“Times are rapidly changing and the millennial generation already has an active role in reshaping our commerce marketplace. The Millennial 20/20 Summit will ignite the conversations that are paramount to help brands and businesses adapt and stay relevant in one of society’s most influential movements,” said Rupa Ganatra, founding partner of Millennial 20/20.

With its global connectivity and resources for business innovation, Singapore will be the first city in Asia and second in the world to host the summit. This year’s edition will gather over 1500 brands, companies, founders and start-ups to look into the future of commerce from across the four key industry sectors of travel and hospitality, food and beverage, fitness and sport and fashion and beauty.

“Singapore with its robust infrastructure, communities and innovation capabilities makes it a natural choice for us to launch the Millennial 20/20 Summit. Its progressive environment for innovation has led it to be a leading player in disruptive technology as most businesses embrace ways to co-innovate with the technology industry to reach the next stage of growth,” added Simon Berger, founding partner of Millennial 20/20.

Discussions for the summit will centre around the evolving business landscape in a millennial generation where innovation, disruption and technology are key components of its future. The summit dives deep into a focus on pillars that include retail, marketing, mobile, payments, video, social, e-commerce, CRM, advertising and big data.

The topics are aligned with Singapore’s vision of embracing technological innovations and enterprise to transform its economy of the future.

Visitors to the summit can expect highly curated and challenging discussions addressing the realities and future of each of the industry tracks featuring a distinguished speaker panel of local and international industry heavyweights such as Mark Liversidge, Chief Marketer of Hilton Hotels; Tom Glick, Chief Commercial Officer of City Football; Elaine Rodrigo, Global Director of Mondelez; Victor Ciu, CEO of One Championship; Aseem Puri, Chief Marketing Officer of Unilever; Clarence Chew, Chief Marketing Officer of Decathlon; Magnus Grimeland, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Zalora Global Fashion Group; Alexis Horowitz-Burdick, Managing Director of Sephora Digital; Cheryl Goh, Vice President of Marketing, GRAB; Deepesh Trivedi, Head of Retail & Ecommerce, Facebook; Fergus O’Hare, Head of Creative Shop APAC, Instagram and James Rothwell, Director Of Marketing – Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Netflix.

Session topic highlights include riveting conversations and debate around each sector such as Selling Real Value: Building brands in an ad-free world, “What do they really want?” Talking to the next-gen consumer, fan and ambassador online and offline; Rewire & Rethink: The hotel proposition for the 21st century traveller; Winning in a Billion Dollar Industry without landing a punch; New Spirit of Innovation transforming the Space Tourism industry; 21st Century football fans – Mobile. Digital. Global: Driving innovation on and off the pitch; Delivery 2.0: Changing Food Consumption Habits and the Business Models that are disrupting it.

Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd, meanwhile, has a 15% interest.

“The signing not only marks Petronas’ first PSC award in 2016, but also welcomes PTTEP for its first operatorship in Malaysia. We are also pleased to collaborate with our long-term partners, Kufpec once again,” Petronas executive vice-president (upstream) Datuk Mohd Anuar Taib said during the ceremony. The PSC was signed at Petronas Twin Towers attended also by Petronas president and chief executive officer (CEO) Datuk Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin.

PTTEP president and CEO Somporn Vongvuthipornchai, Kufpec vice-president of operations Hosnia Hashim and Petronas Carigali CEO Mohamad Johari Dasri.

Somporn, in a statement, said: “Malaysia is renowned as being an area in South-East Asia of high petroleum potential.

“From 2011-2015 oil and gas were discovered continually and SK410B is situated in an area where there have been considerable natural gas discoveries.

“Furthermore the acquisition of this block is in alignment with PTTEP’s strategy for future growth.”

Somporn said PTTEP and its partners planned to conduct 3D seismic surveys and drill one exploration well during the three-year exploration period.

Xpress Money has enjoyed an annual growth rate of 22-25 per cent, and it hopes to raise that figure this year and in the coming years after establishing more partners in Thailand and other countries in the region.

A new partner in Thailand is expected to be known in the next four months, he said.

It is also setting up a presence in Laos, the only country in Asean where Xpress Money does not have in its network.

Giriyan said money transfers into and out of Thailand totalled about US$3 billion (Bt105 billion) a year, of which $1.9 billion was outbound.

One of the fastest-emerging corridors from Thailand is into Myanmar, because several billion people from that country are working here and they have to send money back home. This is an opportunity for Xpress Money to facilitate those transactions.

Taiwan is among one the highest contributors of remittances into Thailand because more than 30,000 Thais work there. Xpress Money will have bank partners in Taiwan this year in order to handle some of those money transfers. Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Denmark, the Untied States and Australia also account for high volumes of money sent to Thailand, he said.

As well, the company has seen significant outbound money transfers from Thailand to such places as India, the Philippines and South Korea.

“We are trying hard to bring more money to Thailand and also open up more countries by adding more locations to increase the transaction flows to Thailand,” Giriyan said.

By volume, Xpress Money ranks third in the money-transfer industry but Giriyan hopes his company will move up to second place within a few years thanks to its network expansion and low remittance fees.

The company offers a remittance fee of 2 per cent per transaction, against the industry average of 7.53 per cent.

He explained that the low 2-per-cent remittance fee had been the philosophy of Xpress Money since it was founded because it acknowledges that it should not charge high fees to migrants who work hard and who earn very low wages, about 80 per cent of which they send back to their homelands.

Xpress Money has a loyalty programme whereby those sending money accumulate points from each money transfer that they can redeem against the remittance fee, he said.

“We are growing very fast. Even in June, which is not part of the high season, we usually receive bookings. It means that there is a boom in the number of travellers in September and onwards when local people start travelling again,” he said.

The Tourism Ministry’s statistics showed that there are 1,279 hotels in 67 towns across Myanmar, offering nearly 50,000 rooms, as of December last year. In the same year, 2.46 million local people went on domestic trips, and their expenditure based on hotels and guest houses reached about 733.24 billion kyats. In this regard, Jovago aims to promote domestic travels in Myanmar.

The website caters its services mainly to domestic travellers.

According to Schleicher, the most popular destinations for domestic travellers are Bagan, Yangon, and Mandalay. Myanmar people usually prefer going to Chaung Tha beach, Ngwe Saung beach, Dawei, and Myeik.

Over the past three months, more than 1,000 people booked hotel rooms by using the application. Generally, the cheapest rooms sell faster than high-end ones, as people look for the lowest rate. The average room rate calculated from online bookings was 50,000 kyats a night.

Schleicher recommended going to famous cities in Mandalay region such as Pyin Oo Lwin, Mandalay, Monywa. He said that Pyay and Putao were good places to visit in the wet season. The firm recently signed up with three hotels in Putao.

“We aim at changing the way Myanmar citizens travel in their own country. Our ambition is to become everyone’s travel partner. Customers can now book hotels from 3,000 kyats to 500,000 kyats a night on their phone 24 hours a day. Our team is proactive in facilitating travellers in the hotel booking process, ensuring they have a stress-free experience,” he said.

A refund programme was launched this month, to ensure that customers get the best deal from the site.

“We realise that some Myanmar travellers are still reluctant to book a hotel room online because they think online services are expensive. We aim at changing this perception, by introducing rates perfectly designed for local travellers. We are never beaten on price. At the end, we know that people will trust Jovago because it is fast, easy, reliable and cheap; it is just a matter of time.”

Schleicher said that Jovago usually offer cheaper rates than walk-in rates at about 90 per cent of partner hotels. The firm also encourages hotels to offer promotions based on their room availability. This has led the hotels to hike occupancy rates. Notably, Jovago is giving advice to hotels in Bagan and Mandalay on how to attract customers in the low season.

He urged Myanmar nationals to use the Internet as a tool for daily life rather than wasting time on social media. He said that a lot of hotel information can be found on SideMinder, an internationally recognised operation tool in tourism with which Jovago recently signed a cooperation agreement. He said that SideMinder software would ensure the best deals for online booking customers, as they can compare room rates and availability with other booking sites.

Schleicher said that the application was also designed for Myanmar migrant workers who are visiting their homeland. He guaranteed that they would also enjoy the same rate as local residents when they come back to Myanmar on vacation.

“My message is travel, travel, travel. Discover your own country. And enjoy your life,” he said.