Egat board chairman Kulit Sombatsiri said that the gas will be used by Egat power plants.

On December 4, the Energy Policy Administration Committee ordered both parties to enter into discussions on some details of the contract and try to sign the contract within this year.

The Egat board meeting early next year will also ask Egat to draw up a plan to procure the third lot of the liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Egat planned to procure and import LNG in two stages of 65,000 tonnes each in the spot markets. The first cargo will arrive at Rayong on December 28, and the second lot in early April next year.

The centre’s director, Anusorn Tamajai, said 12 careers faced high risk of layoffs and stagnant income. The first group comprises businesses or professionals related to providing services for newborns to 15-year-olds. The risk stems from the fact that the numbers in this group have been decreasing. Their numbers are estimated to be 12.7 million to 12.8 million next year given that the Thai population growth rate this year is only 0.18 per cent, the slowest in Asean. The total Thai population now is 69.3 million, or 0.9 per cent of global population. Thailand’s population will peak at 70 million (69.7 million) in 2025 before dropping to 65.4 million in 2050.

The population of the young age group will decrease to 10.4 million in 2027. However, a large proportion of children are in the deep South provinces of Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat and Satun, or about 23-24 per cent of total population in each province. But the first three provinces are facing economic hardship due to the unrest.

Anusorn said that he expected more childcare centres and kindergarten and primary schools to be shut down. This will adversely affect employment of teachers and other educators.

Those who are employed in counter services also will be hit hard as consumers will do more transactions online. Brokers and direct sales forces also would be adversely affected by online business. Those who are in print media, advertising, cable TV and satellite TV face a grim future. Employees or businesses in dirty manufacturing which cause climate change and pollution will be adversely affected. Taxi drivers have already been impacted by the emerging ride-hailing services such as GrabTaxi and GrabCar. Property leasing will not escape either. Traditional banks and financial institutions would be disrupted. Manufacturing of auto parts and obsolete IT manufacturing will be hit hard. People in high-end and low-end property development will face a hard time due to lack of demand in the high-end property and lack of purchasing power at the lower end.

Those who work in back office would be replaced by robots and AI, he predicted.

However, there are 10 careers that are expected to fare well. These include care of the elderly and rehabilitation business. Those who work for electronic platforms will have bright prospects. With growing e-commerce, those in the transportation and logistics businesses will benefit. Tourism and related services are expected to continue to grow. Medical services, healthcare and health foods will see expansion. Construction, rail system and communication systems will expand. Those who have knowledge to develop applications will be boosted by the IT revolution. Advance data analysts, insurance economists, actuaries and investment advisers are also expected to be thrive. New careers such as user-experience manager, content and social media manager and virtual reality consultant will have a bright future. Online educators and related services will find a promising future, he said.

He forecast that next year, more people will be laid off hence the Social Security Office has to make sure that the labourers are well protected. The rising ageing population will put high pressure on the social security fund, which needs to be reformed due to increasing compensation for laid-off workers and pension payment for retirees, he added.

Most financial institutions upgraded their ratings of the stock market by one or two notches, and said the benchmark Kospi will trade at an average 2,300 points, higher than the corresponding figure of 2,100 points this year. France-based financial institution BNP Paribas adjusted its rating on the South Korean market from underweight to overweight last week, saying the semiconductor market cycle has reached the bottom, and is set to start climbing next year. This signals a cyclical recovery.

Excess chip inventory — which has been detrimental to sales of new materials — will gradually dry up in 2020, along with a recovery in demand from data centers and smartphone manufacturers, it said in a report. It forecast the benchmark Kospi to be trading at an average 2,325 points.

In line with BNP Paribas, US-based Goldman Sachs last month also upgraded its valuation for the Korean market to overweight from market weight. It cited stabilization in the memory chip price, normalization of NAND and DRAM inventories and increase in demand for 5G services.

Another US-based firm, Morgan Stanley shifted its equal weight recommendation to overweight and picked Samsung Electronics and chipmaker SK hynix among other tech stocks as attractive investments.

The Kospi is expected to see a rally on the back of a strong won, and the Korean equity market will have attractive valuations compared to other emerging markets, under the condition that tensions surrounding the US-China trade war do not further escalate.

The firm said that Kospi-listed firms’ profit will increase by 30 percent at most next year, which echoes Credit Suisse’s latest briefing on the stock market on Thursday.

An official at the Seoul branch of the Swiss multinational firm said the profits of semiconductor, auto, refinery and chemicals will gain 30 percent in 2020, compared to this year with the chips industry leading the rally.

Japan-based Nomura Securities raised its stock price target for Samsung Electronics and SK hynix based on the rising price of DRAM and overall anticipation surrounding the chip industry. Samsung Electronics’ price was raised to 67,000 won per share ($57.70) from the current 60,000 won and SK hynix’s increased to 136,000 per share from 110,000 won.

But not all institutions voiced rosy outlooks, with Citigroup rating the country’s stock market as underweight.

“We are not especially bearish, but can see better opportunities elsewhere,” it said in a note published Nov. 29.

“While markets may overshoot into the new year, we would prefer to wait for the next dip before turning more bullish.”

Analysts often divide the global stock market into three categories — overweight, equal weight and underweight — based on their attractiveness.