Telenor Myanmar last week launched a 4G service in Nay Pyi Taw, nearly two months after Ooredoo Myanmar offered the technology in the capital city along with Yangon and Mandalay.

In Southeast Asia and Oceania in 2015, only 5 per cent of all mobile subscriptions were 4G – but the figure is expected to increase to more than 40 per cent by 2021, according to the Ericsson Mobility Report 2016.

“We believe that 4G is now relevant to our mass market with current handset capabilities. In the future, we will introduce other 4G services with high definition of voice and enriched messaging experience,” Petter Furberg, the outgoing chief executive officer of Telenor Myanmar, said.

“To provide high speed 4G services all over the country, Telenor will need more spectrum. Telenor is looking forward to participating in the spectrum auctions planned by the Union Government later this year. Due to explosive growth of data and increasing data demand by the Myanmar people we believe it is urgently required to expand our services to 4G all over Myanmar.”

Telenor claims to be Myanmar’s largest network with more than 5,700 towers and 16 million customers. Over 60 per cent of its customers are data users.

Ooredoo said its penetration rate was 85 per cent by April this year. With an aim to be the best data network in the country, the company has extended its fibre optic network to over 7,700 kilometres.

It plans to lengthen it to approximately 12,000km by the end of this year. According to Ooredoo CEO Rene Meza, to date the company has invested more than US$1.7 billion (Bt60 billion) in Myanmar.

“We continue to increase our investment in Myanmar … We look forward to expanding our network as the government of Myanmar grants more spectrum,” Meza said.

“This is only the beginning. Our service will continue to expand and improve over time. We are ready to invest more, and are looking forward to covering even more customers with faster speed.”

He also promised that 4G ser-|vices would not be more pricey |than 3G. Under a marketing cam-paign, Ooredoo customers can enjoy free calls to people using the same network and Facebook at the super-low price of three kyats (Bt0.09) per megabyte.

The rocketing number of Chinese tourists coming to Vietnam in the first half of the year was putting pressure on the tourism industry, the authority in charge said yesterday, days after several Chinese tour guides were found working illegally in the country.

The number of Chinese tourists visiting the Southeast Asian nation in recent months “soared out of the blue”, said Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) Director-General Nguyen Van Tuan in its half-year review meeting on Friday.

Chinese visitor growth scored soared more than 47.5 per cent from the same period last year.

The latest VNAT report shows more than 1.2 million Chinese tourists visited Vietnam in the first six months of 2016, making up roughly a quarter of the total international tourists visiting.

“The thing is that the Vietnam tourism industry’s capabilities in terms of both personnel and services failed to adapt to such a sudden growth (of Chinese tourists),” Tuan said.

“Worse still, Chinese visitors do not spread evenly across the country but only focus on some tourism sites, particularly Nha Trang in Khanh Hoa province and Da Nang.”

“Critical infrastructure, such as our broadband and power networks, requires engineers with the ability to keep them in tip-top condition,” says Professor Chua Kee Chaing, dean of the engineering faculty at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

“For example, engineers are needed to identify the faults and bring the network back up if there are outages in telecommunications coverage.

“Another example is the disruptions that we have encountered in the MRT rail system.”

The public service plans to hire 1,000 more engineers this year, in areas such as transport and water systems.

The shortage of engineers was highlighted by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong earlier this month at the 50th anniversary celebration of the Institution of Engineers Singapore.

The country, he said, faces a major challenge in building up engineering talent and keeping up with changes in its practice.

The brain drain is due to diverse factors, including the analytical approach that the profession demands .

Edwin Khew, president of The Institution of Engineers Singapore, says: “Engineers, due to their versatile skill sets and problem-solving abilities, continue to be highly sought after by sectors such as business and finance.

“Many leave engineering to join these sectors after a few years in practice, possibly because of the better pay. A bank may pay them 30 per cent more.

“Other factors include the lack of effective career planning and job rotation. For instance, not all engineers want to remain engineers, but may want to become senior managers. ”

Chua says that while the starting pay in engineering “can be fairly good”, the rate of increase may not be as good as that of other sectors, such as banking and finance.

Various measures to retain talent include government initiatives for a pay boost and more structured career advancement for public sector engineers.

Outreach efforts can also be improved to draw the young, says Chua.

“A lot of students I talk to say they want to do good in society. Maybe we don’t do our outreach well enough. For example, when engineers bring clean water technology to underdeveloped economies, eliminating diseases, the impact is tremendous.

“Increasingly, we want our students to go out to more disadvantaged communities.”

Some new engineers may also be daunted by the long road ahead.

Dr Koh Pak Keng, head of the aerospace systems programme at SIM University, says: “Certain skills, such as improving efficiency and performance in gas turbine engines, can take decades to master.”

Another hurdle is “the hard, dirty work” that comes with some engineering jobs, he adds.

Tan Peng Hoe, 31, who graduated from his civil engineering course at Nanyang Technological University about seven years ago, says his early years as an engineer at ExxonMobil involved inspecting and repairing furnaces in oil refineries, where the temperature reached about 40 deg C.

“You need hands-on experience early in your career to back you up if you want to progress, such as to a consultant role.”

Research is her calling While she enjoyed her engineering course in university, Betty Tsai was open to other career choices.

“Although I majored in chemical engineering, there were so many career options,” says the 27-year- old. She graduated from the National University of Singapore in 2012.

Her father is a retired businessman and her mother, a retired manager. The former Hwa Chong Institution student has a younger brother.

At a recruitment event in her first year in university, she met an English literature graduate who worked in a bank.

“The message I got was that some people seemed to be hiring no matter what one’s major was.”

She embarked on a career search during her four years in university and did various things to gain diverse experiences.

During her first year, she went on a three-week trip to the Himalayas as part of a school expedition to study conservation and irrigation systems.

She went on to complete five internships, each between two and six months, in fields as varied as public policy, chemical engineering, biofuels and the oil and gas industry.

She also attended recruitment talks and took up business modules as part of her degree course. After distilling all these experiences, she found that she enjoys crafting scientific experiments.

In 2012, she joined a manufacturer of consumer goods such as beauty products and household cleaning items and now develops new technologies as a research engineer.

This is her first permanent job after graduating and she believes she has found her passion.

“I like more creative, problem-solving jobs and I have found such a job doing research.”

Gave up erhu for engineeringCivil and structural engineer Kiu Yan Ru, 25, once had his heart set on becoming a professional erhu player. He picked up the traditional Chinese instrument at age 11 as a school co-curricular activity and fell in love with it.

After his O levels, he begged his parents to let him pursue his interest by taking a diploma in music at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. They refused.

His mum, educator Lau Meow Hwa, 59, says: “I was a former teacher and I wanted him to study and get higher qualifications so his work life would be smoother. I wanted him to go to junior college.”

A compromise was struck.

Kiu, the third of four boys in the family, thought a three-year polytechnic course would give him more time to play the erhu. The junior college track takes two years and he felt it would be more demanding.

He chose an engineering course at Ngee Ann Polytechnic because it involved physics, which he had enjoyed studying in secondary school.

During this time, he played the erhu in a Chinese music ensemble and as a soloist. He sometimes performed in concerts in countries such as China and Malaysia.

While serving his national service, he auditioned for the Singapore Armed Forces Music and Drama Company and was accepted. He spent his days as an NSman playing the erhu, often alone in a studio.

Ironically, this proved to be the final unravelling of his musical ambitions. “I came to the realisation that playing music full-time was not as fun as when it was a hobby,” he says.

He then pursued engineering in earnest, earning a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the National University of Singapore.

He joined engineering consultancy Arup Singapore last year and is now working on part of the Thomson-East Coast MRT line.

His job includes assessing site conditions, assisting builders and diverting traffic and services where necessary.

Such projects bring him satisfaction.

“Putting on a music concert could impact the few hundred people who attend it. With engineering, you can reach so many more people,” he says.

Dreams of being a pilotAs a child, Cindy Ng dreamt of becoming a pilot. She liked to play with Lego planes and found it “amazing” that something so big could fly.

Her father, retired civil servant Alfred Ng, 62, encouraged his technically inclined daughter to take up engineering as he felt that such skills would be in demand.

Ng, 29, obliged readily as the engineering diploma course she chose at Temasek Polytechnic had an aerospace component.

Even though she was not training to be a pilot, she was content to learn about a plane’s engine.

She went on to complete a degree course in aerospace systems engineering at SIM University.

Her training as an engineer, with its focus on logic and a systematic approach, has “opened up a lot of opportunities”, she says.

She spent the last 10 years working at Singapore Aero Engine Services, which repairs, maintains and overhauls plane engines.

A year ago, she began handling contracts and commercial matters at the firm after nine years of technical and engineering work.

“I’m allowed to grow in different roles within the company,” she says, adding that she will soon be leading a new project.

While she is doing well now, she has regrets about not fulfilling her childhood dream.

It was not for lack of trying though.

In her teens, she tried to get into the Singapore Youth Flying Club, but failed the stringent vision tests.

While she enjoyed learning to fly a small plane under supervision during university as part of her degree course, not many commercial airlines accepted women trainee pilots.

Her application to a commercial carrier was rejected and she could not afford a private pilot training course, which would have cost at least US$37,000 then.

While Ng appreciates learning about different aspects of the aviation industry, she says: “Sometimes, I still think about whether I can be a pilot.”

The marketplace was officiated by Indonesian Trade Minister Thomas Lembong and Alibaba Group vice president Brian A Wong.

“E-commerce is among the fastest and most effective way to reach out hundreds of millions of consumers in China and other countries without arduous efforts and huge investments. This will be an effective way to market our Indonesian products,” Lembong said as quoted by Antara news agency on Saturday.

Lembong said his ministry was currently also looking into other partnerships with other e-commerce giants aside from Alibaba.

With the new platform, Indonesian producers can sell their products directly to Chinese consumers without going through importers or distributors.

Mary McKeon, a team leader for the Environmentally and Socially Responsible Tourism (ESRT) Programme, said European travellers were keen on visiting Vietnam, including Da Nang.

“Da Nang is unique as a beach city for MICE business in Asia. It is also a safe destination with easy access [transport, visas, etc]. Its innovative travel programmes and promotions also attract Europeans,” she said.

McKeon was a speaker at a seminar last month at “BMTM (Beach-leisure & MICE Travel Mart) Da Nang 2016”, one of Vietnam’s biggest tourism events.

She said Europe was one of the most important tourism markets for Vietnam, generating more than a million arrivals a year, with a high rate of spending. European tourists account for 15 per cent of total international arrivals to Vietnam. The tourism authority’s figures show that Vietnam received 757,244 international visitors in May, a 30.2-per-cent increase over the same month last year. In the first five months, the country received more than 4 million arrivals, up 20 per cent year on year.

China provided the most visitors, followed by South Korea and Japan. Russia was the only European country in the top 10, while Thailand stood eighth.

Last year, Da Nang received 4.6 million visitors, including more than a million international tourists.

McKeon said spending by event organisers and delegates would benefit the economy of the city as well as Vietnam as a whole. She said advertisements, public relations, trade fairs, press conferences, events, social media and trade workshops would help the city become a favourite MICE destination.

She urged the city to implement effective systems, to focus on budget allocation and assignment of responsibilities, to develop partnerships to work closely with local and international stakeholders, to identify strategies for marketing, sales and lobbying, and to implement monitoring and impact analysis.

Daria Mishukova, an international branding and public relations expert, said Vietnam was very likely to receive more Europeans, especially from highly travel-oriented countries such as France, Germany and the United Kingdom. Just as Vietnam’s beaches and seaside attractions had motivated many Russians to visit the country, other European tourists will also enjoy visiting Da Nang sooner or later, she said.

Challenges

However, there is a long way to go despite the bright outlook, admitted Xuan Binh, deputy director of the Da Nang Department of Tourism.

“Other destinations in the region such as Malaysia’s Genting, Indonesia’s Bali, the Philippines’ Cebu and Thailand’s Phuket are constantly improving their tourism products and services. It is now time for the city to identify its direction and create differentiation to enhance competitiveness and integration of the destination,” he said.

He said the city’s major weaknesses included the lack of an MICE development strategy, collaboration for local tourism development, direct flights from Europe, North America and Australia, human resources, technical facilities, and support services such as night entertainment, shows, and souvenirs. “We do not have an international-level convention centre yet. And we need to attract airlines to open flight routes to Da Nang, as the new international terminal will be completed and put into operation next year,” he said.

Do Khoi, deputy director of Vietnam Airlines, said the carrier planned to expand its operations from Da Nang. By early next year, air links between Da Nang and Hong Kong, Busan and Taipei will be established, aside from the existing direct connections with Tokyo, Seoul, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Siem Reap and Bangkok and a number of charter flights from other cities in China.

Binh said priority should be placed on human-resource development, which requires cooperation among tourism authorities and educational institutes. There should also be efforts to attract reputable companies to set up offices in the city.

Van Luu of Vietnam’s Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, said Da Nang needed more than 24,000 skilled personnel for the tourism industry. This suggests high demand for professional capacity-building and high-quality HR training. Acknowledging that MICE tourists demand professional travel agencies, three-star or higher hotels and new attractions, he urged MICE-specialised companies and organisations to have a presence in the city.

He added that Da Nang should have a specialised organisation focusing on MICE.

“MICE tourists focus mainly on work, but still need entertainment, and to learn about economic conditions, cultural and social destinations,” he said. “Only when we satisfy customers will we achieve success.”

The development will help boost the local economy, BKPM chairman Franky Sibarani said, adding that the factory was likely to employ as many as 15,000 local laborers. He declined to name the investor.

“Production is 100 percent export,” he said as quoted by Antara news agency.

The investor reportedly targeted Central Java as the location of their plant due to sufficient infrastructure and the competitive cost of local labor for labor-intensive industry. The South Korean company have acquired a principle permit from BKPM and are expected to start factory construction and machine installation soon, Franky said.

BKPM have welcomed the investment plan. The agency is pushing to boost investment in Indonesia amid a challenging global economic situation, he added. As added value for the local administration, BKPM have encouraged the firm to use local raw materials, he said.

With a total investment of US$188 million with 435 projects in the first quarter of 2016, South Korea is the sixth biggest source of foreign investment in Indonesia, according to BKPM data. The investment provides employment for more than 28,000 workers. In 2015, South Korea reported a total investment of US$ 1.2 billion in Indonesia, a 7.6 percent from the same period the previous year.

“Malaysians don’t see Asean as something close to our hearts, as opposed to countries like Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar,” said Edmund Bon Tai Soon.

“If you go down to the ground there, the people always speak about Asean and what Asean can do for them. I don’t know why in Malaysia and perhaps also in Singapore, we don’t feel that closeness with Asean.

“That has to improve since we’ve adopted the Asean region 2025 charter to become the AseanEconomic Community,” he said in an exclusive interview with Sunday Star.

Asked which human right Malaysia was worst off in and needed to work harder at, he replied: “That would be civil and political rights. But this is across the board in Asean. If you look at Thailand, you can’t even speak about the Ruler.”

He said a new feature of AICHR was to provide institutionalised facetime with NGOs and CSOs (civil society organisations) with accredited status from AICHR.

“We never imagined this six years ago. We have accredited 11 CSOs across the region,” he said, adding that among the latest to be granted consultative relationship status was Pusat Komas from Malaysia.

At the last AICHR meeting, he said Malaysia had proposed two regional consultations for 2017.

“Malaysia has chosen right to water, with particular focus on the rural and indigenous communities.

“My personal goal, depending on what other participants want, is to have a general comment of AICHR to be adopted and disseminated as a document interpreting what the right to water and clean sanitation means.

“That will start the ball rolling towards other standards-setting,” he said.

Besides the previous Malaysian representative’s projects for 2016, Re­­­gional Forum on Media and Hu­­man Rights – concluded in May – and the Youth Debate in September, Bon hopes to insert a third one – a symposium on sharing good practices among Asean judges.

“We are trying to push for approval for this project at the Chiang Mai meeting in July. Thai­land, Laos and Philippines have expressed keen interest,” he added.

Promising lucrative returns and riches, the company even tells its potential customers to take out personal loans to invest.

A quick Google search revealed a long list of complaints and allegations that the company is running a pyramid scheme that has left many poorer and worse off than before they joined.

In 2014, the Direct Selling Association of Malaysia (DSAM) received at least five complaints and enquiries about the company’s legitimacy.

The e-mails and calls were about the company’s modus operandi in recruiting members.

DSAM executive director Lawrence Cheah said these were forwarded to the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism for further action.

“Unfortunately, the lack of black and white proof makes it difficult for the authorities to act. Most aren’t willing to lodge a formal complaint and testify if it ends up in court,” he said.

“Those who have contacted us say they were asked to invest multiple sums of money which can amount to 20,000 ringgit (US$5,000) or more, were guaranteed returns and told that they would be paid for recruiting others.

“DSAM is a member of the World Federation of Direct Selling Asso­ciations. Among our members, we practise self-regulation based on our globally recognised and Minis­try of Domestic Trade-endorsed Code of Conduct.

“As the company is not our member, we can only assist the ministry by forwarding the complaints,” he said.

Cheah said “starter kits” for legit companies were usually below 200 ringgit and forcing a new member to buy stock or invest was illegal.

Getting paid to recruit is also strictly against the law.

“Members can only earn from sales profits and commissions from the sale of products,” he added.

Malaysian Direct Distribution Association (MDDA) president Rosedy Issa confirmed that the company was licensed by the ministry and is a member of the association.

“We’ve received enquiries about whether this company is legal,” he said, adding that the company’s licence – issued in 2013, expires in August this year.

After being alerted by Sunday Star, a sub-committee was set up to investigate the allegations, he said.

He advised the public to check with the ministry, the MDDA and DSM on whether a company is genuine before joining.

“We take public complaints very seriously because the bad hats give the industry a bad name,” Rosedy said.

The ministry is said to be still monitoring the company although recent investigations showed its business was legitimate.

On April 20 this year, the authorities found that the company’s marketing plan was in line with licensing terms and all its marketed products had been approved, the ministry said in an e-mail response.

“However, the company is still being monitored. An inspection will be carried out when it applies to renew its licence which expires in August,” it said.

To date, no renewal application has been submitted.

US$1 = 4 ringgit as of 7/10/2016 via oanda.com

The L’Amour room is one of six screening rooms in the newly inaugurated US$4- $5 million CGV Liberty Hoàng Van Thu cinema in HCM City’s Tân Bình District.

Entry is VND600,000 (US$27) for two adults for one 1.6-metre-wide bed and a drink and snack each.

Dong Won Kwak, CEO of CGV Vietnam, said the L’Amour room was designed for couples and young families.

Vietnamese movies as well as foreign films will be screened there.

CGV has opened 34 cinemas with a total of 223 screening rooms and 31,703 seats in Vietnam.

Of the cinemas, there are two IMAX screening rooms, two Dolby Atmos screening rooms, four 4DX rooms, six GOLD CLASS, one STARIUM LASER and one L’Amour room with world-class standards.

Tell us little more about your company.

The company was founded in 1977 by my father and few partners. Back then, it focused on traditional wood crafting and labour-intensive carpentry works.

During the 1980s, the economic boom and rapid industrialisation resulted in strong demand for furniture. Hence, we started manufacturing open-plan office furniture.

Now we design our furniture according to customers’ needs, and produce it in our factories in Singapore and Malaysia.

Is this family-run business?

I have two siblings but I am the only one in the business. I developed an interest in the furniture industry only in 2009, after working for another firm in the same industry.

I felt that I could help this industry and my company to grow.

My siblings have their own businesses.

How do you stand out from others in the industry?

In other people’s minds, the furniture industry is dying trade. For us, we would like to serve tomor- row’s needs. Our products are not the grab-and-go kind.

We have our full range of products, concepts and experts (designers and sales consultants) to design and produce them for our customers. Also, our company produces different products compared to the system furniture produced by other firms. System furniture is usually modular machine-made components, assembled like Lego blocks.

For us, we integrate carpentry skills and ideas into our furniture. For example, we use vinyl, mate- rial usually used in carpentry, to build our workstations and cabinets. We have the skills, the people and the machinery to do so. The majority of my production team is trained in carpentry.

What is the demand for your products like?

There will always be demand for carpentry furniture. However, manufacturing carpentry furniture is quite labour-intensive and incurs high costs so it may be less popular than system furniture.

On the other hand, carpentry furniture may be more classy and complicated than system furniture. Hence, firms may prefer to integrate the two for important rooms such as meeting rooms and boardrooms.

This is where we come into the picture. We integrate carpentry and system furniture to provide cost savings, and greater range of products.

How is the company doing and what are some challenges you face?

Revenue grew by more than 12 per cent each year between 2011 and last year. We recorded sales of $19 million last year, about 80 per cent of which came from local sales and 20 per cent from exports.

One challenge is that carpentry work is labour-intensive, and the Government is less encouraging about labour-intensive industries.

However, we are still able to cope with labour needs because only around 25 per cent of our products require carpentry work. For the long term, we may move our carpentry department to Malaysibecause costs are lower there.

There are also limitations to expansion in terms of volume and revenue if we just function in Singapore. Hence, we’re expanding our businesses overseas. In the past year, we have opened several sales offices and manufacturing plants in Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia. We have around 150 staff in total.

The greatest challenge, however, lies in attracting talent to join my team. Many people consider the industry sunset industry and are unwilling to join us.

But recently, we see change in the mentality of fresh graduates. I think the most important thing is to explain to them what we intend to do and how the company can grow.

What does business continuity management (BCM) mean to you?

BCM serves as guideline for all employees to work towards. Ultimately, we wouldn’t know when there is risk, and if our procedures are adequate to meet it.

By giving our customers sense of assurance that we know what to do when things happen, we are not only giving them the physical furniture, but are also assuring them on what to expect when challenges surface.

The requirements and expectations involved in BCM require lot of different departments to work together. It is about teamwork.

Most SMEs are usually too preoccupied with the day-to-day running of the company to worry about BCM.

Yes, the day-to-day operations are hectic enough. Yet, as the saying goes, “no man is an island”. It is important that everyone shares common understanding of what to do when there is risk.

In fact, the staff are more responsible when they interact with customers after the BCM. They are well aware that they cannot face challenges alone, and focus on teamwork to get the job done.

What has the company implemented since joining the programme?

We have improved our sharing network with our sales offices in various countries (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines). We have set up cloud to share company updates. This protects us from cyber attacks and unforeseen personal emergency leave because every document on the cloud is tracked.

This also serves as an update of our offices’ work.

What are some of your company’s future plans?

We have budgeted about $2 million for the expansion of our plant. We plan to double the size of our factory in Malaysito manufacture more goods for export. We are working closely with International Enterprise Singapore on this.

We are also developing furniture for collaborative areas in the office – soft furnishing. We want to create work-and-play environment, and bring to our customers the “happy office people” concept.

For now, we are piloting this in our own offices.

Our new direction is to create furniture that is open- concept, boosts interaction, and is eco-friendly. To be visionary, it is workplace of the future.