The partnership will offer enhanced connectivity in the combined networks of both airlines.

Under the expanded codeshare agreement, Jet Airways will place its marketing code on Bangkok Airways’ flights from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Koh Samui, Krabi, Phuket, Sukhothai and Trat in Thailand and Da Nang and Phu Quoc in Vietnam.

The codeshare flights will start from tomorrow (Thursday).

Praram 9, through the rebranding exercise and business strategy shift, will forge sustainable growth through an extended client base, including disease-prone patients, the health conscious and those with complicated diseases.

Dr Satian Pooprasert, CEO of Praram 9, said: “The hospital has been trusted by customers over the years, thanks to outstanding performance of the medical institutes and centres under the hospital’s administration, including Praram 9 Kidney Transplantation Institute, Praram 9 Cardiovascular Institute, Diabetes and Metabolic Centre, as well as our multidisciplinary team whose recent achievements include a successful kidney transplant surgery for a 80-year-old patient.

“The hospital has managed to deliver excellence in medical equipment and technology, affordability through value-for-money services, a central location and a continuously growing number of office buildings and real estate projects.”

Praram 9 is popular among medical tourists, especially those from Myanmar and Cambodia, and Japanese and Chinese residents.

The five-hour Hanoi-Tokyo flight will operate a daily return, starting on January 11.

The flight departs from Hanoi before 1am and arrives in Tokyo at 8am and the return is at 9:30am, landing in Hanoi at 2pm.

The “Hollywood to your home” concept with the 4K, 55-inch screens is capturing the largest market share, the firm said.

Video on demand and other applications are hoping to attract a new generation in their 20s.

Hidekazu Ito, managing director of Panasonic Thailand, said: “On the 100th anniversary of Panasonic’s founding, our mission is to transform Panasonic to become a lifestyle provider to offer new experiences and a better life for Thai consumers through premium products and innovation with the line of products that caters to the need of consumers.

“’Hollywood to your home’ emphasises the prominent quality of images that are tuned to meet industry standards. They come in simple and sleek designs with a premium look equipped with some smart features to offer consumers even easier and more fun viewing lifestyles.”

The result of their work is TBH Labs, under the guidance of founder Aung Cham Myae.

Myanmar’s young people have become more interested in informal education on social media platforms, including Facebook, he said in an exclusive interview. This trend motivated him to introduce an online platform under which technical knowledge about mobile phones and personal computers is shared with the creation of short videos.

“In this digital age, everything becomes faster than ever thanks to advanced technology. We need to catch up with the latest trends,” said Aung Cham Myae. “Otherwise, we will be left behind. That is why we launched this platform in 2016.”

“In our country, almost everyone, including children and the elderly, have a Facebook account. Sometimes, they can get tired of looking at their news feed only. Then, they may think of watching knowledge-based video content. We are trying to become the best choice for them.”

Short video clips make up more than 95 per cent of the content on the site, and they typically last from three to 10 minutes and succeed in arousing the interest of young people, Aung Cham Myae said. Nearly 100,000 people usually visit the platform every day.

“When we first launched, there was no online platform for tech reviews. Most of the people had to rely on weekly tech publications to learn about the pros and cons of the latest mobile phones, technology or tech accessories,” Aung Cham Myae said.”

“Most of them had to cooperate with major mobile brands to write reviews about the latest models due to budget constraint. So, we want to provide the people with unbiased and honest reviews that do not need to favour any sponsor companies.”

He takes pride in the platform’s name, TBH, which stands for “to be honest.” He considers honesty as the platform’s core value, which is driving the growth in TBH Labs. It is enjoying nearly 10 per cent growth rate on a monthly basis. Every review receives an average of 50,000 likes on Facebook, and the site’s most popular content has gained more than 2.2 million likes.

TBH Labs focuses on mobiles, PCs, laptops and tech accessories, including consumer audio headsets. Yet, depending on the viewers’ demand, 80 per cent of their reviews analyse mobile phones, with rest for other product types, said Aung Cham Myae.

“We always make sure to upload at least two new video clips every day, so that more people become aware of our platform. We usually try to review as many of the latest models of mobile phones as we can. Though we now have some cooperation with the big companies, they always ensure our reviews are totally fair and transparent,” he said.

New video clips are usually posted at around 8am and 8pm, which he considers the best time to attract the viewers’ attention. Yet, there are sometimes inevitable delays in posting new content due to limited capacity and investment, he added.

“We are just a team of four who always live in this apartment. |This is our office, our studio and also our home. Our hobby and passion for technology make us live together through thick and thin, just like real brothers,” Aung Cham Myae said.

He aims to focus on improving the quality of the video clips rather than expanding the workforce. Instead of efforts to seek funding from international organisations and sponsor companies, he expects to stick to objectivity in reviewing new products.

“Our short-term aim is to become Myanmar’s leading tech content platform. In the longer term, we hope to expand our reach to overseas viewers by creating video content in English,” he said.

iflix Thailand has launched free entertainment in various categories: Movie of the day, iflix Snacks, top regional, premium regional series and international TV series, said country manager Artima Suraphongchai.

Movie of the day shows a new movie every day while Snacks will provide 50 new but short videos daily.

“iflixFree is completely free for all users regardless of their subscription status. We offer users one of the largest libraries of hand-picked, quality content to meet the preferences of our diverse customer base,” said Artima.

She said that iflix has movies and content on demand, more than 40,000 hours with around 1,000 hours in Thai content.

She said the firm currently has 3 million members in Thailand with 900,000 active users. With launch of the new service, it expects 2 million active users by end of this year.

Arlando said Asia is well-placed for leadership as the world’s new growth frontier, with companies set to reap the benefits of a transformed landscape in the era of Industry 4.0.

Within Asean, the fifth largest region for manufacturing on value-added terms, companies will ramp up their investment in Internet of Things (IoT) technology to more than US$15 billion by next year.

He said that Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia had launched 4.0 roadmaps to spearhead their respective economic agendas. Singapore has its own Singapore Smart Industry Readiness Index to provide a common framework for companies to start, scale up and sustain their Industry 4.0 efforts.

Arlando said that many manufacturers, especially those in advanced economics, have been looking for ways to exploit digital technologies for better performance.

The rise of new digital industrial technology will transform businesses – and the jobs within them – in the manufacturing and related sectors as countries move towards an economic footing for Industry 4.0.

Lim Kok Kiang, assistant managing director of the Singapore Economic Development Board, said that Singapore has embraced challenges and developed innovative solutions to overcome constraints in water, land and talent.

According to INSEAD’s Global Innovation Index 2015, Singapore is the sixth-most innovative city in the world, and the leader in Asia Pacific. “And companies have tapped on our relentless drive to innovate to create new solutions with a global impact,” Kiang said.

He said that by incorporating innovation into every aspect of its economic development, Singapore is prepared to ride the wave of technological disruption, especially that which is sweeping across the manufacturing industry.

“This new era of manufacturing is one that will see automation such as robotics, additive manufacturing and guided vehicles meet digital technologies such as data analytics, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality to create Industry 4.0, also known as advanced manufacturing, in Singapore,” Kiang said.

He said that in advanced manufacturing, technologies allow companies to have complete control over their entire manufacturing line, across borders and in real-time. Powered by Big Data, companies will be able to make predictive decisions about production quality and quantity, and even anticipate when machines need to be repaired.

“The successful adoption of these technologies and its integration with a competent workforce will be key to enhancing manufacturing processes, improving productivity and reaping cost efficiencies by optimising resources and reducing bottlenecks. All around the world, there is growing recognition that advanced manufacturing holds the key to future economic growth,” said Kiang.

He said that the country was ranked fifth for manufacturing value-added in the 2017 Bloomberg Innovation Index and is the fourth-largest exporter of hi-tech products, as defined by the World Bank, behind only China, Germany, and the United States.

With shifting factors of production now favouring technology-intensive economies, Singapore’s strengths in innovation and its skilled workforce translate into a strong ability to transform its extensive manufacturing footprint and continue punching above its weight, he said.

Anticipating shifts in the evolution of manufacturing, Singapore has embarked on a strategic move towards ensuring the economy and its companies are prepared for the change ahead.

To drive Industry 4.0 in the region, SingEx Exhibitions is joining with international partner Deutsche Messe to conduct Industrial Transformation Asia-Pacific 2018 at the Singapore Expo from October 16-18.

The events aims to provide “the definitive new trade platform for the fourth industrial revolution in Asia- Pacific as the region’s manufacturing community gets ready to embark on, and showcase, their readiness” for transformational change.

The expansion of the manufacturing plant in Map Ta Phut is being undertaken by the company to ensure it keeps pace with rising global demand, the company’s chief financial officer, Thomas Toepfer, said yesterday.

While Toepfer declined to specify the investment value, he said that it would be significant. The new investment is part of the company’s expansion of its global film production with an investment of around 100 million euros this year.

For the three years from 2019, the company’s annual capital expenditure for overall businesses will be expanded to 1.2 billion euros to sustain its growth prospects, up from between 650 million euros and 700 million euros this year, and around 500 million euros last year.

The expansion of its specialty films production in Thailand is expected to be completed by the end of 2019; this will increase the production capacity by around 50 per cent.

The specialty films are used by many sectors, including the automotive and medical sectors. For example, they can be used to make some components in cars, such as the dashboard. They can also be used for coating a security card.

Toepfer said that the sales revenue of Covestro’s three existing businesses in Thailand registered annual growth in the double digits for the second quarter of this year.

The German company has three businesses in Thailand under the responsibility of Covestro (Thailand), which cover polyurethanes, polycarbonates, and also coatings, adhesives and other specialties.

The manufacturing site in Map Ta Phut produces polycarbonates and specialty films.

It also has a Systems House in Bangpoo, Samut Prakarn, which produces polyurethanes and tailor-makes them for customer needs. Most of the products from its three businesses in Thailand are for export.

Covestro’s manufacturing plant in Map Ta Phut is among the eight largest production facilities that it operates worldwide. The plant has state-of-the-art technology and highly skilled employees.

The company has also studied the possibility of expanding its production capacity for polycarbonates and polyurethanes in Thailand, Toepfer said.

He said the company would continue to invest in Thailand as its existing hub in the Asean region.

He said that Covestro Thailand would indirectly benefit from the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), where its customers have either established a presence or plan to, and will demand more products in line with their growth.

“The Asia-Pacific region, including Thailand and other Asean countries, is a strategic growth area for Covestro,” Toepfer said.

“Thailand is very well served as our strategic location for production and further investment. It offers good infrastructure, talented people in technical fields, support on FDI (foreign direct investment) from government including the new projects in the EEC and a great logistics network.”