The six lenders are Government Savings Bank, Bangkok Bank, Tisco Bank, Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, Thai Credit Retail Bank Plc, and Islamic Bank of Thailand.

He said, as of the end of May this year, the number of registered startups at the National Startup Committee (NSC0 totalled 1,700, an increase of 200 from the end of April.

DTAC kicked off the commercial 2.3GHz service yesterday in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Khon Kaen and Phuket, along with offering new deals

for mobile data packages and smartphone discounts.

DTAC’s chief technology officer, Prathet Tankuranun, said that the DTAC Turbo network coverage would be expanded to 37 provinces this year, with more provinces added later. The expansion has focused on those provinces with existing high demand for mobile data consumption.

DTAC operates the 2.3GHz band under a business partnership with TOT.

DTAC chief executive officer Lars Norling said the service roll-out strategy is to get started in those areas where the Internet data usage is the highest.

“Then, we will expand the service to other areas, even in small districts,” Norling said. “Our launch will proceed according to our plan, and we are confident our customers will love how much smoother their network experience will be on DTAC Turbo.”

Panya Vechbanyongratana, DTAC chief commercial officer, said that the huge demand for online streaming has helped increase the number of DTAC’s 4G subscribers to about 8.5 million.

According to a global digital report released early this by We Are Social (www.wearesocial.com), Thailand is one of the world leaders in high-speed mobile Internet daily usage. The analysis of mobile Internet usage behaviour shows that Thais consume the most data for chat app services and rank second in data usage for videos. Thailand is also one of the top countries for time spent watching YouTube clips.

The digital experience centre will allow Chinese companies to tap the full potential of Industry 4.0 and the government’s strategic roadmap ‘Made in China 2025, ’ set to transform the country’s industrial sector towards digital-based intelligent manufacturing.

The initiative will benefit industrial firms in production flexibility, shorten time to market and to comply quickly towards market dynamism.

The reopening, after a six-month renovation and upgrading, allowed visitors to tour the upgraded digital experience hub onsite and learn more about Siemens’ future-oriented digital enterprise solution covering covers the whole product and production life-cycle and its advantages.

Gu Xin, director of digitalisation and intelligent manufacturing business, digital factory division, Siemens Ltd, China, said that the digital experience centre demonstrates the company’s portfolio of solutions for the digital transformation in both discrete and process industries.

“Digitalisation changes everything as well as the way of life. In manufacturing sector, it changes how we gather information and how the products are produced,” Xin said.

“For Siemens, we can supply comprehensive software and hardware portfolios integrated together to digitalise the full product lifecycle management and its value chain. This future of manufacturing is to cater new market demand and high-pressure customer demand with the customisation of massive manufacturing,” he added.

Opened in June 2017, the Siemens’ digital experience centre received more than 5,000 professional visitors from the industrial sector within six months. The upgraded experience hub, which engages an area of 700 square metres, continues to showcase specific digital applications in the full lifecycle from product design, production planning and engineering to production execution and services.

The reopened experience hub integrates the manufacturing information technology (MIT) for machine tools and showcases the electronic device manufacturing scenario, giving the audience an experience on Siemens’ applications of industry security and energy management technology through big data dashboard.

Field data can be uploaded to the new MindSphere 3.0 version in real time and analysed through Mind Apps therein to achieve preventive maintenance and optimisation of the entire production line.

Xin said that Casic, China’s leading aerospace, science and industry company is one of the key pilot customers adopting intelligent manufacturing initiative effectively.

The experience hub integrates network information security. In the digital age, network information security is crucial. Siemens is continuously promoting development of network information security in industrial applications and infrastructure. Based on the ‘defense in depth’ philosophy, Siemens offers the industrial sector a wide range of product and service portfolios, including factory and network security and system integrity.

Additionally, in Shanghai, Siemens’ digitalisation experience centre for process industry was opened in August 2017. In Chengdu, its global industrial software R&D centre established through its cooperation with Chengdu High-Tech Industrial Development Zone was put into operation at the end of 2017 and its intelligent manufacturing innovation centre is scheduled for start of operation by October this year. In Suzhou, a digitalization experience centre with focus on customization of industrial buttons will be opened in August at Siemens Electrical Apparatus Ltd, Suzhou (SEAL).

The partners say the new centres – badged under Simon’s Premium Outlets brand – will further expand the diversity of attractions on offer at the country’s retail and lifestyle destinations.

The first project will be developed on 150-rai site in Bangkok.

“We cannot disclose the location of where we will build our first luxury Premium Outlet in Bangkok at this time, other than to say it will an area that most people have to pass when they travel to the central business district of Bangkok,” Siam Piwat Group chief executive officer Chadatip Chutrakul said at a press conference yesterday in response to a question on the location of the centres.

However, she said that the project would be home to a strong mix of more than 200 stores, including some of the most sought-after luxury and designer brands, alongside international and local brands. The centre will provide an “oasis” serving locals and tourists and feature an impressive array of dining, leisure and entertainment options.

Chadatip said the first project under the joint venture – in which the partners hold equal stakes – will provide around 50,000 square metres in gross leasable area. It is targeted to open in October 2019.

The other two centres will be built in the Southern and Northern regions, with Chadatip again declining to disclose the cities. The partners will begin spending the Bt10 billion investment this year.

Simon is the world’s largest publicly traded retail real estate company with a portfolio of more than 230 properties. The joint venture is Simon’s first in Thailand, and its fourth in Asia. In total, plans for the joint venture initially envision the three luxury projects to be built in Thailand.

The Premium Outlets brand is a natural fit for Thailand, as the country’s growing population and the 35 million-plus tourists a year seek high-quality merchandise at value prices, the partners say.

Bangkok has more than 14 million people in the greater metropolitan area and is the main port of entry for Thailand’s extensive and growing tourism industry.

At the first of the projects, customers will enjoy everyday savings of 25 to 70 per cent on a vast array of designer apparel, footwear, fashion accessories, leather goods, and specialty brands, similar to those found in Simon’s existing luxury Premium outlets around the world.

“We share a vision with Simon that the future of retail is about offering visitors to our destinations an exciting experience that goes beyond shopping and provides them with opportunities to socialise, have fun, learn and pursue their lifestyle interests,” Chadatip said.

Mark Silvestri, Simon’s executive vice president said, said: “We are very excited to bring our world-renowned Premium Outlets brand to Thailand and partner with Siam Piwat, an outstanding real estate company.”

Simon’s Premium Outlets platform has an ownership interest in 96 properties globally, including 15 in Asia with nine in Japan, four in South Korea, and two in Malaysia.

Silvestri said Simon’s portfolio features some of the most recognisable luxury outlets in the world including Woodbury Common Premium Outlets (New York), Desert Hills Premium Outlets (Palm Springs), Las Vegas North Premium Outlets, Gotemba Premium Outlets (Tokyo), Yeoju Premium Outlets (Seoul), and Johor Premium Outlets (Malaysia).

 The platform, Cisco Webex, is promoted as opening up more opportunities for users in the area of collaboration and is designed to work with software from the likes of Google and Microsoft.

Sandeep Mehra, managing director of collaboration sales for Asia Pacific at Cisco Systems, said that Cisco’s mission is to transform the workplace in Thailand, “with collaboration technologies that are affordable, simple, open and secure and available to everyone”.

Under the Cisco Webex platform are offerings known as Webex Calling, Webex Meeting, Webex Teams and Webex Devices.

Mehra said that, according to a survey by the company, there is increasing demand for mobility options.

Some 60 per cent of employees will be considered mobile by 2020, the survey found, citing that members of the Generation X, Generation Y and millennial segments make up more than 60 per cent of the global workforce. This will drive changes in workers’ expectations, Mehra said.

“This rapid technology shift is part of a trend that is also changing workplace activities,” Mehra said. “There has been an increase of around 50 per cent in collaborative intensity in the workplace over the past 10 years. Further, around 90 per cent of knowledge workers spend time in meetings, exchanging messages and other collaborative activities.”

Cisco is active in calling, contact centres, Web conferencing and video conferencing, with the biggest market share in these segments – at 59 per cent, 37 per cent, 55 per cent and 53 per cent, respectively.

Mehra said Cisco’s strategy approach is to optimise its products and solutions portfolio for both cloud and on-premise services. As a result, it creates a new collaboration market, he said.

Mehra said that Cisco differentiates itself in the workplace market by providing a platform, devices, and mobile services in a single place with security. Cisco is the only provider to offer cross-company collaboration, he said.

“Cisco understands these needs and offer features and functions around meetings as well, Mehra said. “Webex Team is designed for safe and secure communications, while Webex Devices is designed to deliver a meeting experience, proximity enabling. and artificial intelligence-ready services,

“Webex Assistant uses natural language. An example of a specific group of users that needs this capability in Webex are those in the healthcare sector.”

Vatsun Thirapatarapong, managing director, Cisco in Thailand and Indochina, said that priority customers are in banking, services, education and healthcare.

In Thailand, there are several thousand companies using Webex Meeting, which has been in the market for five years, while Webex Calling has been available in the Thai market since 2017. Several hundred firms use this solution, Vatsun said.

The University of Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC) is among the customers that have adopted all the solutions of Cisco Webex. UTCC is the first university to apply Webex Broad for learning.

“Thailand is an active market for Cisco Webex. Our job is to educate the market how to utilise the Cisco Webex platform.

“For example, banks apply Cisco Webex for doing robotic process automation (RPA),” said Vatsun.

DHL and IBM outline how supply chain leaders can take advantage of AI’s key benefits and opportunities now that performance, accessibility as well as costs are more favourable than ever before. The collaborative report identifies implications and use cases of AI for the logistics industry, finding that AI has the potential to significantly augment human capabilities. While AI is already ubiquitous in the consumer realm, as demonstrated by the rapid growth of voice assistant applications, DHL and IBM find that AI technologies are maturing at great pace, allowing for additional applications for the logistics industry. These can, for instance, help logistics providers enrich customer experiences through conversational engagement and even deliver articles before the customer has even ordered them.