Aug 06. 2020Aphissada Demikul, Chief Executive Officer of Teibto
By The Nation
The Thai solution provider is upbeat about growth after winning two top awards from Oracle NetSuite
The only company in Asean to be recognised with two top awards from Oracle NetSuite, Thai solution provider, Teibto Co., Ltd. (https://teibto.com) is predicting 40-per-cent growth this year, its CEO says.
Miss Aphissada Demikul, Chief Executive Officer of Teibto, says that the Covid-19 epidemic has had no impact on her company’s performance as Teibto focuses on providing cloud-based solutions to firms.
Buoyed by the latest top award from Oracle NetSuite, Aphissada is confident her company will achieve more than 40-per-cent growth due in part to the expansion of its market in Vietnam as well as to its increased investment in human resources and public relations.
The company, whose name in Thai means growth, was recognised this year with the Top Value Partner Award (ASEAN) FY20 by Oracle NetSuite for being the solution provider in ASEAN to have generated the biggest sales of Oracle NetSuite software in the region.
“We are the only solution provider in ASEAN to win this award. It’s really difficult to achieve this recognition because meeting the criteria is hard and the winner is also required to manage its sales to meet the sales target,” Aphissada says, adding that Teibto has been in the solution provider market for 12 years.
Teibto is the first Thai solution provider to sell Oracle NetSuite and provide the service of Best First World Class Cloud ERP to businesses and companies.
The cloud services and solutions from Teibto meet the demands of businesses in Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and e-Commerce services. It is the first web-based application to offer everything in a single, integrated and powerful solution. Additionally, Oracle NetSuite enables you to make better, faster decisions through real-time business intelligence.
Services from Teibto can meet the needs of new-generation businessmen because they are cloud-based, allowing their businesses to expand fast, conveniently and efficiently, the CEO explains.
Teibto also received the Five Star Award 2020 from Oracle NetSuite early this year.
“We have won this award for two consecutive years and we are the only firm in Southeast Asia to have received it. These two awards are evidence that Teibto provides excellent management and services to our clients,” the CEO says.
Aphissada further explains that Teibto’s success can also be attributed to the firm’s successful implementation of solutions and after-sale services, which leverage clients’ confidence in the company.
While other companies have been affected by the Covid-19 crisis, the pandemic and the measures taken to contain it have had little impact on Teibto because the solution provider focuses on online services, allowing it to service its clients from anywhere.
And after the Covid-19 situation improves, Teibto will expand its services in Vietnam, where it started making inroads two years ago, Aphissada says.
“We have had good response in Vietnam and our business is growing there. The Vietnamese market has good prospects so many Thai businesses would like to invest there. They will be our targets,” Aphissada concludes.
Restaurants Development Ltd (RD), a franchisee of KFC in Thailand, is optimistic of growth despite the Covid-19 situation and plans to open 15 more branches by early 2021.
“This year we have plans to invest Bt2 billion in increasing branches under RD’s management as well as improving the existing branches to deliver a better dining experience to customers,” Andrew Norton, RD’s chief executive officer, said.
“In the past three years, RD has opened 85 new branches and will open 15 more by early 2021. Currently we have 207 KFC restaurants in Thailand under RD’s management.
“RD will be celebrating its 4th anniversary as KFC franchisee soon, and is considered the fastest-growing KFC franchisee in Thailand. Our average sales in the past three years have expanded 24 per cent compared to when we newly entered the market,” he added.
“Our latest branch is at The Mall Ngamwongwan, which employs omnichannel ordering system where customers can either order online or at the restaurant’s automatic kiosk and receive the food immediately without having to queue up. The decoration is also in modern style with clear glass panel showing how the meal is freshly cooked.
“RD employs more than 1,700 people in Thailand,” added Norton. “We are committed to providing our employees with career growth opportunities.”
As of July 31, Thailand had 826 KFC restaurants, 104 of which are drive-thru — 283 branches are managed by Central Restaurants Group, 336 by QSR of Asia, and 207 by RD.
Quicken Loans parent jumps 19.5% after pricing IPO well below targets
CorporateAug 07. 2020Rocket chief executive Jay Farner
By The Washington Post · Jacob Bogage · BUSINESS, US-GLOBAL-MARKETS
Rocket Cos., the parent of Quicken Loans, jumped nearly 20 percent Thursday after the lender scaled back its public offering in the face of economic crosscurrents and despite the relative strength of the housing market.
The stock closed at $21.51, up 19.5 percent, after soaring as much as 26.1 percent in its New York Stock Exchange debut. The company had priced its shares at $18, well below the $20-to-$22 range expected, and put up 100 million shares instead of 150 million. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley led the offering, which raised $1.8 billion.
Quicken is the nation’s largest mortgage lender, with more than $5.1 billion in revenue last year.
“The housing numbers have been strong for both existing and new housing as well as housing starts,” Dan Gilbert, Rocket’s founder and chairman, said Thursday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “I always think that housing is a leading market metric when you look at how it’s such a big purchase and it drives so many other things, it drives other big-ticket purchases for people who just bought homes. It definitely drives our business, being in mortgage, but it drives so much of the economy.”
The mortgage market has been especially resilient during the coronavirus pandemic, bolstered by historically low interest rates and tight inventories. And the Federal Reserve has signaled that it will keep rates low until the U.S. economy recovers, which favors existing homeowners looking to refinance. Consumer shifts have also played a role: Wealthier buyers in the city are searching for rural and vacation homes, and more young families are moving into the suburbs.
But with millions of Americans out of work and federal lawmakers deadlocked over extending emergency unemployment benefits – the extra $600 a week on top of state unemployment aid – housing analysts are bracing for a slew of defaults in the fall and a possible new phase of the coronavirus, which has infected more than 4.8 million Americans and claimed 156,000 lives to date.
Rocket chief executive Jay Farner said the company’s pricing decision was “an art more than a science.”
IPO activity is beginning to rebound after it screeched to a near-halt in the second quarter. IPO volume and proceeds fell 19 percent and 8 percent, respectively, in the first sixth months of 2020, compared with the year-ago period, according to MarketWatch.
Founded in 1985 as Rock Financial, the company went public in 1998, then was bought out a year later by Intuit, which makes business and financial technology products such as TurboTax and QuickBooks. Gilbert, one of Rock’s founders and the owner of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers, bought the company in 2002 and held it privately until filing for the IPO in July. He will retain 79 percent of the voting power within the public company.
Rocket was the nation’s largest mortgage lender by volume in 2019, and claims close to 9 percent of market share. Farner told CNBC that the company’s goal was to grow that to 25 percent over the next decade.
The Detroit-based holding company employs 19,000 people and provides real estate, mortgage and financial services under the Rocket Mortgage and Quicken Loans labels, although it leases the name of the latter from Intuit.
According to its IPO prospectus, Rocket reported net income of $892.4 million last year, up 46 percent from 2018, on revenue of $5.1 billion. Quicken Loans had nearly $145 billion in mortgage volume last year.
“You talk to homeowners and people looking to buy a home, there’s still a lot of enthusiasm out there,” Farner said. “People are recognizing that their lives are changing and that they’re probably going to spend more time in their homes in the future, simply because working from home has been demonstrated. It works. It can be very, very efficient. But the passion and excitement – and we talk to millions of people a month – is alive and well.”
Construction firm CH Karnchang targets Bt20bn revenue this year
CorporateAug 06. 2020CH Karnchang president Supamas Trivisvavet
By The Nation
Construction giant CH Karnchang has targeted total revenue of around Bt20 billion for 2020, said its president Supamas Trivisvavet.
Plew Trivisvavet, the company’s chairman of the executive board, , said the company in 2020 has maintained development of large-scale public infrastructure projects via the public-private partnership (PPP) model which facilitates quick, flexible operations and generates maximum benefits to the country.
The company said this was achieved by leveraging the strength of CK Group, which is a synergy of Bangkok Expressway and Metro (BEM), TTW, and CK Power (CKP).
The firm said it had not been significantly affected by the Covid-19 crisis thanks to its investment strategy which focuses on infrastructure projects, resulting in a consistent income stream throughout the first half of 2020.
CK said it was confident of participating in bidding for new public infrastructure projects both in Thailand and overseas in the second half of the year.
Supamas added that at the end of 2019, the company had a backlog of work worth Bt38.515 billion. She said CK took pride in two milestone achievements: the Xayaburi Hydro Power Plant Project, which was completed, delivered and launched commercial operations in October 2019; and the MRT Blue Line Extension Phase 2 (Hua Lamphong-Lak Song), which began operating in September 2019 and launched its full-loop service in March 2020.
She said that the company is keen to lend its support to various government projects to drive the Thai economy in its transition to the “new normal”.
Regarding overseas projects, CK is currently negotiating a new hydropower plant in Laos, with total value close to Xayaburi, and expect to finalise the deal by this year, she said.
By Special To The Washington Post · Emily Tamkin · OPINION, OP-ED
George Soros, who turns 90 on Wednesday, is arguably the world’s most famous boogeyman. He’s one of the great hedge fund managers and is arguably the most successful currency speculator in history; he is a major political donor; and he has given billions to his charity, the Open Society Foundations, dedicated to ensuring that all people are empowered and able to participate in their communities and countries. But much of that real influence is buried beneath persistent conspiracy theories.
Myth No. 1: George Soros helped the Nazis.
This is the ugliest conspiracy theory about Soros. In a “60 Minutes” segment in 1998, the interviewer, Steve Kroft, said that Soros’s survival during the Holocaust “carried a heavy price tag” and that “as hundreds of thousands of Jews were being shipped off to the Nazi death camps, a 13-year-old George Soros accompanied his phony godfather on his rounds, confiscating property from the Jews.” In June, social media users circulated a photo of a young man in a Nazi uniform and claimed it was a picture of Soros. Other fans of this conspiracy theory include comedian Rosanne Barr, who tweeted in 2018 that Soros was a Nazi who had turned in fellow Jews to be murdered.
In actuality Soros, whose father, Tivadar, had previously changed the family’s last name from Schwartz to Soros so as to be less obviously Jewish in an increasingly anti-Semitic Budapest, disguised himself as a Christian during the Second World War. His father procured identity papers for his own family and others. At one point, the man with whom young Soros was hiding out did bring him along when he went to take inventory of a Jewish person’s house, but Soros was not involved in the confiscation of Jewish goods. Likewise, while Soros was, as a student, sent to run errands at the Judenrat, a council of Jews whom the Nazis forced to do their bidding, he did not round up Jewish people. In fact, per Soros’s recollection, when he was given a list of names, with instructions to tell them to report to a location from which they would be deported, his father said he should not tell them to go.
Myth No. 2: Soros pays people to protest.
Soros was accused of paying protesters who spoke out in 2017 against corruption in Romania. In 2018, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Soros was supporting activist Osman Kavala,whom the president blamed for the 2013 Gezi Park protests: “He has so much money and he spends it this way,” Erdogan said. That same year, President Donald Trump alleged that Soros had paid for the posters used in protests against the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Just Wednesday, Trump asserted in an interview that people say Soros and others are financing antifa, or anti-fascist, protesters.
Open Society does support anti-corruption organizations across Central and Eastern Europe, and it did back a group with which some of the Kavanaugh protesters were affiliated. More recently, Open Society announced a “$220 million investment” in groups working on racial justice.
But there is a difference between “George Soros pays for and orchestrates protests” and “George Soros’s philanthropic foundation supports groups that employ people who are part of protests.” There are, surely, people around the world who show up at protests and who work for organizations that receive grants from Open Society, but they are not being paid to protest. To say they are attributes too much agency to Soros, playing on an anti-Semitic trope of Jewish people pulling society’s strings, and strips demonstrators who are taking to the streets with legitimate grievances – like corruption and police brutality – of theirs.
Myth No. 3: Soros isn’t really Jewish.
“I’m more of a Jew than Soros is . . . He doesn’t support Israel, he’s an enemy of Israel,” Rudolph W. Giuliani, who is not Jewish, said in 2019. When I interviewed Hungarian government spokesman Zoltán Kovács for my book on Soros, he said that Hungarians think of Soros not as a Jewish person but as a globalist. “Just look at his attitude, his relationship with Israel,” Kovacs told me.
In his 1991 book, Soros wrote: “My Jewishness did not express itself in a sense of tribal loyalty that would have led me to support Israel. On the contrary, I took pride in being in the minority, an outsider who was capable of seeing the other point of view.” His philanthropic support has therefore not focused on Jewish people specifically or on Israel, and in fact has often gone to groups, like Human Rights Watch, that are critical of Israel’s human rights record and treatment of Palestinians.
But that isn’t to say Soros is somehow not Jewish. “I was facing extermination at the age of 14 because I was Jewish,” as he once put it. “Wouldn’t that make an impression on you?” Soros has referred over the years to his “Jewishness” and spoken about what his Jewish identity means to him. If he considers being Jewish to be a matter of ancestry and culture, and not of religion, then he has that in common with 62 percent of Jewish Americans, according to a 2013 Pew study.
Myth No. 4: Soros single-handedly broke the Bank of England.
The exact role that Soros played in “breaking the Bank of England” has been debated for almost 30 years. Nevertheless, the idea that he was solely responsible for the notorious 1992 incident – in which Soros’s Quantum Fund shorted the British pound, resulting in Britain leaving the European Exchange Rate Mechanism – and “broke” a central bank has been uncritically repeated by outlets including Forbes and Investopedia.
In truth, Britain’s position within the ERM – a kind of precursor to the euro, in which each currency could become only so strong or so weak – was, because of the British and German economic conditions during the two years that Britain was in the band, essentially untenable. Soros and his colleagues knew that the pound could rise only so high, and therefore they could lose only so much by shorting it. If they were correct in their speculation, there was no telling how far the pound could fall.
They were right, and in the end, the British pound crashed out of the ERM. Soros was not the only speculator who bet against the pound, but his fund is the one that’s estimated to have made a $1 billion profit. No bank was broken – some say “Black Wednesday” gave way to “White Wednesday,” because Britain proceeded to get its economy in better shape – but Soros and his colleagues did play a major role in forcing the currency out of the ERM.
Myth No. 5: Soros is plotting a destructive revolution in America.
The Color Revolutions were a series of protests that led to new governments in Eastern Europe in the early 2000s. Soros has been accused by conspiracy theorists and fringe sites of being the motivating force behind revolutions abroad and even of trying to stage one in the United States. After Soros backed the election campaign of Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, Tucker Carlson said that Soros’s support for progressive DA candidates is akin to “hijacking” and “remaking” American democracy. Earlier this year, the Washington Times ran an article under the headline, “George Soros, 89, is still on a quest to destroy America.”
Soros is simply a large political donor who entered the fray in 2004, when he contributed $27 million to groups trying to oust President George W. Bush. He also has supported progressive district attorney candidates and is putting millions into defeating Trump. But there’s a difference between making political donations – something many rich people do – and plotting a revolution. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Timothy Mellon, a great-grandson of the founder of Mellon Bank, is the third-largest individual political contributor of the 2020 cycle. The myth of the Mellon revolution, however, has somehow gone untold.
Gold price has hit a new high for five consecutive days from the weakening dollar and hopes of a US economic stimulus package.
The price of gold rose by Bt300 per baht weight in morning trade on Friday (August 7), the Gold Traders Association reported.
As of 9.27am, the buying price of a gold bar was Bt30,250 per baht weight and selling price Bt30,350, while gold ornaments cost Bt29,698.44 and Bt30,850, respectively.
At close on Thursday (August 6), the buying price of a gold bar was Bt29,950 per baht weight and selling price Bt30,050, while gold ornaments cost Bt29,410.40 and Bt30,550, respectively.
The Comex (Commodity Exchange) gold price to be delivered in December rose by US$20.1 or 0.98 per cent to $2,069.4 (Bt64,537.12) per ounce at close on Thursday.
Gold closed at a new high for the fifth consecutive day from the weakening dollar and ongoing progress in the US$1-trillion US economic stimulus package. Also, the market gained positive sentiment from the Bank of England’s move to maintain interest rate and the promise that the bank will not tighten monetary policy until inflation rate moves to their target.
By The Washington Post · Rachel Siegel · NATIONAL, BUSINESS The Federal Reserve’s $600 billion Main Street lending facility had covered less than $77 million in loans to only eight companies near the end of July, further revealing how little reach the program has had even as millions of business vie for survival.
The Fed on Thursday released a report breaking down each outstanding loan, including the lending bank, borrower and loan amount as of July 27. Of the eight companies, six are in Florida and received loans issued by the City National Bank of Florida.
The largest loan, secured by a Pennsylvania casino operator, was for $50 million, followed by a $12.3 million loan to a dental practice in Wisconsin. Other loans, ranging from $5.5 million to $1.5 million, went to a roofing company, a building company and a realtor.
When the Fed’s public balance sheet is updated later Thursday afternoon, it should reflect a greater cumulative tally of loans covered since July 27.
As part of the Fed’s vast portfolio of emergency tools, the Main Street program is meant to provide low-interest loans to midsized businesses. But the facility has been dogged for months by a slow rollout, a bumpy start and little uptake since it went fully operational last month.
Struggling businesses say the terms are too onerous and can’t practically serve as a lifeboat in a time of such economic distress. Thousands of banks are eligible to sign up, but many of the country’s largest firms did not sign on initially. None of the loans included in Thursday’s report were issued by major banks.
Under the program, which was established jointly with the Treasury Department, the Fed can purchase 95 percent of a loan from banks if the loans go to businesses with fewer than 15,000 employees, or less than $5 billion in annual revenue. Loans can range from $250,000 to $300 million. If a borrower defaults on the loan, the Treasury Department will help cover any losses with funding from the Cares Act.
The program was meant to make sure firms had access to money, but many companies have opted against taking out the loans.
The lending program is seen as a kind of barometer for how effective and creative the Fed’s emergency response can be. The Fed’s quick moves to bolster the markets and bring interest rates to near zero are credited with avoiding even more financial uncertainty. But some critics also say that Fed’s approach has largely benefited massive corporations and the stock market, thereby widening wealth inequality and extending less support for struggling businesses as the nascent recovery from earlier this summer seems to be slipping away.
Meanwhile, Congressional Democrats and Republicans are in a tense standoff ahead of a critical negotiating session on a coronavirus relief bill. President Donald Trump told reporters he was preparing to sign executive orders, as soon as Friday morning, that he says would extend enhanced unemployment benefits and provide a payroll tax cut, though it’s unclear whether that will actually happen.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has said that the Fed’s programs can be tweaked to make them as effective as possible. In mid-July, the Main Street program was expanded to give more cover to nonprofits, including educational institutions and hospitals.
But the Fed only has lending power, not spending power. Powell has said that for some businesses, a Main Street loan may not be the best fit.
“More debt may not be the answer here,” Powell said in a June hearing before the House Financial Services Committee.
On Friday morning, the bipartisan Congressional Oversight Commission will hold a hearing on the Main Street program.
By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Claire Ballentine, Vildana Hajric · BUSINESS, US-GLOBAL-MARKETS U.S. stocks climbed on optimism that officials will come to terms on fresh economic stimulus, putting a gauge of global stocks on the verge of erasing this year’s losses. Gold extended gains amid speculation that interest rates will stay low for longer.
The S&P 500 rose for a fifth straight day, with Apple leading the charge as it reached a record and helping lift the MSCI All-Country World Index to little changed for the year. Stocks got a lift in the afternoon as lawmakers pledged to keep working toward a coronavirus relief package and President Donald Trump said he could act unilaterally on some measures. The dollar slipped.
Equity gains have mounted in the past week amid better-than-forecast earnings and optimism on a coronavirus vaccine, but any hint that negotiators won’t be able to resolve differences over a new U.S. relief package has sparked jitters. The White House and congressional Democrats are up against a self-imposed Friday deadline to strike a deal as data that was released Thursday showed almost 1.2 million unemployment claims.
“Anything that we can do to continue to provide a bridge to people as we get through this crisis is going to be really important,” said Chuck Cumello, president and chief executive officer of Essex Financial Services. “The U.S. consumer is driving two-thirds of the economy.”
Elsewhere, mining and energy producers were among the laggards as European stocks slumped. Turkey’s lira touched a record low against the dollar as interventions by state banks did not reassure markets. Gold climbed above $2,050 an ounce in a fifth straight day of gains.
– – –
Here are some key events coming up:
– Germany’s June industrial production figures are scheduled for Friday.
– The July U.S. jobs reports is expected Friday.
These are some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
– The S&P 500 Index rose 0.6% at 4 p.m. New York time.
– The Stoxx Europe 600 Index declined 0.7%.
– The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.2%.
Currencies
– The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index slipped 0.1%.
– The Japanese yen was little changed at 105.56 per dollar.
– The Turkish lira weakened 2.5%, to 7.2253 per dollar and fell as low as 7.31.
Bonds
– The yield on 10-year Treasurys decreased one basis point, to 0.54%.
– Britain’s 10-year yield dipped two basis points, to 0.11%.
– Germany’s 10-year yield declined three basis points, to -0.53%.
Commodities
– West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.4%, to $42.03 a barrel.
Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha has predicted the Thai economy will contract less than 10 per cent this year, thanks to its strong economic fundamentals and effective handling of the Covid-19 outbreak.
He made the prediction during a speech on the economy at an event hosted by the Bangkok Post to celebrate its 74th anniversary on August 6.
He added that the economy grew 1 per cent in 2014 after he assumed the premiership in August that year, rising to 3.1 per cent in 2015 and 3.4 per cent in 2016.
The growth trend had continued until this year when the economy was brought to its knees by the outbreak, said the premier.
The government has launched a series of relief measures to help businesses and people survive the crisis, he added.
New Cabinet economics team faces huge challenges: experts
EconAug 07. 2020:From left: Finance Minister Predee Daochai, Labour Minister Suchart Chomklin and Deputy Labour Minister Narumon Pinyosinwat.
By Wichit Chaitrong The Nation
Newly appointed economic ministers will find it severely difficult to rescue the economy from the Covid-19 fallout, given dwindling financial resources, rising unemployment and the global threat of a second-wave contagion, warn economists.
The immediate challenge is to support workers and businesses as relief measures including cash handouts come to an end, said Charl Kengchon, executive chairman at the Kasikorn Research Centre.
Government fiscal police is already strained by the massive Bt1 trillion loaned to deal with the virus crisis, he said, following the appointment of key economic ministers announced by the government on Thursday (August 6).
The economy is showing signs of improvement, but recovery remains a distant prospect as only some sectors and workers have resumed operations.
“We have not yet reopened for tourism, so businesses and workers in tourism-related sectors are still suffering the most,” he said.
Meanwhile countries including the United States, Australia, Japan, Philippines and Vietnam have experienced a surge of new infections, which has delayed the recovery for Thai exports.
Newly appointed Finance Minister Predee Daochai will face difficult decisions on which groups need further support, business or workers, given limited financial resources.
“I don’t think the government will want borrow more money, but problems that need addressing are mounting, so which groups the government will provide further relief to is very important,” he said.
External factors are also causing uncertainty, including whether the US Federal Reserve will cut its policy rates again or inject more liquidity into the market, which will weaken the dollar and cause appreciation of the baht.
A strong baht hits Thai exporters, who are paid in dollars and must then exchange them for baht.
The global exchange rate market is so big that the central bank might be not be able to prevent the baht from rising, Charl said.
Regarding tourism, the challenge is how to reopen the sector and related services. Reopening to foreign tourists would risk importing more Covid-19 cases, which could lead to a crisis of confidence in health management, he added.
Meanwhile Yongyuth Chalamwong, research director at the Thailand Development Research Institute, said the government needs to help both businesses and workers.
“The government may need to borrow more money as existing relief programmes are starting to expire,” he said.
Businesses may lay off more workers in the third quarter as they lack cashflow and many have been unable to reopen.
The government has prioritised measures to contain the virus, but now it has to focus more on economic activities, he said.
If the economy does not improve significantly, 4.5 million service sector workers and 1 million in manufacturing may lose their jobs, he warned.
The government has to think about how it can open the country to foreign visitors, he said, adding that the 14-day mandatory quarantine may be too long. Many hotels will not be able to survive for long after recently reopening as they have no income from foreign tourists, he said.
Challenges facing newly appointed Labour Minister Suchart Chomklin and his deputy minister Narumon Pinyosinwat include finding ways to support informal workers not covered by the Social Security Fund, said Yongyuth.
They account for two-thirds of Thailand’s 38 million-strong workforce. The Labour Ministry must consider changing the Social Security Fund to a mandatory scheme which covers all workers, both formal and informal, he added.
“Currently, there is huge income inequality between workers who are covered by the Social Security Fund and those outside its protection,” he pointed out.
The ministry also needs to provide subsidies for training as firms do not have enough funds to train workers, given the persisting impact of the virus pandemic, Yongyuth said.
Currently, about 1.5 million workers are receiving Social Security unemployment benefits, up sharply from the previous 300,000 to 400,000 recipients, he added.
Meanwhile, Lavaron Sangsnit, director general at the Fiscal Policy Office, insisted the government still had cash in hand from the Bt1 trillion relief fund. “Half of the Bt1-trillion loan remains unused,” he said.
Predee, a former co-president of Kasikornbank and ex-chairman of the Thai Bankers’ Association, is believed to understand the issues faced by both private companies and workers very well, said Lavaron.
Supant Mongkolsuthree, chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries, also expressed confidence in Predee, saying that businesses will cooperate with him well in tackling the impact of the coronavirus. He called for more financial support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), many of which have been unable to access bank loans.
Aphissada Demikul, Chief Executive Officer of Teibto
“We are the only solution provider in ASEAN to win this award. It’s really difficult to achieve this recognition because meeting the criteria is hard and the winner is also required to manage its sales to meet the sales target,” Aphissada says, adding that Teibto has been in the solution provider market for 12 years. 
Rocket chief executive Jay Farner
CH Karnchang president Supamas Trivisvavet
PM Prayut Chan-o-cha (File photo)
:From left: Finance Minister Predee Daochai, Labour Minister Suchart Chomklin and Deputy Labour Minister Narumon Pinyosinwat.
