“We have created an ecosystem in which people from all walks of life can be easily involved. We believe our services will reach out to all parts of Myanmar by 2030, and thereby will expand overseas as a regional player,” he said in an exclusive interview.

The firm has been registered in both Myanmar and Singapore since July 2017. Singapore-registered Get All Private Ltd owns 100 per cent of Get All Myanmar Co, which aims to expand its presence in Cambodia, Laos, Bangladesh and Pakistan, as well as in West Africa simultaneous with nationwide expansion.

“We aim to provide our services in the countries that share the same or similar fundamentals as ours. In the long term, we want to be successful as a regional player rather than competing for a bigger share of the pie at home,” he said.

“You may think we are ambitious but it is just a realistic target. With a burning desire, everything is possible.”

According to the executive, Get is a digital commerce platform that empowers micro-entrepreneurs with technology in order to be competitive in the future economy. The firm builds the digital economy infrastructure to raise the livelihood of people from the base of the pyramid through economic inclusion.

Currently, the firm mainly focuses on two key sectors – ride-hailing and e-commerce. GetRide is a community-based ride-hailing network that aims to empower drivers in Myanmar with modern technology to improve their income by establishing an interactive platform between drivers and passengers. Get Digital Store is a point-of-sale machine that enables any user to instantly become a micro-entrepreneur, providing multiple essential products and services from air and bus tickets to hotel rooms, tours and mobile top ups digitally.

“Our principal goal is to build a kind of technology-focused economic foundation in Myanmar, while bringing efficiency and availability of various logistics services to every corner of the street,” said Nyein Chan Soe Win.

The firm now has a gross merchandise value of more than US$1 million (Bt32 million), and enjoys seven-digit revenue in US dollar terms every month. In the first three months of its commercial operations, the firm enjoyed up to 100 times month-on-month growth, and aims to sustain a 10-fold increase in revenue in the months to come, he said.

Get Digital Shop now has more than 15,000 agents across Myanmar, and aims to widen its network to over 60,000 agents by the end of 2019. To date, it has covered the majority of Myanmar’s states and regions, except Kachin, Kayah, Chin and Tanintharyi. It will also launch full-stack e-commerce services like Alibaba’s by early January.

“More than 80 per cent of our agents are traditional shops, and we are now focusing on expansion outside Yangon. Customer-care services are available via digital channels and hotline numbers from 6am to 11pm. We are also taking 24-hour customer-care services into serious consideration,” he said.

In the ride-hailing business, the firm currently partners with more than 10,000 drivers, and only 20 per cent of them are from Yangon, the nation’s commercial hub. Currently, around 60 per cent of GetRide vehicles are three-wheelers, which seem popular in many cities and towns.

The firm’s ride-hailing services are now available in six cities – Yangon, Mandalay, Pyin Oo Lwin, Monywa, Sittwe and Bagan. By the end of this year, the number of GetRide taxis in Yangon is expected to reach 10,000. The firm will expand to eight more cities, including Mawlamyaing and Pathein, next year.

“We now serve three types of vehicles – automobiles, three-wheelers and motorbikes. But we are encouraging motorcyclists to become drivers of three-wheelers for their own safety. For that, we recently embarked on a hire-purchase scheme for the drivers so that they are able to own their vehicles after a certain period,” he said.

However, he expects the number of cars to overtake three-wheelers and motorbikes in the longer term once GetRide partners with all the taxi drivers in Yangon. The firm currently has a workforce of over 100 employees, half of whom are based in Yangon. It has partnered with the University of Information Technology for a short-term internship programme every year, which aims to play a crucial role in recruiting new employees.

 In search of the technological leading edge, Wellux turned to South Korean giant Samsung Electronic, which agreed to a technology transfer. And now, the Thai company is launching its line of lighting solutions, manufactured here.

“We saw growing business opportunities and so chose products that respond to consumers’ needs. We chose Innovation LED Samsung Inside, an LED chip, to launch products that suit consumers in the age of digital Thailand 4.0,” Thunyawich said, noting that the use of the quality chip technology complies with Wellux’s vision to be No 1 in lighting innovation.

Thunyawich said that the total market value of LED lights in Thailand is at about Bt5 billion.

“Our target is to gain a share of between 5 per cent and 10 per cent of the market. Our brand aims at highlighting innovation and product development to penetrate the young generation market, with the growing trend of utilising lighting not only for convenience but also for technological advancement.

“Wellux LED lights use Innovation LED Samsung Inside with the high-quality LED Samsung chip, providing endurance and increased brightness, along with being more economical. This innovation helps Wellux to provide quality and innovation that responds to this age of innovation,” he said.

In addition to product development, Thunyawich said the company would also focus on enhancing proactive sales and marketing activities as key to its strategy.

Wellux is excited to partner on sales and marketing activities during the launch period with Thai Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, the owner of Samsung world-class mobile phones and electronics equipment brand. Another campaign partner is Databar Co Ltd, a local distributor of Thai Samsung Electronics Co Ltd for its Samsung Galaxy Note 9 and Samsung A7.

Wellux will launch three lighting products during the launch period, each with Innovation LED Samsung Inside. The first is I-Dapt Technology, lighting designed with eye care in mind. Within 4.5 seconds of exposure, the technology protects people’s eyes. Second is 3-Colour Dimming, which allows users to vary the lighting emotion of a room, with a switch to change from daylight, to warm light and to cool light. The third product is 3-Step Dimming, which gives the options of 100 per cent light, 50 per cent light and 15 per cent light.

“We also see the importance of marketing, branding and corporate social responsibility,” said Thunyawich. We have a marketing and PR budget of Bt50 million for the launch period. In the first three years after the launch, we expect to get Bt500 million in annual revenue. Our target customers are real estate developers, architects, contractors, the government’s projects, electrical and electronic shops. “We aim to increase our production and distribution to respond to consumers’ needs with government collaboration,” he said.

“In terms of competition, we plan to provide best products with value for money and high quality, so we chose Innovation LED Samsung Inside which is the best LED Samsung chip in the market. We will not compete with other companies, as we have distinctive selling points and match the needs of consumers with the right communication to consumers. So consumers will get the best products.

“We target premium consumers and engage them via social media and other communication. We plan to build the Wellux brand story, in order to be the consumers’ favourite brand, targeting both contractors and project customers. “This time we have chosen Innovation LED Samsung Inside, which is a world-class innovation, to help our products to be innovative and have a high quality that responds to the needs of this era.”

Social enterprise (SE) has emerged as a solution for a more sustainable economic growth in response to widespread social, economic and environmental problems caused by capitalism.

Thailand has always endorsed the concept of SE, and with support from civil society and private sector, policies and relevant laws have been developed since 2010 when the Thai Social Enterprise Office (TSEO) was set up to promote social enterprises and develop a network.

The Cabinet approved a new draft bill in July to encourage businesses to conduct more activities for the benefit of society, which will help develop communities and ease environmental problems.

At a recent seminar titled “Thai Social Enterprise: The Way Forward”, Kittipong Kittayarak, executive director of the Thailand Institute of Justice, said a law is good when it is accessible to all equally and can create an ecosystem where people are empowered to bring innovation and ease inequality.

The key to success starts from providing entrepreneurs with enough knowledge to build their own business model and giving them access to funding and tax advantages, he added.

However, he said, the driving motive for social enterprises is far more complicated than just setting up a startup that focuses on profits. He noted that building an ecosystem that supports SE is also important.

“The law alone cannot govern every part of the ecosystem. Cooperation from all sectors, namely incubators, education sector, financial institutions, entrepreneurs’ associations and public sector are key for the successful implementation and development of SE,” Kittipong said in an opening speech at the seminar. The seminar was organised by the Thailand Institute of Justice, which supports and promotes SE as a model to achieve sustainable development, in partnership with Rule of Law and Development Programme Fellows.

“SE can be seen as a new tool to change the society’s perspective and encourage people to ‘do well by doing good’,” the director said.

ML Dispanadda Diskul, member of the TSEO board, said Thai entrepreneurs had the passion to work on social enterprises, but lacked the skill, so they become small fish in big ponds with a slim chance to grow.

He suggested that the private sector should help pass on the knowledge, create a suitable environment and sharpen their SE business model. “Big SEs should help small SEs. For instance, big enterprises can provide trading or marketing channels to their smaller counterparts by taking their goods to sell in the market,” Dispanadda said.

Sarinee Achavanuntakul, co-founder of Sal Forest, Thailand’s first “sustainable business accelerator”, said the biggest challenge is social-enterprise entrepreneurs abandoning their mission or having very little social impact.

So, she said, the most important thing is evaluating the enterprise’s social impact as well as the pressure it can have on the public. “But the enterprises should be regulated by market forces rather than depending on one person to prove whether or not it achieves its goal,” she said.

Sunit Shrestha, director of ChangeFusion, a Bangkok-based organisation that helps social entrepreneurs in creative and sustainable change, suggested some strategies to strengthen SEs:

l Localising SEs at the community level;

l Scaling up or elevating potential SEs; and

l Getting the private sector to partner with existing SEs in local communities or developing into SEs.

Jaranporn Lertsahakul, managing director of Green Style, a social enterprise on environment promotion, said in order to make SEs sustainable, state agencies or the private sector can help by buying goods or services from SEs or giving tax incentives to consumers who buy products from SEs. These incentives are useful because the production cost for SEs is higher.

A public hearing on the Social Enterprise Promotion draft bill was held recently and has now reached the final stage before being handed over to the National Legislative Assembly for consideration.

Nattapong Jaruwannapong, TSEO director, said the key aims of the draft bill were to help social enterprise entrepreneurs survive, encourage the private sector to shift their corporate social responsibility approach towards long-term development and to reform the public-service system.

“The answer of the bill is to turn [companies’] profits into public interest,” said Nattapong, who played a key role in pushing for the SE promotion bill.

The new bill requires social enterprises to reinvest at least 70 per cent of their profits for the benefit of the underprivileged, the disabled, farmers or other schemes prescribed by the finance minister. Registered social enterprises will also be able to seek promotional privileges and tax incentives for their investment.

Under the new law, an office of the National Social Enterprise Promotion and a committee will be formed to set related policies and strategies, and also work out a master plan to promote social enterprises.

A social-enterprise promotion fund will also be set up, through which entrepreneurs can seek loans. The main income of the fund will come from donations from the private sector and the general public.

In Thailand, there are around 300 social enterprises and the government expects another 10,000 to be created in the next decade.

The country’s modern social-enterprise movement can be traced back to 1974, when the Cabbages and Condoms restaurant was set up. The successful restaurant has been using its proceeds to fund sexual-health education and provision programme.

Another pioneer is Doi Tung, a project launched in 1989 by the Mae Fah Luang Founda-tion under Royal Patronage to create jobs and community development for hilltribes in the Doi Tung area of northern Thailand. At the time, Doi Tung, which falls within the “Golden Triangle”, was ravaged by abject poverty, opium cultivation and addiction, as well as trafficking in arms and people.

“SCB has been working relentlessly to execute its successful digital transformation,” said Arthid Nanthawaithaya, president and chief executive officer of SCB, at a press conference in Chiang Mai last Friday.

“In the past three years, SCB has invested up to Bt40 billion to digitally transform its business structure. We are aiming to increase digital transactions to 65 per cent of total transactions next year, from 55 per cent this year,” he said.

“The most important factor in digitally transforming a business structure is not technology, but a clear understanding of the needs of our customers. In 2019, SCB will focus on shifting our mindset to be more customer-centric and offer services that address the needs of our customer base,” he said.

“SCB will work to expand both its core business as well as its disruptive business model comprising of projects such as Digital Ventures, SCB Abacus and the new SCB10X project. We expect to see linear growth in the core business in 2019 while aiming to achieve exponential growth in our new disruptive businesses,” said Arak Sutivong, senior executive vice president and chief financial officer and chief strategic officer of SCB.

In 2019, SCB will be focusing on digital projects that aim to provide answers to unaddressed pain points of customers. SCB has set up the SCB10X project, which aims to provide digital loans services to SCB customers, he said.

“We aim to provide digital loans services to customers, which they can access through the SCB Easy mobile application. Customers can apply for loans and set up the repayment rate within the time period of five minutes,” Kaweewut Temphuwaphat, head of SCB10X project explained.

Through the digital loans service, customers can verify themselves digitally and will receive the disbursement instantly once the process is completed. No human interaction will be needed, he explained.

The SCB10X project is still currently in the testing stage and SCB aims to test the product in a limited market in 2019, according to Kaweewut.

The new SCB10X digital lending platform is expected to reduce the cost of offering loans services to customers by up to 50 per cent, according to the CEO.

SCB is also aiming to expand its core business such as traditional loans services.

“Currently, the loans business makes up about 70 per cent of SCB’s total revenue. We aim to expand this business by tapping new markets comprising small business owners or small SMEs,” Arak said.

SCB aims to expand its loans business by 5 to 7 per cent in 2019 by tapping into the new aforementioned market segment, according to Arak.

“Traditionally, small SMEs cannot make use of traditional bank loans services as they lack the required financial credentials, leading them to turn to informal lending options which usually comes with high risks and interest rates,” he explained.

“Hence, SCB aims to provide more unsecured lending to small SMEs and formal lending to this market segment. Our aim is to offer unsecured loans to small SMEs with manageable risks,” he said.

Meanwhile, the bank has reported to the Stock Exchange of Thailand a net profit of Bt32.983 billion in the third quarter of this year. Its stocks closed on Friday at Bt139 per unit.