Wen said on Thursday that CRBC’s Myanmar office was notified last week that it had won the bid for the Eindu-Kawkareik Road Improvement Project, Lot 1 and Lot 2.

The project is the first state project the new democratically elected Myanmar government has publicly awarded to a Chinese company after coming to power, and also the first project funded by the Asian Development Bank that CRBC has won in the country in recent years.

The 65-kilometre Eindu-Kawkareik road project, located in Karen state in southern Myanmar, is part of the GMS’s East-West Economic Corridor.

As an important road in the economic belt, it will not only play a key role in connecting Myanmar and Thailand, but will also be effective in promoting the economic development of eastern Myanmar, Wen said.

He noted that most of the |Asean countries depended on trade in commodities, energy and agricultural products. “However, the shortage of infrastructure facilities such as roads, bridges and bulk|ports has affected government |revenues and people’s living standards within the region.”

As it is still in the early stage, no financial figures regarding the project have been released by the Myanmar government yet.

Luo Renjian, a researcher at the Institute of Transport Research at China’s National Development and Reform Commission, said building such a road with four lanes would cost between US$600 million and $700 million (Bt21.1 billion to Bt24.6 billion) based on the current market prices in developing countries.

With more than 50 branches and offices in more than 50 countries and regions in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas, CRBC says it has established an efficient operation and development management network in global markets.

The company’s business mainly focuses on contracting for such projects as roads, bridges, ports, railways, airports, tunnels, water conservation, municipal works and dredging.

Fang Qiuchen, president of the China International Contractors Association in Beijing, said continued foreign and domestic investment in infrastructure, including roads and town expansion, were key factors for sustained economic growth in countries and regions, especially Africa and Southeast Asia.

CRBC, which is also building the 472km Mombasa-Nairobi standard-gauge railway, has signed deals worth $500 million with Kenyan contractors, creating more than 38,000 jobs in the process, according to the Kenyan government.

State price-management agencies will face many challenges in the second half if they are to meet the National Assembly’s target of keeping inflation under 5 per cent, experts said at a conference.

Reports from the General Statistics Office show that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 0.46 per cent last month, the highest June increase recorded in the past five years.

Compared with December 2015, the index has increased by 2.35 per cent.

Addressing the conference on price movements, representatives of the Finance Ministry’s Pricing Management Department expressed concern that inflation in the current half of 2016 would be under pressure by the state-budget balance, continuous price rises in healthcare and education services in accordance with market mechanisms, and the central bank’s policies on regulating foreign exchange and interest rates.

Nguyen Loc An, deputy director of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Domestic Market Department, said global political volatility and decreasing demand in importing countries would negatively affect prices of many products, including oil. In the domestic market, unexpected price rises in some cities and provinces are also expected as the country is nearing a season of storms and floods.

However, An expects prices will not go up strongly, as the government has instructed relevant agencies to prepare sufficient supplies.

The government will also maintain reasonable price increases in public services, An said, forecasting that the CPI this month will rise at the same rate as in June.

Economist Nguyen Tri Long suggested that authorities be cautious in regulating inflation in the coming months given unexpected factors that may cause inflation to rise in the second half.

Besides higher prices for public services and adverse weather, Long said, a rising money supply, foreign-exchange pressures and costlier imported products might be other reasons for higher inflation.

Long said the inflation-control target might not be met if the money supply is not strictly controlled. State price-management agencies must therefore pay due attention to inflation.

Long suggested that in the future, money policies be coordinated closely with macroeconomic stability.

He also said some regulations must be adjusted to tighten lending rules in order to avoid risks for real estate and financial markets.

SBV head urges caution

The governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), Le Minh Hung, last week urged caution in price controls, warning of great pressure to raise lending rates in the future.

Speaking at a government teleconference, Hung said that aside from existing price-control measures, prudent management of other macroeconomic activities was also needed to avoid affecting interest rates.

While most of the capital for the economy comes from bank credit, the demand for raising capital through government bonds has also increased. Hence proactive and flexible management is necessary to keep lending interest rates stable, he said

President Sakorn Suksriwong said the CLMV market – Cambodia, Laos, Malaysian and Vietnam – was expanding dramatically, as evidenced by factors such as the growth of the real-estate industry in Cambodia and the new era of Myanmar opening up to foreign investment, while there was also good growth in other Asean markets.

As a result, the demand for designers is growing rapidly, especially in the hospitality industry, for which Thailand is famous in the international market, he said.

Many Thai brands and products are receiving acclaim from customers in the design market globally, such as in the fields of furniture, accessories and gadgets.

“Compared to 10 years ago, when Western fashion brands were very famous among shoppers in Thailand and neighbouring countries, the shopping trend and consumer behaviour have changed significantly in the past five years.

“Consumers prefer to select quality products, which truly reflect their uniqueness and characteristics, from house brands or local brands. This new trend has built up more than 50 per cent of local brands’ market growth. Therefore, these factors will firmly increase the demand for designers in the Asean market,” he said.

Sakorn said Thailand’s capacity to develop new professional designers was, however, still inadequate in terms of meeting market demand.

Even though many institutes provide various fashion and design programmes for their students, there are still many limitations.

Public schools offer these programmes at reasonable tuition fees, but the number of students who can join is limited due to inadequate subsidisation by the government.

Private schools, meanwhile, can accept an unlimited number of students, but the tuition fees are much higher, he said.

CIDI Chanapatana, founded in 2000 as a social enterprise, is therefore committed to providing world-class design courses, its president said.

With its reasonable tuition fees, more students can access the programmes, while the institute is also sustainably operated.

Its programmes provide the students with an international standard curriculum at one-third of the average market tuition fee, he said.

The total fee is Bt190,000 for a two-year programme, which he said was very attractive and affordable, especially as many of the students are from abroad.

“Our students actually come from many countries, such as the US, the UK, Italy, Germany, Singapore, China and Austria. The number of students from countries in Thailand’s neighbourhood, such as Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos and Malaysia, is also increasing.

“To promote our programmes, we invite them to attend our ‘Open House’ event at CIDI Chanapatana. The event includes an introduction to the courses and our institute’s milestones, a panel discussion with successful alumni and a one-on-one discussion session with alumni and existing students, so they can understand more about the courses.

“The number of participants attending the event has increased this year, with the registration rate for foreign visitors at 20 per cent and the rate for Thai visitors at 80 per cent. Given this success, we have improved our ‘Open House’ event to cater to the increasing number of foreigners. We also promote our programmes through online media in order to directly hit the target group, instead of organising roadshows,” Sakorn said.

CIDI open house

The “2016 CIDI Open House” event will be held twice this month, on July 9 and 22, at CIDI World, CIDI Chanapatana in Bangkok.

Sakorn said potential students included career-switchers who had not studied design in earning their previous degree, due to their studies being influenced in another direction by their families or social trends.

After graduation, many of them they realise their real preference and passion, so they decide not to work in the field of their educational background and opt instead for a career in the design industry.

They cannot re-enrol for another degree from their universities, hence they turn to CIDI Chanapatana to get the necessary education and skills to pursue such a career, he said.

Another category comprises the dream-chasers, who have already had some working experience in the design industry but wish to improve their skills in order to get ahead in their design careers, he said, adding that the course would give them the necessary tools to be successful as professionals in marketing, creativity and production.

“Our programme is flexible and adjusted to market needs. The original curriculum from Italy requires only four semesters, as Italian |designers are usually not required to be capable of working on each and every process in product development.

“Thai and other Asean designers are different in that they have to be able to do everything from scratch, from researching, designing and developing to marketing their products. Therefore, the institute added an extra semester to ensure the students learn all the basic skills for their professional work,” he explained.

Meanwhile, the lecturers at CIDI Chanapatana are recruited based on their global experience.

They all have working experience in Europe, where most design industry leaders originate from, while some also have work experience from other parts of the world.

This is to ensure they can share up-to-date insights with students, which will enhance the learners’ design ideas and provide them with internal inspiration, Sakorn said.

“We aim to be the leading design-education provider in Asean. We are collaborating with the Istituto Europeo di Design in Milan, one of the top-10 world-famous design institutes; NABA [Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti], the owner of the Domus Academy in Milan; and the Royal College of Art in London, for its interior design programme.

“These collaborations will be a great bridge to open up and share our vision, knowledge and resources with world-leading design countries, and will be another step in making Bangkok a design education hub of Asean,” CIDI Chanapatana’s president said.