The firm’s Kitikorn Nongsawat explained this week that any services offered would have to be affordably priced, whereas establishing such a facility is costly.

This was true “especially in terms of printing workloads for investment evaluation which Fuji Xerox had provided assistance in performing assessment to survey the required workloads and types of printing jobs in order to determine appropriate printing machines to be installed”, he said.

The university set up a working team to consider the project details and potential benefits in terms of efficiency and effectiveness.

“Once the project had been approved by the working team and the chancellor, the Printing Service Centre was established,” Kitikorn said.

The centre handles meeting documents, digital textbooks, binding for dissertations, university journals and all types of digital printing jobs.

Fuji Xerox installed and will maintain the printing machines and related equipment and assigned specialists to provide customer assistance.

KTC served 3 million user accounts in its customer database.

Gross accounts receivable rose 7 per cent to Bt73.488 billion, while NPL dropped by 1.3 per cent.

The firm’s business model and operating direction in 2018 seeks to be customer-centric, to respond and cater to the needs of its members, and to select differentiated business alliances that would add value to its member database.

The firm’s aims for 2018 is to generate profit and maintain the same NPL level it had previously established in 2017, expand its account receivable port by at least 10 per cent, and stimulate credit-card spending by at least 15 per cent.

“KTC’s net profit growth rate in 2017 was beyond expectations in the face of various adverse factors, including household debt amid economic recovery, new credit card regulations and administrative measures, accessibility of personal loans, as well as the effects of credit card interest rate cuts,” said president and chief executive Rathian Srimongkol.

“Despite this, KTC implemented proactive operating strategies to handle such conditions, in order to expand credit card bases to maintain credit quality at a low NPL value, to increase fee income, and to control the increase in operating costs at a minimum value.

“As of December 31, KTC’s net profit rose 32 per cent, to Bt3.304 billion, in comparison to the same period in 2016. Total Credit Card spending amounted to Bt176.777 billion, a 6.9 per cent increase, above industry average growth of 5.2 per cent. Merchant spending amounted to Bt77.884 billion, a 26.3 per cent increase, while the number of merchants totalled at 32,875 locations, a 10.5 per cent increase, catalysed by the joint merchant expansion, installation of Electronic Data Capture devices, expansion of online merchants, implementation of virtual terminal payments, and Alipay merchants.

“The firm has a total asset value of Bt73.636 billion, an 8 per cent increase, compared to the same period in 2016, which valued Bt68.297 billion. Gross account receivable ports totalled Bt73.488 billion with 3 million user accounts, a 3.7 per cent increase compared to the same period last year.

“This value can be broken down to 2,169,370 credit cards with total credit card receivables value of Bt48.388 billion, a personal loans portfolio of 852,915 accounts, with ending gross receivables of Bt24.757 billion, while NPL experienced a drop from 1.7 to 1.3 per cent compared to the same period last year.

“NPL for credit cards also experienced a drop from 1.2 per cent to 1.1 per cent, and NPL for the personal loans business drop from 0.9 to 0.8 per cent.”

KTC’s total revenue amounted to Bt19.525 billion, an 11 per cent increase, compared to last year, comprising of interest revenue (including credit usage fees), fee income and bad debt recovery revenue. Net interest margin totalled at 15.13 per cent, similar to last year’s value of 15.12 per cent. Operating cost to income ratio totalled at 27.5 per cent, having decreased from 28.5 per cent of last year. Similarly, cost to income ratio totalled at 36.6 per cent, having decreased from 39.3 per cent of last year.

Available credit line totalled Bt21.570 billion, comprising of Bt18.03 billion Krungthai Bank credit line, and Bt3.54 billion from other commercial banks. To this end, the firm’s debt to shareholder equity is 4.85, the ratio 10 times lower than the contingency agreement value.

ICC Thailand chairman Somyod Tangmeelarp told a press conference yesterday that the chamber welcomed the government initiative to improve the arbitration environment and make the process more convenient to ensure Thailand is perceived as an arbitration friendly jurisdiction.

Somyod, who is also vice chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries, said he was encouraged by the Cabinet’s approval on January 23 of an amendment to the Thai Arbitration Act BE 2545. If the legislation is approved by the Council of State and the National Legislative Assembly, it will become law.

Somyod said that the current legal framework for arbitration in Thailand was saddled with two main problems. First, foreign arbitrators are reluctant to act as arbitrators in Thailand due to the onerous work permit requirements they are required of them to perform a temporary service here. Second, parties can appoint foreigners to represent them in arbitral proceedings only in very limited circumstances.

The draft bill appears to remove both of these obstacles by separating domestic and international arbitral proceedings and allowing parties in international arbitral proceedings to chose foreigners to act as arbitrators. The bill also allows these people to stay in Thailand and perform their duties on a temporary basis without the need to obtain a work permit, he said.

Somyod was upbeat on the future of arbitration in Thailand, saying that these measures would make arbitration more convenient for foreign parties and encourage foreign parties to engage in international arbitral proceedings conducted in Thailand, instead of other jurisdictions such as Hong Kong or Singapore.

As part of the wider benefits, the legislative amendment will encourage foreign investors to conduct more international trade and investment with Thailand, he said.

Additionally, foreign arbitrators and representatives will be more willing to provide their services in Thailand. Moreover, the Thai legal community will benefit from more international arbitrations being conducted here. Thailand will also benefit from significant arbitration tourism, an area in which Hong Kong and Singapore have enjoyed advantages, he said.

In Thailand, there are about 1,000 disputes between private companies and investors with government agencies awaiting dispute settlement by arbitral proceedings, according to ICC Thailand.

Arbitral proceedings are typically less time consuming than a normal court procedure, as parties involved usually agree in advance to use arbitrator services.

The International Chamber of Commerce is the world’s largest business organisation working to promote international trade, along with responsible business conduct. ICC Thailand is a national committee of the ICC.

The development underlines the SET’s vision “To Make the Capital Market Work for Everyone”.

FinNet’s operation is an integral part of the bourse’s strategic plan for infrastructure development to enhance the capital market’s competitiveness at the international level, said SET president Kesara Manchusree said.

This infrastructure will centralise the payment process and set standards in connecting intermediary institutions with commercial banks.

The system is built in accordance with the government policy of the National e-Payment Steering Committee and the subcommittee on the capital market’s payment-system development.

The system stems from collaboration between the SET and related agencies, with tremendous support from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), securities firms and commercial banks, she said.

FinNet has been approved by the SEC to provide the central payment-system service for securities trading.

In the initial stage, the service will be provided to 30 securities companies and 12 commercial banks in the form of batch payments, transferring money between accounts in the same bank.

The next phase will cover other payment types in the capital market, such as mutual-fund trading, dividend payment, share subscription, and deposits and withdrawals of collateral.

This will benefit all related parties, making it more convenient with higher efficiency for intermediary institutions in the capital market and commercial banks, Kesara added.

The announcement said there was no Thai law covering cryptocurrency, and warned that there was a high risk for those investing in such currencies.

The BOT is asking all financial institutions in Thailand not to do business related to cryptocurrency, including investment or trade, exchange, providing a business platform to service cryptocurrency, credit to buy cryptocurrency, and advisory services for investment in such a currency, Veerathai said.

Daranee Saeju, senior director for the central bank’s Financial Institutions Strategy Department, said business credit had risen 3.6 per cent due mainly to a 5.7-per-cent increase in lending to small and medium-sized enterprises, excluding finance businesses.

Business credit accounted for 67 per cent of overall lending, with consumer credit amounting to 33 per cent.

Most large operators, again excluding finance businesses, opted to raise capital through equities and debt instruments rather than credit, and also made debt repayments, which resulted in their credit growth ending the year completely flat, she said.

However, some such as those in the energy, transportation, computer and electronics sectors continued to use more credit, which was in line with growth in Thai exports and tourism, she added.

Consumer credit grew 6.1 per cent last year, due mainly to auto hire purchase’s 8.4-per-cent advance.

Last year’s overall non-performing loans edged up to 2.91 per cent of total lending, from 2.83 per cent in 2016, the senior director reported.

The Board of Investment of Thailand (BOI) is organising “Subcon Thailand 2018” with the aim of catalysing 6,500 business matches worth over Bt12 billion.

The largest subcontracting matching event in the Asean bloc, will be held May 16 to May 19 in conjunction with Intermach 2018.

Thailand’s subcontracting industry has been recognised as one of the world’s leading such industries and has been closely monitored among trading partners, according to a press release on Monday.

More than 400 subcontracting companies from Thailand, Asean, and other regions will join in the event, along with more than 25,000 buyers from various industries, including automotive, electric, electronic, and machinery. Future-oriented industries, including aviation, medical and equipment, robotic, and automation industries are also expected to participate.

Last year, the SUBCON Thailand 2017 matched 6,419 pairs of business, creating a business value of more than Bt10 billion.

The event is planned for the Bangkok International & Trade Exhibition Centre (BITEC), Bangna in Bangkok.