“In the next five years, with the help of fintech, there will be a democratisation of financial services, meaning that the capital markets will be more accessible to the population than ever before,” the secretary-general of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Rapee Sucharitakul, said yesterday at an industry event.

Only around three million Thais have financial accounts in the capital market, equating to a fraction of the total population. However, the increasing prevalence of fintech will bring more Thai people into the capital market, Rapee told those attending Fintech Challenge 2018: The Discovery.

The event was co-organised by the SEC and the Fintech Association of Thailand to discuss trends in the financial markets and the prospects for fintech startups. The event also featured the final round of the Fintech Challenge 2018:The Discovery competition in which 12 startups competed for a total prize pool of Bt400,000.

“In the next five years, we expect to see an increase in clients within Thailand’s capital market from seven to eight digits, from 3 million to at least 10 million,” said the co-founder of fintech startup Finnomena, Jesseda Sookdhis, on the sidelines of the event. “By as soon as 2019, we expect consumers to be able to create their own financial accounts and start investing in the capital markets through mobile applications within 20 minutes, no matter which banking services they use,” he said.

One potential challenge to the digitalisation of financial services offered in the capital markets concerns the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) as investment advisers to replace humans.

“When consumers make a loss from their investments as a result of following investment advice from AI, it is not clear who should be held accountable,” said Vasin Vanichvoranun, chairman of the Association of Investment Management Companies (AIMC). This may lead consumers to lose trust in the financial services which companies provide, he said.

Rapee said: “The SEC is working to regulate the capital markets with a principle-based approach. This means we will make sure that advisers, regardless of whether they are AI, human or a hybrid of both, give reliable information that can be accessed and investigated.” Jesseda said fintech firms have addressed this challenge by introducing hybrid solutions. This means that AI is used to support human brokers in giving financial advice to their clients.

Rapee said: “I believe we are at a tipping point. With the growth of fintech firms and an ageing population that demands stable income after retirement through investing in the capital market, there will be an exponential growth in clients within the capital market in the next five years.”

Following discussions with the Chinese billionaire in Shanghai yesterday, Thai Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak said the Alibaba chief had acceded to the Thai request to help promote tourism through its online commerce empire, which can access a large number of Chinese.

Thailand will do a 20-second video promoting the country’s tourism as part of Alibaba’s online promotional campaign on November 11 and about 800 million Chinese are expected to view this online campaign.

Combined with the waiver of visa-on-arrival fees for Chinese tourists and for nationals of 20 other countries plus Taiwan, more tourists are expected to visit Thailand later this year.

“Alibaba is pleased to support Thailand’s tourism and now it is going to hold an activity for the single person day on November 11, asking us to do 20 seconds of a short presentation video. I may be the presenter of this video to gain Chinese tourists’ confidence on convenience and safety,” Somkid said.

Alibaba also confirmed it would invest more in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), as it wants to build up a logistics hub for products in Thailand and the region, apart from its planned human resources development and training centre. The Chinese e-commerce giant is seeking a plot of land in the EEC.

After Ma spoke of Alibaba’s need for Thai fruits ranging from mangosteen, mango and others, aside from durian, Commerce Minister Sontirat Sontijirawong said he had asked the Chinese e-commerce giant to inform about the types of products, specifications and the quantities needed in detail so that an annual plan could be drafted to direct effective production and sourcing through contract farming.

Alibaba has been sourcing high-potential Thai products and helping Thai operators export to China. Three groups of potential Thai products are: agricultural and agro-industry products – fruits and processed fruits, fruit juice, frozen seafood, broken rice, nuts, coconut oil and snacks; electronics and computer parts and raw materials – plastic pellets; and lifestyle products – textiles, nano fabrics, sportswear, cotton and woven fabrics, wooden furniture and leather products.

In mid-2017, Alibaba Group decided to make a Bt11-billion investment, including a digital platform, distribution centre and transportation joining hands with Thailand Post, IT investment, automation and robot systems for small and medium enterprises and joint digital human resources development and business promotion through e-commerce, in the EEC’s smart digital hub.

According to Sontirat, Alibaba is ready to help train Thai officials who will develop Thai business operators through online trade and technology. Alibaba has a business development centre – Taobao Village Model.

Soon, Thailand will dispatch its team of 15-20 members from the Commerce Ministry’s Department of Business Development, the Interior Ministry’s Community Development Department and the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry’s Cooperative Promotion Department for in-depth learning from Alibaba on the development of a logistics network to carry products from local areas to consumers.

The loan guarantee covers Krung Thai Mini Bus, SMEs EEC 4.0, SMEs Blue flag Pracharat, a swell as tourism and related business.

The loan guarantee will waive guarantee fee for the first three years, he said.

“Despite economic setbacks in the third quarter of this year, we expect the annual GDP and exports for 2018 to grow at a satisfying rate,” chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce and Board of Trade of Thailand, Kalin Sarasin, said yesterday at a JSCCIB press conference.

The JSCCIB has forecast GDP growth at 4.4 to 4.8 per cent this year, compared to 3.9 per cent in 2017. Export growth is predicted at 8 to 10 per cent, compared to 9.9 per cent last year. Inflation is set to increase from 0.9 to 1.5 per cent compared to a 0.7 per cent in 2017.

“Economic growth in the third quarter has slowed compared to the first half of this year. Exports, tourism, agriculture and manufacturing sectors have also seen a slump in growth rates in the third quarter,” says Kalin.

He pointed to an alarming decrease in the number of Chinese tourists visiting the Kingdom since the middle of this year.

In August, 867,000 visited the Kingdom, down 11.77 per cent month on month. In September, only 648,000 Chinese tourists visited, another 14.89 per cent fall month on month, according to the JSCCIB.

“One of the key contributors to this slump in Thailand’s third quarter economic growth is the ongoing US-China trade war,” he says.

“The trade war has led to the depreciation of the Chinese yuan in the past few months,” he said. “This has led to a reduction in the purchasing power of Chinese tourists and businesses, a key reason contributing to the declining rate of Chinese tourists visiting Thailand.”

“The Thai government aims to stimulate tourism by exempting visa application fees for tourists from 21 countries. Furthermore, the JSCCIB has urged the government to prioritise its regulatory guillotine project to target unnecessary legislation which hinders the convenience of tourists coming to Thailand,” Kalin said.

“Furthermore, we expect the Thai government to increase spending to stimulate the economy through its various projects such as investing in the infrastructure of the Eastern Economic Corridor [EEC],” he said.

Kalin dismissed concerns over the US decision to remove 11 Thai items from its Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), a US tariff-exemption programme.

“The 11 GSP items make up a very small portion of Thai exports to the US and a fraction of total Thai exports,” he says.

In 2017, the 11 GSP items had a total value of US$46 million or 1.11 per cent of total GSP exports with a total value of $4.2 billion. Furthermore, the GSP products only make up 16 per cent of total Thai-US exports.

“Despite these setbacks, we expect the GDP and exports for 2018 to grow at a satisfying rate,” he said.

Thailand’s exports in September were valued at $ 20.7 billion, down 5.2 per cent year on year. When converted to Thai baht, it was valued at Bt676.410 billion, down 6.2 per cent year on year, Ghanyapad Tantipipatpong, chairman of the Thai National Shippers’ Council (TNSC), said yesterday at a separate event.

Despite the decline in exports, the TNSC still predicts export growth of 8 per cent for 2018. However, export growth for 2019 has been cut to 5 per cent due to the impacts of the US-China trade war, according to Ghanyapad.

The ambassador pointed to the air quality in Finland as something really special. “After a long flight … it’s amazing how you feel when you inhale pure air,” she said.

Finland is among the largest countries in Europe, but with just 5.5 million people, is the most sparsely populated country in the European Union.

About 75 per cent of its area is covered by forests, and nearly 10 per cent is covered by lakes and rivers. Finland has around 188,000 lakes. The Embassy of Finland in Bangkok issued 2,687 tourist visas from January to September this year and about 125,000 Finns visited Thailand in that period.

Patchaya Teerawatsakul, author of a tour guide book entitled “Finland 101”, said that compared to other European countries such as France, Britain and Germany, Finland offers a unique serenity.

“I love to walk in the forests there,” she said of her experience visiting national parks. “Finns are very nice and humble,” she said.

Finland is also well known for having one of the best education systems in the world. The ambassador foresees more collaboration in this area. Currently, some schools in Bangkok have teacher-training programmes with their Finn counterparts, she said.

Tero Salonen, chief executives officer and founder of “funzi.mobi”, a training company based in Finland, said that he was seeking business deals in Thailand.

“I would like to focus on food-safety training in Thailand. It looks promising. The market is very active,” he said, referring to Thailand’s large food sector.

He provides tele-training service, as his philosophy of doing business is to facilitate mobile learning for everyone. Trainees can be taught via mobile phone or other computer devices.

He said he is currently working with the United Nations to provide training services for people in the Middle East.

There are many people in Iraq and Syria who have subscribed to mobile training, he said. Civil war and political violence in many countries in the region make it hard for people to come to the classrooms. He said he has worked with local partners to provide training courses.

“So, mobile can reach out to the people where they cannot move,” he said. It is not only via smartphones but even US$20 phones can access mobile training as long as they have access to the Internet, he said.

His business model was also suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises that do not have training facilities due to the high cost, he said. So far over 6 million people use “funzi” applications, he said.

“Most of the users, about 3 million, are in the Middle East, followed by Africa, and half the users are women,” he said. The most popular courses are entrepreneurship and job preparation or how to get jobs. It takes about three to four weeks for each training course, he added.