Following a meeting with PTT executives, Korn, a leading member of the Democrat Party, said he would on Monday petition the prime minister, the energy minister and the Ombudsman regarding the unfair business practice of the country’s energy conglomerate and other state-owned enterprises.

Korn raised the question after PTT, through Global Power Synergy Pcl (GPSC) in which it a major shareholder, planned to acquire Glow Energy Public Co, which generates electricity.

Korn said PTT currently has a monopoly on the liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade and it sells LNG to every electricity generation plant. Therefore, it should not jump into the electricity generation business because it could lead to unfair practices. PTT executives explained to him that PTT wanted Glow to supply electricity to its own business, Korn said. He said PTT’s move might be in violation of Article 75 of the Constitution that prohibits the state from competing against private companies.

Korn said he would petition Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha, the Energy Minister and the Office of the Ombudsman on Monday about the issue. The ombudsman will scrutinise the case and decide if it should be forwarded to the Constitutional Court. Korn posted his comment on his Facebook page, which drew “Like” signs from many people.

Deunden Nikomborirak, a research director at Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI), backed Korn, saying PTT may be violating the Constitution. She said a plan to buy Glow may lead to a vertical integrated business and then PTT could discriminate against other electricity generating plants while offering special treatment to Glow. Such an act would also breach the trade competition law, she said.

Pairoj Vongvipanond, a former dean of Chulalongkorn University’s Economics Faculty, shared similar views, saying PTT may take advantage of the weak trade competition law in Thailand. “We have to accept that our competition law is weaker than the anti-trust law in the United States,” he said.

Korn also raised the issue of PTT expanding its retail coffee brand Amazon. He warned that the PTT may take advantage of small market players. PTT executives agreed to rethink their coffee franchise, Korn quoted them as saying.

PTT, however, has not made a public statement on the two issues.

Deunden said she shared Korn’s view. PTT, as a state-run enterprise, should not be in the coffee business and compete with individuals or private companies, she said. This case may also run counter to the provisions in the Constitution, she added.

Praipol Koomsup, an economist specialising in the energy sector, saw no good reason for PTT to be in the coffee business, as it is a state-run enterprise and had been assigned to be in the energy businesses. Having a coffee franchise might be beyond its mandate, he said.

He, however, did not agree with Korn’s criticism of PTT’s plan to move into the electricity generation business. He said energy is currently monopolised by the state so PTT as a state enterprise could enter the market.

Manoon Siriwan, a member of the National Reform Committee on Energy sector, defended PTT saying the government has started to open import of LNG, so not only PTT but other potential importers could also import LNG. Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) has got the licence to import LNG, previously monopolised by PTT, he said, adding that PTT had only a 20 per cent stockholding in GPSC.

Reacting to the Manoon’s comments, Korn told The Nation that in practice Egat had not yet imported LNG, so it meant that PTT still monopolised LNG trade.

The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) has refused an extension of the 27-year concession granted to dtac by CAT Telecom after it expires on September 15.

Dtac has several times requested relief measures, but the NBTC has offered no remedy.

The petition to the court is aimed at letting customers continue using the 850MHz spectrum until a verdict in the dispute is rendered.

It seeks a “remedy period” from the NBTC during which the telecom operator can continue offering services after the concession lapses and consumers have time to migrate to other networks.

“We view with grave concern the NBTC’s inability to arrive at a conclusion to this matter, despite the existence of a legal framework, as well as the existence of precedents involving other operators,” Dtac Chief Corporate Affairs and Business Development Officer Rajiv Bawa said.

“To protect our customers, we have no choice but to file a case for temporary protection.”

The firm expects to invest in 40-50 external start-ups and entrepreneurs as well as deep technologies to enhance efficiency and productivity in its operations.

Yuttana Jiamtragan, the vice president for corporate administration of SCG, said the firm had set up a Digital Transformation unit last year in order to drive its organisation with digital technology.

The giant group has allocated an investment budget of around Bt6 billion for five years (2017-21), with Bt3 billion budgeted for start-ups and another Bt3 billion for deep technology to support its business and customers.

“SCG has adopted digital technology to enhance our efficiency and create competitiveness so that we can move forward quickly, understand the behavioural insights of customers and consumers.

“As result, we can provide one-stop services to customers and improve human resources, the working process, as well as products, services and solutions for our business,” said Yuttana.

The firm will invest in internal and external start-ups. For internal start-ups, the firm has created the Start-up Studio programme in order to incubate internal start-ups with self-disruption.

It will synergise its core businesses including cement, building materials, chemicals and packaging.

It did not disclose the number of internal start-ups it expected to develop as part of the five-year plan.

For external start-ups, the firm will invest in industrial areas such as smart manufacturing, robotics and automation. It will also invest in business-to-business activities including e-marketing platform for construction products, logistics, packaging and chemicals.

Blockchain and AI

It will also invest in enterprises in the areas of e-commerce enablement, omni-channel, Blockchain and artificial intelligence.

The firm has invested in 11 external start-ups and entrepreneurs as venture capital and direct investment such as Getlinks, dekoruma.com and Adatos.AI.

The firm expects to invest in 40-50 start-ups and entrepreneurs within five years.

“We are ready to encourage our staff to pitch their new business models in the internal start-ups programme. Meanwhile, we will keep investing in start-ups across the Asean region,” said Yuttana.

He added that in the area of deep technologies, the firm would invest in innovative and technologies that have a direct effect on its core businesses such as smart packaging, digital printing and predictive maintenance to improve its business efficiency and productivity.

Yuttana added that the SCG each year would budget around Bt4 billion to support research and development, or around 1 per cent of total revenue.

In an era where 5G, Internet of Things (IoTs) and artificial intelligence (AI) are part of life, massive amounts of data is created, stored and shared. Hence, rules and regulations are required to protect people’s personal data and privacy especially when data flows across borders.

The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, uniting more than 750 operators with over 350 companies in a broader mobile ecosystem, including handset and device makers, software companies, equipment providers and Internet companies.

In its latest report, “Digital Identities, Advancing Digital Societies in Asia-Pacific”, GSMA says that the key components of a digital society are digital citizens, digital lifestyle and digital commerce, but the two fundamental factors are digital identity and connectivity.

Boris Wojtan, senior director of privacy at GSMA, told the press yesterday that restrictive data flow regulations might affect cross-border investment and have a negative impact on economies. Hence, he said, Asian governments should remove unnecessary regulations and make cross-border data flows smoother and safer. He was speaking at the “Mobile 360- Digital Society” conference in Bangkok.

In another report, titled “Regional Privacy Frameworks and Cross-Border Data Flows: How Asean and Apec can Protect Data and Drive Innovation”, GSMA explains that the Asia-Pacific region has a different level of data protection and privacy laws. For instance, Singapore and Japan have adopted a free data-flow policy, while Thailand does not restrict or encourage data flow.

“With Thailand becoming the next Asean leader, it will require a data-protection law. Hence, we would encourage Thailand to become a role model in terms of cross-border data flow. This is an important time for all countries to bridge differences in their privacy regulations and become better aligned,” Wojtan said.

He explained that over the past decade, international data flow had boosted the global gross domestic product (GDP) by 10.1 per cent, while barriers have reduced the GDP in some Asian countries by 0.5 to 1.7 per cent. For instance, the Philippines business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, which is built on efficient data flow, rakes in US$25.5 billion (Bt837 billion) annually. Meanwhile, the localisation of data has increased the cost of cloud services by 30 to 60 per cent in Brazil and the EU.

Asia has two main privacy frameworks included the Asean Framework on Personal Data Protection and the Apec Privacy Framework, but Wojtan said they are adopted and implemented differently in each country.

“There are two key points when we talk about data flow – mainly protecting the consumer and driving innovation. Both the negative and positive impacts of cross-border data flow need to be balanced. The government should have what we call a ‘pro-flow’ policy to encourage data flow and a ‘no-flow’ policy to keep specific data in the country for a period of time,” Wojtan said.

Free flow of data can stimulate digital economy, enable diversity of culture and help countries fight terrorism, he said.

The company expects Bt16.43 billion in debt restructuring and collections for the whole year , and a net profit of Bt4.2 billion, the company’s president Somporn Moonsrikaew said yesterday.

The company has also bought non-performing loans and non-performing assets worth Bt8.38 billion in the fist eight months, he said.

The TRA’s new president, Worawoot Ounjai, also said the association wanted to see an increase in the concession fee, which would boost the revenue of Airports of Thailand.

Worawoot said that every country in Asean was attempting to stimulate the domestic retail market with tourism policies that pushed consumption. He pointed to Malaysia’s “Truly Asia” campaign as well as the “Wonderful Indonesia”, “It’s more fun in the Philippines” and “Vietnam Timeless Charm” campaigns.

This resulted in retail growth of between 8 and 12 per cent in those countries, while “Amazing Thailand” was able to achieve only 3.8 per cent growth.

If the state sector wishes to stimulate sustainable growth in the economy, there should be measures to support tourist spending and increase the competitive potential by drawing tourists from around the world to visit Thailand. There must be a strategy to make Thailand a destination for both tourism and shopping, he said.

“Generally, many duty-free operators around the world pay between 35 to 40 per cent as concession fee, while in Thailand, the concession fees for the airport duty free are at only between 15 per cent and 19 per cent. We would like the concession fee to be about 30 per cent or more,” said Worawoot.

Worawoot had earlier in the year called for a study of appropriate methods for granting duty-free concessions in Thailand to make the process transparent, efficient and of greatest benefit to the state and the people. He said Thailand had a great opportunity to pump up its income from tourist retail – a Bt270-billion increase in revenue per year would boost the government’s coffers by Bt32 billion per year.

Worawoot said as the new TRA president he would continue the policy of the previous board of promoting Thailand as a shopping paradise. He called for many important measures by the government, especially on VAT refund for tourists.

“We currently have VAT-free stores, but they are not full-fledged. Retail stores in Thailand have been defined as stores offering VAT Refunds for Tourists, for which consumers must submit documents to request a VAT refund at a service counter at the airport. When they get the refund, most tourists do not spend much at the airport, as they only have a little shopping time left.

“If we wish to make it convenient for tourists to shop, we could specify that participating stores be VAT-free shops, by specifying stores to sell products whose price excludes VAT. If the sale price includes VAT, tourists should be able to request an immediate refund on the day of purchase at the point of sale,” he said.

“The government sector must promote free operation of downtown duty- and tax-free shops, especially in provinces with high tourism potential. They should allow tourists to shop in these stores and show just the documents according to the regulations of the Customs Department at a counter in the airport, just as in many countries in Europe,” he said. Incentives for tourists to visit and shop in Thailand could make Thailand a destination on par with Hong Kong or Singapore, he added.

At present, the consumer retail market in Thailand is worth about Bt3.6 trillion as of 2017 or about US$1 billion – modern chain stores account for 32 per cent of the consumer retail value; upcountry retailers account for 12 to 15 per cent of retail consumption; and mom and pop grocery stores account for 53 to 55 per cent.

PTT Plc, of which GPSC is a unit, has meanwhile insisted that the deal was fully transparent.

ERC chairman Pornthape Thunyapongchai said the commission’s inspection was expected to end this month as per a legal requirement that such probes be concluded within 90 days.

Korn Chatikavanij, chairman of the Democrat Party’s policy unit, asked the ERC in an August 31 Facebook post to examine the acquisition of a 69.11-per-cent stake in Glow, suggesting the state enterprise held an edge over rivals in business operations.

ERC commissioner and spokesman Viraphol Jirapraditkul said it teamed up with the Ministry of Commerce to examine the matter.

“The inspection will take time, given its sensitive nature and all the laws involved, such as the Energy Industry Act and Trade Competition Act,” Viraphol said. “The GPSC acquisition, if you look only at the Map Ta Phut area, could increase power-production capacity. But we have to look at the overall picture, the whole country.”

Thailand can produce 40,000 megawatts, about half of it coming from the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand and 10,000 from Gulf (Energy Development) Group. GPSC, if joined with domestic power firm Glow, would offer capacity of 4,800 megawatts.

PTT chief executive and president Chansin Treenuchagron said Glow wanted to sell its shares and PTT was interested in buying. GPSC, which is about 20-per-cent owned by PTT, had carefully assessed the deal and considered how much power PTT needs.

Whether or not the deal would represent a monopoly would be for the ERC and Commerce Ministry to decide, he said.

GPSC produces power for industrial customers that require continuous supply, Chansin noted.