“At AIA, we see tremendous growth potential across the region, driven by a huge protection gap. In a country like Thailand, there is low penetration of individual life and health insurance,” said Spencer.

“We see a big opportunity to close the protection gap. AIA has a tremendous agency force in Thailand. In addition, at the end of last year, we signed a 15-year distribution contract with Bangkok Bank to sell more protection products through their branches,” said Spencer, adding that Bangkok Bank itself has more than 1,000 branches throughout the country.

AIA’s new brand promise “Healthier, longer, better lives” was recently introduced in 18 markets across the Asia Pacific region. “It underpins our focus on being a purpose-led business, and supports our efforts to address health problems resulting from an increase in lifestyle-related diseases,” Spencer said.

“We are very concerned about the level of lifestyle diseases in Thailand. About 73 per cent of all diseases in Thailand are non-communicable,” he said, adding, “AIA Vitality is a solution to help our customers to live healthier, longer and better lives. If you take better care of yourselves, AIA will take better care of you,” he said.

“It is all about changing the behaviour of our customers, and we have a very sophisticated reward platform designed by AIA to help them change their behaviour,” added Spencer.

He said that some 250,000 Thai people were already enjoying the benefits of AIA Vitality.

“This is a game changer in the Thai insurance market, as nobody but only AIA has it,” said Spencer.

He said that AIA has 32 million customers in 18 countries in Asia.

“We have also launched the “What’s Your Why? Campaign”, led by our global ambassador David Beckham. His role is to be a motivator, encouraging people on why they should live a healthy life, and to use this ‘why’ to change their behaviour, improving their health through proper eating, regular exercise, and good living.

“Using the insight that children are a powerful motivating force for people to live healthier lives, we have launched the ‘What’s Your Why #2’ campaign, which features Beckham sharing his experiences on how to be healthy with kids across Asia. We hope the campaign will inspire people throughout the region to really consider how small changes can make a big difference in improving their health and well-being,” Spencer said

“Working with AIA, I have had the opportunity to visit many countries around Asia and I am so pleased to be back in Thailand,” said Beckham. “I really believe that small changes, like having a healthy breakfast to start each day and getting good sleep, |can have a positive impact and help us all to live healthier, longer, better lives.”

AIA Thailand on Saturday celebrated its 80th anniversary and renewed its commitment to engage customers and the community more effectively to promote an active lifestyle among Thais.

Tan Hak Lek, chief executive officer of AIA Thailand, said that AIA Thailand has provided lifelong insurance protection to its customers since 1938, together with an aspiration to improve the standard of living of Thais.

“We have become Thailand’s leading and most-trusted life insurance company and play an important role in the development of the life insurance industry.

Many factors have contributed to our success, including products and services. With more than 5.5 million individual customers and over 1.1 million participating members in our group insurance schemes in Thailand, we offer a wide range of products and services to meet the ever-changing needs of Thais throughout their life stages. AIA also develops new and innovative products and services to enhance our customers’ financial security and provide them with peace of mind,” he said.

THAI Smile persuades Buddhists to pay homage to Buddhism memorial sites in Gaya, India. The place where Bodh Gaya, a place of enlightenment, is located, starting at Bt7,380/person /trip (all inclusive) with full services.

Reserve a seat and fly from now till March 30, 2019 at http://www.thaismileair.com, Call Center 1181 or 02-118-8888, Thai Smile Ticket Room, Smile Service Center and Smile Agents.

Terms and conditions are subject to the company. Fly with the best airlines in Asia, the number one airline in Thailand and the best economy seats in Asia by TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice Awards 2018.

The local campaign entitled “Smile for Life” has been operated for the second year, according to a press statement.

The 2-minutes online advertising campaign entitled “Mr. Somkiat” is designed to encourage and inspire potential donors to give endlessly. Organ donation is considered as the greatest give to humanities who are really in need.

This underlines the social contribution of THAI Smile Airways who is entitled for transporting organs from donors to patients, providing seats for Thai Red Cross medical team to fulfill their mission via all domestic routes. This new campaign is scheduled to be broadcasted online now.

“Apart from delivering the best possible services to customers, THAI Smile is committed to contributing the society on a continuous basis,” said Charita Leelayuth, Acting Chief Executive Officer, THAI Smile.

“We have realized the importance and considerable value of organ donation being operated by the Thai Red Cross Society Organ Donation Center. Knowing that hundreds of individuals are waiting for organ transplants, we have therefore continued this campaign for the second year as part of a constructive effort reflecting the significance of organ donation.

Additionally, we are very proud of taking part in supporting the medical team traveling to perform their duties and transporting donated organs from donors to recipients nationwide. Generating public awareness and engaging people to participate with the campaign are essential steps to success, we expect the online advertising can result in a better understanding of this campaign and motivate the sentiment and awareness of giving to others.”

The online advertising entitled “Mr. Somkiat” is created by Dream Rider led by famous director Sanpathit Tavijaroen, whose inspiration comes from the notion that THAI Smile as a carrier transporting donated organs from donors to individuals waiting for transplantation, also conveying hopes and smiles from donors to patients as well.

A smile and good wish from donors can truly create a happy smile for many others.

The advertising is scheduled to broadcast online now and publicized through all THAI Smile’s communication channels. It is now available for viewing through http://www.facebook.com/ThaiSmileAirways and Thai Smile Airways Official YouTube Channel.

According to the statement, Dr Visist Dhitavat, Director of Thai Red Cross Society Organ Donation Center pointed out that one of the most crucial factors for today’s medical treatment is the organ acquisition from donors who pass away in Thailand. Each year, it is estimated that there are nearly 1,000 potential donors who passed away. Unfortunately, there are some restrictions of making use of organs from donors for medical purpose. The main obstacle is the lack of accurate understanding for organ donation after one’s death. However, people are being educated more about this via the campaign.

Dr Visist further added, “At present, a large number of patients are waiting for organ transplant, especially kidney transplant. There are 6,254 patients on the waiting list, with 95% of them waiting for the kidneys, followed by livers, hearts, lungs and pancreas respectively.

Previously, there are 40,000-50,000 donors signed up for the donation per year. But in the last fiscal year of 2017, there was an upward trend with a total of 89,636 registered donors as a result from continuous campaigning and better public understanding of organ donation.

In 2017, organ donation increased by 60% and as of September 2018, there were 186 donors compared with 294 donors in 2017.

For those 186 donors, their organs provided more than 417 patients renewed lives. We expect to reach a total of 300 donors by the end of 2018.

This projection is compliance with the Ministry of Public Health’s policy that clearly specifies the importance and benefits of organ donation for Thai people especially in terms of reduced medical expenses and a better quality of life.”

“Organ donation and transplant are hopeful alternatives to prolong the lives of patients who are at their final-stage and failed with all kinds of treatments. Participating in organ donation campaign helps to extend and bright up the life of individuals who are in need.

THAI Smile makes this possible by being a carrier to facilitate the transportation of donated organs to different destinations, thus improving the quality and safety of the organs. It also reduces the workload of medical doctors and nurses at hospitals, while shortening the waiting time of organ delivery,” said Dr. Visist.

To participate in the campaign and donate (organ or money), visit the Thai Red Cross Society Organ Donation Center’s website at http://www.organdonate.in.th.

“Our goal is to serve unbanked customers who are unable to access formal financial services such as credit, savings and deposits and who rely mostly on friends and informal lenders,” she said in an exclusive interview.

“The market here is massive, and the demand for credit is so huge. The segments of banks are primarily like upper income and middle-class people. So, we try to tackle this market where we can serve the bottom part of the pyramid.”

She said local banks have little appetite or the expertise or infrastructure, partially due to regulatory restrictions of interest rates, to service the needs of the bottom-half of the pyramid, which happens to be the majority of the adult population in Myanmar.

After her graduation from Oxford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Theta Aye returned to Myanmar in 2016 to get commercially involved in Myanmar’s finance industry. She established the company as a non-bank financial institution regulated by the Central Bank of Myanmar (CBM).

“People need access to financial systems, including credit and all the opportunity credit brings. We aim to get them engaged in the formal financial system rather than depending on informal lenders,” she said.

With this in mind, her team of around 20 local staff with an average age of 22 managed to launch a mobile application in late July this year. Available both on iOS and Android smartphones, the app offers unsecured loans from 50,000 to 50 million kyats (Bt1,025 to over 1 million).

Currently, the company provides two products – salary-based and short-term emergency loans – to individuals and small business owners who need money to buy goods and services such as education, tuition, healthcare, emergency funding, or working capital. Average loan size is around 600,000 kyats for employee loans, while the amount of emergency loans can be increased depending on the user’s payback records.

“We are growing very, very fast. Within three months after we launched the app, we have around 5,000 registered customers and have processed more than 800 loans,” she said, adding that the majority of the customers are Android phone users.

“We are always in need of people, as we are dispersing a lot of loans. The demand is huge, and we are going to expand our team to facilitate bigger products. We are actually helping people build a digital credit history to get them back to the formal financial sector.”

According to Theta Aye, the company usually grows by four times every month, and expects to serve around 100,000 users, dispersing an estimated loan disperse loan amount of 500 million kyats at the end of the first year of business.

“We are going to be launching e-commerce instalment loans at the end of the month in partnership with RGO47. If somebody wants to buy products from RGO47 or if they have bought from it before, we will look at some transaction data and will ask them whether or not they want some breakdowns [with some interest involved] to pay for their shopping,” she said.

“Along the way, we are also doing education loans and healthcare financing. Some educational services have done some sort of customer screening already. We are still talking to hospitals, especially for those who want to do replacement surgeries and maternity. Our next step is probably SME [small and medium enterprise] loans.”

In the long term, the company aims to be a full-fledged digital lender and the go-to app for all things financial in Myanmar – from financial news, financial knowledge, budgeting, and providing know-how to peer-to-peer lending, subject to CBM’s approval.

“Our vision is to become a one-stop platform for all financial needs of Myanmar people. We offer convenience, fast and easy loan disbursement, for which unbanked customers used to rely on pawnshops and unregulated money lenders who charge exorbitant interest rates. And we will ensure user convenience because they do not need to show any kind of documentation. On top of that, we are bringing them security and transparency.”

Loan approval typically takes less than 48 hours, while disbursements and repayments can be done through regular banking and mobile wallet channels.

With its two initial products, the company has built in the mechanism to reward good repayment with larger loans, faster disbursement, longer tenure, and lower interest rates.

“We leverage on the rapid growth of the usage of smartphones in Myanmar with our proprietary mobile credit-scoring algorithm to harness alternative data analytics and integrated technology solutions to assess the credit-worthiness of loan applicants,” she said.

She sees a tremendous opportunity for the company to utilise digital channels and help close the credit gap and contribute to the government’s plans for financial inclusion.

YITU Technology, a China-based AI provider specialising in facial recognition, opened its first international office in Singapore earlier this year. The company has been ranked first for the second consecutive year in the Face Recognition Vendor Test(FRVT) this year, organised by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the US.

“Singapore is located at the centre of Asean and we want to spread our footprint in the region. Currently, we are educating the market [about the technology],” said Scott Ong, YITU’s technical director /Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Macau.

China Merchants Bank installed YITU’s facial recognition technology at all its branches in China in 2015, he said. Bank customers can use this technology for financial transactions with the bank via their mobile phones or ATMs.

“It was followed by the Agricultural Bank of China in 2017 and Police force in Malaysia,” he added.

Facial recognition is especially suitable for security firms providing guard service at buildings. It also helps casino staff recognise VIP guests, so that they can be served promptly,” he said adding that casinos could also use the technology to detect unwelcome visitors.

He revealed that his company had discussed business deals with a few commercial banks in Thailand.

When asked about concerns raised over intrusion of privacy and misuse of individual data, he said his company could not access customer data, as it was not the firm collecting the information.

On the debate of individual privacy, Ong said that consumers download applications because they are offered financial returns, such as free drinks or discounts for buying goods.

“How individual data could be used depends on an agreement in society,” he added.

Prinya Hom-anek, a cybersecurity expert in Thailand, said that the decision on adopting facial recognition and other technologies related to AI comes down to privacy concerns.

“If a shop-owner installs a camera embedded with a deep-learning machine that could recognise the faces of everyone walking in or passing by his shop, then what is individual rights. Many may not be happy with it,” he said.

He believed that the technology is being used at some shops in Thailand and the government may install the cameras at airports for the purpose of picking out criminals and those under police investigation among air passengers.

He agrees with Thai commercial banks adopting the technology for financial transactions, similar to some banks in China.

“However, it should be used with tighter authentication requirements, such as an additional pin number in order to ensure customer security,” said Prinya.

The Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA), a public organisation under the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, is tasked with drafting the data protection law, but its initial draft has met with widespread criticism.

Prinya said that its team of writers attempted to use the European Union’s data protection and privacy law, known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), as a model for Thailand.

“The draft law does not comply with all EU standards due to the high costs of implementation. It is also not practical to enforce all GDPR requirements in Thailand, he said.

It also calls for fines in millions of baht as well as jail sentences in some cases.

“The harsh penalties are not practical as there is currently no cybersecurity technology that can fully protect data from leaking,” he pointed out.

“Moreover, the draft law allows a grace period of just six months for businesses to adapt, compared with two years under the GDPR. Both private and government organisations need more time to consider how to secure their data.

“Even selfies posted on Facebook could be stolen by hackers, to be sold on the dark web, together with private messages through a malicious browser extension, Prinya said.

In September, the Cabinet approved the draft of the digital identification law or Digital ID, leaving the door open to any technology, including facial recognition, as a tool for authentication. The draft is meant to facilitate the use of latest technology for consumer protection. It will be taken up later by the National Legislative Assembly.

Meanwhile, Franklin Templeton Emerging Markets Equity’s Sukumar Rajah and Eric Mok, in an article titled “The Race to Harness AI Technology in Asia”, said that AI and automation present enormous investment opportunities. The two authors think some promising developments in Asia could dictate the pace of change in the burgeoning AI market.

They think infrastructure for new technology is likely to be just as significant if AI development is to truly thrive.