The technology enables personalisation of loan products in pricing, tenor, and repayment schedules to match the needs of individual customers.

The platform helps reduce the standard loan process from three to seven days to just 15 minutes and is integrated into the core banking system, allowing instant disbursement of approved loans into customer accounts.

The award is presented by The Digital Banker, a globally trusted news, business intelligence and content distribution provider for the financial services sector.

“The Krungthai NEXT app is the beginning of a mobile banking system that addresses the basic needs of grassroots consumers, delivering the next level of mobile banking infrastructure at the macro level,” Payong Srivanich, president and chief executive officer of Krungthai Bank Public Co Ltd, said yesterday at a launch event for the application.

Krungthai announced a budget of more than Bt10 billion to upgrade its mobile banking infrastructure into the new era of invisible banking with the launch of Krungthai NEXT.

Krungthai has introduced a presenter, Nadech Kugimiya, to woo customers and communicate the app’s benefits, including convenience, ease of use, and comprehensiveness, with what the bank identifies as Thailand 4.0 consumers and target markets.

“The goal of pursuing invisible banking services is to provide all services that bank branches do through mobile banking. The Krungthai NEXT app will allow Krungthai to become the first invisible banking provider,” said Payong.

Krungthai is a state-owned bank that serves the needs of the public. In launching its Krungthai NEXT app, it is moving forward into the digital era and supporting the government’s 4.0 policy, said Ekniti Kitithanprapas, chairman of Krungthai Bank Public Co Ltd.

Payong said: “Thai consumers transferred and paid bills via over 37.9 million mobile banking accounts as of June 2018, an increase from 31.6 million accounts at the end of 2017. However, ownership of mobile phones is as high as 56 million, according to the latest research from the Bank of Thailand.

“Private banks have been focusing on customers in Bangkok, leading to a lack of market penetration in upcountry areas with regards to mobile banking applications. This is because of a lack of understanding on the technology, and the perception that the technology is difficult to use.”

The highlights of the Krungthai NEXT app include free transfers across different banks, top-up services for AIS, DTAC, True, Easy Pass and M-Pass, payments covering government and state enterprises, payment of electricity bills and traffic tickets, as well as the ability for customers to take out student loans.

The app will also offer currency exchange services at what the bank calls a competitive exchange rate for up to 10 currencies including the US dollar, the British pound and the euro.

Additionally, the app will include an e-donation function for more than 7,000 organisations including temples, hospitals, foundations, education institutes, mosques, and other charitable organisations, said Jakkrit Klinsmith, executive vice president, team leader innovation lab department, at Krungthai Bank.

“Donors will receive electronic receipts, while the system will automatically inform the Revenue Department about the donation for tax deduction purposes,” he said,

Payong said: “Today, Krungthai Bank holds more than 30 million bank accounts, of which 5 million accounts are mobile banking accounts. We expect that the Krungthai NEXT app will be able to help increase the number of mobile banking users to 10 million users by 2019, while contributing to the growth of the mobile banking sector in Thailand.”

 Myanmar’s biggest online shopping platform was acquired by Alibaba earlier this year.

“It is ambitious but we believe it is possible. Even though Alibaba has a very long-term vision, we hope to grow rapidly in this country,” Maas said in an exclusive interview.

“With Alibaba’s high technology and expertise in developing e-commerce in emerging markets worldwide, the company is set to maintain its leadership position in Myanmar’s e-commerce industry.

“Our strategy is that we need to develop local e-commerce first. Alibaba really believes in a localised e-commerce company, rather than bringing in a bunch of Chinese employees to Myanmar. Instead, Alibaba helps us build our own team, own structure and connection.”

Maas said Alibaba’s business expansion in Myanmar is under way, as the company aims to expand its current workforce of 230 employees to more than 1,000 in the country over the next few years.

Shop has become a company under Alibaba Group since its acquisition in May of Daraz Group, which had been owned by German start-up incubator Rocket Internet. Since then, all the contracts of the company’s staff have been under the management of Alibaba.

“Rocket Internet had a very short-term vision because they wanted to sell the company. They usually build a company and try to grow as soon as possible in order to sell it,” said Maas.

“Unlike them, Alibaba is committed to sustainability for many decades. They are much more focused on the long term, which means it is actually great to work in.”

The executive believes technology will mainly drive Alibaba’s growth in Myanmar.

“Everything is possible in Myanmar. We have seen a lot of significant changes here over the past few years. There is so much possibility with information technology – in personalisation for people, in direct messaging between customers and sellers, in real time data for sellers and so on,” he said.

“Technology will really shape customers’ experience, increase sellers’ skills and knowledge and improve the optimisation of the industry as a whole. For instance, payment technologies have improved in line with international standards. It is now super safe and secure.”

He foresees the use of technology-driven solutions that are more convenient and user-friendly in the months to come. This could have huge impacts on the e-commerce platform, he said.

More than half a million people in Myanmar use the platform for their online sales and purchases through its website or mobile application every month. A few thousand sellers have signed up on the website to sell their products online without the need to bother about the rental fees and electricity costs involved in opening a shop.

Maas expects to see a significant increase in the number of sellers thanks to its zero-commission strategy and better logistics and payment solutions.

“We are making it much more open for sellers so that they can closely work with us. For logistics, we have partnered with many companies, and Visa is our main partner for payments because it is the most sophisticated card in this country for online payments,” he said.

“MPU [Myanmar Payment Union] is not yet e-commerce enabled. But we will provide more payment options for customers in the near future. We are now actively discussing with private banks to introduce new payment solutions.”

The company will launch an instant messaging feature to ensure faster and better communication between customers and sellers within a few weeks. Consumers are also allowed to continue writing reviews, rating the sellers, and returning purchased goods to the sellers within one week if they are not satisfied with the quality of the products received.

“We will try to provide ordered goods as soon as possible, and will try to localise as much as we can. We will mainly focus on attracting new customers and educating sellers to ensure a better consumer experience in Myanmar.

We will educate customers and sellers about how online works through some video clips and handbooks in Burmese,” Maas said.

“Millions of Myanmar people have never bought anything online, as the industry is very young. Our main competitor in this market is Facebook because many people are buying and selling on Facebook, though it was not supposed to do so.”

Maas said the company’s growth would depend on how fast Myanmar people adapt to using new technologies.

“A very small percentage of businesses sell their products online because many people lack trust on e-commerce systems here. We will help build people’s trust on e-commerce. It is just a matter of time,” he said.

Maas said Alibaba would hold its first “11.11 The World’s Biggest Sale Day” in Myanmar on November 11 and he expects to see sales volumes 20 to 30 times higher than those of normal trading days.

The company yesterday started its first ever HIMA Users Conference Asia Pacific 2018 in Bangkok at the Royal Orchid Sheraton Hotel & Towers. The inaugural Users Conference provides deep industry insights on topics such as Cybersecurity, Industrial Safety, and trends of the Oil & Gas Industry in Asia Pacific. The two-day conference ends today.

Friedhelm Best, vice president for Asia Pacific, HIMA Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, said that one of the key driving factors are regional governments and regulators taking cybersecurity more seriously, and introducing stringent regulatory frameworks and laws.

“Thailand is also driving in this direction, with the drafting of a cybersecurity bill to be tabled. Cybersecurity is a rapidly growing industry, with mew emerging threats, including some which target IoT as well. There is a critical need for hardware protection, but also support in the analysis of risk assessments and help for companies to set in place safe processes,” he said.

Best said that HIMA has been operating in Malaysia for 25 years. It also has a office in South Korea. The company started to invest in Singapore as its headquarters in Asia Pacific headquarters about two years ago.

The company is working with local partners in countries such as Indonesia and Vietnam.

“Our inroads for Thailand is mainly driven by solutions, applications and machinery pipelines. HIMA wants to bring these infrastructural benefits to Thai operators who are constantly looking for more profitable and reliable processes in their production. HIMA will also provide training and services to these operators,” said Best.

“The Asean market is a fast growing market, with consumers who are agile and open to new solutions and technologies,” he said.

Best said that the process safety market is slated to be growing at about 9 per cent in APAC and two thirds of the growth are likely to be in the gas market in Asia – a big market for process safety.

‘Safecurity’ for the industrial sector

While industrial facilities and infrastructures are adept and adequate just by being functionally safe, the field has transformed to require both safety and security today.

“Safecurity” is a natural evolution of HIMA’s laser focus on bringing Smart Safety and Security together for industrial applications. While the world defends and protects against hackers in e-commerce, financial services, healthcare, government and other sectors, the industrial sector is often neglected in terms of cybersecurity.

HIMA has pioneered the convergence of managing both safety and security together, so that plants and infrastructures will always work well under pressure, and will not succumb to cyberattacks. Already, nine out of ten of the biggest gas companies and ten out of ten of the largest oil companies in the world rely on HIMA technologies. Standards are everything, and HIMA covers the world’s highest safety standards, ensuring that customers will comply with regulatory requirements and be ready for the future.

Knowledge platform

“Thailand hosts one of the region’s most developed and advanced oil and gas and industrial chemicals markets, and has practitioners from the Kingdom and the region thirsting for practical and actionable knowledge. Industrial facilities and critical infrastructures are also becoming incredibly complex, with the advent of Industry 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things (IoT). With the encroachment of cybersecurity and legal compliance into the industrial space, there is now a critical need to not only ensure industrial plants and critical infrastructures work around the clock without fail, but also ensure hackers are kept at bay from crippling or holding at ransom these plants and infrastructures,” said Best.

“Having installed more than 35,000 TUV-certified safety systems worldwide over the last 45 years, we have pioneered the actionable systems philosophy of ‘Safecurity’, where Safety and Security are tightly intertwined to provide fail-safe systems at plants and infrastructures around the world. At the Users Conference 2018 in Bangkok, we have gathered a panel of practitioner-speakers to ensure that our colleagues from diverse industrial fields come together to learn and share together the mission-critical knowledge and actionable insights of ‘Safecurity’.”

For this year, the investment budget has been cut from Bt50 billion to Bt45 billion.

After the company spent Bt35 billion of this allocation in the first nine months of this year, it |will spend about Bt10 billion for |the remaining months, Roongrote said.

In 2019, the group will invest no more than Bt60 billion and that level may be reduced subject to the deliberations of the board and management, he said.

However, the group’s investment in a petrochemical complex in Vietnam will be maintained, in line with the investment plan, with a budget of Bt20 billion in 2019, he said, adding that this came under a total investment budget of about Bt60 billion.

“We have had to revise down our investment plan after we saw the business uncertainties posed by the trade war between the USA and China,” Roongrote said.

“This will have a negative impact on the global economy and our business, as most of our customers have delayed their purchase decisions due to China moving its export products from the USA market to other regions, including the Asia and Asean markets.

“This is directly impacting our business in the Asia and Asean markets.”

He acknowledged the potential for the group to increase its exports of chemical products, construction raw materials and packaging to China and the United States as the trade superpowers reduced the flow of imports from each other.

But the value gained from such sales would not offset the impact of China’s increased exports to Asean and elsewhere in Asia and the dampened demand from SCG customers that are likely to spend less amid the concerns over the global economy.

Drop in net profit

With the trade conflict under way for months already, SCG has announced total revenue of Bt122.5 billion for the third quarter of this year, up 9 per cent from the same quarter of last year.

However, net profit of Bt9.47 dropped 20 per cent from the year-earlier quarter. The decline was due mainly to asset impairment charges of Bt1.67 billion in accordance with accounting standards and higher naphtha costs, which surged with rising global oil prices. Without this impairment, SCG would have recorded Bt1.14 billion in profit for the period.

Up to 25 per cent of its total revenue in the third quarter of this year, or Bt30.89 billion, came from the Asean market; this marks a gain of 15 per cent from the same period of last year.

The group’s total revenue for the first nine months of this year came to Bt361.21 billion, up 7 per cent from the same period of last year. But net profit of Bt34.28 billion dropped 19 per cent from the first nine months of last year. Up to 24 per cent of total revenue from January to September, or Bt87.94 billion, came from the Asean market. Some Bt64.32 billion, or 18 per cent, came from regions outside Asean.

“Our sales have continued to grow thanks to strong demand for petrochemicals, construction raw materials, and packaging, but our raw materials and energy costs are also rising as a result of the global economy’s moderate growth,” he said.

However, the group is maintaining its projection for business growth of 7 per cent this year compared with last year.

Roongrote said that, with the global economic uncertainties, the group was unable to estimate its net profit for the last quarter of this year.

Meanwhile, the group is trying to manage the costs for its raw materials and management, while improving its production capacity and finding new markets in order to maintain its sales revenue and net profit growth, Roongrote said.

The services will be provided for the Bombardier Innovia monorail 300 systems in delivery for Thailand’s first two monorail lines: the Bangkok pink and yellow lines. The order was announced by Bombardier on July 6, 2018 and is valued at approximately 245 million euros (Bt9.23 billion).

Commenting on the order, Keeree Kanjanapas, who chairs the BTSC board of directors, said that its focus is to ensure the highest levels of passenger safety, comfort and performance. “The agreement ensures we will strengthen system performance by drawing on Bombardier’s expertise to provide full continuity between delivery and maintenance for the iconic new system,” he said.

Gregory Enjalbert, Bombardier Transportation’s managing director for Thailand, added that this first long-term services contract for the Innovia monorail 300 system “reflects the benefit we can bring to our customers throughout the full life-cycle of our systems, ensuring highest reliability and availability for the equipment maintained. The company is very pleased to continue our over a decade-long partnership with BTSC and to continue to contribute to Bangkok’s urban development”.

This latest contract will see Bombardier maintain the monorail trains, comprising 288 cars, as well as the system’s guideway switches and depot equipment. In 2017, Bombardier signed contracts to deliver its full turnkey Innovia monorail 300 systems for Bangkok’s Khae Rai to MinBuri (pink) line and Lat Phrao to Samrong (yellow) line.

Bombardier is one of the few mobility solution providers to deliver projects from Thailand for Thailand, including its rail control solutions for Bangkok’s mass transit lines, noted a press release yesterday.

Since 1997, Bombardier has grown its Bangkok team to over 620 engineers and employees, providing full life-cycle rail system support for customers throughout the Asia Pacific.

Bombardier Transportation is a global mobility solution provider and boasting the rail industry’s broadest portfolio. It covers the full spectrum of solutions, ranging from trains to sub-systems and signalling to complete turnkey transport systems, e-mobility technology and data-driven maintenance services.

It aims to provide integrated solutions that create substantial benefits for operators, passengers and the environment, said the release. Headquartered in Berlin, Germany, Bombardier Transportation employs around 39,850 people and its products and services operate in over 60 countries.