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https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40018620

The baht opened at 35.75 to the US dollar on Monday, weakening from Friday’s close of 35.56.

The Thai currency is expected to move between 35.65 and 35.85 against the greenback during the day and between 35.50 and 36 during the week, Krungthai market strategist Poon Panichpibool predicted.

Poon said the baht will likely fluctuate and weaken against a strengthening dollar.

He also warned that foreign investors might sell Thai stocks once they near the resistance level. The baht may also be pressured by the gold price if it falls closer to its support level.

Poon also said the baht could fluctuate during the Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC) meeting which may push foreign investors to adjust their possession of bonds and baht.

Poon forecast that the dollar’s uptrend has ended but could fluctuate and strengthen in the short term if the US inflation data, including medium-term inflation, estimation is higher than expected which will cause the market to worry that the US Federal Reserve might increase the interest rate.

Moreover, the market in a risk-off state could help the dollar strengthen if investors are disappointed with listed companies’ performances or if they are concerned that Europe’s economic outlook is recessing.

Poon also advised investors to use hedging tools such as options to manage risks in a highly volatile currency market.

He added that investors this week are waiting for the US inflation data from the consumer price index and medium-term inflation estimation which will cause the Fed to change the currency policy’s direction. He also suggested that Thai investors should monitor the MPC’s meeting.

Published : August 08, 2022

By : THE NATION

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https://www.nationthailand.com/pr-news/business/40018593

According to Hootsuite, a social media management platform, over 30% of the global internet users of all sexes aged from 16 to 64 find and consume news on social media. Therefore, breaking news or trends that interest these netizens gain traction rapidly, creating opportunities for brands to get messages across to their target public.

Recognising the importance of connecting with their audience more personally, many brands have employed an emerging approach to content creation inspired by news items – newsjacking.
 
What is newsjacking?

Brands can utilise two significant categories of trends: micro-trends and macro-trends. The former refers to popular memes, videos, GIFs, TikTok dance, etc., and the latter includes major events such as awards ceremonies or royal weddings.

Newsjacking refers to brands leveraging relevant breaking news and trending topics to share their unique perspectives and engage in conversations online.

How does newsjacking benefit companies?

By jumping on the right trend at the right time, brands can gain more exposure on social media and relate themselves to their current and potential audience. Brands can also enjoy substantial online engagement if they publish a strategic piece of newsjacking.

In addition, by being one of the first to contribute its thoughts to breaking news or an emerging trend, a company is more likely to be cited by journalists as they produce related coverage.

When to newsjack?

The right timing for newsjacking is as soon as a story relevant to your industry breaks before journalists search for information for their coverage.

People’s use of social media for news finding and consumption demonstrates how and when newsjacking can enhance a company’s online visibility and engagement with its audience.

Useful tips to create good newsjacking

Understanding the definition of newsjacking is important, but correctly implementing the concept is essential to using newsjacking as an effective strategic tool.

If misused, newsjacking can backfire and damage your reputation and relationship with your audience.

Keep updated with current events

Continuously monitoring social trends allows you to identify trending topics and add opinions your brand can capitalise on.

Google Trends is an essential tool that can help you keep track of trending topics so you can draft your newsjacking content quickly.

Don’t focus on sales promotion

Ensure that your content is not purely promotional. When your response and content are authentic, your audience will appreciate your efforts to be part of the conversation.

However, the reaction can be disapproving and hostile if they believe you are purely trying to promote your brand.

A previous attempt at newsjacking by Urban Outfitters around extreme bad weather, relating to their delivery times, has been cited as insensitive, as the brand attempted to promote their free shipping by tweeting about a hurricane responsible for over 100 casualties.

Avoid constantly voicing your opinions

The element of surprise is vital to your newsjacking strategy. Netizens are less likely to pay attention to a brand that keeps sharing its thoughts about current events. Be patient and identify the right news moment.

As social media continues to be a leading source of information for consumers, leveraging relevant breaking news to expose your brand to your target audience can benefit relationships with consumers and other stakeholders and reinforce your status and credibility as an industry player.

This article is from Midas PR, experts in creating content that converts and ensures the brand’s presence in the online conversations of the target audience.

Published : August 07, 2022

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https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40018591

Thailand’s rice exports in the first six months of this year surged 56.6 per cent to 3.50 million, bringing in 60.93 billion baht in revenue, or 42.9 per cent more year on year.

“This is good news for Thai farmers,” Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Chalermchai Sree-on said on Saturday, adding that this increase in export will help boost the price of rice in the country.

He said Thailand should be able to beat Vietnam and become the world’s second-largest rice exporter if it can ship out more than 7 million tonnes of rice this year.

As per the Thai Rice Exporters Association and Customs Department’s data, Thailand exported 764,131 tonnes of rice worth 13.12 billion baht in June alone, up 69.4 per cent and 57.1 per cent, respectively, compared to 450,973 tonnes worth 8.35 billion in May.

The surge in rice exports in June was put down to the sale of 405,963 tonnes of white rice, marking a 208 per cent increase month on month.

The export of steamed and jasmine rice in June came in at 140,225 tonnes and 103,865 tonnes, up 10.8 per cent and 15.2 per cent month on month, respectively.

Chalermchai reckoned that the global rice trade this year will rise up to 46.4 million tonnes, up 100,000 tonnes compared to 2021.

He also reckoned that the global rice yield during the 2021-2022 production cycle would come in at around 505.4 million tonnes, up 1.9 million tonnes compared to the previous production cycle.

He also said that he expects Australia, Myanmar, Cambodia, Europe, Paraguay, Uruguay and Thailand’s rice exports to rise, and rice export from Colombia, Ecuador, India, Iraq, Madagascar, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, the US and Vietnam to drop.

“We should be able to export at least 7 million to 7.5 million tonnes of rice this year,” he said. “This will make us the world’s second-largest rice exporter instead of Vietnam.”

However, Chalermchai said many factors may affect Thailand’s rice exports in the second half of the year, such as the value of the baht, the productivity of key rice exporters, the Russia-Ukraine war’s impact on production costs and the Covid-19 economic fallout.

Vietnam exported 2.77 million tonnes of rice worth US$1.35 billion in the first five months of this year, up 6.95 per cent and 4.26 per cent year on year, respectively.

Published : August 07, 2022

By : THE NATION

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https://www.nationthailand.com/blogs/business/40018589

Most Thai organisations still lagging in digital agility despite increased technology adoption during the pandemic

Astudy commissioned by Workday, a global leader in enterprise technology for finance and human resources, has found that most organisations in Thailand (91%) are still lagging in digital agility[2] – falling into the slow or tactical stages of digital agility maturity.

This is despite the opportunity to accelerate digital transformation and increase technology adoption during the pandemic.

The study found that the lack of suitable and skilled talent in talent acquisition and actively retaining them were the top two challenges cited by Thai organisations in pursuing digital transformation.

Conducted in association with IDC, the IDC-Workday Digital Agility Index Asia/Pacific 2022 highlights the extent to which Asia Pacific (APAC) organisations have progressed in digital agility since the COVID-19 pandemic.

First started in 2020, the study assesses and ranks organisations on the Digital Agility Index (DAI). From their scores, organisations are identified either as “Agility Leaders” if they are found to be in the agile/integrated stages of digital agility maturity, or “Agility Followers” if they are determined to be in the slow/tactical stages.

Thailand drops to 9th position in Digital Agility Index, overtaken by Indonesia

The study found that across the nine APAC markets surveyed, progress in digital agility is uneven.

With only 9% of organisations in Thailand at the advanced stages of digital agility, Thailand ranked ninth in the DAI, one position below its 2020 ranking.

It was overtaken by Indonesia which ranked eighth, having shown more progress in technological advancements.

Organisations in Australia achieved the greatest progress in digital transformation efforts and ranked first this year, followed by Singapore, New Zealand, South Korea, and Hong Kong. Taiwan, a new addition to the study, ranked sixth, followed by Malaysia.

From a regional perspective, only 38% of Apac organisations are in the advanced stages of digital agility. However, progress is being made overall as this figure reflects an 18 percentage point increase when compared to 2020. For the 62% of organisations in Apac lagging in digital agility (i.e. agility followers), technology adoption is often driven by functional requirements and business needs such as for e-commerce, safety measures, and remote work during the pandemic.

Shortage of skilled talent for digital transformation

The lack of skilled talent to carry out digital transformation initiatives is a key challenge to be addressed in Thailand. 80% of HR leaders surveyed said they have challenges in identifying the right skills needed to support evolving business requirements. Only a minority (7%) of organisations in Thailand have a holistic talent management strategy in place with employee engagement and data analytics to identify training needs and growth areas, which highlights the importance of closing the talent gaps within their workforce. 

Lack of enterprise-level technology adoption to drive digital agility

Complete integration of digital tools and processes can offer a single holistic view of resources, enable data-driven insights, and drive greater digital agility.

However, 61% of organisations in Thailand currently execute digital initiatives at the line-of-business level as necessitated by immediate needs, rather than at a strategic, cross-functional enterprise-wide level.

This in turn hinders business growth. Implementation challenges differ by function as well.

Challenges cited by IT leaders include lack of consistent integration across systems which impacts decision making (40%) and difficulty in choosing the right technology solutions that can help drive business agility (70%). On the other hand, finance leaders (80%) said they faced challenges in building a culture of cost containment for predictable cash flow. Only 3% of Thai organisations currently manage costs by using data-driven cost optimisation that leverages enterprise-wide and ecosystem data.

Need for greater collaboration between CFOs, CHROs, and CIOs to drive enterprise agility in the post-pandemic era

In the new norm led by a digital-first economy, leveraging digital agility can offer competitive advantages. This is only possible if organisations rethink their approach to closing digital agility gaps through technology and alignment of functional business requirements across the C-suite.

For positive business outcomes, not only must organisations accelerate their digital transformation to narrow the agility gaps but also have an integrated approach as a strategic imperative. This requires CFOs, CHROs, and CIOs to collaborate and work on their cross-functional digital transformation initiatives, and integrate digital talent management, as well as HR and finance processes.

Comments on the News

“While there is considerable progress with more organisations leaping to become agility leaders, the fact that the majority of organisations within the Asia Pacific are still lagging creates an opportunity to help organisations digitally accelerate,” said Sandeep Sharma, President for Asia, Workday. “With agility now a key source of competitive advantage in today’s digital-first economy, organisations supported by data-driven processes and imbued with digital skills and work cultures are best positioned to thrive in today’s changing world.”

“The unprecedented disruptions brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic forced many organisations to fast-track their digital transformations. It is not surprising to see increased technology adoption driving agility improvement,” said Lawrence Cheok, Associate Research Director of Digital Transformation, IDC. “However, true digital agility is about capitalising on change to thrive. To do so, organisations need to emulate agility leaders and make the leap from tactical to strategic enterprise-wide transformations in their culture, people, processes, and technology implementation.”

Published : August 07, 2022

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https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40018583

Thai hotels are suffering from severe staff shortages as the hospitality industry struggles to recover from the fallout of Covid-19, according to the Thai Hotel Association (THA).

About 68 per cent of hotels surveyed said they are short of staff to cover all departments – including maids, receptionists, cleaners, cooks, waiters and technicians.

Hotels are especially in need of workers with service and language skills, said the association’s president Marisa Sukosol Nunbhakdi.

“Most hotels are under pressure from labour shortages in almost all departments, as related businesses in their local areas have yet to reopen,” Marisa said.

She was citing results of a THA survey conducted on 118 hotels between July 17 and 25.

The survey found that only 33 per cent of hotels had raised their wages in a bid to attract staff.

Results also showed that hotel occupancy rate in July averaged 45 per cent, up from 38 per cent the previous month. The forecast for occupancy rate in August was 42 per cent.

Marisa attributed the recovery to the country’s full reopening on July 1, when the Thailand Pass entry system was scrapped, as well as government subsidies for domestic travel.

“Most hotel customers are Thais although the number of foreign guests is increasing — mostly from Asia and the Middle East, followed by western Europe,” she said.

Average room rates have risen since last year but are still lower than pre-Covid times. Hotels have delayed price increases due to low purchasing power and occupancy rates, Marisa added.

Recovery in the Thai hotel sector will strengthen this year but is still reliant on Thai tourists, according to Siam Commercial Bank’s Economic Intelligence Centre (EIC).

The EIC has raised its forecast for foreign arrivals this year from 7.4 million to 10 million.

It also identified many “challenges” for the Thai hotel industry, including higher operating costs, a labour shortage, and tougher competition as luxury hotels cut prices and others reopen after the pandemic.

Published : August 06, 2022