To achieve this aim, the company says it will invest Bt100 million in technology, expand the number of partners from 800 to 900, and increase the number of employees from 1,600 to 1,800.

“The motorcycle industry is heavily dependent on the macroeconomic outlook of the country, presenting a challenge for us in 2019,” Wichit Phayuhanaveechai, CEO of Summit Capital Leasing Co Ltd, said during a press conference on Tuesday.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently adjusted their global GDP growth forecast for 2019 down from 3.7 to 3.5 per cent due to trade uncertainties.

Meanwhile, Thailand’s GDP is expected to grow by 3.8 per cent in 2019, down from 4.2 per cent last year, according to Siam Commercial Bank’s Economic Intelligence Centre.

As a result of slowing economic growth, the total sales of motorcycles in the Kingdom are expected to fall by 1.24 per cent year on year, from 1.78 million in 2018 to 1.7 million this year, according to the Department of Land Transport.

But those lacklustre forecasts do not discourage Wichit.

“In 2018, our total revenue increased by 30 per cent. Despite the challenging prospects in the market, we aim to increase our total revenue by an additional 15 per cent this year,” he said.

To achieve it, Summit Capital will first invest Bt100 million to modernise its technological support system for digital lending services. The company last year developed its digital loans application service, enabling approval just 30 minutes after applications are submitted.

“This year, we will introduce a GPS-enabled debt collection system, which will be active at the end of January. This will allow us to verify the living address of our customers and increase our debt collection capabilities,” he explained.

“In 2018 Summit Capital’s level of non-performing loans (NPL) stood at 0.9 per cent. We believe the new GPS-enabled debt collection system will allow us to maintain that level at under 1 per cent in 2019,” he claimed.

Summit Capital will also strengthen its relations with motorcycle dealers, growing from 800 partners with 2,500 showrooms in the previous year to 900 partners with 2,800 showrooms this year.

Finally, the motorcycle hire-purchase company will expand its number of employees, as well as introduce new training courses to help employees adapt to new technology.

“This year, we will increase the number of employees from 1,600 to 1,800,” he said.

“Furthermore, we will start new training courses for our employees through the Summit Academy System to increase their digital capabilities and professionalism in the digital era.”

When asked whether he expects the Bank of Thailand (BOT) to increase their policy rate in 2019, Wichit predicted it would hike rates once in mid-2019 by 0.25 points, increasing the policy rate from 1.75 to 2 per cent.

“Despite the prospects of rising interest rates, Summit Capital will not aggressively increase interest rates for our customers this year. We believe we have to maintain a relatively low interest rate to remain competitive in the challenging market prospects,” he said.

It will also continue to capitalise on Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to strengthen its operations, its co-founder and chief operating officer, Sangduan Tangthamsatid, said yesterday.

The platform yesterday also introduced the latest version of its JobThai mobile application.

Among the new features in this latest version of the app is “Jobs Near Me”, which will use a map display to show updated jobs on offer near the user’s location.

Jobs Near Me users can specify a nearby location or their own homes. The system also recommends the best route to get to the user’s desired companies via public transportation, as well as calculating the travel time and fares.

The information is considered useful in helping job seekers to make better decisions before applying for positions.

Sangduan noted that the mobile app has many new features in the pipeline.

JobThai platform now has more than 1.6 million resumes, up from 1.4 million last year, along with 95,000 positions from leading companies.

The mobile application has been downloaded 950,000 times as of this week. According to its “Insights and Behaviours of Online Job Search Service” survey of over 3,000 people nationwide last December, 98.55 per cent of respondents used an online platform for their job search and applications.

The most frequently used channels were job search websites at 97.39 per cent, followed by companies’ websites at 44.20 per cent and search engines at 28.72 per cent.

Of the three tools for online job searches and applications, smartphones rank No1 at 51.96 per cent, followed by notebook computers at 24.04 per cent and desktops at 22.52 per cent respectively.

The survey also found that the top five factors considered by respondents when changing jobs were: salary at 22.97 per cent of respondents, followed by welfare and |benefits at 19.46 per cent, job responsibilities at 15.34 per cent, convenient commute at 12.63 per cent and career advancement at 11.77 per cent.