Tanyapong Thamavaranukt, president of Ascend Money, a fintech company providing financial services under TrueMoney, said it is providing TrueMoney services in Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia. The firm has more than 21 million users with Bt140 billion in e-transactions. It also has more than 50,000 agents outside Thailand and expects to have another 20,000 by the end of this year.

TrueMoney has 7 million active users in Thailand, posting more than Bt70 billion in total processing value (TPV) from January to August this year.

It plans to proceed with a link-up with more than 100,000 payment acceptance points, covering individual shops, retail establishments and branches to support the move towards a cashless society.

It has around 500,000 top-up points nationwide including FreshMart, Family Mart and 7/11, as well as True shops.

TrueMoney targets 10 million Thai active users by the end of this year, and 14 million by the end of 2019.

“TrueMoney is a collaboration platform between customers and shops who want to receive and settle transactions via online payment, offline payment and financial services,” Thanyapong said.

Monsinee Nakapanabt, co-president of Ascend Money, added that the company will adopt biometric technology and offer personal loans to users through its platform next year.

He is a younger brother of Malaysia’s former prime minister, Najib Razak.

He will also resign from all other positions within the CIMB group of companies.

He has served CIMB since 1989, including as group chief executive officer for 15 years and as group chairman since 2014.

The group has not yet revealed who will be his successor.

The “negative” outlook reflects concerns over the listed company’s abated competitive and financial strengths, which result in a weak resilience, TRIS said.

The rating continues to take into account Tirathai’s long track record and its capability in producing both power and distribution transformers with a wide range of capacities and system voltages.

These strengths are however considerably weighed down by high competitive pressure, a streak of eroded performance, and high leverage, the ratings firm added.

It also affirmed the rating on the listed company’s existing senior unsecured debentures at “BBB”.

At the same time, TRIS assigned the same rating to TTA’s issuance of up to Bt1.5 billion in senior unsecured debentures.

TTA will use the proceeds from the new debentures to procure new dry-bulk vessels, and for working capital.

According to “Internetworldstat 2017”, Internet penetration Myanmar stood at 33.4 per cent, but an International Telecommunication Union report that same year put fixed broadband subscription penetration at just 0.76 per cent.

“This means most Internet users are relying on the limited reliability of mobile Internet,” Sunti said.

General manager Passakorn Hongsyok said MIH secured rights-of-way for its fibre-optic network from Yangon Electricity Supply Corp in 2017 and approval from the Yangon City Development Committee earlier this year.

The company’s objective is to provide broadband Internet and data communication services, initially for corporations and dense residential areas.

“MIH has become the provider that can offer the fastest fibre-optic Internet broadband in Yangon,” said Passakorn. “With global technology partners, we are ready to support leading corporations to operate effectively in Myanmar.”

At present, MIH broadband covers 23 townships of Yangon – Ahlone, Bahan, Botahtaung, Dagon, Hlaing, Insein, Kamayut, Kyauktada, Kyimyindaing, Lanmadaw, Latha, Mayangone, Mingala Taungnyunt, North Okkalapa, Pabedan Pazundaung, Sanchaung, Seikkan, Shwepyithar, South Okkalapa, Tamwe, Thingangyun and Yankin.

AWN was one of two bidders in the licence auction held in August.

The company, a subsidiary of Advanced Info Service, has already paid the first instalment on the licence.

Darian McBain, global director of sustainability for the Thai Union Group, will address the panel on the topic of “Stepping up Action to End Forced Labour, Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking”.

“Thailand has made a number of advances on human rights, which should be commended, but there is more work to be done and I believe Thailand has the opportunity be a leader on the human rights agenda,” McBain told The Nation.

For instance, Thailand’s Depart-ment of Fisheries has been very supportive of an innovative digital traceability pilot project that Thai Union implemented last year. The project utilises mobile applications and satellite connectivity to track Thai fishing vessels.

Traceability – the ability to track a product in detail from its place of origin all the way to the consumer – is a key component that benefits producers and consumers by bringing transparency to the entire system.

Looking ahead, Thai Union aims to help Thailand find solutions to the industry’s greatest sustainability challenges, she added.

Since April 2015, the European Commission has given Thailand a so-called “yellow card” for illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Also, Thailand’s status in the latest US Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report was upgraded to Tier 2 in June this year for its efforts to combat modern slavery.

The director also raised concerns over the issue of modern slavery, human trafficking and labour rights in both the Thai and global fishing industries, saying it was a critical issue and more work needed to be done.

“Meaningful, collective action is needed to ensure the slavery that stains some modern-day supply chains is abolished,” she urged.

Another key message McBain will deliver at the session is a warning to agencies that pay no attention to sustainable development.

Companies and governments that ignore sustainable development or use it as a window dressing and greenwashing [deceptive promotion that a company is environmentally friendly], do so at their own peril, said McBain.

“They risk the long-term viability of their products and workforce, as well as the potential loss of access to global markets,” she added.

Thai Union’s compliance noted

Thai Union, the world’s largest producer of shelf-stable tuna products, was invited by the United Kingdom to participate in the assembly in recognition of being the first firm to comply with the UK Modern Slavery Act.

According to McBain, this is the first time a Thai business has been given a chance to be present at the UN General Assembly thanks to its efforts in successfully combating modern slavery and human trafficking in supply chains.

In 2015, the international community decided to work on eradicating forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking by 2030 as per Target 8.7 of the 2030 Agenda’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

Today at the UNGA, a cross-regional group of countries will convene to demonstrate the actions they have taken and will continue to take to achieve Target 8.7.

McBain is focused on implementing change that will drive sustainability through the entire global seafood industry. She is the main person behind the establishment and implementation of Thai Union’s SeaChange sustainability strategy launched in 2016. She said the initiative was contributing to broader societal change by helping the world meet the SDG.

The key factors for achieving sustainability in the seafood industry is focusing on the reduction of potential abuse and extortion of legal economic migrant workers, the director pointed out.

“For instance, in Thailand, not only are migrant workers susceptible to discrimination, but they can be coerced into paying high recruitment fees on the way from their home countries to secure a job,” she explained.

This means migrants seeking lawful employment might find themselves deeply in debt before arriving at the job, but debt bondage, she said, has no place in her operations.

Thai Union, a company with a global workforce that welcomes legal economic migrants, has eliminated recruitment fees for all workers in its factories and processing plants.

McBain added that there are a lot of challenges that the industry, and the world as a whole, is facing – from environmental issues such as ocean health and resilience to social challenges surrounding forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking that are being discussed at the UNGA.

Hence, she said, the industry, civil society and government need to work together to genuinely address these issues in a sustainable manner.

“Businesses are a significant agent for change and we should harness the power of business to bring about environmental, social as well as economic change for the good of people and the planet,” she said.

“At Eaton, we have a global marketing intelligence team to collect information on markets around the world. Interestingly, we have found out that only 30 per cent of Myanmar people have access to electricity the reliability of which is not that good. That is why we decided to enter Myanmar to better optimise power,” he said in an exclusive interview with The Nation.

Kidsada has noticed Myanmar’s growing demand for power and energy solutions as the country races towards electrifying 100 per cent of its households by 2030, the primary goal set out in the Myanmar National Electrification Plan.

He said infrastructural constraints could bring substantial challenges to the nation’s economic growth, despite abundant energy resources. This motivated the company’s expansion to Myanmar where efficient power solutions are urgently needed to support local businesses and attract foreign investors.

“Many businesses here need better power solutions. They are all facing the same challenges of reliable power. If businesses are able to utilise power more efficiently, their production capacity will increase, thereby the country will develop further,” he said.

“We focus only on power management, not on power generation. Our vision is to ensure that with the power you have, the people here can have access to the most reliable power by saving costs through the use of our products and solutions.” According to Kidsada, the company has a very sustainable investment plan for Myanmar, as it pledges long-term commitment in a country widely considered as Asia’s last frontier.

“Myanmar offers immense potential for exponential growth, particularly in the power and energy market. There are challenges of course, but we believe in its potential. So, we are here to find out what should be the right solutions for our customers in Myanmar to address their challenges,” he said.

“We need to consider the solutions very carefully. The requirements and problems of customers here are different from other countries. The main challenge here somehow is electricity. But, as a multinational company, we have experienced some cases in other countries that are quite similar to that of Myanmar.”

Though Kidsada was not explicit about the company’s investment plan owing to business confidentiality, he said investing in Myanmar could be direct as well as through its partners.

“When we look at a market, we mainly focus on sustainability. We foresee long-term sustainable growth here, so we need to collaborate with the right partners to deliver our solutions to the people of Myanmar. Part of our investment is to build up the competence of our partners. In the longer term, we will continue to invest more and more to ensure that businesses enjoy sustainable growth,” he said.

The company started its cooperation with MGR last year. Before it signed the partnership agreement, Eaton Corporation conducted several discussions and training for MGR staff, including sales executives and service people, to ensure that they are ready to support the customers in Myanmar.

“The signing of this agreement is a strong signal that we are now ready to serve our customers here. We expect closer relations with end users through our expansion into this market, so if they have any problem we can support them effectively,” he said.

“Collaboration is something that we believe in. We need local people to help us understand more about customers’ problems and needs because every country is different. Local partners play an important role in understanding the challenges of local customers and we can help address them for mutual benefits. We will do anything that matters to the customers.”

Kidsada said the partnership with MGR reflects the next level of Eaton’s commitment to growth in Asia. By forming strategic and meaningful relationships with partners and organisations, the company aims to support and empower Myanmar’s businesses and communities as they grow and evolve.

Together with MGR, Eaton will bring its global expertise to the data centres as well as the healthcare, utilities, banking and commercial building segments. Customers in Myanmar will be able to leverage the company’s key power management solutions, |including UPS (uninterruptible power system), automation and monitoring systems to improve the reliability of existing and newly developed power generation as well as transmission and distribution infrastructure.

“The cooperation helps. In every market we enter, we prioritise local requirements and local customers. In this regard, we need to have local partners that can help us minimise the challenges, including cultural differences and language barrier, to better understand what exactly is the need of our customers. Then, we can grow together with our partners,” he said.

The rising gross domestic product and increasing urbanisation are changing the lifestyles of people, said Laurent Troger, president of Bombardier Transportation. He was speaking last week at InnoTrans 2018 in Berlin.

“We will maintain our market share among the top three in the Asean market by providing more technology, innovativeness, service, and also customise our products to serve demand in this region,” Troger said.

He added that the company believes in growing strong local roots in key growth markets and sees potential in Asia Pacific for development of urban mass transit and advanced railway networks. Its long-standing presence in Asia began over 50 years ago and continues with 28 offices and production sites established across the region.

Currently, Bombardier’s expertise is evident in the supply of metro cars in cities like Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, New Delhi, Yongin in Seoul, Manila, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Bombardier has also delivered mainline and mass transit rail control systems in China, India, South Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.

In Thailand, Bombardier supplies both rail system, control system, trains, and other business related to train systems.

At present, the company is ranked second for train providers in the Thailand market.

“Thailand’s politics is now stable and the country’s economy is still growing, driving strong and aggressive demand to develop infrastructure projects compared with others countries in this region,” he said.

Bombardier entered Thailand in 1964 by delivering products to the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) when the first diesel locomotives were supplied. Bombardier and SRT have had a long relationship in both rolling stock and signalling systems.

In 2007, Bombardier Transportation was awarded the contract for the resignalling of the full BTS Skytrain route. Bombardier is delivering its CITYFLO 450 communications-based train control (CBTC) solution, which enables rail traffic headways to be reduced, increasing passenger capacity.

Currently, the company has also signed a turnkey agreement with BTS Group to build two monorail systems – Pink and Yellow lines – worth more than Bt20 billion.

In Singapore, the company was awarded an asset renewal contract to upgrade the Bukit Panjang LRT line with 19 new Bombardier Innovia APM 300 as well as 15 years of maintenance and spare parts contracts this year. In addition, another contract was awarded to Bombardier Transportation to supply 396 Moviametro for the North-South and East-West MRT line. The new order brings the number of Movia vehicles in Singapore to 672, making it one of Bombardier’s largest metro fleet in the world. To date, Bombardier has received orders for more than 3,900 of these Movia metro cars worldwide, he said.

The company also ranks second in terms of value in providing rail system in Singapore, the company’s president said.

In Malaysia, Bombardier Transportation and Taylor Woodrow International were lead sponsors in the Kuala Lumpur Sri Petaling and Ampang lines, formerly known as STAR (Sistem Transit Aliran Ringan). STAR was a special-purpose, limited-recourse project company, which was awarded a 30-year concession to finance, design, build and operate both phases of the Kuala Lumpur Light Rail Transit. The 27-kilometre system is now operated by RapidKL.

Bombardier Transportation has established an operations office in Kuala Lumpur to deliver these fully integrated turnkey transportation systems and harness a dedicated specialist team of 148 people to manage the entire scope locally.

Philippines and Indonesia are also seeing aggressive investment to develop the country’s infrastructure to serve the rising population. Rail system is integral to driving the country’s economy growth and supporting an urban lifestyle, he said.

He added that Bombardier is dedicated to become a strategic supplier to operators and authorities in Southeast Asia. The rail market in the Asia-Pacific region represents a dynamic growth of 2.5 per cent, according to analyses from the UNIFE 2010 market study. Transport authorities have announced several upcoming projects at the moment, including new metro lines and extensions of existing lines in Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Jakarta, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, all of which Bombardier sees great potential in.

“We expect to maintain our market share among the top three in Asean countries this year, and if we can become market leader that will be okay,” he said.

At the end of 2017, Bombardier Group reported total revenue of US$16.2 billion, with Bombardier Transport accounting for $8.5 billion.

The biggest threat to the banking business comes from giant technology firms and e-commerce, telcos and fintec businesses, armed with money, technology and a sizeable customer base. In the future, financial business will become seamless and banks still doing business in the traditional way are likely to run into difficulties. This is the reason why Kasikorn Business-Technology Group (KBTG) was set up three years ago.

Somkid Jiranuntarat, the chairman of KBTG, says the group aims to not only develop technology to help Kasikornbank (KBank) add new products and services for the customers, but also to make KBTG a world-class tech company that can provide a platform to all.

“We are not a bank but a technology company. We want KBTG to be recognised as a world-class technology company,” said Somkid.

When asked if KBank is the leader in the digital financial industry, he replies that KBank is the current leader in mobile banking in terms of transactions and number of customers, not only in Thailand but also in the Southeast Asia region.

He said in the future, business competition would not be explicitly visible since it would be “undiscovered territory”, hence KBTG needed to find and build its new business model.

He says the changing circumstances undoubtedly were a challenge. He insisted that his company could not remain dormant, escape, or avoid the changes and therefore the situation had to be dealt with proactively.

“My main mission is to help KBTG and KBank as Thai banks are on the brink of being taken over or risk being disrupted by other businesses. Being the leader in mobile banking in Southeast Asia is just a small thing when compared to the global level. Many of the operators have customers running into billions, like WeChat and Alipay,” said Somkid.

Currently, KBank has 10 million users – a small number when compared with the global scale. He said KBank is aiming for exponential growth and not just an incremental increase. “We want to grow 10 times from the current 10 million in the next 5 to 10 years,” he says.

“We want to be a global player, but we will start from being a regional player – Indo-China, CLMV [Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Vietnam] and the Southeast Asia region. To expand to other countries, we need to have a global-player mindset. We cannot think like a local player at all,” said Somkid.

KBTG was born and grew from mobile banking. And as a part of KBank, it has the source of funds to grow and expand its business. Somkid believes these factors will help KBTG become a leading global technology firm.

He says that KBTG and giant global players such as Alibaba and WeChat might think along the same lines. But, he says, there is one major difference. His parent company is in the financial sector and has diversified beyond banking, while the others are primarily in the technology sector and have diversified into the financial services sector.

“We come from different backgrounds, but we might have similar thinking and perhaps we would meet at the destination. It depends on how well we concentrate and how hard we work,” said Somkid.

Therefore, KBTG and KBank need to build their own platform, which is KPlus. KPlus is being rebuilt and is scheduled for launch some time soon. The new version of KPlus will enable KBank to become a regional and global player as planned.

The new version KPlus is designed to be a platform that will go beyond one bank and beyond banking. The concept of the new KPlus version is being opened as an AI-driven platform, which supports its partner to take part on this platform. Services will not be limited to financial services and partners need not come only from the banking and financial sector, says Somkid.

“We are eyeing the global market. Our goal is to have 100 million users, of course not just in Thailand. This is my challenge and KBank’s since I cannot do it alone and we need to work as a team,” said Somkid.

Coping with digital disruption

He recalls difficult days in earlier times. “It was when I took care of the KTransformation project, the second re-engineering of KBank.” KTransformaton is a 10-year project.

Somkid joined KBank midway through the bank’s efforts to implement KTransformation, when it was faced with difficulties and confusion.

Somkid says it was about technological re-engineering. KBank was building its internal technological capability and it brought technology back from outsourcing. The bank realised that in the next future it would face digital disruption and hence it needed to boost its own technological capacity.

“It was difficult because we needed to build our whole new technology capacity after having outsourced for a decade. Finally, we brought all the technology jobs back to KBTG,” said Somkid.

KTransformation was the largest, the most challenging, and also the most difficult project. However, Somkid says the current challenges are greater than KTransformation. “The difficulty about KTransformation was the complexity while the current challenge comes from the digital disruption, which is an unexplored territory.

“Digital disruption is not just the third re-engineering of KBank. It goes beyond that. We have to rethink the business model. The second re-engineering was KTransformation, which was primarily a re-engineering of technology, while the first one was about the process,” said Somkid.

He admits that to build capability for new technologies requires attracting top talents to join the team. KBTG was set up as a technology army for KBank with a vigorous and agile culture.

“It is never enough when we talk about technology resources. Our job is to create new business models and services that are driven by technology. There is never enough resource capability when compared to the jobs we need to do. We still need a lot more digital and technology talents,” said Somkid.

He is confident that KBTG has done a good job on human resource development through the past three years. KBTG has a strong AI team along with blockchain and mobile technology teams.

Currently, KBTG has 1,200 employees, 70 per cent of whom are tech personnel. KLabs is the key weapon for KBTG as it aims to be world class, working on new and innovative technologies including blockchain, AI design and mobile. KLabs needs to have talent capable of working with global companies.

“We need to be engrossed in, and not give up our belief in our ability to reach, our destination. We need to have imagination the scenario of our destination goal.

Even though the picture might not be clear, our job is to make it more clear and |more obvious,” said Somkid.

Leadership is important

Somkid believes the leader’s thinking and vision is very important in leading the company forward. The challenge is how to turn leader’s vision into reality. Execution is the key to success, he says but adds, “Having the same strategy will not guarantee the same level of success.

“We need to get our team to truly understand the company’s strategy – only then we can ensure proper execution. Execution is not just about the leader’s thinking and talking; it must develop the team’s trust and understanding and doing.

There are many factors to get execution done successfully, including leadership, teamwork and support.

“There are so many details that the leader needs to have a bird’s-eye view of while the team needs to help make the vision a reality. There should not be much of a gap between the leader’s thought and the team’s execution. If the leader has both the vision and the capability to act on it, the company will have a lot better chance to achieve the vision,” said Somkid.

At age 58, Somkid is leading a KLabs team whose average age is less than 30, a situation similar to many giant world-class tech firms.

“I am from the baby-boomer generation while most of my team members are millennials, who were born as digital natives. They can think and do multitasking quickly. We need to tune our mindset to minimise our gap between generations,” said Somkid.

He says trust and respect are the key. Executives and the team need to get in touch, share, listen to and respect each other as well as learn together. A generation gap should not be allowed to develop.

“It is like a family consisting of people from different generations but our relationships are good. We respect and listen to each other, learn together,” said Somkid.

He shares not only his vision, but also his mission and passion with his team to create an impact on society, not just create another new product or service. He has built their ambition to develop a new platform with new technology that would create benefit for all people.

For example, he says, KBTG has developed a platform, the new version of KPlus, with the aim of helping people, especially those who lack opportunities. He believes technology will help reduce the wealth gap in society.

Meaningful platform

Poor and underprivileged people will be worse off since the economic structure is not designed to encourage poor and underprivileged people access opportunities needed to make their lives better. People who have no chance will be poorer, while people who get chances will be richer, says Somkid.

“For example, when farmers or small people who need loans cannot get financial support, they turn to informal debt. There is no one to help them develop and improve their productivity to earn money. Technology can help in this area. The platform we are |developing can help this group of people to have more opportunity to first get capital to invest in farming or do their own business,” he said.

“Then, the platform, driven by AI and machine learning technology, can help them to easily reach the huge potential market without middlemen. This is the chance we can offer them. It is a new economic structure that we are dreaming of making happen.”

He wants to see his platform developed by KBTG help create new entrepreneurs. He says that is one of the aims of the new version of the KPlus platform.

Of course, he insists that cybersecurity and privacy are also things they are concerned about. Still, he does not see these as a threat to move forward in the digital life.

“We dream to make it an open platform to help people have a better life. And, we hope to expand it at the regional and global levels eventually. The platform itself can be still be sustainable, while helping the country’s economy, the people and small business to have tools to make better and new products.”

Striving for work-life balance

Somkid works hard with his team but he always pays importance to balancing his work and family life.

“I do not have a 9-to-5 working life. Sometimes I work 24 hours, sometimes I stay with my family for 24 hours. The thing I need to improve is spending time in my own life. I need to improve balancing of these three: my personal life, my family life and my work, since these three things are important for me and for society,” he said.

Somkid’s motto is to never give up when he is working on something and faced with a difficulty. He does not believe in the concept of “impossible”.

“We can make the impossible or beyond possibility to become possible. If we never give up, we are always fighting, some day we will win,” said Somkid.

Somkid says he is fearless because he has had close brushes with death many times. He once had to undergo a five-hour operation to change his heart valve. Hence, he said, he was not afraid of anything because, “in the worst-case scenario, one will just die”.

“My heart did not beat for five hours. I have also been in difficult situations where I wondered if I would live to see the morrow. So, I never worry about the future,” said Somkid.

He would like to see the good ideas from skilful talents develop meaningful products and services that would inspire others to join the KBTG ecosystem.