But, as we race to keep up with that change, we may feel an overwhelming pressure. Individuals and organisations alike are striving to push the best ways to develop their own skills, and those of their people, to keep up with our world.

The dilemma we face, however, is that all the knowledge gained throughout our studies and on the job may or may not be relevant in the next few years. Some knowledge may keep its relevance such as soft skills, but taking a hard hit will be the technical and hard skills that require you to constantly update.

Think about programming back in the 1940s compared with today. Back in the ’40s, we saw the first recognisable electric-powered computer with manually written assembly programming language. Throughout the years, we see ongoing changes in programming language, until today we see Java, C++, Python and many others. It is clear that for us to progress and have better technology, things need to change.

In addition to the changing relevancy of our knowledge, the business landscape – especially the job market – also changes. This means that as technology advances, our jobs may be replaced with artificial intelligence, automation and machines.

As programmers need to learn new things and reskill, so does everyone else – regardless of job or industry. From manual labourers to office workers, we are never able to tell if we get to keep our jobs or not. With that, it’s safe to say that we need to constantly learn and constantly reskill to be able to keep up.

The changes in our world pose both challenges and opportunities, depending on how we approach them. This is why need to constantly learn and reskill. Now that you’ve understood the importance of reskilling in our world, the next step is to learn how to get started. Below are five ways to begin.

1. Decide what is important to reskill, and set goals. We all have different priorities in life, so take all factors into consideration, such as time, money and accessibility to learning new skills. This can mean different things. For one, it can mean building and updating current skills or building new skills to support your current ones.

Bringing back the programmer example, to expand your skills as a programmer you can learn new programming languages to build on your current skills in order to do better at your job. On the other hand, you can learn and build skills in something beyond programming, such as entrepreneurship, so that you can build your own business. Depending on your goals, you plan out your learning agenda.

2 Mind your own mindset. Mindset is how we view our world around us. It is shaped by our values, beliefs and experiences, but it is one thing that we can change towards sustainable results. The problem we all face is that we want to change our results but do so through behaviour. It works for a while, but because we didn’t put our mind into it, we slowly fall back to our old ways.

For learning and reskilling to be constant, our mindset doesn’t only need to be positive, it also needs to buy into reskilling. We may fail and make mistakes on our journey of learning and reskilling, but it’s our mindset that allows us to push through.

3 Build on both technical and people skills to work towards the goal you have set. Research the skill demands today and the future trends of the workforce. You may already have the necessary skills for those workplace demands, but it is also important to note down what you are missing and need to build on.

4 Don’t spend too much time planning, just begin by doing. If you already have a rough plan, the list of knowledge and skills you need to work on, and the mindset to face all adversities, then the next best thing is to actually start. You’ll never know if you’re heading in the right direction until you actually start learning and work towards reskilling yourself.

5 Make sure you keep yourself flexible. Everything changes constantly. What works today may no longer work tomorrow, so you need to prepare yourself to learn again.

All in all, lifelong learning and reskilling go hand in hand. You can’t reskill without updating and learning the knowledge you need to better yourself. The world will continue to change, and to keep up with those changes and survive in the world we must continue to learn and to reskill ourselves to stay relevant.

ARINYA TALERNGSRI is chief capability officer and managing director at SEAC (formerly APMGroup) Southeast Asia’s Lifelong Learning Centre. She can be reached by email at arinya_t@seasiacenter.com or https://www.linkedin.com/in/arinya-talerngsri-53b81aa

The event, which got under way yesterday at Impact Muang Thong Thani in Bangkok, continues until May 19.

The queues began appearing several hours before the venue’s doors were opened to the public.

The exhibition has grown into one of the biggest banking events of the year, with financial institutions from around the country gathering to promote their financial products to customers.

However, for the bulk of those consumers waiting patiently in line since dawn, there was only one bank on their minds. Their mission was to be accepted into the Special 106 Days Savings Promotion programme offered by the Government Savings Bank (GSB).

“I have been waiting here since 5 in the morning,” said Bandit Yingsitthisakkong, age 41, a GSB customer who volunteered to organise a customer-run queuing system in front of the expo venue.

“The reason why so many people want to make deposits with the GSB is because of its special promotion being given out to customers at this event,” he said “It will offer the highest interest rate for savings.”

The GSB is offering special interest rates for individual customers of up to 4 per cent, on average, annually – much higher than the average savings rate of other banks, which are well below 2 per cent each a year.

Customers who want to be admitted into the bank’s special savings programme must first receive a ticket that will be distributed at the event twice a day until May 19. Each time, 250 tickets are handed out.

But, as Bandit pointed out, the pre-opening crowds numbered more than 300, and they were joined by plenty more after the doors opened.

“This means there will not be enough tickets for all these customers,” he said.

Other banks have taken the opposite direction in promoting their loan deals at the expo.

Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) is offering products called Speedy Loan and Speedy Cash to customers who sign-up for the programme during the exhibition. With the loan promotion, customers will be able to take out their first three loans at zero interest rates.

Kasikornbank is also targeting customers with its loan-based financial products. Products designed for customers at the event include K-Home Loan, with no interest for three months, along with K-Personal Loan with interest of 0.7 per cent each month and K-Express Cash, with zero-interest rates for 90 days.

TMB Bank and Thanachart Bank have focused on offering mortgage deals. Visitors at the expo will get an interest rate of 3.5 per cent per year for three years when they apply for mortgages with TMB Home Loan or with TMB Home Loan Refinance. Thanachart Bank is offering mortgages to customers at the exhibition with interest of 3.29 per cent for three years.

In a meeting between Somkid and representatIves from the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Transport, 19 state enterprises and related agencies yesterday, the need to hasten Investment was stressed to PTT Plc, Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, Metropolitan Electricity Authority and Provincial Electricity Authority, aimed at restoring the country’s economic growth.

Chanvit Nakornburi, deputy director-general of Sepo, said that from October last year to April this year, 45 state enterprises under Sepo’s supervision had disbursed a total of Bt88.01 billion or 92 per cent of the accumulative disbursement plan.

TOT Plc, CAT Telecom Plc and Thailand Post Co Ltd have been asked to invest in new projects to strengthen the country’s competitiveness.

This year’s export growth forecast has been cut to 0.5 per cent from the previous projection of 3.9 per cent whIle forecast In Thai import growth has been reduced to 1.4 per cent from 8.7 per cent, he said.

“If the US-China trade war escalates, Thai exports may contract 2.2 per cent and the GDP (gross domestic product) could expand by only 3.3 per cent,” he said.

Advocates of an increase often cite moderating financial instability and the need to generate wider policy space as underlying reasonings. However, considering both the internal and external economic situations, could there be a case for the Bank of Thailand to instead start considering a cut in the policy rate to prevent a major economic deceleration.

The economy is currently in a late stage of its cycle. After the upward trend in 2017 and 2018, with GDP growth of 4 per cent and 4.1 per cent, respectively, the highest since the boost from the first-car buyers’ scheme in 2012, the economy is expected to slow down this year. Negative private consumption sentiment is reflected in the downward trend of value-added tax collected in the first months of this year, growing only 2 per cent in the first quarter compared with 7.2 per cent growth last year.

A boost from private investment this year is still on hold until Thailand has a new government and benefits from concrete economic policies later this year. Regarding the external sector, merchandise exports contracted by 2 per cent, while tourism receipts expanded by only 0.1 per cent in the first quarter.

Moreover, there are many examples of economies that are moving towards loose monetary policies. China’s central bank recently cut the reserve requirement ratios for small and medium-sized banks. Malaysia’s central bank just slashed its policy rate from 3.25 per cent to 3 per cent earlier this week. New Zealand’s

central bank cut its benchmark interest rate for the first time in two-and-a-half years. Furthermore, economists expect a higher probability of a rate cut from other central banks, such as those in the Philippines and Indonesia. The question whether the Bank of Thailand will follow the lead of these neighbouring countries with a cut rate is worth exploring.

In order to arrive at the answer to this question, it is important to understand that a lower policy rate can boost the economy through credit creation, a process which encourages households and firms to borrow in order to consume and invest more. Recent data shows disproportionate growth in household and business loans. In 2018, total loans from commercial banks expanded by 6 per cent, amounting to Bt13.2 trillion. Almost 35 per cent of the loans outstanding were for consumers, with astonishing growth of 9.4 per cent, compared to business loan growth of only 4.4 per cent. Overall, it is not surprising that we saw this exceptional growth in private consumption, especially for cars, but with rather tepid investment last year.

More than a quarter of commercial banks’ consumer loans are in credit card and personal loans, made mainly for current consumption, while another quarter consists of purchase of automobiles, which are assets that depreciate in value. In contrasting to countries such as the UK, the US and Singapore, where mortgage loans constitute around 80 per cent of total household debt, Thai households’ mortgages consist of only half of total consumer loans.

Therefore, a rate cut, which is unlikely to increase business loan growth due to the unfavourable economic outlook, may further exacerbate consumer loan growth, resulting in unfavourable consequences. With higher debt burdens, households’ future purchasing power will diminish and, hence, leave limited headroom for future economic growth.

Moreover, if households’ debt burdens take up a significant portion of their income, households may have a higher tendency to default on their loan payments. Loan defaults actually hurt borrowers more than they do the banks. For banks, even though their asset quality is compromised, the bad debts can still be written off. On the other hand, individuals with poor credit scores are less likely to obtain credits from banks again, restraining their future accesses to formal financial services.

Some may argue that a reduction in interest rates would lower current debt burdens for borrowers. However, that situation is unlikely to happen since most consumer loans are paid in predetermined fixed instalments. As a result, lower interest rates do not significantly relieve households’ debt burdens.

In conclusion, the poor economic outlook and the mounting external risks will not justify a policy rate hike this year. However, lowering the interest rate to support the economy is not a preferred option given the current high household debts and mounting vulnerabilities in the financial system. TMB Analytics expects a constant policy rate of 1.75 per cent throughout 2019. If the economic uncertainties subside, at most an increase in the policy rate could happen in 2020.

Contributed by DUANGRAT PRAJAKSILPTHAI and KANTAPHON AMORNRAT. They can be reached at tmbanalytics @tmbbank.com

Views expressed in this article are those of the authors and not necessarily of TMB Bank or its executives.

IDC expects that the performance of Thai organisations and enterprises will be measured by what it calls digital determination over the coming years.

Jim Chin, the head of operations at IDC Thailand, said that most organisations and enterprises in the country still spend much more on hardware devices such as mobile phones, personal computers, storage items, and notebooks, with such items collectively accounting for 60-65 per cent of their total spending on information technology (IT).

Their counterparts in Singapore spend much more on services, disruptive technology and for the adoption of new technology to support their business with high performance. This also helps them to create new experiences for their customers.

The countries in the Asian region that stand at the same level include Malaysia and Indonesia.

Singapore was able to reach its level of digital determination as organisations in the city state spend much more to adopt disruptive technology to support their businesses, such as for payment systems, data modernisation, and on platforms for digital lending and marketing.

However, IDC believes that organisations and enterprises in Thailand will reach that status of digital determination over the next few years.

Chin said that digital transformation is creating new digital economies in the areas of the auto passengers, the microgram economy, the last-mile economy and open-banking economy.

IDC has found that 36.8 per cent of organisations and enterprises in Thailand are digitally determined. These companies include Mitr Phol group, CIMB Thai, Ananda Development PCl, and SCB Abacus. They have integrated continuous enterprise-wide digital transformation innovation with operations and with the customer experience.

Some 10.5 per cent of companies have an enterprise strategy for the use of digital transformation (DX) to transform markets and customers by creating new business models and products as well as services.

Chin said the main components – making up a blueprint – for organisations and enterprises to drive their traditional enterprises to achieve digital transformation are a digital native enterprise driven by customer-centric needs and an empowered workforce; innovation that takes place much faster than at traditional business; more efficient operations, new revenue streams and customers loyalty through use of the technology and data; and embracing risk taking for the sake of continuous learning and adaptation.

Forces at work

Chin said that the main types of disruptive technology to drive digital determination include artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, machine learning, the Internet of Thing (IoT) and robotics.

Meanwhile, Kunal Jha, the regional director for Asean at Silverpeak, said that technology trends that will build the next generation of enterprises are the cloud, the Internet of Things, Big Data, artificial intelligence and machine learning.