A South Korean delegation has arrived in Thailand to participate in the latest round of talks for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a proposed mega-trade deal involving Asian nations.

The RCEP is in essence a massive regional trade deal between 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the six countries with which Asean has existing free-trade agreements – South Korea, China, Japan, India, Australia and New Zealand.

Kim Jung-il, Seoul’s FTA policy official, leads the delegation to the 23rd round of negotiations, being held in from July 23-27, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said.

About 70 working-level officials in 14 divisions are seeking ways to lower tariffs and trade barriers, and discuss details of intellectual property and the rules of origin with representatives from other member states.

Seoul has been seeking to expand trade with Southeast Asian nations and India amid concerns over rising protectionist practices and intensifying trade tensions between the United States and China, South Korea’s two biggest trading partners.

China has been pushing for a rapid conclusion to the RCEP with a deal mainly focused on lowering tariffs, while Japan and Asean countries have demanded a more comprehensive deal covering services and investment.

The RCEP, if signed, will be one of the largest regional free trade arrangements as the member states accounted for half of global production, 32 per cent of global gross domestic product as well as 29 per cent of global trade as of 2016, according to the ministry.

Disruption can either destroy or provide opportunities to business and even business functions, depending on how you approach disruption.

And one of the many business functions that disruption has affected is human resources (HR). With new digital technologies, and more of the new generation joining the workforce, disruption is affecting HR more than ever before.

About a month back, I was privileged to be invited by the Office of the Civil Service Commission Thailand to share with nine Asean leaders of civil services on the challenges of HR leaders in our constantly changing and disruptive world. The keynote was for their Asean Executive Management Programme 2018 event.

I shared about the challenges, specifically in civil service, that HR leaders will face in our disruptive world. Here are some challenges for HR that are relevant across industries.

According to a research by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and SHRM Foundation, one of the top challenges HR will face is people management. Everything from attracting, engaging and retaining current and new talents are under people management.

The challenge will be more with new talents, especially in this age where more and more younger-generation personnel such as Generation Y are entering the workforce; HR personnel would need to think out of the box.

According to Simon Sinek, a British-American author, motivational speaker and organisational consultant, the biggest challenge that HR will face with Gen Y is they were born in an age where they were protected.

This generation grew up in an era where they were rewarded for simply participating.

It’s not wrong to reward participation but it does devalue the worth of hard work directed towards achievement and winning. Sinek observed that millennials are surprised to discover that they might not get the same gentle treatment in the real world.

There’s no award for simply participating in the real world, and often times organisations have no tolerance for incompetence.

Another issue that HR would face is the rapid pace of digitisation. With our world changing rapidly and the advancements of technology expanding, HR will have to think outside the box and utilise technology in work.

There are other issues that you may be facing to add onto the above two. Whatever they may be, they’re definitely proving to be roadblocks for you and your business. So, as HR leaders, here are a few things to practice in order to keep up with the challenges:

First, you must constantly unlearn and relearn because what you may have known before may no longer be relevant today. You cannot depend on the usual way of doing things, as it may not be able to keep up with the changes of our world.

Second, HR must adopt a digital mindset. You cannot ignore the changes of the world. Failure to adapt will lead to your organisation being left behind. Understand your organisation and look out for the right type of technology that would not only help your organisation but also help you overcome your challenges.

Third you must champion people analytics. People analytics refers to methods that assist in decision-making about people. HR can make use of the data available using statistics, technology and expertise to manage people better.

The advantage of people analytics is that it helps you to make your decision-making process a lot smoother, smarter and more strategic. You’ll not only be able to find great talent to hire but also help you understand your people better so you know what to do to increase engagement.

Fourth, invest in learning and skill-building for your people. Great talents that make your organisation succeed are not born – they’re trained. So, if you invest in their growth, you’re inevitably investing in your organisation’s growth.

Fifth, shift to continuous performance feedback. Feedback can be daunting as it can sometimes be perceived differently by people. To one it may seem like constructive criticism but to others, it may seem as though they didn’t do a good job.

It was such a privilege to share with all these leaders. In the end, I feel like I’ve also learnt from these leaders as well. When it comes to disruption, you may never know what might happen. You may have the answers ready but disruption always changes the question.

Contributed by SIRAYA KONGSOMPONG , senior consultant at SEAC, Southeast Asia’s leading Executive, Leadership and Innovation Capability Development Centre. She can be reached at siraya_k@seasiacenter.com

Despite the trade retaliation between US and China during the last four months, Thailand’s exports have continued to grow every month. Montri attributed that to the country’s shift in focus away from mainly exporting electronic and automotive components to be assembled in China and the US and instead to mainly exporting them to Asean and European markets.

If US companies want to seek new product manufacturing locations to replace China, they are expected to seek them in Asean, which is emerging as the world’s production hub. This will benefit Thailand and other Asean bloc countries, with Thailand boasting the largest production hub in the region.

Montri added that the Thailand trading structure has also changed from focusing on mainly exporting to other regions, to exporting and importing products and components from within Asean members. That has enabled the country to cushion the impact from the US-China trade war.

On a concern that China will dump its products in Thailand after failing to export them to the US, he believes that China will be able to absorb its own supply glut within the next few years, thanks to the country’s economic expansion of over 7 per cent per year.

The FTI has already assigned its academic unit to study the possible impact of a US-China trade war on Thailand.

In a separate matter, he added that the private sector has made known its opinion at the Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking, to support Thailand entering the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) free-trade agreement.

The pact is expected to consider granting the new membership during the second quarter of next year.

Digital Government Develop-ment Agency (DGA) president Sak Segkhoonthod said the guidelines would cover invoice data of import and export accounts, and people data, enabling the recording of such data in a uniform standard format.

The DGA will also introduce a public service portal site where people will be able to access government’s services on a one-stop basis next year.

Sak said the Data Government Framework would enable all government agencies to transfer and exchange data with one another with the same standards. The agency will submit the first draft for approval to the Digital Government Committee next month. In the next step, the agency will submit the framework to the Cabinet in October. It expects the framework to be implemented by government agencies nationwide within six months.

“I think the single data framework will support around 300 government agencies nationwide. They will be able to provide data and information with the same standard with data governance and responsibility to create data quality among government agencies and the public sector,” said Sak.

He said that under the framework, the agency would also develop an open data platform, data policy, data catalogue and a chief data officer at all ministries.

For the open data platform, the agency will budget Bt50 million for hardware and software. The open data platform will promote truth and confidence in government data.

The CDO will be a new position in each ministry, tasked with managing the data of each ministry so that the government agencies will be confident to transfer data and information together. The CDO will also utilise the data government framework to implement at their respective ministries.

He said that all government agencies in the country have around 1,000 database and 4,000 data sets such as healthcare and water data sets. As result, government agencies will be able to connect information and data between government agencies and share information or data as a one-stop service.

The DGA moreover will develop a Government Data Exchange that will connect and integrate information between government agencies nationwide so that the agencies can exchange data and reduce paperwork.

He said that from August this year, Thais will not need to bring a copy of their document to ask for services from government agencies such as household registration service. The agency will also offer citizens info mobile application, which will allow Thais to check government counter services that provide services without seeking a copy of the ID.

In the first step in August this year, around 50,000 government counter services will not need ID copies from around 200,000 government counter services and is expected to cover all counter services from next year.

“I think the government agencies will provide a digital government that will empower people and make it easier to check and communicate with agencies,” said Sak.

The agency expects that next year it will allow Thais to be able to access around 300 government services as one-stop services. They can avail and submit through an online channel such as vat registration, tax payment, and utility services registration.

He added that the DGA would set up a Government Data Centre, for which a budget of Bt200 million has been allocated, and it is expected to begin operations early next year. Initially, it will provide a cloud-based data centre with international standards to serve government agencies who do have the ability and potential to set up a data centre by themselves.

The Thai baht and Singapore dollar hit one-year lows. The Malaysian ringgit hit its lowest level in the past seven months.

The Indonesian rupiah and Philippines peso hit multi-year lows.

Interestingly, the Chinese yuan breached its CNY 6.70/USD psychological level last week and is currently at around a one-year low as well. It seems that investors are bearish on the yuan and the negative sentiment has spilled over to Asean currencies. It remains to be seen whether China will let the yuan weaken further or move to keep it in line with regional currencies. If the latter happens, it might be good for Asean nations as China is the number one trading partner among the bloc.

According to China’s Ministry of Commerce data, trade between the country and Southeast Asian countries reached a record high last year. The combined trade among the countries grew at a hefty 13.8 per cent yoy in 2017. Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand are China’s major trading partners. China’s exports to Asean grew 9.0 per cent while imports from Asean grew 20 per cent last year.

Should China let the yuan move in line with its trading partners in Asean, the resulting stability will be good for bilateral trade between them. This should provide some breathing room for this group of countries. They are expected to suffer from escalating trade protectionism by the US.

THANAWAT PATCHIMKUL

HEAD OF RESEARCH

DBS VICKERS SECURITIES (THAILAND)

RESEARCH DEPARTMENT

TRINITY SECURITIES

Despite the SET Index’s recent rebounds after banks’ 2Q18 earnings results, market EPS has not been raised due to no significant recovery in their main operations. Thus, the SET Index’s rises have come with higher valuations. Strategically, we don’t prefer that short-term investors speculate in the stock market during this period and medium- to long-term investors may continue holding stocks until the SET Index rises to 1,700 points, the best case we expect this month.

•    The baht depreciated to its new record 33.45 per USD from net foreign sales in both stock and bond market, and in line with the weakening yuan. This is expected be a major factor limiting the upside of the SET Index despite net sales of local institutional investors during the past 1-2 days.

•    One more factor that could limit the upside of the SET Index is drops in crude prices after rises in US crude storage to its high since late April of this year.

•    We are keeping a close eye on rises of Thai bond yields, particularly the issues with maturities of five years and more. Thai bond yields have set high records continuously, which has been in line with low demand in bond auctions. Given Thai bond yields’ rises and the SET Index’s rebounds, we expect less attractiveness for new investment in the stock market at the moment, reflecting from a lower earning yield gap and dividend yield gap. Strategically, we prefer to make new investment when the SET Index weakens.