The move to produce added value to the crop by using a machine to dry roselle as well as other fruits and vegetables now generates a sustainable income of Bt500,000 a month on average for 50 farmers in the province.

“I saw more roselle in the province until its price dropped, causing some of it to be wasted,” Sa-Aad said.

“As a result I discussed with five farming families producing roselle as a dried fruit for sale that would generate higher income than its sale as a fresh fruit.”

Last decade, Sa-Aad, 56, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in agriculture from Kasetsart University, developed a laboratory-scale machine that dried roselle using a vacuum system. He proposed the scheme to Nakhon Pathom on a commercial-scale basis, and in 2003 he received Bt4 million to develop the machine.

After the vacuum technology proved a success in 2003, Sa-Aad and the other members of the Sanamchan Community Enterprise, which had only five farmers on board that year, started producing dried roselle fruit for sale. This generated income of Bt100,000 in the first month.

The scheme’s success promoted most roselle farmers in the province to join the community enterprise, and it now has 50 members.

With demand for roselle strong domestically and overseas, the community enterprise established Pri Tip Brand Co, with registered capital of Bt1 million, to distribute its products under the brands Pri Tip and Is Loei both domestically and overseas in 2004.

Currently, the company exports to Singapore and China.

The enterprise also sells other fruits and vegetables and it is generating an average income of Bt500,000 a month this year.

“China is a [high] potential market for our products where there is a strong demand for dried fruit,” Sa-|Aad said.

“We have now expanded our investment about Bt4 million to double our production capacity to boost total revenue to Bt1 million a month in next year.’’

Sa-Aad said that to add value| to agriculture products, they |had to be produced to match market demand, which also produced sustainable growth in the long term.

The endeavour’s members |now have enough money to support their families because they have |sustainable income, he added.

“Factors to stimulate growth are a fiscal policy and government expenditure for infrastructure investment, political stability and recovery of household purchasing power,” he said.

“Supporting factors include expanding revenue from tourism, improving agricultural prices and the reduction of debts incurred by the previous government’s first-car programme.

“Meanwhile, the risks are commodity prices and world economics after [the election of a] new US president, especially in China,” he said.

“We expect to grow each year from our existing stores at least at the same rate as GDP growth, and open new stores to cover all areas of Thailand.

“We are also considering the CLMV markets for future expansion, which is also in line with the Central Group’s business direction,” he added, referring to Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.

Kamchai said the home-centre business had been confronting a lot of competition but still had opportunities for growth in the future.

CRC Thai Watsadu currently operates three store formats. HomeWorks and Baan & Beyond serve homeowners who are at the stage of finishing projects and decorating, while Thai Watsadu provides products and services to both contractors and homeowners, including at the construction stage.

“We get strong support from Central Group’s synergies on land acquisition, procurement across business units, and sharing of a database through the 1 Card customer-relationship-management system, which has data on around 12 million customers.

“The teams in each function – operations, merchandise and marketing – always share their best practices among the group, so we can learn and develop faster,” Kamchai said.

He said the company planned to open between three and four new Thai Watsadu branches next year in both inner and outer parts of Bangkok.

The cost would be at about Bt500 million per store.

There are currently about 11 Thai Watsadu stores in Bangkok and surrounding areas, and another 31 upcountry.

Meanwhile, the company has no expansion plan for its HomeWorks and Baan & Beyond stores.

CRC Thai Watsadu expects Bt23 billion in total sales this year, a 6-per-cent increase year-on-year, of which Bt20 billion will be from Thai Watsadu stores.

CRC Thai Watsadu yesterday announced that it would join the government’s campaign to stimulate spending during the festive season.

Thai Watsadu, HomeWorks and Baan & Beyond will join the campaign by cooperating with the Commerce Ministry. Promotions will be offered on more than 2,000 items from December 15 until January 4, at 48 branches.

About 42 Thai Watsadu stores have launched a special campaign called “Time of Sharing”, offering discounts of up to 70 per cent. On every purchase of Bt4,000 and up, buyers will get a cash coupon worth Bt200.

For any expenditure of Bt30,000 and up, they will receive a Giant Tech wireless electric drill worth Bt1,490.

Customers with 1 Cards can redeem 600 points to get a cash coupon worth Bt100.

Siam Piwat is the owner and operator of Siam Paragon, Siam Centre and Siam Discovery shopping malls.

As the festive season is a time when people send their love and good wishes to others, the company has launched the “Citizen of Love: It’s Time to give Good Love” campaign in Siam Discovery. The shopping centre is expected to welcome some 80,000-100,000 both local and foreign shoppers daily.

The promotion, which will run until January 15, 2017, aims to offer shoppers a unique experience. Shoppers who spend Bt35,000 in one day will be eligible for a Siam Gift Card worth Bt1,200, and if they purchase specific brands, they will get an additional gift voucher worth up to Bt20,000.

VIZ cardholders and members of the Siam Discovery Mobile Application will enjoy additional benefits. Customer-centric marketing focuses on capturing people’s interest, and Siam Discovery is hoping that offering deals that have sentimental value for consumers will not only boost sales by 15-20 per cent, but will also make holiday shopping more meaningful.

Nick Walton, the company’s head of Asean markets, said the Thai office was opened in April this year as AWS witnessed strong growth momentum in Thailand and other Asean markets.

For the Thai market, the focus is on media, entertainment, healthcare, agriculture, start-ups, SMEs and large enterprises moving from on-premises data-storage facilities to cloud services. The Asean growth trend is consistent with the global outlook for cloud computing services, as evidenced by AWS’s staggering growth rate of 55 per cent over the past year, bringing revenues to a total of US$13 billion (Bt463 billion).

Asean clients are currently serviced by AWS’s data centre in Singapore, one of the company’s seven data centres in Asia-Pacific, Walton said.

Besides private-sector clients, governments in the region are another target group as some have already moved their data-storage facilities to the cloud to benefit from the latest technology, which makes storage and management of data more efficient and effective.For example, the government of Singapore’s Mytransport.sg service is now on the cloud, serving 2.2 million users.

Regarding Thailand, the government is preparing to launch the PromptPay e-payment platform for welfare recipients and money transfers involving all commercial banks in the country, making cloud computing services a suitable option, he said.

Toyota Tsusho Electronics (Thailand) is also using the AWS cloud computing service to manage data from 60,000 trucks and taxis equipped with GPS in the Kingdom, so as to help drivers avoid traffic congestion.

In e-commerce, Ascend Group uses AWS’s cloud service for its Weloveshopping platform, while e-payment gateway 2C2P is another user of cloud services to serve customers of Thai Airways International and others.

AWS provides an elastic service, so there is no need to sign up for peak capacity, while charges are based on an electricity utility model allowing users to access to thousands of servers instantly if needed and pay as they use, the Asean markets chief explained.

Users also have access to more than 70 services and a diverse range of analytic tools to capitalise on so-called big data, as well as voice recognition and other artificial-intelligence products for better customer experience in e-commerce and other business areas.

For Thailand, cloud technology also has huge potential to uplift the agriculture sector and facilitate the government’s initiative on Thailand 4.0 covering healthcare, the Internet of Things, and financial services, Walton said.

To prepare the country for the cloud technology, AWS also has worked with several Thai universities to develop local skills for cloud services that are replacing on-premises data storage and management facilities.

Besides Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam also have huge business potential for digital and mobile services, he added.

Myo Zaw, chief technology officer of 2C2P, said the e-payment platform’s Thai customers include Central department stores, Lazada, Thai Airways International and low-cost carriers, while it also as hotel clients in Myanmar and other Asean countries.

The platform, which uses AWS’s cloud computing service, allows customers to pay for goods, hotel rooms, airline tickets and other services or products via mobile banking and counter payment.

For those not choosing to use credit cards or cash, 2C2P has emerged as the platform for alternative payment, with an average of 100,000 transactions per day in nine Asean markets, Zaw said. He described the Thai government’s PromptPay service as another interesting platform for easier fund transfers, allowing users to move money just by entering the mobile-phone numbers of recipients.

Such a platform will help facilitate e-commerce and other digital businesses in the future, since it is suitable for making payments for e-commerce, airline tickets or hotel rooms, he added.

In most Asean countries, credit-card use is not widely popular, with a relatively low penetration rate of only 20-30 per cent, so alternative e-payment services will likely be more popular options.

2C2P also serves vendors and customers on Facebook shops with about 100,000 now in operation as social-media commerce gains traction, the chief technology officer said.

Goragot Wongpaisarnsin, assistant general manager of Toyota Tsusho Electronics (Thaialnd), said the company uses AWS’s cloud service to facilitate navigation planning for a network of 10,000 taxis in Bangkok and another 50,000 trucks using GSP equipment.

On forecast total revenues of $736 billion, that represents a 4.1-per-cent net profit margin. This would be the third consecutive year (and the third year in the industry’s history) in which airlines would make a return on invested capital (7.9 per cent) that is above the weighted average cost of capital (6.9 per cent).

IATA revised slightly downward its outlook for 2016 airline-industry profitability to $35.6 billion (from the June projection of $39.4 billion) owing to slower global growth of gross domestic product and rising costs. This would still be the highest absolute profit generated by the airline industry and the highest net profit margin (5.1 per cent).

“Airlines continue to deliver strong results. This year we expect a record net profit of $35.6 billion. Even though conditions in 2017 will be more difficult with rising oil prices, we see the industry earning $29.8 billion. That’s a very soft landing and safely in profitable territory,” said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s director-general and chief executive.

He added that these three years had the best performance in the industry’s history irrespective of the many uncertainties. Indeed, risks are abundant – political, economic and security among them. And controlling costs is still a constant battle in a hyper-competitive industry.

“We need to put this into perspective. Record profits for airlines means earning more than our cost of capital. For most other businesses that would be considered a normal level of return to investors. But three years of sustainable profits is a first for the airline industry.

“And after many years of hard work in restructuring and re-engineering the business the industry is also more resilient. We should also recognise that profits are not evenly spread, with the strongest performance concentrated in North America,” de Juniac said.

Next year is expected to be the eighth in a row of aggregate airline profitability, illustrating the resilience to shocks that have been built into the industry structure, the IATA said. On average, airlines will retain $7.54 for every passenger carried, it forecast.

It said expected higher oil prices would have the biggest impact on the outlook for 2017. In 2016 oil prices averaged $44.6 a barrel (Brent), and this is forecast to increase to $55 in 2017. This would push jet-fuel prices from $52.1 a barrel in 2016 to $64.90 next year.

Fuel is expected to account for 18.7 per cent of the industry’s cost structure in 2017, which is significantly below the recent peak of 33.2 per cent in 2012-2013.

IATA said demand stimulus from lower oil prices would taper off in 2017, slowing traffic growth to 5.1 per cent (from 5.9 per cent in 2016).

It said industry capacity expansion was also expected to slow to 5.6 per cent (down from 6.2 per cent in 2016). Capacity growth would still outstrip the increase in demand, thus lowering the global passenger load factor to 79.8 per cent (from 80.2 per cent in 2016).

IATA said the negative impact of a lower load factor was expected to be offset somewhat by a strengthening of global economic growth. World GDP was projected to expand by 2.5 per cent in 2017 (up from 2.2 per cent in 2016).