The department said it had chosen AIS to develop and install the high-speed network at the airports.

Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith has said the government wants people to use digital infrastructure and services anywhere, anytime.

The Department of Airports director general Amphawan Wannako said AIS had won an auction to provide the Wi-Fi service at the airports.

AIS has committed to providing the service at the 25 airports by March 2019.

AIS chief corporate officer Weerawat Kiattipongthaworn said he is glad that the department had given Advanced Wireless Network Co Ltd, a subsidiary of AIS, an opportunity to jointly develop a communications network of both WiFi (high-speed wireless Internet) and mobile phone services in 25 airports nationwide.

TTA said it has won Asia’s Most Influential Companies Awards.

Chalermchai Mahagitsiri, TTA CEO, said: “The award is a great impetus to drive TTA through business challenges to achieve our main goal: to be the most trusted Asian investment group. The award is also a significant achievement that will encourage our executives in all levels to strive for excellence and continue delivering the best experience for our stakeholders and positive impacts on society and help TTA to be wider recognised internationally.”

NINE, a Mai-listed company, is a leading book publisher and all-platform media agency which is intensifying investment in state-of-the-art digital services.

Naremit Innovation provides digital software solutions to leading customers around the world ranging from medical, financial, online payments and logistics. “We design, create, manage, and maintain highly-secured mission-critical systems for our customers with world class services,” said Mrs.Amawalee Combe

Naremit Innovation prides itself in keeping up-to-date with latest technologies and providing practical, pragmatic solutions for all aspects of internet websites and applications.

Abhishek Agrawal, co-founder and chief executive officer of Kinexcs Pte Ltd based in Singapore, has developed a new medical product designed to rehabilitate patients to speed up their full recovery after they are discharged from hospital.

He said his company plans to go into mass production next year as many hospitals have initially welcomed the wearable sensor product and a patient education application.

Agrawal is a biomedical engineer who has experience in manufacturing medical devices before starting his own business.

He got the idea from his own experience of rehabilitating his father after he was discharged from hospital. Without proper devices, he found his father’s full recovery from osteoarthritis, a degenerative joint disease, took too long.

So he decided to develop a wearable sensor, the so-called “Kinexcs Kimia”, which performs three key functions: monitoring, assisting and rehabilitating osteoarthritis patients. It can be attached to the joints such as at the knee. The censor collects clinical data. The devices also help clinicians to monitor patients remotely, and give feedback, he said. His company also provides an app for patients undergoing rehabilitation with education-guided therapy and tele-consultation. He claimed that his device could speed up by 40 per cent the recovery of patients using the device, which means fewer visits to hospitals.

Mah Chern Wern, co-founder of Juvo Labs, has developed a fibre optic sensor mat that can monitor sleep patterns, heart rate, breathing and movement, helping users to adjust their sleep patterns for better sleep and wellness. The sensor mat can be slipped under any mattress or can be embedded and sealed within one.He said he has designed his product to address current issues where wearable sensor devices are inaccurate or highly obtrusive. He also expects mass production of his product next year.

Singapore is not only promoting homegrown startups but also welcomes startups from other countries, especially from Germany, as the two countries are collaborating to access each other’s market.

Enterprise Singapore, the Singapore Economic Development Board and German Accelerator Southeast Asia recently signed a memorandum of understanding to support more than 40 Singapore-based startups to enter Germany and access the wider European market. Fractal Blockchain has seized business opportunity from the emerging cryptocurrency or digital tokens. It offers clients launch pad solutions and comprehensive customer identification service for initial coin offerings (ICOs).

Fractal blockchain, a Germany-based company, has come to Singapore to explore the Asean market. The company aims to assist clients who want to raise funds by issuing cryptocurrencies or other digital tokens. It would help clients eliminate risks of regulatory compliance. For example, the company will ensure there is no money laundering in the ICOs fund-raising and regulatory compliance. It also assures data privacy, as it fully complies with GDPR, the European regulation, said Tina Rudorf, head of business development at Fractal Blockchain

She said her company had also consulted with Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission, which recently issued regulations to govern ICO fund-raising and digital assets.

Currently, Fractal Blockchain has 12 projects in Germany, she added.

Rytle Gmbh, a Germany-based logistics intelligence service provider, has launched a new business model to reduce costs for logistics firms. The company has created last mile logistics as it see business opportunity in logistics services in congested and polluted urban spaces. It offers patented compact, green, smart mobility and storage modules, networked with blockchain-enabled route-optimising track-and-trace functionality.

Usually, logistics firms use heavy-duty trucks for long-distance logistics but such a large vehicle is not suitable for urban logistics, said Tushar Desai, business development officer at Rytle Gmbh. So his company has come up with an electrically powered cargo bike that is environmentally friendly.

Currently, the company provides services in Europe while some logistics in Asia have discussed business deals with the company, added Desai.

According to officials at Enterprise Singapore, the government agency championing enterprise development, the number of tech startups increased rapidly from 3,400 in 2012 to 4,300 in 2016.

Venture funding was sealed for 80 deals and was worth US$136.4 million (Bt4.5 billion) in 2012. Funding rose to 174 deals and was worth $1.4 billion in 2017.

Singapore has nurtured four unicorns: Lazada (ecommerce); Grab (ride-hailing platform); Razer (gaming hardware), and Sea (gaming), according to Singapore Enterprise. A unicorn is a startup with business valuation worth US$1 billion up.

Dealcha’s 2018 deal-search aggregator also helps customers to find the best products at the best deals, both in terms of price and cashback opportunity – http://www.dealcha.com is a private company founded in 2015.

“We have found an incredible partner in Rising Sun Ventures. With their contributions, we will be able to even further expand revenue growth and improve our customer experience,” a statement from Dealcha co-founders Jack Chaiyupatumpa, Danny Chang, and Sebastien Le Bihan said.

“Rising Sun Ventures provides an international network of partners in the payment space; and their expertise in payment technologies, mobile payment infrastructure, and data analytics will benefit our merchant partners and customer data analytics and targeting platform,” the statement added.

Dealcha offers online retail customers not only cashback, but also content, blogs, price comparisons and business-to-business solutions. Dealcha provides its 100-plus merchant partners a two times conversion rate compared to other platforms, increased target exposure, and specialised data analytics.

“The addition of Dealcha.com to our broad and growing portfolio of payments and analytics companies continues to strengthen our presence in the Asia-Pacific market. In fact, Dealcha joins a truly international, multi-continental network with a focus on data aggregation and data analytics solutions,” said Jerome Cle, founder and executive chairman of Rising Sun Ventures.

“We look forward to knowledge-sharing across the portfolio, and contributing to Dealcha’s ability to reach its incredible potential in the marketplace,” added Doug Merryman, vice chairman of Rising Sun Ventures.

The website http://www.dealcha.com is Thailand’s first cashback online site, offering users the opportunity to earn free cash through online shopping activity. Customers can register for free on the Dealcha website, choose any of the partner online stores and are credited with a percentage of the purchase price of any items bought online.

The cashback credit can be redeemed for actual cash, completely free of charge to the customer.

Scheduled to open on November 9, the new shopping complex occuping 750,000 square metres in gross floor area on a 55-rai plot alongside the Chao Phraya River on Charoen Nakhon Road, reflects the company’s confidence in the economic potential of Thailand and a sustainable growth in the number of foreign tourists, especially quality travellers, into the country.

Chadatip Chutrakul, chief executive officer of Siam Piwat, and a director of Iconsiam, said she and other entrepreneurs have always believed in the future of the Thai economy which has been on an upward trend over the past four to five years. The current government has solved many problems and it has also created many mega-infrastructure projects to liven the economy.

“The Ministry of Tourism and Sports has been moving on the right track to promote quality travellers into the country. We have seen more tourists in our shopping malls, even in the low season period. The ratio of foreign tourists to our overall shoppers has increased significantly from 35 per cent to 38 per cent in September alone. With this statistic, we can say that there is no low-tourist season in Bangkok anymore,” said Chadatip, adding that the value of spending per head per visit by foreign tourists has also increased by 13 per cent from Bt4,300 to about Bt6,000.

She said a total of 250,000 shoppers a day visit the company’s three shopping malls, Siam Center, Siam Discovery Centre, and Siam Paragon.

“For Iconsiam, we expect about 150,000 visitors daily – 70 per cent Thais living in Thon Buri and inner Bangkok, and 30 per cent foreign tourists. About 40 per cent of foreign visitors will be Asian, of which 20 per cent will be from China, while visitors from Australia, Europe and USA make up the balance ,” said Chadatip, adding that with a total population of about 2.4 million people, the Thonburi district shows great growth potential driven by private investments, especially in property such as housing estates and hotels, as well as the government’s investment in transportation projects. There will be more than 10 Skytrain routes moving from Bangkok to Thonburi.

Chadatip said Siam Piwat has set aside a Bt1-billion budget to celebrate the opening of Iconsiam, of which 70 per cent will be spent on media and events during the first three days of the opening.

“About 90 per cent of anchors and all tenant stores are ready for the opening. Only two anchors – River Museum Bangkok and True Icon Hall, are scheduled to open in July next year,” she said.

The bank is also holding an exhibition tomorrow to promote “Saving Day” at its head office on Phaholyothin Road in Bangkok.

The company recently showcased this technology at the Hitachi Social Innovation Forum recently in Tokyo.

In order to use the new technology, users will first have to register, so the system recognises their hands and face. After that, when users want to pay for products or services, they will just need to take the product from the shelf and pay for them in a specific kiosk using face or hand recognition.

Apart from this, Hitachi is also developing two new humanoid robots called Magnus and mini-EMIEW.

Shinichi Shitara, senior manager at the Robotics Business Promotion Department, which is part of Hitachi’s Global Solutions Division of Hitachi, said that Magnus was designed to help make the daily lives of elderly people more convenient. This robot measures and memorises the behavioural patterns of the person through spontaneous communication.

The mini-EMIEW, meanwhile, was built combining three existing robot models, namely EMIEW 3, EMIEW-TT for tablet and Magnus robotics.

The EMIEW 3 can communicate with humans and provide real-time support to businesses. The EMIEW-TT for tablet is an application that responds to different languages, supports active-learning dialogue and its three microphones can recognise two people’s voices.

It can be used to display information such as facilities and menus.

Shitara said the mini-EMIEW is currently under development and should be up for sale soon.