The new vehicle is now available for customer bookings at the Motor Show until April 8, and at all Ford dealerships nationwide.

The Ranger Raptor – Asia-Pacific’s first and only factory-built, high-speed off-road performance truck – is on public display for the first time at the Motor Show.

The event is being held at IMPACT, Muang Thong Thani.

Manage

Founded in 1972, OVS is Italy’s first and No-1 fast-fashion brand for men, women and kids, and the global apparel chain has more than 1,300 stores in Italy and abroad.

Minor Corp operates four stores in Thailand.

The latest addition to the listed company’s growing stable of international clothing brands will help consolidate the company’s position as one of Thailand’s leading retail operators.

OVS’s entry into the Thai market also signals intensifying competition in the fast-fashion segment, said James Richard Amatavivadhana, chief executive officer of Minor Corp.

“If you look at the [apparel] market, we want to participate in this area with brands that have a unique proposition in terms of quality and style. And yet they must be affordable to our potential consumers. OVS – being a successful Italian-based brand itself – has great potential to effectively compete in this market based on its unique proposition.

“It’s our mission to be one of the leading operators in Thailand’s fashion retail [sector]. In order to do so, we need to drive performance and the economic value of our existing portfolio. More importantly, we need to add new brands to our portfolio that are relevant to our discerning customers,” the CEO said.

“We’re seeing a great opportunity for growth with OVS’s debut in the Thai market,” he added.

Thailand’s clothing industry grew 4.4 per cent in 2017 and is forecast to expand a further 4.1 per cent to reach Bt234 billion this year.

Minor Corp expects to generate Bt4 billion in sales this year from its imported brands.

MCOT plans PPP projects representing long-term investments in Bangkok, on 70 rai near the Thailand Cultural Centre and 60 rai in Bang Pai district.

MCOT Plc president Kematat Paladesh said the interest of potential foreign and domestic investors in the two properties would be gauged.

The 70-rai site includes 50 rai near the Cultural Centre worth Bt5 billion and the adjacent 20 rai occupied by MCOT headquarters, worth more than Bt2 billion.

At 50,000 square metres, the former could accommodate a 40-storey exhibition and convention centre.

MCOT will assess the market and then conduct a feasibility study, with the findings presented to the board of directors and the Finance Ministry.

It is expected that construction would begin in 2021.

MCOT also plans a residential project on the 60 rai in Bang Pai worth Bt400 million-500 million. The site has ready access from Phutthamonthon, Petchkasem and Baromrajchonnee roads.

Another 40-rai property in Nong Khaem district currently hosts transmission equipment and production studios owned by Bangkok Entertainment Co Ltd that will be transferred to MCOT when their joint venture agreement expires in 2020.

MCOT also has 20 rai on Petchkasem Road in Chumphon with convenient access to Nakon Si Thammarat and Krabi.

Takorn Tantasith, secretary-general of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), revealed the decision following a meeting with the junta.

He said the NCPO was worried it would be accused of showing undue favour to the private operators if it granted relief measures as requested.

Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam told the NBTC to present further justification in writing for the junta to approve relief measures.

The digital TV licence holders had asked the government to ease their financial woes by granting a three-year grace period in paying the remaining instalments of their upfront licence fees and by halving their terrestrial broadcasting network rental fees for two years.

Advanced Wireless Network (AWN) and TrueMove H Universal Communication, both of which hold NBTC 900MHz licences, had asked the junta to let them split their fourth and final instalment payments on the spectrum auction upfront fees into five tranches.

AWN and TrueMove H are each required to pay the final instalment payments of around Bt60 billion in 2019.

Thailand Development and Research Institute president Somkiat Tangkitvanit said recently neither the government nor the NBTC should be held responsible for losses incurred by the licence holders as a result of a glut of available channels and viewers shifting to alternative technical platforms.

He said both factors causing the losses were part of the normal business risk the broadcasters should have been aware of from Day 1.

The broadcasters have complained that the NBTC failed to ensure the industry’s smooth transition from analog to digital transmission.

Somkiat said that, unlike the case of digital TV operators, it was not clear what the government or NBTC did wrong to cause financial difficulties for AWN and True.

And, unlike to the broadcasting industry, the shift to alternation platforms did not severely impact the telecom industry, he said.

Somkiat said such disruption might diminish telecom operators’ voice service revenues, but they earned more from wireless data services in compensation.

A stock analyst, who declined to be named, said on Tuesday that he had disagreed from the very start with the notion of the government being asked to step in to ease the financial burden on the broadcasters and telecom operators.

Before taking part in the NBTC digital-TV licence auction in 2013, the bidders should have realised there would be intense competition in the industry as they knew that the regulator would be auctioning as many as 24 licences, he said.

He added that the best solution was to let the market mechanism take its course, which would see many broadcasters dropping out of the market, which would then enter a state of equilibrium with an appropriate number of operators having survived the initial period of intense competition.

Supasith Sukhanindr, chairman of Mudman Plc’s executive committee, said that the group acquired the Michelin two-starred restaurant from the renowned French chef and owner Guy Martin in a deal valued at 9.17 million euros (Bt364 million) last December via newly formed subsidiary Mudman International Ltd (MI).

Mudman’s latest high-profile international foray will drive the next phase of the Bangkok-based restaurant group’s international expansion that is spearheaded by MI.

Nadim Xavier Salhani, CEO of Mudman Plc, said that the takeover reflects the group’s “determination to strive for international recognition as a world-class player” in the global food retail industry.

“We are confident that this new international venture will help keep the company aligned to our vision, that of becoming a leading retail and lifestyle conglomerate in the global market with a projected turnover of Bt5 billion within five years,” said Salhani.

With its overseas outlets growing in Europe, the restaurant group is looking to establish a permanent foothold in the European market. MI recently opened the first Greyhound Cafe in London, which is already reporting brisk business. More outlets are in the pipeline, Salhani adds.

The acquisition of Le Grand Vefour will help put Mudman on the map, with its vast array of assets spanning Asia to Europe.

The restaurant expects to generate over Bt150 million in annual revenue in its first year.

Dubbed as the “jewel of the 18th century”, Le Grand Vefour has always prided itself on being a popular Paris rendezvous for France’s ruling, business and intellectual elites along with the glitterati of Paris’s literary, art and fashion worlds. Among other famous patrons, Napoleon Bonaparte loved the restaurant so much that he used the venue to propose to his wife Josephine.

The historic restaurant counts among the most magnificent and luxurious restaurants in Paris, thanks to its plush palatial interior with exquisite embellishments such as Louis XVI-style garlands and carved panelling.

As part of the deal, chef Martin continues to serve up high-end dishes and remains head chef and director of Le Grand Vefour.

Himself a household name in France and one of Paris’ most accomplished chefs, chef Martin joined Le Grand Vefour in 1991. It took another 20 years before he became its proprietor.

Elected as “Chef of the Year” by the Gault & Millau, Champerard and Pudlowski guides, he loves travelling, and is hooked on the world’s colours, sensations and flavours.

With an initial investment of Bt100 million to Bt150 million, Mudman will take fine dining to new heights with a number of much-anticipated new restaurant projects in the works in Europe and Asia.

In close collaboration with Martin, Mudman is developing new restaurant concepts targeting middle-class to upmarket customers in Paris, Hong Kong and Tokyo.

The group expects to open new overseas outlets next year.

Qiang said that it would not be too late for Thailand, if the commercial service was launched in that time. The availability of a 5G service was not dependent only on the allocation of the spectrum bands to telecom operators to provide services, he said, but requires the collaboration of all related parties and all industries to ensure a fast uptake of the service.

Industry will be the major user of 5G services, including for those involved in the emerging “smart farming”, connected vehicle and smart cities sectors.

Huawei will launch its first 5G mobile phones in the global market next year, Qiang said. The company is China’s leading information and communications technology solution provider.

Huawei is holding an invitation-only Huawei Mobile Thailand Congress 2018 from yesterday to April 5 at its Customer Solution Innovation and Integration Experience Centre (CSIC) in Huawei’s new Bangkok offices on Pharam 9 Road. The event is presenting technologies and solutions including 5G, the “all-cloud” network, and Internet of things (IoT) technologies.

Qiang said that the event is essential for the company to demonstrate the importance of joining Huawei in its efforts to create a healthy ecosystem that will create fresh opportunities, businesses, services and applications. They hope to attract their most important potential industry partners in Thailand, as well as leading industry organisations and institutions, operators, and other stakeholders.

NBTC commissioner Prawit Leesatapornwongsa said at the same event yesterday that US, Europe, China, Japan, and South Korea are expected to be among the first wave of countries to debut the commercial 5G service. Thailand can be in the second wave of the commercial launch of 5G service, if the country has continued to advance on implementing its Thailand 4.0 policy, he added.

Prawit said that the coming of the 5G service does not mean it would replace the existing 4G service here. Therefore, Thai telecom operators will consider carefully before making an investment in the 5G technology as they will also have to carry the cost of maintaining their 4G networks as well.

Grab chief executive and co-founder Anthony Tan yesterday said Singapore-based Grab would integrate Uber’s ride-sharing and food-delivery business in the region into its multi-modal transport and financial technology (fintech) platform.

With the combined business, Grab, which has a high profile in Thailand, aims to be the region’s No 1 online-to-offline mobile platform and a major player in food delivery.

Tan said Grab provides safe and affordable transport, food and package deliveries, mobile payments and financial services. These will be extended as it takes over Uber’s operations and assets in Thailand. Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, and Vietnam.

As part of the acquisition, Uber will take a 27.5 per cent stake in Grab and Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi will join Grab’s board.

“I would like to personally share with you some of my strongest beliefs, to reaffirm our commitment as a team to our community, as well as to offer a glimpse of what the future holds,” said Tarin Thaniyavarn, country head of Grab Thailand, in a statement released yesterday.

“First of all, as a Southeast Asian and Thai, I believe that this development is a major milestone for all of us, and not just from my perspective as the country head of Grab Thailand,” he said.

“After all, Grab is a Southeast homegrown start-up which started its business in the region less than six years ago and in Thailand, five years ago. Who would have thought that we would be where we are today?

“We are now on track towards our goal of becoming the No1 ride-hailing, food delivery and fintech platform in Southeast Asia, an achievement for all of us as Southeast Asians across eight countries and 195 cities in the region.

“Our partnership with Uber will only fuel our drive and passion to serve our community better. We have always believed – and still believe – that we need to keep outdoing ourselves at every stage in order to earn the right to serve them. If anything, this union strongly affirms that our commitment to put the needs of our customers and driver-partners first is the right one.”

He expects this combination will “drive a better experience for our community” of drivers and users.

“With a greater concentration of jobs and available drivers, we expect to see shorter wait-times and faster pick-ups. This would mean better productivity for our drivers, and better reliability for our passengers,” Tarin. “New Grab users will be able to benefit from our unique features such as GrabRewards for passengers and Better365’for driver-partners. GrabRewards makes our users’ experience more rewarding.

“Meanwhile, our Better365 enables our drivers to enjoy better benefits, support and opportunities to engage with other driver-partners through special periodical workshops, sports day and get-together events. We are so excited to be given this opportunity to serve you all.”

Tarin said the company would be pushing towards its next stage of growth. “This would come from serving Thais in all their most important daily needs, whether to ride, pay, dine or earn more for their families,” he said. “Today, we are already serving 90 million Southeast Asians, and empowering more than five million micro-entrepreneurs – driver-partners, merchants and agents – across the region to earn more.”

TMB Bank Plc (TMB) is committed to develop quality financial products to meet the needs and changing lifestyles of customers, aiming to enable its clients to “Get More with TMB” out of life. The bank recently announced a special campaign to offer “TMB Cash2Go” personal loans at an extra low-interest rate of only 9 per cent per year for the first three months.

Moreover, customers who transact via “TMB All Free” deposit account at least five times a month and use TMB direct debit service, will get a 3 per cent discount from the normal rate from the 4th month onwards throughout the tenor. For example, a customer with Bt30,000 salary/month will pay only 18 per cent interest a year, instead of 21 per cent.

MIT GSW event marks first for Thailand

A collaboration between Sasin School of Management, MIT GSW, and the MIT Association of Thailand, a three-day conference is being held on March 26-27 at the Centara Grand and Bangkok Convention Centre at Central World, and at Sasin School of Management on March 28.

MIT Global Startup Workshop (GSW) is the premier global training and networking event for entrepreneurs. Since 1998, MIT GSW has hosted its conferences in a different location each year, and for the first time, MIT GSW 2018 is taking place in Thailand. This year’s theme is “dream big, dream tech, tools for innovation-driven entrepreneurship.”

This year’s conference features a range of exciting speakers from the US, Europe, and across Southeast Asia, and an intriguing schedule of timely panel discussions about startups, technology, and the future of business.

Paron Israsena Na Ayudhya, director of Sasin School of Management, said this event brings the best of MIT to Thailand and sets them loose in no-holds-barred debates with the leading entrepreneurs of Southeast Asia.

L Rafael Reif, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also expressed his support for holding the event in Bangkok.

“For 20 years, the Global Startup Workshop has brilliantly advanced the Iinstitute’s dedication to research, innovation, entrepreneurship and collaboration. By bringing together cross-sector experts and leaders, GSW has built a global support network, empowering and accelerating entrepreneurship in emerging markets, from Seoul to Madrid, Cape Town to Santiago and now Bangkok. At GSW 2018, we will dream big. And together, we will make a better world.”

Thai Union’s Tuna Slices wins top award

Yellowfin Tuna Slices, the newest seafood innovation from Thai Union’s Global Innovation Incubator (GII), has recently received the 2018 Seafood Excellence Award in the Best New Foodservice Product category at Boston’s Seafood Expo.

The pre-seasoned, ready-to-eat tuna slices, made from whole yellowfin tuna loins, has been voted the best new food service product by a panel of seafood experts. It beat the other three finalists to win the award due to its uniqueness and appropriateness to the market, taste, packaging, convenience, nutritional value and originality.

The new prdoct is now being rolled out across the US under the Chicken of the Sea brand.

Daily Chiang Mai-Hanoi service

Bangkok Airways said yesterday it is now flying daily between Chiang Mai and Hanoi with a 70-seat ATR72-500/600 aircraft.

Flight PG995 departs Chiang Mai International Airport at 9.55am and arrives at Noi Bai International Airport at noon.

Flight PG996 departs Hanoi at 12.45pm and reaches Chiang Mai at 2.50pm.

Developer eyes four residential projects

Listed property firm Everland Plc is planning up to four residential projects worth a combined Bt2 billion along Bangna-Suksawas Road.

It also aims to boost revenues by 15 per cent this year, chairman Swechak Lochaya said on Monday.

As of the end of 2017, the company had total revenue of Bt725.44 million against a net loss for the year of Bt278.91 million.

Joint push for SME entry to the world

CloudCommerce, a startup company from dtac Accelerate Batch 4 project, announced its cooperation with Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) and Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) to tap groups of SME customers. It has received investment funds from dtac Accelerate, Intania Open Innovation Club (IOIC) and 500 TukTuks and is ready to set goals for over 20,000 users this year.

Wootinun Sungong, CloudCommerce founder, said he is certain that CloudCommerce will play a major role to push Thai SMEs forward and succeed on the international level.

The main feature of CloudCommerce is the system that connects SME product data with the online markets globally, making entrance into the global market easy. Furthermore, it connects the logistic system in order to help reducing production cost and shipping time. It also helps provide an opportunity in business growth for customers. FastShip, a logistic platform which was launched early last year, has received such a satisfying feedback. There are currently over 5,000 users.

The company has received investment funds from the top three start-up funds – dtac Accelerate, Intania Open Innovation Club and 500 TukTuks – and is ready to set goals for over 20,000 users this year.

Wootinun Sungong, CloudCommerce founder, said he was certain that his start-up would play a major role in pushing Thai small and medium-sized enterprises forward and succeeding at the international level.

The main feature of CloudCommerce is the system that connects the SME product data with online markets globally, which makes entering the global market easy.

Furthermore, it connects the logistic system in order to help reduce production costs and shipping times.

It also helps provide an opportunity for business growth for customers, Wootinun said, citing fellow start-up FastShip.co, a logistics platform that was launched early last year and has received satisfying feedback, with more than 5,000 users currently.

Sompoat Chansomboon, director of Business Innovation at dtac Accelerate, said that according to Techsauce Thailand, the Thai e-commerce market saw overall income of more than US$2.9 billion (Bt90.3 billion) last year and had an expected average annual 14.5-per-cent growth rate, which would result in sales of $5.8 billion in 2022 and $11.1 billion in 2025.

The biggest e-commerce business segment in the market is electronics, which saw income of $1.2 billion last year.

CloudCommerce and Fastship.co are start-up businesses that both have a 150-per-cent growth rate and traction via their platforms of over Bt20 million.

Both play major a role in the Thai e-commerce system as an important tool for e-commerce and logistics, the dtac Accelerate director said.

Wootinun has been in the e-commerce field for more than 15 years, together with experts who have a great deal of experience in e-commerce, which has generated Sompoat’s trust in CloudCommerce and its founder from the very beginning.

As the supervisor who takes care of start-up competitors in dtac Accelerate, he said he was proud to see CloudCommerce achieving a high growth rate and generating faith and trust in investors like 500 TukTuks –run by Chulalongkorn University – and other partners worldwide.

Li Feng, chairman and chief executive officer of Hong Kong-based CMI, and Wu Weitao, president of Huawei’s Southeast Asia Region, attended the ceremony.

The collaboration between the two companies is aimed at consolidating cloud-network synergy cooperation to develop the Southeast Asian market.

CMI and China-based Huawei Cloud International will leverage their respective advantages and take the lead in developing cloud-network synergy cooperation in Southeast Asia, providing one-stop, high-quality cloud+connection services for large enterprises with cross-border business requirements, they announced.

This will help enterprises achieve easy migration to the cloud and provides secure and reliable global connectivity.

Development areas include the public cloud platform, cloud connection platform, hybrid cloud and IDC, CMI’s chief executive said at the signing ceremony.