#ศาสตร์เกษตรดินปุ๋ย : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

MEA’s ‘Investment in People’ wins AREA award

Sep 24. 2020

By THE NATION

The Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA) has won this year’s Asia Responsible Entrepreneurship Award (AREA) for “Investment in People”, which reflects its policies and commitment in promoting employees health and safety in the workplace, MEA governor Keerapat Jiamset said.

“MEA’s latest project, ‘Lively Workplace, Better service’, which focuses on improving the working environment for MEA technicians responsible for fixing electrical malfunctions in Bangkok, Nonthaburi and Samut Prakan, is the reason we won this award,” he said.

“One of our SDGs [sustainable development goals] is to provide high quality service to customers while maintaining satisfactory atmosphere at work to boost staff morale,” he added. “Under this project, MEA organised a contest between 18 branch offices to keep the quarters of on-call technicians in good condition to promote health and safety as well as increase work performance.”

Keerapat added that the contest focuses on employing Japan’s 5S principle: seiri (cleaning up), seiton (organising), seiso (cleaning), seiketsu (standardising) and shitsuke (training and discipline).

“The contest was judged by MEA executives and experts from the Thailand-Japan Technology Promotion Association,” he added.

The Asia Responsible Enterprise Awards for this year were organised by Enterprise Asia via an online forum. This is the 11th year this competition has been held to promote sustainable development leadership among entrepreneurs in Asia.

The awards are offered in seven categories: Green Leadership, Investment in People, Health Promotion, Social Empowerment, Corporate Governance, Circular Economy Leadership and Responsible Business Leadership.

#ศาสตร์เกษตรดินปุ๋ย : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

GHB offers six more services via its mobile app

Sep 24. 2020Chatchai Sirilai, GHB’s president 

By The Nation

Government Housing Bank has introduced six new services on its “GHB All” mobile application to make online banking more convenient for customers.

The new services include the purchase of savings lotteries, account statements, advance queue numbers for using the bank’s services, requesting an electronic receipt of loan repayment, making payments for non-performing assets and changing address.

Chatchai Sirilai, GHB’s president, said the bank will launch more services in December, such as opening savings accounts, application for loans and clients checking their own credit records.

The bank aims for 756,300 money transfer and loan repayment transactions via the app by the end of this year, which will be 100 per cent more than the end of last year.

#ศาสตร์เกษตรดินปุ๋ย : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

Johnson & Johnson set to test its Covid-19 vaccine on 60,000 adult volunteers

Sep 24. 2020

By The Nation

Johnson & Johnson on Wednesday (September 23) announced the launch of a large-scale, multi-country Phase 3 trial for its Covid-19 vaccine.

The third phase follows positive results from its first and second phase trials, which demonstrated that the safety profile and immunogenicity after a single vaccine were supportive of further development.

The results have been submitted to medRxiv and are due to be published online soon.

Up to 60,000 volunteers across three continents will be enrolled to study the safety and efficacy of a single vaccine dose versus placebo in preventing Covid-19. The vaccine is being developed by Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceutica.

Johnson & Johnson said it will scale up its manufacturing capacity to provide one billion doses of the vaccine each year. Its aim is to provide an affordable vaccine for emergency use and expects the first batch to be available for authorisation in early 2021 if tests prove it to be safe and effective.

“As Covid-19 continues to impact the lives of people worldwide, our goal remains the same – leveraging the global reach and scientific innovation of our company to help bring an end to this pandemic,” said Alex Gorsky, chairman and chief executive officer of Johnson & Johnson. “We are committed to clinical trial transparency and to sharing information related to our study, including details of our study protocol.”

“We remain focused on developing an urgently needed, safe and effective Covid-19 vaccine for people around the world,” said Paul Stoffels, MD, vice chair of the executive committee and chief scientific officer for Johnson & Johnson. “We value the collaboration and support from our scientific partners and global health authorities as our team of experts work tirelessly on the development of the vaccine and scaling up our production capacity with a goal to deliver a vaccine for emergency use authorisation in early 2021.”

The vaccine is being developed using the company’s AdVac technology, which was also used to develop and manufacture the European Union-approved Ebola vaccine as well as its Zika, RSV and HIV vaccine candidates. The AdVac platform has been used to vaccinate more than 100,000 people to date.

With the AdVac technology, the vaccine, if successful, should remain stable for two years at -20 degrees Celsius and at least three months at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius. This makes the vaccine compatible with standard vaccine distribution channels and would not require new infrastructure to get it to the people who need it.

Phase 3 trial

The Phase 3 study is a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a single vaccine dose versus placebo in up to 60,000 adults above the age of 18, including a significant representation of those above 60. The trial will aim to enrol participants in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, South Africa and the United States.

In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the vaccine, countries and clinical trial sites that have a high incidence of Covid-19 infections and the ability to achieve rapid initiation will be activated.

The company will also collaborate with the UK on a separate Phase 3 clinical trial to explore a two-dose regimen of Janssen’s vaccine candidate.

Johnson & Johnson is also in talks with many governments and global organisations to meet its commitment to make the vaccine accessible globally once it proves to be safe and is approved.

Visit www.jnj.com/coronavirus for more information.

#ศาสตร์เกษตรดินปุ๋ย : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

JTS set to penetrate hyperscale data centre and cloud services market

Sep 24. 2020

Jasmine Telecom Systems (JTS) and South Korea’s KT Corporation have signed a strategic collaboration agreement in which JTS will enter the hyperscale data centre and cloud service market in a bid to attract global cloud service providers to Thailand.

JTS director and acting president Somboon Patcharasopak, right, with KT chief executive officer Hyeon-Mo Ku.

“The hyperscale data centre and cloud service business will be a foundation to add value to Jasmine Group’s network business,” said JTS director and acting president Somboon Patcharasopak. “This strategic partnership with KT will bring together global cloud service partners for further expansion of other services.”

KT will act as a strategic partner in business development and collaboration with global cloud service providers.

Somboon said JTS’s experience, starting with providing telecommunication services to corporate customers, including cloud infrastructure as a service, allows the understanding of rapid change in customers’ needs and realises the importance of data in today’s business environment.

Storing data in various formats, including text, images and videos, all of which are also constantly updated, requires large storage space and needs more efficient processing. There is also a risk of data loss or data being unusable in the case of a single point of storage, something the company’s cloud service and data management service will address.

Furthermore, collaborating with global cloud service providers will require the company to arrange a hyperscale-class data centre to support the expansion and storage space.

KT is currently the number one telecommunications operator in South Korea and has been an IDC specialist in that country for more than 10 years, while JTS is equipped with service providing experience in data centres from its affiliated companies, and infrastructure as a service, including international private leased circuits.

#ศาสตร์เกษตรดินปุ๋ย : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

PTT recognised for its environmentally sustainable practices

Sep 23. 2020

By THE NATION

PTT Group won the Asia Responsible Enterprise Award 2020 on Wednesday (September 23) for its environmentally sustainable practices.The award, handed out every year by Enterprise Asia, covers seven categories, namely green leadership, investment in people, health promotion, social empowerment, corporate governance, circular economy leadership and responsible business leadership.

The award under the green leadership category was accepted by PTT director Auttapol Rerkpiboon. He said PTT won the award for producing and distributing natural gas from pig farms.

He added that this project has been run for more than seven years in four areas in Thailand and has benefited 794 households. The project also disposes 131,791 cubic metres of wastewater yearly and reduces greenhouse gas emission by around 10,518 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.

Enterprise Asia is a non-governmental organisation that pursues sustainable, progressive economic and social development with the aim of achieving economic equality.

#ศาสตร์เกษตรดินปุ๋ย : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

Elle Homme offers fashion bargains at Bangkok ‘Happiness’ fair

Sep 23. 2020

By The Nation

French-based fashion brands Elle and Elle Homme are bringing panache – and bargains – to the “Happiness Drives Economy” fair in Bangkok’s Bang Na district from Thursday.

Leather fashions will be discounted by 50-70 per cent as part of a special sales promotion for various lifestyle brands, said Elle and Elle Homme distributor ICC International.

Also joining the bargains bonanza will be The Origin condo, Sahaphat Group products, CMG Group, Home & Garden, SCG Home, various hotel chains, Hitachi, Samsung, SME groups, popular restaurants, and Otop shops.

The “Happiness Drives Economy” fair runs Thursday to Sunday (September 24-27) from 11am-9pm at Toyota Driving Experience Park Bangna.

#ศาสตร์เกษตรดินปุ๋ย : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

Attention Thai factory owners: Asia-Pacific’s first cobot expo boots up next month

Sep 22. 2020

By The Nation

Universal Robots, the global leader in collaborative robots (cobots), on Tuesday announced Asia-Pacific’s first and largest virtual expo of collaborative robots. “WeAreCOBOTS APAC” will be held on October 6-8, from 9am to 5.30pm (GMT+7).

“WeAreCOBOTS APAC” presents an opportunity for practitioners and factory owners in Thailand to meet with automation industry leaders and cobot experts from different countries online.

Participants can attend cobot demonstrations by exhibitors, listen to enriching keynotes from industry experts on overcoming manufacturing challenges in Asia-Pacific, and find actionable answers on cobot applications in the live question-and-answer sessions. Registration is free at https://wearecobots.apac.vfairs.com/.

Experts from Asia-Pacific speaking in the event include Yeong Che Fai, director of DF Automation & Robotics, associate professor in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, robotics visionary and inventor, and a winner of more than 50 national and international awards. Also appearing will be Amar Burud, senior manager in industrial engineering of Continental Corporation in India.

Topics presented by various experts include:

• Future-Proofing Assembly Processes With Human Robot Collaboration

• Joining the Fast Lane: Using Cobots to Achieve Automotive Manufacturing Excellence

• Continential’s Journey: Enabling Zero Downtime

• Optimising your collaborative robot deployment

For more details of the agenda, visit https://wearecobots.apac.vfairs.com/en/keynote-schedule.

The expo programme also features presentations and “live” demonstrations on cobot maintenance and programming, and many new ways cobots are quickly being deployed to address the Covid-19 crisis, including area-disinfection and the manufacturing of test kits.

#ศาสตร์เกษตรดินปุ๋ย : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

GSB to back NHA bonds to fund affordable housing project

Sep 21. 2020

By The Nation

Government Savings Bank (GSB) announced on Monday (September 21) that it will underwrite National Housing Authority (NHA)’s social bonds worth Bt6.8 billion, which will be issued on Wednesday to raise funds for building homes for low- and middle-income earners.

The planned bonds will be supported by the Asian Development Bank and Public Debt Management Office (PDMO).

GSB and NHA signed a pact at an event chaired by Social Development and Human Security’s permanent-secretary Porametee Vimolsiri.

Also present were PDMO’s public debt adviser Ace Vibooncharern, NHA chairman Nattapong Punthakeirtpaisarn, NHA governor Taweepong Wichaidit, ADB Thailand country director Hideaki Iwasaki and GSB president Vitai Ratanakorn.

Taweepong said this is the first time that social bonds are being issued by a state enterprise to raise funds in the capital market so the business sector can play a part in social development. This is in line with Social Development and Human Security Minister Chuti Krairiksh’s policy.

This issuance is also in response to the Finance Ministry’s policy of helping state enterprises issue

environmental, social and governance bonds to raise funds for state development projects.

The NHA bonds will refinance the development of a housing project to serve low and middle-income people, who will be able to either buy or lease these housing units. The bond issuance is expected to benefit 13,569 households or 54,000 people.

The bonds will be divided into three tranches – 5-year maturity totalling Bt1 billion, 10-year maturity totalling Bt2.8 billion and 15-year maturity totalling Bt3 billion.

The 5-year bonds carry a coupon rate of 1.02 per cent per annum, the 10-year bonds carry 1.64 per cent per annum and 15-year bonds 1.90 per cent per annum, GSB’s Vitai said.

The Finance Ministry guarantees both the principle and interest. Investors have already registered their interest in the bonds and subscription will open on Tuesday.

#ศาสตร์เกษตรดินปุ๋ย : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

Krungsri appoints head of SME Banking Group

Sep 21. 2020Duangkamol Limpuangthip 

By The Nation

Krungsri (Bank of Ayudhya) has appointed Duangkamol Limpuangthip as head of its SME Banking Group, succeeding Sayam Prasitsirigul who takes over as senior executive of the Information Technology Group and Digital Banking and Innovation Division.

Krungsri said Duangkamol has more than 28 years of experience in banking and finance, particularly in strategic planning, analysis and development of SME banking business, as well as client relationship management.

The bank said she will leverage her experience and expertise to strengthen Krungsri’s SME banking services covering funding resources, financial solutions and advice. Duangkamol graduated with a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin.

#ศาสตร์เกษตรดินปุ๋ย : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

MEA keeps personnel ready to tackle disruptions from storm Noul

Sep 19. 2020

By THE NATION

The Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA) has advised people to stay safe from electrical hazards as tropical storm Noul hits the country this weekend.

MEA public relations director Phasuk Sampunnachote said the Thai Meteorological Department had forecast that tropical storm Noul was expected to hit the North and Northeast of Thailand over the weekend, and warned people in risky areas to beware of strong winds, flash floods and water runoffs.

“People who live in flood-prone areas should move their power outlets up to safer positions to avoid electrical hazards. Also check and make sure that electrical appliances and wires in your house are in good condition,” she said. “When you are outdoor during thundershowers, please keep away from large trees or billboards for your safety. Owners of billboards should also make sure that they are secured and located in a safe distance from power lines in case the wind knocks them over.”

Phasuk also advised homeowners to trim their tree branches that grow near power lines, as they pose risk of electrical shock and could cause power blackouts during strong winds.

“The MEA has prepared staff to perform emergency repairs to damaged power lines 24 hours a day during this weekend. We have also installed backup power systems in key areas to make sure that all MEA customers have uninterrupted power in all situations,” she added.

To report damaged or unsafe power lines and other electrical equipment, contact MEA Call Centre at 1130, Twitter: @MEA_news, Line: @meathailand, Facebook: @Metropolitan.Electricity.Authority or download the “MEA Smart Life” mobile app, available for both Android and iOS users at http://onelink.to/measmartlife