Over the past four years, she has learned much about the difficulties of finance and gaining a steady income. Her training resulted from a course called “Sustainable business with Coca-Cola: Female sugarcane growers empowerment” in 2014.
“I have gained useful and relevant skills in financial planning and increased knowledge in financial literacy, resulting in more income saving,” Rungwara explained.
“In addition, I have been sharing the knowledge on social media with other sugarcane growers, with the expectation of the leveraging knowledge I hope the project will ultimately lift the quality of life among Thai sugarcane growers as a whole,” she said.
In 2014, the Coca-Cola system in Thailand –Coca-Cola (Thailand), ThaiNamthip and Haad Thip – partnered with Thai Roong Ruang Sugar (TRR) Group and The Kenan Institute Asia.
They expanded the ‘”female sugarcane growers empowerment”, by boosting the economic performance of 600 Thai female sugarcane growers, with the support of the Office of the Cane and Sugar Board, within the Ministry of Industry.
Since initiating the project, Coca-Cola has invested an additional Bt4 million for the training of female sugarcane growers in Phetchabun’s Sri Thep district and Uthai Thani’sBan Rai district. This course of financial literacy and sustainable agriculture training kicked off on August 1 and will run until July 31 next year.
The objective will be to share the results of the pilot project with other female sugarcane growers and partners that manufacture sugar from raw materials to improve their livelihood in the form of shared value creation and sustainable growth.
Pornwut Sarasin, chairman of ThaiNamthip said that after the “Sustainable Business with Coca-Cola Project” launch in 2014, more than 10,000 female owners of retail shops had participated in this project nationwide.
This year, the Coca-Cola system has developed the project to help female sugarcane growers to partner with Thai Roong Ruang Sugar (TRR) Group and The Kenan Institute Asia in designing training focused on two topics: financial literacy and sustainable agriculture, which stemmed from an evaluation of female sugarcane farmer’s needs.
Female sugarcane growers play a major role in taking care of their family and have the power to make financial decisions, but often lack financial literacy and planning skills. Ultimately, this project responds to Coca-Cola’s sustainable sourcing commitment.
The “Sustainable Business with Coca-Cola Project” is a part of the “5×20” global initiative aimed at enabling economic empowerment for 5 million women across the company’s chain around the world by 2020. This includes retail shops, suppliers, producers, waste collectors who collect the packaging for recycling, and the craftswomen who utilise raw materials from Coca-Cola products.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), women controlUS$20 trillion of worldwide spending and do 66 per cent of the world’s work, but earn only 10 per cent of the world’s income, of which 90 per cent is spent on the well-being of their family and community. Therefore, the benefits of helping further empower these women to maximise their income sources will statistically have a greater positive impact on our community as a whole. Currently, the 5×20 initiative has fostered and empowered the ability of more than 1.2 million women around the world.
Piyabutr Cholvijarn, president and vice chairman of Kenan Institute Asia, said the training for female growers in this project is particularly to augment their quality of life through accounting, household financial management and sustainable agricultural development.
“We started with the needs assessment for targeted female sugarcane growers and utilised the collected information to create a “financial literacy curriculum” custom-made to these requirements. At this stage, over 200 female sugarcane growers have already received this training.
Evaluation and support for these growers will be conducted for the entirety of the project period, in order to make sure it aligns with their necessities that may evolve over time. “We expect that they will have at least 30 per cent increase in the recognition of the importance of financial management,” he said.
Somsak Jantararoungtong, secretary-general of the Ministry of Industry’s Office of the Cane and Sugar Board, said the sugar and sugarcane industry played an important role in the development of Thailand’s economy through the employment of more than 600,000 growers and generated revenue from both domestic consumption and export worth Bt150 billion per year, representing 1.6 per cent of Thailand’s GDP.
Thailand is the world’s second-largest sugar exporter, following Brazil, and the largest sugar exporter in Asia. The sugar business also contributes to the food, energy and biochemical products industries. The Office of the Cane and Sugar Board’s mission is to develop the performance excellence of the sugar and sugarcane industry.
“We will take part in promoting and raising awareness of the empowerment of female sugarcane growers in the ‘Sustainable business with Coca-Cola project’ to enhance the competitiveness and help the growers effectively adjust to the increasingly fast-paced global environment,” Somsak said.

The first innovation is a “smart” disposal bin for needles and other sharp objects, known in the healthcare industry as a sharps container.
Narongrid Galaputh, chief executive of the non-hospital group at Bangkok Dusit Medical Services and managing director of N Health, said that the newly launched disposal bin, an upgrade from existing solutions in the market, has been developed to meet the need for safe and user-friendly medical supplies. The brand-new model was born from integrated knowledge and creativity in regards to global healthcare standard such as Joint Commission International accreditation from the United States of America and profound understanding of consumer behaviour.”
The smart disposal bin allows medical personnel to dispose of sharp waste in a way that is safe, convenient, environmentally friendly and cost-efficient. Hospitals and clinics can reduce costs due to accidents from detaching and disposing needles, and minimise expenses on new disposal equipment and waste management, as the new model provides larger capacity. Furthermore, it leads to a lower rate of medical-supply imports, more support for domestic sourcing and labour, and a chance for export.
Suracha Udomsakstated, research and development director and head of the technology business group at SCG Chemicals, said the company had used its expertise in design, materials and production for the collaboration with N Health.

“We target sales of Aim Thai personal-care products reaching Bt1 million a month during the course of 2017, from Bt200,000 per month currently, while spa products made under our clients’ brands will be maintained at Bt4 million a month,” executive director Jakraphong Buphaniroj told The Nation in a recent interview.
Jakraphong, 45, and his sister Satanunt Vinichwong, 43, who is the company’s product development and marketing director, changed their salaried-employee lives to become entrepreneurs after learning how to do business during roughly five years at a cosmetics firm and in pharmaceutical manufacturing.
“My work at a cosmetics firm concerned planning and warehousing, while my sister worked on product research and development. She then resigned from the cosmetics company to join a pharmaceutical manufacturer and I followed suit to work there with her. Then, in 2003, my sister resigned from the pharmaceutical business to do business by herself,” he explained.
Satanunt started on this new career path by making spa products such as scrapes, soaps and lotions for spa shops, while Jakraphong helped run the business part-time after finishing work at the pharmaceutical company each day.
In 2003, his sister’s business generated income averaging Bt20,000 a month, and by 2009 monthly sales of her spa products had soared to Bt1 million.
Sales continued to expand and Jakraphong eventually decided to resign from his post at the pharmaceutical firm to go into business with his sister full-time, establishing Aqua Puri Laboratories with registered capital of Bt3 million.
“Our business saw strong growth to sales of Bt5 million a month until 2011, when the floods hit Bangkok and its suburbs and falling demand for spa products resulted in our monthly sales declining to Bt2 million.
“This inspired us to research and develop our own personal-care products under our Aim Thai brand, launching them in 2012,” Jakraphong said.
Sales of Aim Thai toothpaste, soaps and lotions averaged Bt10,000 a month in the first year, but then grew strongly every month to the point where the company was able to get a loan of Bt10 million from the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Bank of Thailand (SME Bank) last year. The loan was guaranteed by the Thai Credit Guarantee Corporation.
This has enabled the company to boost Aim Thai sales to Bt200,000 per month, while it also generates sales of around Bt4 million per month from spa products made for clients’ brands, he said.
This year, the company plans to invest Bt5 million thanks to the SME Bank loan, to double production capacity and expand its distribution channel to sell the Aim Thai personal-care range at the Tops supermarket chain from the end of the year.
Aqua Puri Laboratories also plans to export to Asean countries after receiving help from the Industrial Promotion Department of the Industry Ministry, with the initial focus on the neighbouring markets of Cambodia, Myanmar and Malaysia.
This is expected to boost Aim Thai sales to an average of Bt1 million per month next year, Jakraphong said.
“The key to our success in increasing sales of both personal-care products and spa products is our research and development of products to match what our customers demand, while we also have the best staff to support our business growth,” he added. The company has a workforce of 150.

Given the thin financial cover of many Thai households, maintaining efforts to reduce the debt burden is absolutely necessary, the study found.
The report says global financial assets climbed by 4.9 per cent in 2015, just a whisker above the growth rate of economic activity. In the three previous years, financial assets grew at twice that pace, with an average rate of 9 per cent.
“The development of financial assets has reached a critical juncture,” said Michael Heise, chief economist of the Allianz Group, the major shareholder of Allianz Ayudhya Assurance. “Obviously, extreme monetary policy is losing its impact even on asset prices. As a consequence, an important driver for asset growth no longer exists. At the same time, interest rates continue their remorseless slide, even into negative territory. For savers, the outlook is not rosy.”
In Asia excluding Japan, debt growth picked up, and in some countries including South Korea and Malaysia, debt ratios came in at levels seen in the United States, Ireland or Spain at the height of the housing boom, he said.
In Thailand, growth of private households’ liabilities was higher than asset growth. Deposits as well as assets with life insurance and pension funds increased by less than 2 per cent and assets in securities decreased by 10 per cent because of the slump in the Thai stock market.
With loan growth regularly surpassing that of gross domestic product in the last 10 years, households’ debt-to-GDP ratio increased from 45.1 per cent to 81.6 per cent in the period.
The development of the assets-to-GDP ratio was less dynamic: It increased from 107.9 per cent in 2005 to 119.2 per cent at the end of 2015 – leaving Thai households with the worst assets-to-liabilities-ratio of all analysed Asian countries at a mere 1.5.
For comparison: In Taiwan the respective factor was 5.5, with the debt-to-GDP ratio standing at 90.4 per cent, while private households’ financial assets amounted to 498.3 per cent of GDP.
Thailand comes in 45th in the global ranking and eighth in the Asian ranking of net per capita financial assets. Per capita gross financial assets amounted to 6,070 euros; however, after subtracting liabilities, net financial assets of the average Thai shrank to a mere 1,920 euros (Bt74,500). The respective amount was only lower in India and Indonesia.
The gap between Thailand and the next wealthier country in the region, Malaysia, widened again, with the average Malaysian now owning four times the net per capita assets of the average Thai, at 7,670 euros.
The distance to the richest households was even higher: In Japan, net financial assets per capita amounted to 83,890 euros, more than 43 times the amount in Thailand.

Executive vice president Dhanet Yongratanamongkol said Siam Hitachi Elevator expected to expand its annual production capacity from 3,200 units to 5,000 units by 2020 and raise its export proportion from 40 per cent to 80 per cent by that time.
The expansion can be easily done through adding one or two production lines, each requiring an investment of Bt200 million to Bt300 million, he said.
Hitachi currently has elevator and escalator factories only in Japan, Thailand and China. After the production upgrade, Dhanet said the Thai factory, which currently supplies Asian markets, would increase its shipments to the Middle East and also cover European markets.
Siam Hitachi Elevator will be the main export base for Hitachi’s low-to-medium-speed elevators, while the Japanese factory will continue to take charge of high-speed elevators that can ascend at more than 300 metres per minute, mainly geared for high-rise buildings, he said.
Makoto Nagashima, deputy general manager of Hitachi’s Global Elevator & Escalator Division, said the company was considering setting up a fourth global production base in India, but because of that country’s high import tariffs, it would have to make sure it could find locally produced parts.
Siam Hitachi’s local content currently stands at about 65 per cent but it is aiming to find more local parts suppliers to increase local content to 80 per cent in the next year or two.
In the domestic market, Dhanet said property firms, particularly condominium developers, were postponing their purchasing decisions, which might stem from their lack of confidence in the future direction of the Thai economy.
“Developers are delaying signing up, even though we have won many contracts. We expect them to take another one or two months to consider the situation, and decide whether or not to move forward,” he said.
Delayed orders now total about Bt200 million to Bt300 million, accounting for about 40 per cent of the firm’s backlog.
The Thai elevator and escalator market, worth Bt12 billion, is expected to grow by only 3-5 per cent this year. Adding service and maintenance revenues, the market is estimated to be worth about Bt17 billion.
Dhanet said the Cambodian and Myanmar markets had grown quickly, now equal to about one-fourth of the Thai market. Siam Hitachi, a joint venture between Hitachi and Siam Motors, also handles the Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos markets.
The company plans to set up a branch in Laos next year, after already establishing joint ventures with its Japanese parent and local partners in Myanmar in 2015 and in Cambodia this year.
Siam Hitachi yesterday unveiled its latest innovation, the UAG-SN1 elevator, which features a “simplified specification selection process” concept, energy efficiencies, air purification, multi-beam door sensors, and many other new features.
Thailand will be the important production base for this new product, Dhanet said.

“Although the tourism and hotel industry continues growing, competition is increasing too. And that is causing some players to close their doors,” said Sukanya Janchoo, vice president of the Thai Hotels Association (THA).
She added that every hotel in the capital was facing the same challenges. Pricing is now the name of the game for many hotels, while the quality of customers is a secondary issue.
Her comments followed the decision by Park Nai Lert’s owners to shut down the 36-year-old hotel at the end of this year along with other buildings on the 15-rai (2.4-hectare) plot that was once the parking area for the SompatsiriSampatsiri family’s bus company.
In a hand-written message to employees, Naphaporn Bodiratnangkura, the hotel’s managing director and a member of the third generation of the family business, said the hotel had faced a number of tumultuous years.
“The hotel industry is facing fierce competition, with new hotels popping up on all roads. The management has endured hard work to cushion the impacts and survive. Nevertheless, changes are eventual [inevitable] and this will be a major one,” said Naphaporn, granddaughter of the late Thanpuying Lursakdi Sampatsiri, who founded the hotel 36 years ago.
Naphaporn took over the hotel’s management from her aunt Bilaibhan Sampatsiri, a daughter of Thanpuying Lursakdi.
According to Naphaporn’s note, some employees can apply for jobs with AccorHotels Group, which completed its takeover of the Swissotel brand this month. They are also entitled to legal compensation plus extra monies from the SompatisiriSampatsiri family.
The prospects for Park Nai Lert started to become shaky when the owner decided to terminate a 20-year management contract with Hilton International in 2003 and turned to the Singapore-based Raffles International Group, which owned the Swissotel brand.
Pimolpa Suntichok, first executive vice president of Siam Commercial Bank, which is a major creditor of the hotel, said Park Nai Lert had shouldered high maintenance costs, as it wanted to keep its identity value amid high competition in the hotel business.
The competition is indeed fierce in the city, which according to a MasterCard survey, is expected to welcome more than 20 million visitors this year.
It is estimated that there are 50 five-star hotels in the capital, with a total of 5,000 rooms. Most of them are located on the banks of the Chao Phraya River, on Sukhumvit Road, and in the Ratchaprasong area.
The latter two locations became popular mainly after the opening of the Skytrain in 1999. They have since attracted new properties that feature new decorative styles and modern technology, in line with the behaviours of today’s travellers. To keep pace, old properties bank on renovation and refurbishment. Some resort to price discounts.
Looking for a room on October 8 on Agoda, a hotel booking site, a customer can check into a Grand Deluxe room at the InterContinental for Bt6,000 a night. Renaissance Ratchaprasong charges Bt5,500, Grand Hyatt Erawan Bt7,550 and Anantara Siam Bt8,100.
Swissotel Nai Lert Park charges Bt4,400 for a room with the famous garden view.
The THA’s Sukanya, who is also the general manager at Dusit Thani Hotel Bangkok, said the game had totally changed from what it was a few decades ago. Today’s operators need to improve internal management and service standards continually. Meanwhile, they also need to be wise about their target customer group and lure them with fresh-looking and fully equipped properties.
“Brand positioning may be one of the considerations for hotels in the current situation because different brands will generate different rates and gross profit,” she added.
Competition does not come from only established operators.
Surapong Techaruvichit, managing director of Asia Hotel Bangkok and former president of the THA, said Bangkok was home to more than 500 registered hotels. Five-star rooms make up only 10 per cent of the 50,000 registered rooms spread across the city.
Nationwide, there are 500,000 properly registered rooms on offer, while the number of unregistered rooms is estimated at 500,000.
“Half of the players have remained uncontrolled in terms of prices and standards,” he said.