This is in line with EXIM Thailand’s strategy to provide financial support for high-potential small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with focus on product innovation and innovative production technology to boost their competitiveness on the global market, Exim Thailand senior executive vice president Wantana Mongkolsri said on Monday.

She added that Glovetex Co Ltd is a manufacturer and exporter of innovative industrial gloves with pioneering microtex fibre technology under the Microtex brand.

The company is a leading producer of safety gloves and equipment with distinctive properties, such as high cut-resistant gloves, anti-bump gloves, heat-resistant gloves, chemicals-resistant suits, and safety glasses for use in food, agricultural and automobile industries. Currently, the products are distributed domestically and exported to such major market as the US. The company is in the process of expanding its exports.

With cellular, customers can go with just their Apple Watch and stay connected to people and information. To help Apple Watch Series 3 (GPS + Cellular) customers get started, DTAC will also offer a special introductory cellular trial.

To activate cellular service with Apple Watch Series 3 (GPS + Cellular), customers first need to update their iPhone to iOS 11.3 and watch OS 4.3, then tap Settings on iPhone > General > About and follow the prompt to update to the latest carrier settings.

For example, Daewoo Amara Co Ltd has expanded its initial 2013 investment in the Lotte Hotel Yangon, said CEO Lim Seon Kyu. The joint venture between the Korean consortium and a Myanmar partner was approved by the Myanmar Investment Commission, Lim told the Asean-Korea Tourism Investment Seminar 2018 held last week in Seoul.

Lim said the project was a success from when it opened six years ago, and had seen average yearly growth of 7.2 per cent. The tourism industry in Myanmar is experiencing strong growth, while the government policy is to develop the country’s infrastructure to serve a rising number of tourists.

Sehwan Oh, head of the global business development division of SPC Co Ltd, had one-on-one business discussions with Thai businesses about his company’s interest in expanding their investments in health tourism and spas, with a focus on Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam.

“Thailand has strong potential for health and spa businesses, as the number of tourists to Thailand is high when compared with others countries in Asean,” he said at the Seoul investment seminar.

An executive of a South Korea travel firm who joined the seminar last week said he found it useful for considering some new ideas and to get the big picture for investment potential in the Asean bloc.

He is also interested in investing in developing products for the tourism sector in Vietnam. Some 120 million international tourists visited Asean nations in 2017. It is estimated that tourism contributed 12.4 per cent of GDP in Asean for 2017, which is about four per cent higher than other regions of the world, according to an Asean-Korea Centre report.

The country needs to prepare itself to meet Thailand 4.0’s manufacturing environment as well as respond to the expansion of Chinese investments and those from global investors into the Kingdom, said Markus Lorenzini, president and CEO of Siemens Ltd Thailand.

The government’s Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) initiative will draw foreign investors, and China’s Belt and Road Initiative will also have a major impact on the country – and Thailand needs to prepare if it hopes to maximise benefits for the nation, said Lorenzini. The country’s educational system needs to produce adequate number of qualified people to meet the needs of the rapidly expanding manufacturing sector.

Manufacturers must upgrade their facilities to be much more productive and efficient, he said. And Thai people, whether involved in managing business or in the labour market, must focus on improving their English proficiency.

Speaking the most common international language is a key factor affecting individual and national future success, said Lorenzini.

He said the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) had provided great opportunities for all impacted countries, particularly through scaling up Chinese investments, and Thailand was one of the focus markets.

“There are a lot of Chinese activities in Thailand, such as in the high-speed train system, which would run from the North to Bangkok. They also show interest in the upcoming public-private partnership [PPP] projects,” said Lorenzini, adding that Chinese investors are also interested in building new factories in the EEC area.

Lorenzini said that Siemens definitely supports all opportunities brought by collaboration, automation, and digitalisation.

Those advances will enable manufacturers to make unprecedented improvements in the time it takes to get products to the market, as well as shorten innovation cycles and increase efficiency, flexibility and quality. Manufacturers will require a high-level of automation of their manufacturing facilities and strong data support to benefit from the advantages of digitalisation.

Though interested in participating in business collaborations, Siemens will not itself become an operator in any investment projects, as the company does not compete against its clients.

It has the capability to arrange financing for businesses involved in projects, as well as participate through some equity though it is not interested in being a major equity investor.

For example, Siemens is a co-investor with a European partner in a power plant under development in Myanmar. The company has also participated in a co-investment project for a coal-fired power plant underway in Indonesia since the mid-90s.

“We [Siemens] have opportunities to be partners with investors,” said Lorenzini.

“We can provide the latest state-of-the-art technologies and the know-how for production and other solutions for their investments. Those would support the country’s vision towards Thailand 4.0,” said Lorenzini.

He added that for Thailand, different manufacturers are at different stages of progress in shifting to the Thailand 4.0 era.

He pointed to the local sugar industry as an example. That industry’s manufacturing firms are of varying sizes and are also at different stages of automation.

“For our five-year plan, Siemens will further roll out and implement the latest state-of-the-art technologies to make our clients’ manufacturing facilities more productive, efficient and sustainable. We will sustain our energy generation, as well as transmission and distribution,” said Lorenzini.

The company aims for double-digit revenue growth in Thailand and in neighbouring markets of Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos every year for the next five years.

Siemens Thailand has a representative office in Cambodia, a branch office in Myanmar and a project office in Laos. Also, in addition to its first digital experience centre for the Asia Pacific located in Beijing, Siemens boasts a digital centre in Singapore.

“We currently have no plans to set up a digital centre in Thailand, as it requires a high cost of investment. Thailand lacks the same labour force availability and talent found in Singapore,” he said.

However, the company is interested in providing help and support for smart city projects if Thailand takes the initiative. Siemens would like to be a key partner in smart city projects, particularly for e-mobility, said Lorenzini.

Joe Kaeser, president and CEO of Siemens AG, spoke in Beijing last week at the Belt and Road International Summit 2018. Kaeser told the meeting that the current geopolitical constellation and the Belt and Road Initiative are changing China’s role in the world – not just strategically but also economically.

BRI can improve lives of people

Taken at face value, he said, the Belt and Road Initiative is an invitation to the rest of the world to take part in the biggest infrastructure project of all time. It’s a landmark movement that represents a 1 trillion euros (Bt38 trillion) investment in infrastructure in about 90 countries and beyond, he said, and a project that has the potential to improve the lives of 70 per cent of the world population. Kaeser said it was a project that would create opportunities in practically every sector.

“With our comprehensive portfolio of advanced technologies, our innovation power, our technical expertise, but especially our global footprint, and our flexible service models, [Siemens is] ready and prepared to help Chinese companies go global,” said Kaeser.

One of the world’s most international companies, Siemens boasts 377,000 employees and 1.3 million customers in over 200 countries.

“China is a key growth market in our global network. More than 32,000 colleagues in China, including 4,500 people in R&D, work in more than 40 factories in the country,” Kaeser told the conference. “There are 21 innovation centres and 60 regional offices. Altogether, directly and indirectly Siemens employs more than 100,000 people in China. Siemens is also one of the largest foreign-invested companies in China, with interests in 89 companies in China.”

 The family company had earlier carried out food processing for products that went out under its customers’ brands. But Visit, now 50, explored ways to expand the business when he began to work alongside his father Somchit Limlurcha after graduating from university. With the new ideas implemented, the company’s export success has led to it generating an average annual income of Bt250 million.

“My father started out in his own business by buying agricultural products such as soybeans and corn from farmers and then selling them to manufacturing plants, which then produced animal feed,” Visit said in an interview with The Nation |recently.

“Then a friend of his suggested that he should move into canned bamboo shoots for export when this friend saw a business opportunity for exports. As a result, my father decided to invest Bt10 million to set up a manufacturing plant in 1987.”

From the start with bamboo shoots, Somchit diversified into the processing of other vegetables and fruit, as production for the bamboo shoots was limited to just two months a year. For the other 10 months, the production lines were kept busy with corn, longans, rambutans and other produce.

For the first year of operations, the business generated sales of Bt20 million, on the way to double-digit growth each year. By the third year, the friend of Somchit said he wanted to exit from a joint venture they had set up. That paved the way for Somchit to train up Visit in the business, with a focus on the export side.

“I then began to learn how to manage the exports while I was in my third year at university,” Visit said. “Then I graduated with a bachelor’s degree business in 1990 and started to work with my father to manage our marketing and exports.”

A move to add the processing of sweet corn in 1990 has paid off for the company, Great Oriental Food Products Co Ltd. Exports go out to 30 countries – including in Europe, the United States, the Middle East, Africa and Australia. Nearer to home the sweet corn is sold in China, Japan, India and Nepal.

Up to 90 per cent of the company’s exports go out under its customers’ brands, with the remainder sold under the family business’s own brands, ATA and All Like. The latter is the brand for products destined for both the home and overseas markets.

The company’s success has created work for some 100 farmers in Tak province. They supply the sweet corn, bamboo shoots and other vegetable and fruit types that are processed at the plant, also in Tak province. These farmers have land amounting to some 3,000 rai in the province.

The company has set aside an investment budget averaging Bt10 million a year for upgrades to the production plant following a move to join the One Province, One Agro-Industrial Product (OPOAI) scheme set up by the Industry Ministry.

This success has helped the company to cut production costs by about 2 per cent on average. With these savings, it has been able to maintain its net profit margin at a time when the baht’s strength has eroded some of its revenue.

“The stronger baht strong has been having an impact on our revenue since 2016, but we can maintain our net profit growth when we manage our production cost in line with the OPOAI programme,” Visit said.

Visit said that the key to the success of his business has been its focus on quality and the addition of new products, helping it to withstand the pressure from the big players in the industry.

“We are a small firm in the food industry, but we strive to learn what our customers want and this has helped to differentiate us from our competition in the market,” he said.

The agreement signed for 10 years will see the two companies work together to explore how to expand Rolls-Royce’s Trent CareNetwork by building on THAI’s existing maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) capabilities.

Becoming an authorised maintenance centre for Rolls-Royce would enable THAI to generate annual revenue of around Bt4-5 billion for the service within three years, an airline executive said.

THAI acting president Usanee Sangsingkeo said the agreement would build on THAI’s existing MRO facilities to enable the national carrier to repair the new engine types used by commercial airlines today.

THAI has the capability to expand its engine maintenance services for the Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engine used by Airbus A330 aircraft and the Trent 1000 engine on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. By doing so, it would meet the needs of the regional market, making sufficient use of the maintenance facilities and further developing a business joint venture, Usanee said.

Usanee said the cooperation agreement was in line with government policies that promote the achievement of industry goals. Moreover, the establishment of MRO facilities for Rolls-Royce would serve as a new growth engine that will help in the development and eventual readiness of an aircraft maintenance centre in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC). Skills in the field of aircraft engine maintenance would be further developed and this would help the nation’s aviation industry become the best in the region, Usanee said.

Chris Cholerton, Rolls-Royce president – civil aerospace, said the collaboration was an important step for a relationship between THAI and Rolls-Royce that has spanned more than 50 years.

For Rolls-Royce, it would bring greater capability, flexibility and choice into the company’s service network, he said.

For THAI, it would not only mean more efficient servicing of its own engines but also open the door to providing those services to other carriers, creating a standalone revenue opportunity for the airline, Cholerton said.

“For Thailand, this will be a great opportunity to train, develop and to grow a talented and valuable engineering workforce here,” he said.

Cholerton said with the Rolls-Royce fleet of engines forecast to grow rapidly over the coming years, with all the associated maintenance requirements that will entail, this has to be a good thing for the country.

The British company is one of the world’s largest makers of aircraft engines.

Surachai Piencharoensak, THAI executive vice president, technical department, estimated that revenue from the centre in the first year would be Bt1 billion, rising to Bt4 to Bt5 billion annually after full servicing starts for both engine types – the Trent 1000 and Trent 700 – within three years.

Under the collaboration, Rolls-Royce would transfer clients to the centre and THAI would send its technicians to train at Rolls-Royce, Surachai said.

In the first phase, THAI would invest Bt500 million for equipment and training, he said.

The centre is expected to start operations in fourth quarter of this year with service for Trent 1000 in the first phase and full servicing for both of the Trent engine types in three years.

Its capacity at the beginning would be around 30 engines a year, with a maximum of 70-80 engines a year in three years, Surachai added.

THAI’s existing maintenance facilities at its Don Mueang base cover 250,000 square metres, with the engine section occupying around 50,000 to 60,000 square metres, he said.

The airline has about 3,500 technicians at its facilities and the company expected to increase this number by around 50-60 for the new centre.

He said the two companies would make further studies into a model for a business joint venture.

The company’s Next G app allows AIS’s 7.5 million Android smartphone users (running Android OS 7.0 or higher) to experience mobile Internet speeds twice that of the current rates.

To use the service, users must download the Next G app. Their devices can then connect to an Internet service combination of AIS Super Wi-Fi and the 4G network. Currently, AIS has 100,000 access points on the AIS Super Wifi nationwide, with offering speeds up to 650 megabit per second (Mbps).

Of the 15 million Android phones in use in Thailand, around 7.5 million units are owned by AIS customers.

Pratthana Leelapanang, chief consumer business officer at AIS, said AIS had earlier offered the Next G service to users of some models of Samsung smartphones. Around 10,000 customers have used the service.

The main benefit of this service to users is that the increased speed of Internet connection comes at the same price points, except for packages under Bt799 a month. The benefit to AIS is that it can offer the service to more users with the same bandwidth in the same area.

“Customers who use the Bt799 package and up make up around 10 to 20 per cent of AIS’ postpaid users,” said Pratthana.

The company also offers Bt89 for the AIS Next G service for one day with 8GB and Bt159 for seven days with 5GB.

The trend is for more prepaid users to become postpaid users due to their increasing demand for data. AIS users have more demand in mobile data consumption, with 80 per cent growth year on year, the company said.

In 2017, AIS users consumed 7.3 gigabytes per person per month, increasing from 3.8 gigabytes in 2016. In the first quarter of 2018, they consumed 8.4 GB per person per month.

Thais spend an average of 4.8 hours a day on social media networks, a survey shows.

AIS has average revenue per user of Bt600 for postpaid users and Bt200 for prepaid users.

AIS is the first mobile operator in Southeast Asia, and the third in the world – after South Korea and Turkey – to launch the combination of cellular and Wi-Fi services for Internet connections.