He said King Power offered a higher return to AOT than the other two bidders: a joint venture between Bangkok Airways and Lotte Duty Free, and a joint venture of the Royal Orchid Hotel (Thailand) group.

“The winner offers more revenue to the AOT than the other competitors, and also a return higher than the AOT’s earlier estimate,” he said.

He added that the AOT bid committee would propose King Power as the bid winner for the company’s revenue review committee’s consideration on Wednesday.

If approved, that panel will submit the proposal to AOT’s board for final approval on June 19.

As to the final scores, King Power was awarded 96 out of 100 by the bid committee, followed by the Royal Orchid Hotel (Thailand) joint-venture group with 86, and the Bangkok Airways JV group with 84, Wichai said.

The “Partnership Celebration for the Oil Terminal and Retail Business Development” between PTTOR and Brighter Energy Company Limited and Brighter Energy Retail Co Ltd, both subsidiaries of Kanbawza (KBZ) Group, was held at the Lotte Hotel in Yangon.

Auttapol Rerkpiboon, chairman of PTTOR, said his company – the flagship of PTT Group in oil and retail business – aimed to be a leading Thai global brand enriching community values through oil, retail and related businesses, inclusively with all stakeholders to achieve sustainable growth together.

The agreements announced cover two joint projects.

One is the development of an oil terminal with Brighter Energy, which includes the procurement of petroleum products, the management of jetty, oil-storage terminal, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) filling plants and wholesale business of petroleum products.

Due to be completed in 2021, the project will become the largest oil terminal in Myanmar, with a capacity of 1 million barrels of oil and 4,500 tonnes of LPG.

The other project is a retail business expansion with Brighter Energy Retail, for which successful brands under PTTOR will be introduced in Myanmar to provide local consumers with what Auttapol said would be a “notable retail experience”.

These brands include PTT Station, LPG or Cooking Gas, and Café Amazon.

He added that the concept of the joint operation of PTT stations in Myanmar remained the “Living Community”, as in Thailand where PTTOR cooperates with local vendors, communities and small and medium-sized enterprises to grow their businesses together with PTT station expansion.

In Myanmar, the company plans to expand to 70 stations within 2023, PTTOR’s chairman added.

Currently, PTTOR operates over 2,000 PTT stations in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines.

As for the LPG or Cooking Gas unit, PTTOR will tap the local market highlighting product quality and safety, with a sales target of 1,000 tonnes per month.

In addition, PTTOR will focus on the operation of Café Amazon and expects the business to substantially grow in line with rising coffee consumption among the Myanmar population.

In Myanmar, there are currently seven branches, and the company plans to increase to 100 branches by 2023.

Café Amazon now has more than 2,800 branches in Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines, Japan, Singapore and Oman.

The company is a provider of integrated solutions covering a full range of services from ideation, research/design, consultancy, project management and prototyping to fabrication, implementation/installation, construction, logistics support and after-sales services

It is a joint venture between Singapore-based Kingsmen Group, a 10 per cent stake holder and Thailand-based CMTI Co Ltd, which owns 90 per cent of the company.

Globally, Sunisa said the Kingsmen Group has invested in 21 countries, including China, Japan, South Korea, India, Taiwan, Malaysia, the US, and some Middle East countries. Kingsmen CMTI Plc is expanding in Myanmar and Cambodia on its own, catering to the growing demand for decoration exhibitions and interior design work at commercial properties such as luxury hotels, retail premises and office buildings in the two countries. The Myanmar and Cambodian governments have offered incentives and widened access to foreign investors.

Kingsmen CMTI made its entry into Myanmar five years ago, setting up a subsidiary with a registered capital of US$300,000 (Bt9.37 million).

The company generated Bt27.5 million in total revenue at the end of 2018, a jump of 43.97 per cent from Bt19.1 million in the previous year.

Most of its customers in Myanmar are Thai investors planning to expand their hotel and retail portfolio in the country, accounting for 80 per cent of the company’s total revenue with income from decoration and design of exhibition booths making up the balance. In Cambodia, the company established Kingsmen CMTI (Cambodia) Co Ltd last year with a registered capital of $300,000.

“We have strengthened our position in Cambodia with the new investment in view of Thai and global brands expanding their presence in the country, including Ralph Lauren, Starbucks, Pizza Company and S&P.

The openings of new business premises will come with growing demand for the company’s services in the areas of decoration, construction and design,” Sunisa said.

Nontwaris Jatepiyawat, director of Kingsmen CMTI (Cambodia) Co Ltd said the company generated total revenue of Bt8 million in its first year of operation. It is looking to achieve Bt20 million this year and Bt30 million in 2020 amid strong growth in major Cambodian cities Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, and Sihanoukville.

With the expansion in Myanmar and Cambodia, Kingsmen CMTI Plc recorded total revenue of Bt2.13 billion at the end of last year, an increase of 86.8 per cent from Bt1.14 billion for 2017.

“The surge in revenue can be attributed to our robust business performance in Thailand and overseas,” Sunisa said.

Jirawuth Suwanna-arj, director/minister counsellor (Commercial) of International Trade Promotion Department of Commerce Ministry, said foreign direct investment in Cambodia has been growing strongly since 2013.

In 2017, the country got $629.7 million in foreign direct investment, up 9.12 per cent from the previous year.

Foreign investment reached $113.9 million in the first quarter of the year, a 33.63 per cent increase from same period year-on year, according to a report from the Cambodia Investment Board.

“China was the first country to expand investment in Cambodia, followed by South Korea, and UK. Thailand ranked ninth in terms of foreign investments in the country.

Cambodia remains attractive to foreign investors although the EU will revise its GSP for the country this year,” Jirawth said.

With its headquarters in Jakarta, HappyFresh has operations in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. The company delivers groceries from its partners’ stores to customers’ doorsteps in as little as one hour.

Its Thai operation will also invest a lot in what it calls customers’ facing applications to provide the best user experience, says Sagan, a Polish national who assumed the top post at HappyFresh Thailand late last year.

By the customer facing apps, he means HappyFresh applications for Android and IOS that enable its customers to place orders.

The company’s delivery network now covers around 90 per cent of Bangkok and some parts of Nonthaburi and Samut Prakan. It has 15 local partners, including the big retailers like Tesco, Big C and Gourmet Market, as well as small specialty stores offering groceries from very narrow market niches.

Sagan adds that the company has focused on the quality and completeness of assortment offered rather than the absolute number of partners working with it. But HappyFresh is always open to recruiting new partners for its platform.

While most of the grocery shopping in Thailand is done offline – online accounts for between 0.7 per cent and 1 per cent of overall grocery spending – Sagan says that online grocery transactions have grown by over 50 per cent year on year.

Compared to other countries in Southeast Asia in terms of the online grocery sector, Thailand is one of the most advanced. However, it’s still at a very early stage of development and the potential to grow is huge, Sagan adds.

“Currently, over 99 per cent of grocery shopping in Thailand is done offline. However, we expect to see online groceries growing at a similar pace to non-grocery e-commerce in its early stages,” he says.

Non-grocery e-commerce accounts for around 3 per cent of the total retail market in Thailand. In 2015, at an earlier stage of development, this figure was 1 per cent. The non-grocery e-commerce sector is expected to account for 10 per cent of the total retail market in Thailand within the next five years.

Sagan says that working as managing director of HappyFresh Thailand is a big challenge.

“Every day is different. The business is growing fast, so it’s necessary to review all processes on a regular basis to make sure they are robust and scalable enough to handle the increasing volume of orders. I would say that the ability to adapt is crucial,” he says.

“Another key challenge is to acquire and retain top talent, which is difficult in a market with such a low unemployment rate. But I really love this job. It’s extremely interesting and gives me a lot of satisfaction.”

When asked if he has any problems managing older staff when he has not yet left his 20s, Sagan says an age gap has never been an issue. “I really appreciate the experience these people are bringing to the company because it allows us to make better decisions and avoid many mistakes,” he says.

Sagan says he uses different management styles depending on the people he deals with.

“When you become the managing director in a start-up, you have to find a way to release the potential of your team as soon as possible. If your team of direct reports is very diverse, consisting of people with different personalities and capabilities, it is better to adjust your management style to each of them, rather than imposing one management style for all of them,” he says.

“For example, an experienced proactive manager can be managed by objectives. Just set the goals for him or her and he or she will figure out by themselves how to achieve them.

“On the other hand, a person who has just been promoted to a manager position may require more guidance. In such a case, managing by objectives would fail, so you have to use a different style.”

When asked what are keys to success in managing an online grocery store business, he says there are four.

The first, he says, relates to assortment, which should be wide and complete. Then there is price competitiveness, and “price is king in this business”, Sagan adds.

He says that regarding logistics, customers expect to have their groceries delivered on the same day and in good condition, and robust logistics are required to provide that.

Lastly, there is the product. Sagan says the application that customers use to place their orders should be fast, reliable and easy to use to maximise conversion rate.

Despite studying finance, Sagan feels that he likes to work in the less regulated industries.

“After the financial crisis of 2008, the finance industry in Europe has become more and more regulated, though I’m not saying it’s bad or good – but that’s a fact,” he says. “I did internships in big financial institutions and realised that I would feel more comfortable working in a less regulated and, thus, more dynamic industry.

“Online business meets these criteria perfectly, so I decided to look for opportunities there. It did not matter that much for me what kind of online business it would be – travel, food, e-commerce, etc. All of them are exciting, and similar to some extent.

“I got an offer from online food delivery business foodpanda, so I joined them. Later on, I switched from online food to e-commerce, at Lazada, and now I focus on online groceries at HappyFresh.”

Sagan was born and raised in Lublin, in eastern Poland. He has been based in Thailand since February 2018.

“I love the sea, so beautiful islands, sandy beaches are the things which impress me the most in Thailand,” he says. “Bangkok is also a great place to live in my opinion. It’s very vibrant, diverse and well connected with other cities in Southeast Asia. It’s impossible to get bored here.

“I do not find it hard to adapt to Thai culture, although it took me some time to do so and this process is still ongoing. It’s important to be tactful, tolerant, patient, and accept the culture as it is, even though it’s different.

“I’m still exploring it and I think that it is impossible to fully understand the culture without the knowledge of language and understanding of local history and contexts. That’s why I am learning Thai, although I must admit that it’s very difficult for me.

“When it comes to Thai food, at the beginning I had a problem with eating spicy dishes. But over time, my tolerance to spicy food has increased a lot, so now I can eat everything that Thai people eat and I really like it.”

Sagan has travelled a lot in Thailand. So far he has visited the majority of the most popular tourist destinations, but he also plans to explore some places off the beaten track, less touristic places. So far his favourite place is Koh Kood.

When asked to recommend which cities in Poland Thais should visit, he says: “There are so many interesting places in Poland that it’s quite difficult to recommend any particular one. Krakow is the top tourist destination. It’s the former capital of our country, with the beautiful old town and numerous monuments including the Royal Castle. Just a few kilometres away from Krakow there is Wieliczka – the medieval salt mine. It is a Unesco World Heritage Site and is an absolutely unique place – a must visit as well

“Other cities with amazing architecture and beautiful old towns include the capital Warsaw, Gdansk and Lublin, but almost every big city in Poland has a beautiful old town and lot of historical monuments.”

He says another top attraction is Malbork, with has one of the biggest medieval castles in the world and is a also Unesco World Heritage Site.

“For people who like mountains, I would recommend Zakopane, which is called the winter capital of Poland,” he says.

Sagan says the best time to visit Poland is in summer, from May to September, when the temperature is usually between 20 and 30 degrees.

 Zaw Min Win, president of the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chamber of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI), who accompanied State Counsellor Suu Kyi on her trip, said both sides gained from productive meetings.

“The Czech Republic is really worth visiting. During this trip, we had fruitful discussions with senior officials and Czech businesses,” he said in a phone interview with The Nation on Thursday.

“We strongly believe this trip benefits Myanmar businesses and the country as a whole, as both sides are keen to revitalise and expedite development of the former investment and trade ties that existed between the two countries in 1960s and 1970s.”

Zaw Min Win was referring to the long-standing bilateral ties that had been established more than six decades ago. The nations began diplomatic relations in 1956, with the embassy of the then Czechoslovakia opened in Yangon. An embassy under the name of Burma was opened in Prague in 1965.

Before the emergence of independent Czech and Slovak republics, the Czechoslovak embassy came to an end in Yangon in December 1992, and Myanmar closed its embassy in Prague one day later. For a period, the Czech ambassador in Bangkok was concurrently accredited to Myanmar and the Myanmar ambassador in Berlin was similarly accredited to Prague. That was until the Czech Republic reopened its embassy in Yangon in 2014. During Suu Kyi’s recent trip, the new Myanmar embassy was inaugurated in Prague by the leaders of both nations.

With the reopening of the Myanmar embassy, Zaw Min Win foresees a surge in foreign direct investment from Czech Republic and a substantial increase in bilateral trade over the next few years.

He said the UMFCCI had active discussions with the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic, which has 11,000 members and 30 associations under its umbrella, as well as representatives of other chambers.

“During this trip, we managed to sign a memorandum of understanding with some of them to foster cooperation. We had fruitful and prospective discussions with them on several possible areas of mutual interests for trade and investment,” he said.

He said Myanmar would strive to seek opportunities and expand the room for cooperation, as Czech businesses are searching for some new markets to boost their businesses.

“As a national-level federated chamber of commerce representing Myanmar’s private sector, we have to follow suit led by the public sector. That means B2B [business to business] cooperation will support the

development of G2G [government to government] functions,” he said.

Zaw Min Win and some Myanmar business people were also present at the Czech-Myanmar Business Forum in Prague on June 4.

“At the forum, our State Counsellor encouraged Czech entrepreneurs to invest in Myanmar because we have great potential in several sectors as Asia’s final frontier,” he said.

“Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis told our delegation that Myanmar is a very interesting market with abundant opportunities in the fields where Czech companies could stand out, including energy, aviation, automotive, agro and food industry or health. He also encouraged Czech businesses to seize these opportunities.”

Zaw Min Win said the UMFCCI is eager to conduct follow-up business meetings to unlock the huge potential for strengthening bilateral economic ties.

“It is really encouraging to hear positive moves from top leaders of both countries. We will proceed to expedite further negotiations in turn them into reality to ensure G2G and B2B business deals,” he said.

During the trip, Suu Kyi and the Czech prime minister discussed promoting bilateral trade, investment and economic cooperation. They also discussed increasing the interactions between the people of both countries, finding possibilities for implementing direct flights between Myanmar and the Czech Republic, promoting the global tourism industry, increasing cooperation on education, healthcare and culture, and further state visits between the high-level figures of the two countries. Suu Kyi invited Babis to visit Myanmar, according to the State Counsellor Office.