According to Sunita Bottse, managing director of Supernap Thailand, a major data centre provider, the number of Thailand’s mobile device users has reached 46 million out of the country’s 69 million population, while the number of Internet users is currently around 27 million, up 24 per cent from the previous year.

The widespread use of social media platforms, such as Facebook, Line, Twitter and Instagram, coupled with the high growth rate of e-commerce, social commerce and mobile commerce platforms have led to a huge increase in personal and other data needing secured storage facilities to meet regulatory, privacy and other legal requirements.

For example, Thai banks have to be in compliance with the Bank of Thailand’s regulations on data residency and privacy. Bottse said Supernap Thailand’s data centre at Hemaraj Industrial Estate 2 in Chon Buri province is regarded as one of the most secure facilities in Asean and meets the so-called Tier IV design and operation standards.

The joint venture between Supernap International and Thai partners has already seen about US$100 million (Bt3.28 trillion) invested in the first stage of its Thai facility. Another $300 million is earmarked for further expansion in Thailand, where the current facility has a total land area of 120,000 square metres.

The first-stage facility has two data halls with a combined capacity of 20-megawatts built on an area of 21,000 square metres. The power capacity is equivalent to the electricity used by 6,000 households.

Supernap holds many patents for co-location data centre designs and mission critical operations, including those for dual independent roofs to withstand up to 322 km/h winds and seven layers of physical security surveillance.

One of the most advanced facilities in Asean As one of the most advanced facilities in Asean countries, it is served by eight neutral carriers for global high-speed connectivity required by enterprises in the digital economy as well as by electronic government and other public services.

Bottse said Supernap Thailand aims to tap the data storage demand in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), which covers Chon Buri, Rayong and Chachoengsao, where the government has been offering tax and other incentives for foreign and Thai investors to launch digital and other new technology ventures.

Previously, Japanese and other foreign investors were worried about flooding in some areas of Thailand, so Supernap Thailand chose its site in Chon Buri at 110 metres above sea level. High-security data centres also have to ensure that there is no downtime of the facilities, which need power redundancy and other features to meet the Tier IV standards.

Since its opening in the last quarter of 2017, Supernap Thailand has acquired clients for half of its capacity with the remaining leases expected to be sold out in two years.

The Thailand 4.0 initiative has led to a rapid growth of the digital economy along with more use of Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) in various sectors, especially banking, insurance and other financial services.

For example, many Thai banks have moved their customers to mobile platforms and provide pre-approval on mortgage and other loan requests online, resulting in the use of analytic and massive personal data storage.

The market for data storage has expanded 30 per cent over the past year alone, with a hybrid cloud-based model emerging as a preferred choice for on- and off-premise facilities.

For banks, some data are stored on premises, while non-core applications are stored on the cloud service. Supernap Thailand has a number of cloud partners, including AWS and Azure.

According to Thai law, some primary banking and other data cannot be stored outside Thailand.

Thailand’s latest turn to host the Miss Universe pageant has, through the power of the global social media, had the added benefits of promoting Thai fashion and raising awareness about LGBT issues, as well as boosting tourism, observers say.

Social media have been riveted on this and other beauty contests for a decade, and Instagram in particular in recent years.

And since Thailand has so many citizens glued to Instagram, Twitter, Line and other networks, the Miss Universe organisers this year formally accredited the administrators of six different Thai social-media pages that specialise in beauty competitions to cover the events being held in Bangkok and Chon Buri.

Their representatives are attending the pageant alongside hundreds of reporters and photographers from the traditional media, feeding news and views back to their followers.

The official Miss Universe Instagram feed has 2.7 million followers and the contestants, mobile phones in hand, maintain their own vast Instagram audiences, recording their every experience.

“Social media is having a big impact on this year’s competition. It’s so powerful,” said Narong Lertkitsiri of Pasaya Textile, a partner of organiser TPN 2018, which spent Bt400 million for the right to run the pageant in Thailand.

“Viewers around the world can watch live streams on the official website and the video of the National Costume segment racked up over a million views within 24 hours.”

Thai talent in fashion design is drawing as much interest overseas as local tourist attractions and other elements of Thai culture. Miss Universe Thailand 2018 Sopida Kanchanarin wowed onlookers at the kick-off Thai Night Gala Dinner at the Dusit Thani Bangkok last week with a gown designed by Her Royal Highness Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana, who also dressed Miss Universe 2017 Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters, the young lady about to relinquish her crown.

Plus, the other 93 contestants graciously thanked the host country by wearing “contemporary Thai” costumes that 19 other leading Thai designers created using hand-woven silk from Her Majesty the Queen’s Support Foundation.

Showcasing worldwide

“Getting to dress all the contestants in the prestigious Miss Universe pageant was a great platform for our designers to show their talents to the world. Thai fashion will be the biggest beneficiary of this year’s contest,” Thammasat University lecturer Thitipong Duangkong, an expert on beauty pageants, told The Nation Weekend.

In a preliminary round on Thursday night at Impact Arena, the contestants wore sexy swimsuits conceived by Princess Sirivannavari with the apt theme “Across the Universe”.

Sopida then donned a dazzling embroidered silver gown by Milin Yuvacharuskul of the clothing brand Milin. Milin also dressed Miss Universe USA Sarah Rose Summers, who has 172,000 followers on Instagram, and Miss Universe Russia Yulia Polyachikhina.

It was quite a showing for Milin, who’d never before participated in such an event, and she returned the favour by posting on Instagram the inspirations for her designs. Her photos and video clips from the contest have been attracting 100 times the number of viewers she normally gets.

“It was a great opportunity to dress Sopida and the girls from the US and Russia,” Milin told The Nation Weekend.

“Both Sopida and Sarah have plenty of followers, and their social media has helped spread my brand to the world. Some of the contestants are interested in my clothes and I hope to collaborate with them in the future.”

Veteran designer Polpat Asavaprapha, who has been involved with Miss Universe since 2015, will be dressing Sopida in a red “mermaid gown” for the final on Monday morning (TV primetime in the US).

Thai Night last week also saw contestants from Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Laos and South Korea wearing his outfits, as well as the highly social-network-popular Miss Philippines. “The social media helped promote my brand very broadly,” Polpat said.

“Frankly it doesn’t affect marketing much because my signature is smart and minimally elegant, quite different from the gorgeous costumes seen in beauty contests.

“Creating a costume for Miss Universe Thailand is a great honour – and a challenge, dressing her so she can be her most beautiful and most confident.”

Thais are cheering for Sopida to be crowned the Kingdom’s third Miss Universe after triumphs by Apasra Hongsakula in 1965 and Pornthip Simon in 1988. Pornthip is among four women judges at this year’s event.

The pageant is meanwhile rewriting history with Spain’s Angela Ponce Camacho competing as the first transgender contestant. “No matter whether she wins or not, Ponce has already raised awareness about gender and LGBT issues in Thailand,” said lecturer Thitipong, who’s also an expert on gender identity.

Ponce counts plenty of Thais among her followers on Instagram.

“If I were lucky enough to be crowned Miss Universe, I would give emphasis to such issues as the lack of education on diversity,” she told The Nation Weekend at Thai Night.

“I’d be a very different type of Miss Universe because my experience growing up has been so very different. I’d become a voice for gender equality for every group of women, including transgender, LGBT and children, as well as highlighting the factors that lead to bullying, prejudice and violence.”

Thitipong said Ponce would help the Spanish Embassy and Thammasat University promote LGBT rights with a campaign in Thailand. “Thailand is LGBT-friendly and we’re pushing for an LGBT law, so Ponce’s involvement will help the Tourism Authority promote its new LGBT segment, for which it plans to take a roadshow to Madrid in January.”

An informed source said Pipaspongpas Suksawaspipat, 59, was nabbed in response to an arrest warrant in Chanthaburi province while he was trying to cross the borders into Cambodia.

A court approved an arrest warrant for Pipaspongpas on Wednesday after he made off from his fake jewelry shop in Bangkok’s Bang Rak district with a Bt10 million gem.

He had pretended to examine the diamond during what his Indian victim, 44-year-old Jain Vaiphav, believed was a normal business negotiation on Tuesday afternoon.

Vaivphav had advertised the diamond for sale on a website, and Pipaspongpas approached him and invited him to the fake shop. There, Pipaspongpas discussed a deal before asking to see the stone in natural light. However he made off in a waiting motorcycle and locked Vaiphav inside.

Vaiphav had to smash a locked glass door to get out and alert police.

Siripong, a researcher under the Cardiac Electrophysiology Research and Training Center (CERT Center) at CMU Faculty of Medicine, won the “International Early Career Investigator Award” during the “AHA Scientific Session 2018” conference on cardiovascular disease, which was held from November 10 to 2 in Chicago.

During the conference Siripong presented his research on “Improving Mitochondrial Dynamic Index by Mitochondrial Dynamic Modulators Exerts Cardio Protection Against CardiacIshemia/ Reperfusion Injury” which will also be published in the Circulation Journal.

A heart attack, which occurs when a complete or partial blockage in one or more coronary arteries reduces or stops blood flow to the heart, is among the leading causes of death worldwide and hospitals commonly use techniques to restore blood flow to part of the heart muscle damaged during a heart attack.

However, this approach sometimes can lead to a heart muscle injury and abnormality in heart function that can be fatal.

In a bid to minimise such heart muscle injury, Siripong conducted research on lab rats and found that the use of an inhibitor to the mitochondrial cell division and an activator for mitochondrial cell integration could boost balance and reduce the chance of muscle injury.

The study was sponsored by the Thailand Research Fund and got CMU’s CERT Center director Dr Nipon Chattipakorn and leading researcher Dr Siriporn Chattipakorn serving as two main advisers.

The motorcycle, which the two suspects abandoned at Soi Wat Doung Khae in Pathumwan district, was found on Thursday. Police are now investigating how it ended up being used by criminals.

Although the motorbike carried no licence plate, police traced its ownership via the tax renewal sticker that identified the vehicle registration number as Kor Ror Thor 770 Lop Buri, said a police source.

Earlier this week, police secured arrest warrants for theft suspect Pipatpongpat Suksawatpipat, 59, and his accomplice, who served as a getaway motorcyclist.

The suspect was captured by CCTV footage fleeing on a waiting motorcycle from the front of a fake jewelry shop on Si Phraya Road.

Police say the suspect got hold of the gem after posing as a jewelry trader and left the diamond owner, Indian businessman Jain Vaiphav, 44, locked in the shop.

Vaiphav, who smashed a glass panel to get out and sustained a 20-stitch gash on his arm, had advertised the diamond for sale on a website.

Police suspect that gave the thieves the idea to steal it by setting up a fake jewelry shop and luring the Indian businessman to hand over the gem during purchase negotiations.

Meanwhile, national police deputy chief Pol General Chalermkiat Srivorakhan said police continued to search for the two suspects.