Kiatnakin Phatra (KKP) bank is launching a new app called Dime! as a way for middle-to-low income groups to invest in the stock market.
Dime’s CEO Kampol Jantavibool said KPP wants to educate more Thais about financial management and encourage them to invest in equities and mutual funds.
Investment in these assets, combined with proper understanding and information, will yield worthwhile returns, said Kampol at Tuesday’s launch event.
He cited a recent study that found only 3 million Thais had equities accounts and 1.5 million had mutual funds. In comparison, more than 50 per cent of people in countries such as the United States and Singapore have stock market investments.
“More than 75 per cent of Thais save in cash, with only 3 per cent investing in the stock market. In this country, the limited options for saving money widen the gap between rich and poor,” said Kampol.
The study, conducted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), found that countries with broad access to financial services have significantly lower inequality than other countries.
Although more than 50 million Thais out of the 70 million population now have bank accounts, access to other financial services remains limited.
Dime! was created to bridge that gap and make investment services more accessible, particularly in international markets such as Wall Street, Kampol said.
Initially, the app will offer three services: savings, stocks, and mutual funds.
“The minimum rate for stock investment via Dime! is only 50 baht, while the saving service will collaborate with KPP bank to offer 3 per cent interest and no minimum opening deposit but a maximum limit of 30,000 baht,” explained Kampol.
The app will launch on Thursday, targeting 150,000 users by the end of the year with assets under management (AUM) of 150 million baht. KPP expects the number of users to reach one million by 2025.
“We want to first explore our customers’ behaviour before adding more financial services like insurance and credit loans,” Kampol added.
The Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry, and Banking (JSCCIB) on Wednesday pleaded with the Thai government to raise electricity bills, wages and interest rates gradually in order to mitigate the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on businesses.
Upping all costs at once in October will do nothing but harm the country’s still fragile economy, said Payong Srivanich, chairman of the Thai Bankers’ Association and chairman of the JSCCIB.
His comments came following a monthly meeting with business representatives from across the country on Wednesday in Bangkok. The attendees all agreed that it would be difficult to avoid price increases in this period of high inflation.
They are concerned, however, that the government’s proposed method will only result in a vicious cycle of high inflation.
Payong noted that the current economic scenario is fraught with uncertainties, including tensions between Russia and Ukraine, rising global central bank rates, inflation and the risk of recession, the ongoing pandemic, and China’s slowdown.
These circumstances, he explained, have an impact on global logistics and energy prices.
Thailand’s businesses will have to incur this rising cost. Hence, it would be preferable for the government to gradually raise the prices so that the country’s economy and the consumers’ purchasing power can catch up with the hike.
Payong said that electricity bills were of utmost concern now.
“We propose that the government carefully and cautiously consider increasing electricity prices by separating it into two phases rather than a one-time hike,” said Payong.
Thailand’s Energy Regulatory Commission has approved an 18 per cent rise in the price of electricity for September-October, to a record-high 4.72 baht per unit.
The JSCCIB stated that the change will affect the cost of living and business operations because it accounts for 30 per cent of the total cost of producing goods and services.
Other JSCCIB concerns include interest rate and wage increases, said Payong. He revealed that the Thai Bankers’ Association has continued to consult with the Bank of Thailand, particularly regarding the rising fee for the Financial Institutions Development Fund (FDIF).
“Commercial banks must support both the country’s economic recovery and their customers, so rate increases may not be implemented immediately. We must devise a strategy to protect our vulnerable customer groups from the negative consequences of the FDIF increase,” Payong stated.
Poj Aramwattananont, vice chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, said the wage increase is necessary, and all business operators have agreed to comply, but they want other measures to support them, such as allowing goods price hikes or low-interest rate business reform loans.
Meanwhile, there are more pressing labour issues to address than wage increases, such as a shortage of labour, particularly in the services sector. He stated that the hotel representative had requested the Ministry of Labour to relax more regulations so that they could hire foreign labourers.
The JSCCIB has maintained its GDP growth projection for the year in the range of 2.75 to 3.5 per cent, while export growth will remain at 6-8 per cent and inflation was as predicted previously at 5.5 to 7 per cent.
The baht opened at 36.72 to the US dollar on Wednesday, weakening from Tuesday’s close of 36.48.
The currency is expected to move between 36.65 and 36.85 during the day, Krungthai Bank market strategist Poon Panichpibool predicted.
He said the baht might become highly volatile and weaken near its resistance level of 36.80-36.90 to the dollar amid concerns over Europe’s energy crisis, the Covid-19 situation in China and signs the US Federal Reserve may increase the interest rate.
However, Poon does not expect investors to “adjust” their possession of assets until the results of a key European Central Bank meeting on Thursday,
Poon said the baht could weaken during the day if the market is still in a risk-off state and investors offload more Thai stocks.
However, he expects stock sales to slow down as some investors are waiting for the index to drop and the baht to weaken before they purchase more shares.
The strategist advised investors to use hedging tools such as options to manage risks in a highly volatile currency market.
Facial recognition is an AI-powered tech advancement that provokes a range of opinions. This artificial-intelligence-enabled technology has significantly changed the game for security and surveillance; including helping in the finding of missing persons, capturing culprits, and preventing crimes. Meanwhile, privacy concerns are increasing globally, and the risk and vulnerabilities of systems if misused are leading causes in the criticism of facial tracking artificial intelligence. While acknowledging these concerns, what makes facial recognition security worthy of consideration?
To grasp the implications of the technology, it is essential to understand its applications. Facial recognition can be applied to diverse industries, but the two main reasons for its consideration are:
– Recognizing and ensuring that the correct face is identified for biometric security implementations in mobile phones, banking facilities, and residential spaces. – Identifying and tracking people for surveillance and security purposes, which is facilitated by CCTV cameras, airport security alarms, etc.–usually used to prevent or catch crimes.
Installing facial recognition systems can effectively transform day-to-day activities, simplifying and speeding up tasks that can change the way we live. On one end, this can mean ensuring easy and safe access to your residential building, but–in regards to saving lives–hospitals and municipalities can install these systems to allow ambulances and first respondents to gain access in the least time consuming manner. For example, NtechLab, a leading face recognition software company and the creators of the highest biometric matching accuracy, according to Biometric Update, demonstrate how their technology goes beyond single-object analysis to secure vehicle number plates as well as performing facial identification that can save many lives by speeding up entry verification processes.
A natural question is whether facial technology can lead to surveillance misuse and invasion of privacy? It’s worth taking into account that most technologies today, such as GPS systems, microphones and microchips in phones, cars, and smart watches, are equally capable of gathering and disseminating data. The reason these are generally well accepted is because of the laws that regulate them and features that require user permissions. In order to obtain data, a signed user consent or a police or court order might be required. While facial recognition technology is a relatively new advancement, wariness of the technology itself can halt innovation, while in cases where it is deployed, the technology can provide benefits. For instance, according to NtechLab, across various use cases, its technology has helped solve 50,000 crimes, find more than 5,000 missing people, recover a stolen million-dollar painting in under 24 hours, and decrease burglaries and car thefts by 85%. NtechLab also says that implementing its facial recognition softwares in physical stores has led to the prevention of 100,000 shoplifting cases, protecting more than an estimated $10 million. When implemented in retail and e-commerce, facial recognition payment systems are a boon for protection, as biometrics provide top tier security. They can also be used to gather data to better understand target markets, such as collecting the average age and numbers of men and women who enter a store.
“NtechLab’s face recognition system delivers nearly absolute precision in ideal conditions, reaching 99.99% accuracy at 0.1 seconds detection speed. The software’s algorithms can find faces and provide highly accurate results, even if there are significant age-related changes, a beard, mustache, glasses, a medical mask, or any other means of partial face concealment,” Liana Meliksetyan, Chief Commercial Officer at NtechLab shared at the Techsauce Global Summit 2022 in Thailand. The technology can work with data from real-time video streams or large photo and video archives, supporting an unlimited number of video streams and face database entries.
NtechLab’s CEO Alex Minin told The Verge, “When carefully orchestrated, the system is not only harmless to regular people, it helps a lot in catching terrorists, criminals, pedophiles and pickpockets by aiding police to identify them in seconds and locate and capture them in hours instead of days and weeks… The software itself doesn’t break any laws or do any harm.”
SET-listed UAC Global says it is confident it can start producing crude oil and natural gas from two oil fields in Sukhothai province this month.
UAC Global CEO Chatchaphol Prasopchoke said the company had received concessions for the L10/43 and L11/43 blocks of the Arunothai and Burapha oil fields. The concessions run until 2033.
Chatchaphol said work to install machines and equipment on the oil fields is over 60 per cent completed and production could start within this month.
UAC Global expects to produce about 300 barrels of crude oil a day from the concessions. The oil would be sold to domestic refineries, Chatchaphol said.
Meanwhile, the natural gas from the fields will be distributed to the UAC’s gas separation facility and two power plants – Saothin and Pradu Thao.
The company expects to start realising revenue from the two fields in the third quarter of this year. It forecasts earnings of about 250 million baht per year from the two concessions based on current crude oil prices and the dollar exchange rate.
On September 4, 2022, Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt, Bangkok Metropolitan Administration’s committees, and executives from Phayathai, Phatumwan and Nong Khaem district offices have mutually launched the project called “Mai Te Ruam” or “Do not randomly mix food wastes” in order to raise Bangkok citizen’s awareness toward the proper food waste separation and to promote the consistent collaboration among the government, private, and civil sectors.
On this occasion, brand-new waste sorting trucks specifically designed for food waste storage were also officially launched in 3 initiative areas of Phayathai, Pathumwan and Nong Khaem districts. Anna Sueangam-iam, Miss Universe Thailand 2022, was appointed to be the ambassador of this project.
Event attendees included several honored guests from various sectors, such as Piyaporn Sankosik, Managing Director of TPN Global Co., Ltd, and a license holder of Miss Universe Thailand, management team of Miss Universe Thailand, and Supaluck Umpujh, Chairwoman of The Mall Group Co., Ltd.
Mr Jirayut Srupsrisopa, Founder & Group CEO Bitkub Capital Group Holdings Co., Ltd. also attended the “Mai Te Ruam” project opening event as one of the important policy-driven parties.
Mr Jirayut said “Bitkub Capital Group Holdings Co., Ltd. and subsidiary are delightfully appreciated to be one of the initiative partners of this project. Bitkub is ready to advocate this policy so as to sustainably solve the waste management issue and to help raise the appropriate waste management consciousness for a better and livable society. Concerning the aforementioned statement, we would like to internally respond to the policy by helping strengthen everyone’s awareness toward the appropriate means of food waste and recyclable waste management including the proper practice on waste sorting process, not only in our organizations but also spreading awareness to our partners. Most importantly, we also use innovations like NFTs to persuade people to join our project in order to create sustainable and efficient outcomes.”
The Cabinet on Tuesday gave the green light to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) to boost its liquidity by borrowing 85 billion baht, as Egat has had to shoulder the burden of power tariff subsidies for maintaining the current power rates.
Deputy Prime Minister and Energy Minister Supattanapong Punmeechaow said the Cabinet meeting, chaired by acting Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan, agreed to let Egat take the loan with the Finance Ministry being its guarantor.
Supattanapong said Egat needed the loan to boost its liquidity after the Cabinet asked it to repeatedly postpone hiking its FT or float time rate. The FT covers floating costs beyond the control of Egat, including rising oil prices, rising inflation and exchange rates. It is used to calculate monthly power bills.
He added that the Cabinet would next week consider measures proposed by Energy Policy Administration Committee for providing subsidies to low-income people.
Next week, the Cabinet would also be asked to consider a proposal of the committee to continue to subsidise the cost of rising FT rates for two vulnerable groups. If approved, the subsidy would be enforced in time for the September power bill, the minister added.
He said the ministry would also promote installation of solar rooftops for households and industries, which would allow people and businesses to save on power bills.
Supattanapong said his ministry, Egat, the Provincial Electricity Authority, and the Metropolitan Electricity Authority would cooperate to speed up approval of licences for solar rooftops.
Thailand’s total rice exports in 2022 should meet the target of 7.5 million tonnes after successful negotiations with Singapore to increase its imports from Thailand in the rest of the year, the Department of Foreign Trade said on Tuesday.
Department director-general Pitak Udomwichaiwat said recent negotiations between the department, the Singapore General Rice Importers Association, and the Rice Exporters Association of Thailand held in Singapore had been successful and Singapore had agreed to import more rice from Thailand in the rest of the year.
Pitak said Singapore’s demand for rice is starting to climb up after the country’s reopening due to the improving Covid-19 situation, as can be seen from a 2 per cent bump in July’s rice imports compared to the same period last year.
“Singapore also imports rice from other countries, and they tend to use price as a factor in choosing the exporter,” he said. “Fortunately, this year Thailand has seen increased rice output due to abundant rainfall, which has resulted in a lower price, making our product more competitive than some rice producers. Furthermore, Singaporean consumers already have a long-established confidence in the quality of Thai rice.”
The department reported that from January 1 to August 31 this year, Thailand exported 4.92 million tonnes of rice, valued at US$2.53 billion (86.06 billion baht), up 51.37 and 30.47 per cent year on year, respectively. The department estimated that total rice exports this year would reach 7.5 million tonnes.
The department also said that currently the price of Thai rice has a tendency to drop following the weakening of baht, although it is still more expensive than rice from other countries. As of August 31, the price of Thai white rice with 5 per cent humidity was $428 per tonne, while the same rice from Vietnam cost $397, $382 from Pakistan and $342 from India.
Thailand’s steamed rice is sold at $442 per tonne, while Pakistan and India are selling theirs at $402 and $382 US dollar per tonne, respectively.
Labour Minister Suchart Chomklin on Monday met Thailand’s ambassador to Finland and sought his help in finding job opportunities for Thai workers in the northern European nation.
Suchart and his delegation met ambassador Chavanart Thangsumphant at the Thai embassy in Helsinki to discuss job opportunities for Thai workers in Finland.
Suchart’s delegation included Surachai Trakulthong, assistant to the labour minister, Labour Ministry spokeswoman Thianrat Nawamawat, Wannarat Srisuksai, deputy permanent secretary at the Labour Ministry, Pairoj Chotikasathien, director-general of the Department of Employment.
Among other things, Suchart said he discussed with the ambassador opportunities for unskilled workers from Thailand as berry-pickers with proper contracts and with all rights, perks and protection under Finnish law.
Suchart said he and his delegation also discussed with the ambassador about coordination between the Labour Ministry and the Thai embassy in Helsinki through a working group.
Suchart said the ministry hoped that the coordination would help Thai skilled and unskilled workers in Finland receive protection and welfare in accordance with the law.
He added that the ministry also aimed to have the working group find more labour markets for Thai workers in Finland.
During the meeting, Suchart thanked the ambassador for taking good care of Thai workers in Finland.
Suchart also had a chance to meet and discuss with executives of Helsinki Partners, which is a city marketing, investment and talent attraction company owned by the City of Helsinki.
Suchart said he discussed with the executives about exporting Thai workers to work in fields where Finland has a shortage of workforce.
The minister added that the embassy would lead representatives of private firms in Finland to visit Thailand in October to explore opportunities to hire workers.
The labour minister said Thailand has the potential to export workers to Finland. In 2021 and 2022, the Labour Ministry sent 7,902 workers to the country. Most of the labourers worked in the agricultural sector, while the second largest group worked as Thai cuisine chefs, Suchart said. Thai workers sent back about 700 million baht a year in remittances, he added.
Helsinki Partners CEO Clarisse Berggårdh told Suchart that Finland is facing a severe shortage of labour force, because the country is becoming an ageing society.
He said Finland needed a lot of employees in the fields of IT, computer programming and smart technologies, as well as staff to take care of the elderly.
Cooperation with stakeholders and the application of technology to business operations are key to survival in the digital era, logistics and e-commerce experts said at the “Trade Logistics Symposium 2022”.
The event, organised by the Department of International Trade Promotion, was held on September 2 and 3 at Lido Connect in downtown Bangkok and online via the Zoom application.
The event’s aim was to help personnel in logistics and related sectors exchange knowledge on the trends and directions of the industry so they can enhance their operations to meet international standards.
The event also aimed to boost the regional and international competitiveness of Thai logistics providers and international tour operators.
Up to 330 logistics providers, importers, exporters, students and other interested persons joined the event both online and in person.
The event comprised five discussions and one seminar, namely:
Cross border trade: Challenges of multi-transportation logistics
Kevin Zhang, founder and CEO of Philippines logistics provider Interluck, said Thailand plays a key role in cross-border trade in Southeast Asia as it is close to Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and China.
However, he said, there are four challenges, namely change in customers’ expectations, customs delays, accurate and transparent landing cost calculation and global supply chain shortage.
He advised businesses to be transparent and use technology in business operations to boost efficiency and gain customer confidence.
“The key is to connect all segments in logistics in response to challenges and difficulties in cross-border trade,” he said.
Fulfilment and warehousing in 21st century
Nattapume Pavaratn, executive committee member and senior vice president at JWD InfoLogistics, said there were many pain points in doing business, including finding the right sales channel and managing operational costs.
Nattapume, who is also president of Warehouse Silo and Cold Storage Business Association, said consumers’ feeling toward brands poses a challenge to businesses.
To tackle these challenges, he advised entrepreneurs to improve warehouse management and be flexible so they can fulfil consumers’ demands effectively. He also advised small business owners to adopt technology as it can solve their pain points effectively.
“Even though technology can help entrepreneurs with warehouse management, they should pay attention to many factors, such as business size and investments,” he said.
He also asked entrepreneurs to pay attention to the environment as green economy is part of the 21st century’s megatrends, along with robotic automation, fintech, data-driven business and e-commerce.
Tips to start door-to-door services
Jamie Ko, director of regional public affairs and policy at Grab, said the digital economy has brought benefits and opportunities to entrepreneurs, especially when it comes to seeking customers.
Since Southeast Asia’s digital economy has grown significantly during the Covid-19 crisis, she said, entrepreneurs should collaborate with partners to gain maximum benefits from the digital economy.
“The question is how do we work together across all stakeholder groups to gain benefits from the digital economy,” she said.
E-commerce, cross-border impact on Asean logistics industry
Cecile Barayre-El Shami, chief of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)’s Digital Economy Capacity-Building Section, said many e-commerce platforms had benefited during the pandemic.
She explained that e-commerce sales have increased exponentially from US$2.5 trillion in 2019 to $3.9 trillion in 2021, with the top three platforms being Alibaba, Amazon and jd.com.
She went on to say that Asean countries are working on e-commerce development, focusing on cross-border trade, business facilitation and consumer satisfaction by 2025.
However, she added, many countries in the region are less ready to engage in and benefit from e-commerce, such as internet access, logistics, skills availability and government strategies.
To make digital trade more sustainable and inclusive, she said, Asean countries should develop affordable and reliable ICT connectivity, build digital skills to ensure everybody can access digital trade, and improve regulatory framework and measurement.
“E-commerce ecosystem needs cooperation from every sector, such as government, digital commission and non-governmental organisations,” she said.
Collaboration at the heart of e-commerce logistics
Behzad Goudarzian, logistics manager of the United Arab Emirates supply chain solutions provider ISS Global Forwarding, said collaboration is the heart of e-commerce logistics.
He said all sectors, including consumer, marketplace, vendor, international freight, customs clearance, fulfilment and delivery, should work together, otherwise the operation would face difficulties.
“All gears should relatively move on the same page. If one gear stops, all gears will stop,” he said.
He also advised related agencies in e-commerce and logistics industries to focus more on data integration, ease customs procedures, streamline processes and use trusted digital payments.
Meanwhile, Pravin Shetty, ISS Global Forwarding’s regional IT manager, said technology also plays an important role in the e-commerce and logistics industries as they can facilitate many issues, such as system integration, secure transactions and risk mitigation.
He advised related agencies to apply four technologies to e-commerce and logistics operations, namely application programming interface, blockchain, internet of things and big data.
“Related agencies should optimise rules, improve delivery, ensure that the country’s infrastructure is in place and make use of equipment and resources,” he said.
Time for logistics marketplace platform in Mekong region
Piyanoot Sumrith, president of the Thai Transportation & Logistics Association, said the Mekong region is well prepared for adopting the logistics marketplace platform.
She added that people were now familiar with online shopping, thanks to the Covid-19 crisis over the past two years, as well as the government’s incentives, such as the Khon La Khrueng (Let’s Go Halves) co-paying scheme.
Piyanoot, who is also managing director of the delivery service WeMove Platform, expects the logistics marketplace platform to meet customers’ demand once factors like logistics and customs procedures are made smoother.
“It’s a good time to build the logistics marketplace platform as everything is ready, especially technology,” she said.
James Marchant, chief logistics officer for Lazada Express (Thailand), said even though the Covid-19 crisis changed customers’ behaviour, their expectation of the best service never changes.
He said it is only a matter of time before technology will play an important role in providing a different experience to customers, such as drones and robots.
“There are many trends that continue accelerating, such as how fast and how cheaply you can deliver and how strong is your return process,” he said.
Rachelle Alexis Lim, executive director of strategy and business development of payments platform 2C2P, said people preferred online shopping not just because of convenience but also because their demands have changed.
Echoing Marchant, she said online adoption will help boost the marketplace’s efficiency to provide experiences to customers, adding that many people preferred online payment instead of cash on delivery.
“Many businesses have shifted from traditional commerce to e-commerce even after the pandemic,” she said.
The panellists also urged the government to collaborate with related agencies to develop a logistics marketplace platform in the Mekong region and address it from various aspects, such as easing customs procedures and promoting technology adoption for sustainable growth.
Among other things, Suchart said he discussed with the ambassador opportunities for unskilled workers from Thailand as berry-pickers with proper contracts and with all rights, perks and protection under Finnish law.
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