Digital transformation is now driving demand in three areas: IT service, multi-cloud, and cybersecurity.

According to IDC and Gartner, IT-services, IT optimisation, implementation and management, are expected to see a compounded average growth rate (CAGR) of 7.6 per cent in 2022.

The local cybersecurity market as a whole is forecast to achieve CAGR of 12 per cent in 2025, in compliance with security laws while a 30-per-cent surge is projected for multi-cloud service worldwide by 2021.

In view of surging demand, UIH managing director Sunti Medhavikul said the company had launched three new business units providing solution integration, security service, and cloud services and data centre in addition to the two existing ones for network services and international services.

“The new units were launched early this year. We are now ready for the set-up of an intelligent network infrastructure to streamline the digital transformation process of our clients,” said Sunti.

He said UIH aims to be an intelligent digital infrastructure service provider, offering interconnection, integration and innovations.

From 2016 to 2018, the company invested Bt2 billion to upgrade and expand its network infrastructure at home and abroad, especially in Myanmar.

The new network infrastructure is MEFCE2.0-certified, allowing connections with other networks in all countries.

“Our infrastructure is now compatible with the latest technologies such as blockchain, internet of things, and artificial intelligent. It is an enterprise-grade open platform that is flexible, scaleable, and manageable with high capacity and availability,” said Subti.

The company plans to grow at a CAGR of 10 per cent till 2021. For this year, contributions from the three new units are expected to make up 20 per cent of the company’s total revenue, before reaching 40 per cent by 2021.

Up to 90 per cent the company’s revenue came from the domestic market last year, according to Sunti.

“More revenue will come from the new services given their growth potential,” he added.

The company may further invest around Bt500 million a year from 2019 to 2021 for network infrastructure work in the Eastern Economic Corridor and other locations where its customers are located.

With multi-cloud and data centre being high-potential segments, UIH now has two data centres with direct link to 22 others.

The data centres are average in size as it believed customers prefer multi-locations.

Cloud HM, one of the new unit, offers multi-cloud services and has also teamed up with global cloud service providers AWS and Microsoft Azure.

To offer intelligent solutions to customers, UIH is looking to innovations from startups in deep technology, where it has invested through the company’s investment arm BCH Ventures.

The previous drive for organic farming had failed because consumers were not well-informed about food safety, he said, adding that as a remedy the BAAC had been working with government agencies issuing certification for food products.

Farmers are advised to obtain GAP (good agricultural practice) certificates to ensure that there were no pesticide residues in their products. “BAAC Go Green” is our policy this year, he said.

It will take three years for farmers who have adopted the organic farming method to qualify for organic agriculture certification in Thailand, he said.

The BAAC has been working with 315 communities to produce high-quality farm products, some of which have opted for organic farming.

High-quality products could command higher prices and the bank is negotiating with major supermarkets and convenience-store chains, such as Big C and 7-Eleven, to market the farm products, Apirom said.

Community-based enterprises should be able to meet good manufacturing practices if they had the right facilities, he said.

Saowalak Maneethong, founder of momplantlove.com, a producer of processed herbal products since 2014, said her community-based enterprise had met the GMP standard and generated additional income for farmers.

Her factory is located in Mae Ramat district of Tak province, northern Thailand.

She received a Bt2-million loan from the BAAC to build a small factory and it has now been paid off.

Workers at her factory earn up to Bt6,000 a month while farmers could sell raw materials to the facility. The herbal production network employs 175 people.

Sales reached Bt6 million last year, thanks to her success in introducing new products to the market, mainly in Bangkok.

“Given the fierce competition in herbal products, we mainly focus on the niche segment, such as mothers who breastfeed their babies,” she said.

Herbal products made from banana blossoms are said to enrich their milk, she added. Her herbal products under the brand “PlantLove” won the World Invention Innovation Contest 2016 held in Canada as well as a special award from the Korea Invention Academy.

Pakkhawat Khantahiran, head of Umphang district in Tak province, said the challenge for communities in mountainous regions was to strike a balance between agricultural development, tourism and forestry conservation.

Excessive expansion of farming areas could cause deforestation while rising water usage by farmers could lead to a shortage which in turn would affect the tourism industry, he said. The Thi Lor Su waterfall in Tak province is a major tourist attraction, Pakkhawat added.

An increase in water consumption upstream could also result in lower supply for people living downstream, including Bangkok. He said authorities were supportive of farmers growing banana because it could preserve underground water.

“The challenge ahead is how to preserve nature and we have recommended the planting of banana, durian tree and chilli plants,” he said.

He said the district, so far, did not have a serious issue with deforestation. The invasion of farming into conservation forest in the area is negligible compared to others in the country, he said.

Apirom said the bank had also tried to encourage farmers to buy insurance policies against the impact of drought and flooding.

The BAAC, in cooperation with the National Savings Fund, is also advising farmers on the importance of saving for retirement, he said.

Assumption University’s Institute for Research and Academic Services in collaboration with GET, an app for two-wheeled ride-hailing, courier and food delivery services, conducted a research in November 2018 to survey the satisfaction and perception of users and service providers of Bangkok’s two-wheeled ride-hailing industry.

According to the survey involving 1,234 Bangkokians and 605 legitimate motorcycle taxi drivers, the majority of consumers and motorcycle taxi drivers never tried a ride-hailing application for motorcycle taxi booking and they are looking for new and more applications to allow them to have more choices, healthy competition for better prices and services and to eliminate monopolisation.

According to the survey, 79 per cent of Bangkokians use motorcycle taxi to commute. Females use the service more than males and younger generations use the service more than older ones.

When inquired those who use motorcycle taxi service, 68 per cent of them use the service more than once a week and 23 per cent use it almost daily. The problems commonly found are long queue in rush hours, no service available in nearby areas, customer rejection, and no service during early morning and late night.

At the same time, the study found Bangkokians would like to see improvement on safety, driver behaviour, and standardisation in price for motorcycle taxi.

In the modern days when technology has stronger presence on everyday lives, 72 per cent of Bangkokians are aware of motorcycle taxi booking applications. However, despite the awareness that such applications can help make life more convenient, as high as 65 per cent of the people have never tried the service.

The survey points out that if there’s a new application available in the market, most of Bangkokians up to 65 per cent are willing to try. Most of the interviewees provided the reasons that more choices in the market will benefit users as it will provide users with more options, competition will result in better prices and promotions and it can help improve the service.

The main reasons to attract Bangkokians to an application are fares, speed, easy-to-use experience, insurance, good service and others.

On the supply side, almost all of motorcycle taxi drivers, 96 per cent, are aware of motorcycle taxi hailing applications. But only 15 per cent have joined an application or applications. The reasons for not joining were there’s nothing attractive and they don’t know how to use an application and their jobs are already good.

From the survey, a number of motorcycle taxi drivers thought that more applications in the market could be good for them as it would offer them more choices to join, eliminate monopolisation, encourage competition to help drivers gained more income and better benefits, as well as help expanding the market to get more customers.

Good income and reliability are what drivers want in an application…

The reasons to convince a driver to join an application are good income, reliability, life and accident insurance, and other factors like bonus or incentives and good treatment for drivers.

Pinya Nittayakasetwat, GET Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, said: “GET has carried out various studies and surveys in order to truly understand Bangkok riders and drivers and how we can fulfil their needs. The survey conducted by AU Poll helped reaffirm many of our hypotheses. Ride-hailing application adoption here is growing but not as fast as it could due to a lack of choice in the market. Our arrival will help expand both the demand and supply side and promote healthy competition that will benefit both riders and drivers here in Bangkok.

“Since our beta launch in December, we have proven that licensed ‘win’ drivers are eager to partner with a company that understands their needs. We are operating in 29 districts in Bangkok with many win drivers and our fleet continues to grow. We’re excited to fully launch in Bangkok within the coming weeks as we seek to provide another choice and make life easier for both riders and drivers in Bangkok.”

Arkhom said, after chairing a meeting of the committee on the Thai-Chinese high-speed rail scheme yesterday, that the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) is preparing terms of reference (TOR) for five contracts of the third 144-kilometre section.

Fair price is expected to be determined this month for seven contracts related to the fourth 91.25-kilometre section, also under the first phase. The terms of reference for the contracts are to be released next month.

So far, construction of the first 3.5-kilometre section from Klang Dong to Pang Asok in Nakhon Ratchasima’s Pak Chong district has commenced , while contract-signing for the second 11-kilometre section will take place on March 6.

The 252.5-kilometre-long phase from Bangkok to Nakhon Ratchasima has been split into 14 separate contracts, which will use design and construction blueprints from China.

“In March, bidding for the first phase of the Thai-Chinese high-speed rail project will be completed for consideration. Contract signing will take place in May with construction set to start in June,” Arkhom said.

The second phase, with a budget of Bt797 million, is still in the design process. Thailand will take charge of design and construction under China’s advice.

Arkhom said the 27th official Thai-Chinese high-speed railway meeting, which will be held during February 27-March 1 in China, will continue discussions on guarantee period, contract collaterals, fine for delay, compensation, as part of the project’s so-called contract 2.3.

“Contract 2.3 has a lot of details for further discussion in contract conditions and each party’s responsibility as this involves the project’s railway, train signalling system and maintenance, which should be finalised in this round of negotiation,” he said. The result will be likely be forwarded to the Thai Cabinet in March with contract signing expected in the same month.

Arkhom said that Thailand will stand firm on Thai laws but negotiation must be made first and contract 2.3’s amount is about Bt38 billion as proposed to the Cabinet earlier.

In regard to the 25-year borrowings for contract 2.3, Thai Ministry of Finance confirmed that it could accept the lending rate, proposed by China, of no more than 3 per cent with a grace period of five years.

But this matter has not been discussed in details as contract 2.3 issues must be finished first, Arkhom said.

An anonymous source from Thai Ministry of Transport said that China’s proposal for contract 2.3 is not based on Chinese law, but China’s experience in joining investment with other countries, while expecting this upcoming meeting to reach conclusion of the remaining 60 issues, out of 130 issues of contract 2.3.

Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak yesterday said the government was worried that a chain reaction would set in as farmers across the country struggled with burden of an appreciating currency.

Somkid said he had aired these concerns with Bank of Thailand (BOT) governor Veerathai Santiprabhob and asked him to ensure that the baht won’t be allowed to rise too rapidly.

“The governor understands the issue but the central bank cannot quickly bring the value of the baht down due to the many influencing factors,” Somkid said of his talks with Veerathai. Somkid said the central bank’s stance is understandable and that the government cannot intervene in the policymaking of the BOT.

Somkid’s comments follow a meeting he held with senior officials from the many ministries that are formulating economic policies aimed at helping low-income earners. Officials raised the issue of the impact of the appreciating baht on farmers, which makes their commodities less competitive on the global markets.

Somkid said the government plans to set aside Bt12 billion for fiscal 2020 on economic policies that benefit the poor.

In a separate news conference, Veerathai vowed he would take action on the baht’s strength and has called for other parties to coordinate in actions to remedy its impacts.

He defended the central bank’s actions in raising the policy rate in December, to 1.75 per cent. Veerathai said the move did not cause to the baht to rise against the US dollar, not did it encourage capital inflows.

This year, capital outflows from the bond market are at US$400million, while inflows into the stock market are just US$100 million, resulting in net outflows of $300 million, he said.

The weaker dollar, combined with the high current account surplus, has contributed to the baht’s rise, he said.

He expressed his concern that a less resilient economy would encounter difficulties with exchange rate volatility.

The currencies of some countries have experienced higher volatility than the baht but their economies are coping with it better than the Thai economy, Veerathai said.

He said that some experts may want the baht fixed at 31,32 or 33 to the dollar but the exchange rate cannot be fixed due to the many external factors that are beyond Thailand’s control.

“The most important is how to make sure the economy can absorb the exchange rate volatility,” he said.

This means that the competitiveness of Thai firms largely depends on pricing, he said in respond to exporters who have complained about the impact of the baht appreciation.

Importers have been prudent as they have use financial tools to hedge against the risk stemming from exchange rate volatility, but exporters have not yet hedged against such risks on regular basis, Veerathai said.

He promised to make the forwards market more transparent and competitive in order to help businesses to cut hedging costs. Banks‘ clients do not understand how banks run the forwards market and are unclear on the competitiveness of this market, he said.

Veerathai encouraged exporters and importers to rely more on local currencies rather the US dollar.

Thailand’s exports to the US represent 10 per cent of the total, but they quote prices in US dollar on up to 70 per cent of total exports, he said.

He advises businesses to quote their product prices in yuan , yen, ringgit and other currencies of the country’s trading partners.

Thailand should also take advantage of the stronger baht to import capital goods for domestic investments, he said, referring to the relatively weak investment as the major cause of the current account surplus.

Thailand had a relatively high current account surplus of US$37 billion last year, due to surpluses in goods exports and income from tourism.

According to the central bank, the baht has risen 3.93 per cent against the US dollar, hovering above Bt31 since the beginning of the year.

“The rise of the baht is in the middle of the group among currencies of emerging economies. For example, the Russian rouble and the Indonesian rupiah have risen much more rapidly,” Veerathai said,