Commuters can enjoy a free ride on the section between Wat Mangkorn and Tha Phra from July 29 until September 28 from 10am to 4pm.

The new platform aims to deliver a seamless customer journey and is expected to be introduced early next year.

Once implemented, Star Alliance customers who opt-in to biometrics will have a seamless and hands-free passenger experience, allowing them to pass through curb-to-gate touchpoints within airports, such as check-in kiosks, bag-drop, lounges, and boarding gates, which traditionally require both a passport and boarding pass, by using a secure identity management solution featuring facial recognition technology.

Moreover, the platform will help airports and the Star Alliance member airlines to increase operational efficiency.

The service will be available to customers who are enrolled in one of the Star Alliance frequent flyer programmes and who have authorised the use of their biometric data.

Customers will have the option to enroll in the new platform via their smartphones. They only need to enroll once and can then use their biometrics data multiple times at biometrics touchpoints of any participating airport whenever they travel with a Star Alliance member airline.

Personal data, such as photo and other identification details, are encrypted and safely stored within the platform. From the outset, the system has been designed in compliance with applicable data protection laws making use of the latest facial recognition technology. Personal data will only be processed with the consent of the passenger. Passengers may be required to show their passport during security and immigration procedures.

“In NEC, we have found a strong partner who shares our vision of a seamless travel experience for air travellers. At Star Alliance we are committed to making the customer journey better, and this strategic partnership with NEC will help us make the way from curb to gate to aircraft a much simpler, yet innovative experience for our customers,” said Jeffrey Goh, chief executive of Star Alliance.

Takashi Niino, President and CEO of NEC Corporation, added: “NEC is pleased to join forces with Star Alliance to bring an improved cross terminal customer experience. Facial recognition is truly revolutionising the airline industry and making flying more enjoyable, just as it was always intended. In support of this partnership, similar to our implementations in United States, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan, NEC will mobilise its global resources and provide local assistance to each of the member airlines to leverage this secure, interoperable platform and rapidly bring our common vision to reality.”

Star Alliance and NEC aim to introduce the first biometric solution at a Star Alliance airport hub by the first quarter of 2020.

The 2018 Vietnam Tourism Annual Report said last year there were more than 4.9 million visitors from China, or 32 per cent of all foreign arrivals.

Without saying how much various nationals spent per day on average, the report merely said spending by Chinese was estimated at VND94.7 trillion (US$4 billion), or 24.7 per cent of total tourism revenues.

A Chinese tourist thus spent VND19 million ($818) on average during their visit while South Koreans, who made up the second largest number of visitors, spent VND26.3 million ($1,100) each.

There were 3.4 million South Koreans, or 22.5 per cent of all international arrivals, and they spent an estimated VND92 trillion ($3.96 billion), or 24 per cent of total tourism revenues.

The report said tourists from Australia, Russia and the US spent a lot of money on average and had lengthy stays.

Australian tourists accounted for the highest average spending of VND36.6 million ($1,500), followed by Russians with VND33.9 million ($1,460) and Americans with VND32.4 million ($1,390).

Last year Vietnam received 15.49 million foreign visitors, a year-on-year increase of 19.9 per cent.

The country’s top ten source markets were China, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, the US, Russia, Malaysia, Australia, Thailand, and the UK, which accounted for 83 per cent of all arrivals and 78 per cent of tourism revenues.

Last year tourism revenues were worth more than VND637 trillion ($27.44 billion) with 60.1 per cent coming from international tourists and the rest from domestic tourists.

In the first half of this year Asia remained the largest source market for the tourism sector, accounting for 77 per cent of foreign arrivals in Vietnam, according to the General Statistics Office.

Tourists from Europe and the US accounted for 14 per cent and 6 per cent respectively.

The number of international visitors totalled 8.5 million, up 7.5 per cent year-on-year. —VNS

The fund expects to generate Bt15.8 billion from this offering, which will be invested in the telecommunication assets of TRUE, Siam Commercial Bank’s executive vice president for investment banking Veena Lertnimitr said.

She added that DIF’s board has also agreed to pay a dividend of Bt0.0469 per unit based on its financial results from April 1 to July 31. Shareholders who hold a stake as of August 26 will be eligible.

Narongsak Plodmechai, CEO of Siam Commercial Bank Asset Management Co Ltd, who is also managing the DIF Fund, said that as of March 31, DIF held net assets worth Bt150.28 billion. Once the Bt15.8 billion is raised, the fund will invest in 788 telecommunication towers as well as 749 poles on the ground and approximately 39 poles on platforms, which should be ready and operating within a year. The fund will also invest in approximately 107,694 kilometres of fibre optic cables for mobile phone services upcountry.

Under this investment plan, DIF will also buy up assets nationwide to support the expansion of communication technology and mobile-phone requirements such as broadband internet and Wifi. It plans to earn benefits from most of the assets by renting them out on a long-term basis to True Group.

It will also use its remaining assets to provide additional benefits to other telecom operators, he said, which will bring additional value to the fund and unit holders, he said.

For the years 2016, 2017 and 2018, DIF has paid per-unit dividends of Bt0.956, Bt0.975 and Bt1.016 respectively, he said.

Supara Segajarn, director export promotion centre in Guangzhou, said that the snack market in China has been growing, with consumers there spending more than 2 trillion yuan on products in this segment, especially via online trading. The snack segment accounts for 30 per cent of the food market online.

Popular snacks usually have the characteristics of attractive packaging, a good brand image and nutrition due to their natural ingredients without sugar. The main consumers are adults from 20 to 30 who have an awareness of well-being, Supara said.

The Chinese snack market increased from 42 billion yuan in 2006 to 2.2 trillion yuan in 2016, with growth of 422.51 per cent over 10 years. It is tipped to reach 3.3 trillion yuan in 2020. The most popular snacks are those with vegetables, fruit and nuts, followed by meat varieties and other forms of convenience food.

“With the mentioned statistics, it is clear that the snack market in China will grow. There are opportunities for Thai business to export quality snacks that follow the healthy trend,” Supara said.

Aliu was in Thailand to attend July 22-24 ICAO Global Aviation Cooperation Symposium (GACS) in Phuket.

Prayut welcomed Aliu, saying he appreciated ICAO’s advice and coordination to help Thailand improve its aviation security in line with international standards. The PM also expressed pleasure that the GACS symposium had wrapped up successfully, saying this was an opportunity for the development of aviation facilities and future cooperation in the region.

Aliu, on the other hand, thanked Thailand for hosting the symposium, adding that he admired the government’s efforts to improve and solve aviation problems constantly. He also expressed hope that Thailand would maintain the standards.

Thailand is one of the very first ICAO members to claim an improvement in aviation security and facilitation in line with international standards. However, Thailand still lacks inspectors, and will cooperate with ICAO to educate and train staff as it aims to become a regional aviation inspectors’ centre.

He said that the growth was driven by the application of digital technology in its working process, as well as the use of data analytics to probe income tax avoidance. Technology is allowing the department to better analyse information and to follow individual tax payers in the actual business environment. Such information will be integrated both inside and outside of the Revenue Department and be shared with other government agencies to determine the income gained by individuals.

Ekniti said that the department managed to collect Bt445.6 billion in corporate income tax in the first nine months of this fiscal year, up Bt11.7 billion – or 8.6 per cent – over the same period of the last fiscal year. This was driven by the use of digital technology, which improved efficiency.

The department collected Bt96.37 billion in petroleum income tax, which is 87.4 per cent higher than for the same period of the last fiscal year. The department took in Bt46.18 billion of specific business tax, which is 2.9 per cent higher than the same period of last fiscal year, due to the higher transfer of properties. Regarding stamp tax collected in the first six months of its 2019 fiscal year, the department took in Bt12.072 billion in revenue, which is 6.3 per cent higher than the same period in the last fiscal year.

“For the rest three months of this fiscal year (July to September 2019), we have forseen many challenging factors, which are the slowdown in the economy and the decline in exports due to the trade war between the US and China, lower oil prices, the baht’s appreciation, and the trend for a decline in interest rates, the slowdown in the value of granted loans and the enforcement of measures to curb lending for second homes,” he said. “The Revenue Department, however, has been tending to raise its efficiency for tax collections, especially with digital in order to improve productivity in the working process.”

“The oil will be used as fuel for Bangpakong Power Plant, while the whole operation is aimed at alleviating the plummeting prices for palm oil,” said Sontirat, after he had discussed the bidding plan with the Department of Internal Trade.

Sontirat also said that next week the Energy Ministry will have discussions with related agencies in a bid to address several issues. These include the power development plan of 2018-2037 (PDP2018), replacing B7 biodiesel with its B10 counterpart, and the development of Map Ta Phut Port in phase 3, which involves imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

“I am prepared to listen to all opinions, and will consider impacts and consequences thoroughly before making any decisions,” he said. “Energy Ministry will focus on projects that benefit the country as a top priority. And I insist that under my administration every policy will be fair and fully transparent,” said Sontirat.

“I am prepared to listen to all opinions, and will consider impacts and consequences thoroughly before making any decisions,” he said. “The Energy Ministry will focus on projects that benefit the country as a top priority. And I insist that under my administration every policy will be fair and fully transparent.”

He said the Energy Ministry is following the UN’s guidelines on sourcing alternative energy to reduce the country’s dependency on fossil fuel sources in power plants. The desired alternative energy needs to be both affordable and eco-friendly in order to minimise the financial burden on consumers and the impact on the environment.

Director general Banjongjit Angsusing said the trade dispute between the US and China may present a good opportunity for Thailand, especially in fashion exports.

“As the US is raising import taxes on goods from China in many product groups, including gems and jewellery, it will push US entrepreneurs to seek alternative sources of raw materials, and Thailand will be among the most desirable candidates,” she said. “However, this tax wall may cause China’s jewellery industry to decelerate, resulting in shrinking orders of semi-raw materials such as coloured gemstones from Thailand.”

As for a long-term strategy, Thai manufacturers must develop new products for emerging niche markets worldwide and avoid relying on few major buyers alone. “To penetrate new markets we need unique products that distinguish our brands from others. We may add new features or combine with modern technologies such as smartphones, pulse monitors or pedometers to add more value to existing products,” she said.

The department has set a target for exports of fashion items, gems and jewellery products at 1 per cent growth, and is confident to achieve it before year’s end. This would be thanks to the aggressive activities to find new markets and trade partners, such as taking Thai entrepreneurs to visit potential buyers overseas, and inviting foreign importers to trade fairs in Thailand, Banjongjit said.

On September 10-14, the department will stage the 64th Bangkok Gems & Jewellery Fair, which is expected to be joined by domestic and foreign traders as well as e-commerce operators worldwide. The event will be held at Challenger Hall 1-3, Impact Maungthong Thani.

The report, titled “Hopes and Fears: From Energy Costs to Edge Computing Transformation” lays out the results of an in-depth survey of more than 100 global telecom decision makers with visibility into 5G and edge strategies and plans. The research covers 5G deployment plans, services supported by early deployments, and the most important technical enablers for 5G success.

Survey participants are moving forward aggressively with deployment plans, the report said, with 12 per cent of operators expect to roll out 5G services in 2019, and an additional 86 per cent expect to be delivering 5G services by 2021.

According to the survey, those initial services will be focused on supporting existing data services (96 per cent) and new consumer services (36 per cent). About one-third of respondents (32 per cent) expect to support existing enterprise services with 18 percent saying they expect to deliver new enterprise services.

As networks continue to evolve and coverage expands, 5G itself will become a key enabler of emerging edge use cases that require high-bandwidth, low latency data transmission, such as virtual and augmented reality, digital healthcare, and smart homes, buildings, factories and cities.

However, illustrating the scale of the challenge, the majority of respondents (68 per cent) do not expect to achieve total 5G coverage until 2028 or later. Twenty-eight per cent expect to have total coverage by 2027 while only 4 per cent expect to have total coverage by 2025.

“In Asia, operators are optimistic that they are ready to deploy 5G in the next few years. But with the growing reality comes a new set of challenges including increasing energy consumption, existing infrastructure readiness and visibility as well as manageability of sites” said Danny Wong, senior director for telecoms at Vertiv Asia. “There is a pressing need for telecom operators to identify and utilize energy-efficient and innovative power and thermal solutions to make 5G a reality.”

To support 5G services, telcos are ramping up the deployment of multi-access edge computing (MEC) sites, which bring the capabilities of the cloud directly to the radio access network. Thirty-seven per cent of respondents said they are already deploying MEC infrastructure ahead of 5G deployments while an additional 47 per cent intend to deploy MECs.

As these new computing locations supporting 5G come online, the ability to remotely monitor and manage increasingly dense networks becomes more critical to maintaining profitability. In the area of remote management, data center infrastructure management (DCIM) was identified as the most important enabler (55 per cent), followed by energy management (49 per cent). Remote management will be critical, as the report suggests the network densification required for 5G could require operators to double the number of radio access locations around the globe in the next 10-15 years.

The survey also asked respondents to identify their plans for dealing with energy issues today and five years in the future when large portions of the network will be supporting 5G, which 94 per cent of participants expect to increase network energy consumption.

Five years from now, that number is projected to jump to 81 per cent.

“5G represents the most impactful and difficult network upgrade ever faced by the telecom industry,” said Brian Partridge, research vice president for 451 Research. “In general, the industry recognises the scale of this challenge and the need for enabling technologies and services to help it maintain profitability by more efficiently managing increasingly distributed networks and mitigating the impact of higher energy costs.”