This was one of the findings of the latest Daily Rates research published by ECA International, a provider of information and software for the management of employees around the world.

“The cost of a business trip to Singapore has stayed relatively static due to the steady level of international business travel to the country,” said Lee Quane, regional director for Asia at ECA International.

“However, the price of a hotel room has dropped slightly, down to US$249 per night from $256 in 2018. Despite this small decrease in the average price, the demand remained at about the same level. Singapore continues to be popular for international business, as illustrated by the fact that Singapore remains in the top five most expensive Asian locations.”

ECA’s Daily Rates reports provide average costs for hotel accommodation, which makes up the bulk of any daily allowance, as well as meals, drinks, laundry, taxi transport and daily essentials. This information is used by companies to determine daily expense allowances for staff who undertake business travel.

Elsewhere in the region, Bangkok has seen an increase in the cost of business travel, with the typical business trip costing US$290 a day.

“We have seen a continued increase in the cost of goods and services and hotel accommodation in Bangkok, and this has had a clear effect on the cost of business travel to the city,” said Quane. “As an increasing number of companies and MNCs look to grow their influence in Thailand and the surrounding areas, we have seen the price of hotel stays and business trip essentials rise accordingly.”

For the second successive year, Hong Kong has been named as the most expensive location in Asia for business travel. The average business trip to Hong Kong would cost an overall total of US$515 per day, including hotel costs of US$286.

“Hong Kong has always been one of the most expensive Asian locations to visit on business, due to the combination of a high cost of goods and services and expensive hotel prices,” Quane said. “However, in recent years, we have seen Hong Kong pull away slightly from other expensive locations such as Tokyo, Seoul and Singapore. This year has been no different, with Hong Kong now costing 4 per cent more than Tokyo and 8 per cent more than Seoul – two locations that are in second and third places respectively.”

Tokyo remains second in the Asia rankings, with the typical business trip now costing US$494 a day. Seoul is in third place based on the overall price of a business trip. However, the South Korean capital moves above Tokyo into second place if hotel costs are excluded.

“We expect to see the costs of business travel to Tokyo increase over the next 12 months due the city hosting major events such as the Rugby World Cup as well as the Olympic and Paralympic games between now and the end of 2020,” Quane said.

“This, together with the city’s emergence as a major tourist destination in recent years and a shortage of suitable accommodation, contribute to high hotel costs. Also, recent regulatory changes which reduce the availability of other short-term accommodation options such as Airbnb are likely to drive a further increase in accommodation costs in the coming year.

“The fact that Seoul moves to second place in the rankings when hotel costs are excluded shows that the price of food, drinks, and other incidentals that make up the overall cost of a trip is actually higher in Seoul than Tokyo. This is a trend we see in many locations, where the hotel cost can inflate the overall figure. This demonstrates the importance of looking at all aspects of a business trip, and not necessarily just the combined cost,” said Quane.

In China, the most expensive business trip destination is Shanghai, at US$378 per day.

“Although a business trip to Shanghai would be relatively expensive compared to other Chinese cities, Shanghai is outside of the top 10 most expensive locations in Asia for business travel, and outside of the top 100 globally.”

However, when hotel costs are excluded from the total price, Chinese cities are all much higher placed in the rankings as hotel costs in China are comparatively cheaper than many other locations across the world.

“When excluding the cost of hotels from the price of an overall business trip, the data shows a different story. Every Chinese city in our rankings would be much higher placed, notably with Shanghai jumping from 117th in the world to 89th, and Beijing entering the global top 100 as well,” Quane said.

The cheapest location in ECA’s rankings was Johor Bahru in Malaysia, where a business trip would cost just US$184 per day, with hotel costs accounting for just US$83 of this amount.

New York is the most expensive location in the world for business travel, with the average per day cost of a business trip standing at US$799.

“New York tops the rankings for another year as the price of business travel continues to grow,” Quane said.

Predicting the future is a tough task and in an industry that’s changing as fast as financial services, that’s even harder, but as we look ahead into 2019, there are some cues we can take from the focus banks, insurers and asset managers are making in Thailand and elsewhere in Asia Pacific to revamp their technology for smoother integration with tech giants.

The year ahead should also see financial firms making more use of big data to launch entirely new products and develop more tailored pricing, as well as increase their efforts on digital solutions for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and corporate banking. This list is by no means exhaustive, but hopefully it’s a good start to get people excited about 2019. So, here are some of the top trends to keep an eye on this year:

1) Technology upgrades for better integration with digital giants: For established banks and insurers, it’s important to upgrade and elevate their enterprise technology and expertise to the same level of digital sophistication of Internet giants and platform players such as Line in Thailand and Japan, Alibaba in China or Flipkart in India.

That will help them with breakthrough, more integrated financial services products. Nowadays, for example, you have leading insurance players in India, Singapore and other countries in Asia Pacific selling a number of protection products through e-commerce sites, ride-hailing apps or online travel companies.

Banks in Thailand are also partnering with digital giants to make sure they are an integral part of their customers’ daily life. The question every bank and insurance Chief Information Officer should be asking now is: how can I make sure we have the right technology and culture in place so that we can integrate our products and services and be nimble enough to partner with the big tech/digital players?

2) Enhanced pricing with digital tools and wider use of big data: Digitisation will need to move from optimizing the overall customer experience to product design and be more central in developing sophisticated pricing models. Financial services firms should make more use of big data for the purpose of pricing, especially for segments where structured data availability is very limited and particularly where pricing is limited.

Having that ready will help banks and insurers develop and offer structured bundled products: think having your car insurance, along with home insurance, along with a savings account as one offering. In Thailand, for example, we already have insurance companies using tools such as Internet of Things (IOT) devices to collect more data in order to provide custom pricing, a trend that should become more prevalent as the technology and know-how around big data analytics gets more widespread.

3) Think small to make it big: There will be a greater focus on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Thailand and other Southeast Asia markets in the coming year, given the macro outlook for greater protectionism and rising nationalism around the world. Financial services firms should heed that call and focus on offering more banking and insurance products to SMEs, but in order to better service that segment they’ll have to use more big data for the purpose of underwriting policies, for example, and use digital channels for smarter and more efficient distribution of financial products to SMEs, which has been lacking in most countries in the region.

4) Direct-to-consumer (D2C) links to improve governance pitfalls: In a world with increased scrutiny of conduct by financial service providers, insurance companies and wealth management firms will have to focus on building a more direct relationship with their customers, rather than having an over-reliance on commission-based relationships via agents, as these can be prone to poorer/weaker governance. Digital will be the fastest, most efficient way for financial firms to do that, given the prevalence of smartphones and other devices at the hands of millions of people in the region. Companies will likely begin to sell services and products through their apps directly to consumers, bypassing the middlemen and creating a more agile and efficient business.

5) The evolution of human-assisted roboadvice: Fully automated wealth management services and roboadvice tools have been all the rage the past years. We will see a much greater level of simplification and digitization in the area of wealth management, with an increased focus and greater maturity in the area of robo-assisted manual advisor.

This hybrid model will combine bid data that financial firms have been building and optimizing the past years with new analytics tools that human advisors can use to create smarter, more nimble and personalized solutions with a human touch that customers want.

Contributed by NONTAWAT POOMCHUSRI, country managing director and financial services practice lead for Accenture in Thailand

In 1980s, it was possible to see that computers were going to revolutionise retail and medicine, but not to forecast the advent of Amazon or Taobao. In fact, the prediction of AI’s future influence is probably even more difficult than was the case for earlier technologies, due to the exponential nature of change in an era of unprecedented connectivity.

What is clear is that AI and its associated technologies will continue to advance. In Southeast Asia alone, the adoption of AI technologies stood at 14 per cent in 2018, a marked increase from 8 per cent in the previous year.

The use of AI will only trend upwards as organisations turn to this technology to plug the skills gap created by the digital transformation of traditional industries. This is set against the backdrop of a potential talent deficit of 47 million workers across Asia Pacific by 2030.

As AI becomes mainstream, today’s AI capabilities will expand to address more general uses, otherwise known as Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). Once this happens, there will be fewer tasks that humans are able to perform more efficiently or economically than can machines. The unique economic value of humans will then be restricted to special cases such as psychological therapy, entertainment and arts, or roles that require human engagement or interaction to deliver value.

Before we get there, we must acknowledge that AI will not generally take over the human workforce all at once. Instead, it will start by prompting businesses to reorganise their structures to best leverage the strengths AI has to offer. In doing so, portions of people’s jobs will be reallocated to AI, giving way to the creation of new roles and requiring humans to upskill themselves accordingly.

For example, AI will first take on more routine accounting work such as calculations and backend processes, similarly to intelligent adaptive Excel macros, while allowing accountants to handle strategic decision-making and customer interactions. Only with the emergence of AGI over time will we see AI taking over these roles and by then, only a handful of humans will be needed to oversee the running of an organisation’s entire finance function.

When this happens, we would be living in the reality of the hyper-intelligent workplace, where humans will simply provide mission-critical thinking, while incorporating the intuitive skill sets of AI and robots for increased productivity.

A key thing to note is that AI will not instantaneously eliminate jobs or job functions. Using the case of biological lab testing as an example, the equipment which is already computerised in the main will become more automated and intuitive. Lab robots will then start bridging the gaps between the lab equipment – be it carrying materials from one machine to the other or keeping each area of equipment informed about their respective test subjects, parameters and results.

Thus the role of a lab technician would be gradually replaced by an integrated lab robot system that takes verbal instructions directly from the scientist in charge of the lab. Eventually, the scientist’s role will mainly be to rubber-stamp the AI’s suggestions, knowing that what the scientist needs from the AI has been effectively executed.

Of course, this is not to say that there will be a widespread of automation within all industries. While generic graphic designs can now be done with AI design programs, the conceptualisation of deeply creative new images and visual themes will remain largely in the domain of humans, especially on highly subjective matters that require a highly nuanced understanding of consumer taste and preference.

In general, one may say that among the last job roles to be eliminated will be those relying heavily on novel creativity, strategic decision-making, critical thinking and physical manipulations in life-or-death situations. Yet, among these roles, the routine and labour-intensive tasks will most likely be automated first as that is where most cost savings will be obtained.

To put it into context – there is more money to be saved by automating car driving than helicopter piloting, and more to be saved by automating medical research than particle physics research.

In my view, the reduction of the need for humans to work for a living should be massively positive. In an ideal world, this would free up people’s time to pursue more social, artistic, intellectual and spiritual endeavours. Imagine living in a society where, through the work achieved by technology, the psychology of defining one’s importance, status and identity no longer relies on one’s career or income.

While that is almost sure to be a rocky road given the realities of geopolitical issues and income inequality, projects such as the decentralised AI movement led by SingularityNET aims to smoothe the path towards it in a democratic and participatory way.

Contributed by BEN GOERTZEL, CEO of SingularityNET

NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasith stressed the deadline yesterday during a meeting with representatives of the three 900MHz telecom operators and the digital TV licence holders at which he explained the assistance measures issued last week by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO).

The measures were announced in response to a tough business environment for the operators.

Takorn said those operators electing to take up the assistance can change their minds later if they find they are unhappy with the conditions attached to the measures. Details of the conditions are expected to be announced by the NBTC in late May.

The junta measures offer telecom operators a longer time to pay their 900MHz licence fees, while the digital TV broadcasters will have the option to return their licences to the NBTC. Those wanting to use this right have to inform the NBTC within 30 days.

 However, the relief measures include a condition that makes it mandatory for the 900MHz telecom licence holders to take part in the NBTC’s planned sale of lots on the 700MHz spectrum, expected in June.

They would lose the extended payment facility if they do not take part in the sale and would have to pay as per the original payment schedule of four instalments.

Takorn said that all the terms and conditions of the 700MHz licence sale are expected to be finished by late May.

Advanced Info Service (AIS) chief corporate officer Weerawat Kiattipongthaworn said that AIS would inform the NBTC of its interest to use the right in the relief measures. Speaking on the sidelines of the meeting with the NBTC yesterday, he said a final decision on whether the company would acquire a licence would be up to the AIS board.

Rajiv Bawa, chief corporate affairs and business development officer of Total Access Communication (DTAC), said in a press statement that DTAC acknowledged the merit of the payment extension offer as it confirmed the exorbitant asking price for spectrum in Thailand.

“We will now dialogue with NBTC to seek more clarity on the order before deciding on next steps,” he said. “As we have previously stated, we urge NBTC to publish a clear spectrum roadmap, including time for allocation and fair valuation of available spectrum, before discussing any further auctions.”

Besides the sales of the 700MHz, Takorn said that the NBTC will auction 2.6GHz, 26GHz and 28GHz together on a multiband basis late this year, while it is in talks with the Digital Economy and Society Ministry to reclaim 35GHz from the ministry for auction.

The NBTC will reallocate the 700MHz totalling 45MHz for sale. It is expected to sell three licences, each totalling 15MHz, at between Bt25 billion and Bt27 billion. The telecom operators that grab the licences will start paying for the licence lot next October. The licence term is 15 years.

Takorn said that if no operator decides to acquire the 700MHz, the NBTC will put the licence up for auction.

The NBTC wants to see the telecom operators using the 700MHz to develop a 5G wireless broadband service.

A telecom analyst, who declined to be named, said that the key uncertainty is the price of the 700MHz and the terms of payment. Since the business model of 5G technology remains unclear and 5G potential revenue is still a few years away for Thailand, the analyst believes that acquiring 700MHz too early could reduce or even offset the potential benefit of the 900MHz payment extension.

Under the junta measures, the NBTC will split the total upfront licence fee for the 900MHz spectrum of the three licence holders into 10 instalments, giving them more time for payments from the current four instalments.

The total licence fee will be divided into 10 equal instalments. The first instalment payment under this measure will be on the day they were awarded the 900MHz licences.

AIS’ subsidiary Advanced Wireless Network (AWN) and True’s subsidiary TrueMove H Universal Communication (TUC) are originally scheduled to pay hefty final instalments of Bt59.574 billion and Bt60.218 billion, respectively, for their 900MHz licences in 2020.

DTAC will pay its final instalment for the 900MHz of Bt30.024 billion in 2022.

TUC and AWN won the 900MHz licences in 2015 and 2016, respectively, and DTAC won the licence last year.

The junta measure also allows digital TV licence holders who want to exit their business to inform the NBTC by May 10 of their intention to return their licences.

The NBTC will also reallocate part of their 700MHz for sale to the 900MHz telecom operators. Then the NBTC will compensate the broadcasters by waiving their remaining upfront payments for the fifth and sixth instalments.

The NBTC will also pay the broadcasting network rental fee for all the digital TV licence holders until the end of their remaining licence term of nine years and six months.

The talks have seen an increased focus on issues such as technical challenges and rules of trade.

The fifth meeting between Thailand and Turkey from April 10-12 in Ankara yielded solid progress, Auramon Supthaweethum, the director-general of the Department of Trade Negotiations (DTN), said. Progress was made in drafting the articles for trade in goods, customs procedures, hygiene measures and trade facilitation, she said.

The next meeting this August in Thailand will see a focus on drafting articles regarding

technical challenges to trade and the rules of origin, which were also discussed at last week’s meeting.

The two sides also discussed reducing or removing tariff barriers for a list of goods traded between the two countries, along with clarifying the particular goods that each country wants their trading partner to further open up to.

For example, Thailand asked Turkey to further open up its markets for fruits and vegetables, processed agricultural products, plastics and electrical appliances.

Both sides agreed that the Thailand-Turkey FTA will be an important mechanism to help each country expand its trade benefits amid the uncertain global economic conditions, Auramon said.

For Turkey, a newly negotiated FTA with Thailand could be leveraged as a gateway to enter the wider Asean market.

Opportunities sought

Thailand could use a future agreement with Turkey, which is located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, to expand trade in these regions, she explained.

The director-general also met with Turkey’s private sector and Thai investors in Turkey. She told them that Turkey’s market offered many opportunities to grow given its population of around 80 million, and is a strategic location for distributing Thai products to the surrounding region. The private sector has sounded their support for a Thai-Turkey FTA and hopes that the negotiations will be able to soon reach a conclusion, she claimed.

Additionally, a market survey found that Turkey’s market has a demand for Thai agricultural and industrial goods.

One current obstacle to trade is the continuing presence of high tariffs on Thai exports entering Turkey. Auramon said she is confident the FTA will help Turkey further open its market to Thai products.

In 2018, Turkey was Thailand’s 36th largest trading partner in the world, and the fourth largest in the Middle East.

Last year’s trade value between Thailand and Turkey stood at $1.427 billion (Bt45.34 billion), with Thailand exporting $1.082 billion (Bt34.38 billion) worth of goods to Turkey and importing $344 million (Bt10.93 billion), according to the Commerce Ministry, which oversees the Department of Trade Negotiations.

The Kingdom’s key exports to Turkey are cars, equipment and parts, air conditioners, rubber and plastics.

The construction, to be overseen by the Airports of Thailand (AOT), is scheduled to be completed in 2021.

Deputy government spokesman Weerachon Sukhondhapatipak said work is scheduled to begin this year.

A plan for the construction of the taxiway B2 extension, at a cost of Bt622.33 million, was dropped. That decision enabled the overall cost of the project to be reduced from the originally envisaged Bt22.42 billion, Weerachon said.

A contract is expected to be signed after the Environmental Health Impact Assessment (EHIA) gains approval from the Office of National Environment Board.

The third runway will enable 30 more flights per hour for Bangkok’s main airport.

Its two runways can accommodate 64 flights an hour.

The western runway is 3.7 kilometres long and the eastern one is 4km.

The two runways average 63 flights an hour during busy times. If an emergency occurs or a runway is closed for maintenance, total runway capacity will be almost halved to 34 flights an hour.

The 4 km third runway will be in the western part of the airport, the same side as the main warehouse and the current western runway.

Once the third runway comes into service, it will also be used for cargo flights when the western runway is closed for maintenance.

This project will include a navigation system, the construction of drainage system and fire and rescue stations.

Key infrastructure

The project is part of Thailand’s transport infrastructure development plan from 2015.

According to the Ministry of Finance, the AOT should apply appropriate risk management for the project.

The third runway will provide a low rate of return and it will be 20 years before it breaks even.

The AOT will also coordinate with agencies such as Aeronautical Radio of Thailand Ltd to plan construction of a fourth runway to cope with future air traffic, and set a standard to reduce any impact that may arise from delays and service quality of Suvarnabhumi airport.