PV power plants, enables us to provide the most competitive rates for renewable power to commercial and industrial customers in Thailand. This further cements BECIS-Symbior’s leadership in Thailand as a provider of clean energy-as-a-service solutions,” he added.
“BECIS-Symbior’s green project finance loan from UOB Thailand represents a significant milestone in the development of our business in the country,” BECIS chief executive Kunal Mehta said.
“Partnering with UOB Thailand on this journey not only demonstrates the strength of our business but also reinforces our continued focus on providing a high-quality service and value addition for our customers,” he added.
“Through the UOB U-Solar Programme in Thailand, we have been actively engaging industry leaders who are at the forefront of helping the country transition to a low-carbon future,” said Andy Cheah, managing director, country head of Wholesale Banking, UOB Thailand. “This is part of our commitment to forging a sustainable future with our partners and clients. Tapping our deep knowledge of the solar power industry and financial expertise in structuring portfolio financing, we are pleased to provide BECIS-Symbior with the largest green project finance loan in Thailand’s commercial and industrial solar sector. We will continue to support the company’s ambition and look forward to working with more like-minded companies to drive the greater use of clean energy.”
The UOB Thailand loan to BECIS-Symbior has received the Best Green Loan Award in Thailand, Sustainable Finance, at The Asset Triple A Country Awards 2020, the statement added.
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Prof. Dr. Prasit Watanapa (left), Dean of Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, receives the CommunicAsia Award from Sanchai Noombunnam, Deputy Managing Director of Informa Markets Thailand. 
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