The two men and one young woman represented 24 fellow civil engineering students back home.
All 27 had been groomed during “AP Open House 2016”, an intensive internship programme run by the AP Academy, Thailand’s first institution for comprehensive real-estate learning, established by the powerhouse property developer, AP (Thailand) Plc.
The two-month internship extracted the essence of the learning process of real-estate business, together with training sessions and on-site works supervised by experienced engineer mentors, for 27 undergraduates who were selected from over 600 applicants across the country.
Three students eventually made the final list from the Open House attendees to make a field study trip to Tokyo with AP (Thailand)’s business partner, Mitsubishi Estate Group (MEC), which spent three full days elaborating on matters from how its automatic kitchen waste-disposal units work at a condominium in Chiba Prefecture to the group’s collaboration with the Japanese government in developing Marunouchi, the commercial heart of Tokyo.
Thanakarn “Benz” Likhitparinya, a third-year civil engineering student from King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thon Buri, was particularly interested in MEC’s earthquake-resistance mechanisms equipped in the group’s buildings.
“Japan is known for its frequency of earthquakes,” he said. “Thailand’s [frequency and power] might not be on a par, but there were recent reports [of quakes] in the northern part of the country, so I think we should start to do something about it.”
Thanakarn learnt that 2-tonne rubber dampers can be used to absorb agitation in buildings, while silicone-infused metallic poles fitted in all floors can also create a building’s resilience against an earthquake.
“The poling equipment is cheaper than the dampers, but it could also be less efficient,” he said.
Apart from technical learning, he was also impressed by MEC’s selling methods.
“In Thailand, salespersons usually provide potential customers merely with leaflets and take them to sampling rooms. But MEC touches buyers through hi-tech presentations, and lighting effects are used to visualise things. Their sampling rooms are also to actual scale, with full-size equipment.
“I don’t understand Japanese, but they managed to create an impression on me,” he added.
Apiwich “Fai” Vongsavan, a third-year civil engineering student from Chulalongkorn University, said his vision and experience had been broadened by what he learnt in college, where purely technical lessons are taught.
“In real life, it’s not only about how you pour the cement, it’s also about how you deal with customers and provide consultation. It’s also about how you manage your project in an orderly way. It’s about many more things,” he said.
The student learnt that MEC based its construction and quality-design philosophy on the “Five Eyes” concept, comprising the check eye, eco eye, custom eye, life eye and community eye.
These respectively relate to high-quality products, eco-friendliness, the excitement of creating one’s own personal living space, safety and security, and social fulfilment.
The Japanese company has also initiated an “eye plus” – an additional eye to collect customer feedback, combine it with trace records and know-how, and reflect all this in its future products.
Apiwich said he hoped that this rounded concept could inspire him in driving his final group project required for graduation.
Thanakarn, meanwhile, also thought that the knowledge gained from the trip could contribute to his academic platform.
“I think classes, for example on estate laws or personnel management, could be taught as selective options in universities, so that students interested in growing a career path in real estate can obtain this additional yet necessary knowledge before starting their jobs,” he explained.
Piyawan “Newton” Weerapaiboon, now freshly graduated from Kasetsart University’s Irrigation College, thought that the Japanese working culture and process she had observed could contribute in her work as a site engineer at AP (Thailand).
“Japanese workers do not miss a centimetre when it comes to measurement. And that’s how construction should be managed,” she said.
“Professionalism counts for a lot, too. A female site engineer is rare, so I always get giggled at by male workers. I have to position myself properly, as I need to manage projects in an orderly way,” she added.
Piyawan also saw the potential of the precast system, under which some of the key construction elements are produced off-site before being delivered to a construction site.
“As Japanese labour costs are high, MEC has chosen to adopt this system to cut its cost,” she said, adding, “This also makes the sites ‘drier’ when compared with those in Thailand, where most parts are moulded at the place of construction.”
“I visited the MEC site on a rainy day, but there was not a single sticky piece of mud smearing my shoes,” she said with a chuckle.
“But what’s more important is that it makes the sites safer places for construction workers,” she added.
The three students were taken to Tokyo by Pumipat Sinacharoen, AP (Thailand)’s chief people officer, who wishes to elevate real-estate knowledge in society through the AP Academy that he directs.
“Efforts to build knowledge |in Thailand about real estate |have not been very fruitful, and we need to do something to make it [people’s knowledge] grow,” Pumipat said.
“And I’m impressed with these three young-generation students, who saw the whole picture of real-estate procedure. They know that it’s not only technical, but also about logistics, business and everything else besides,” he added.

Somchai Jitrmongkol, administrative manager of Victoria Cliff on Nyaung Oo Phee Island, dreamed of running a hotel with high- quality service and reasonable prices.
The four-star boutique hotel and resort will feature various types of guest rooms and will be the first top-end hotel in the country’s southeast.
The hotel had a soft opening last December. It now serves 500 to 600 guests per month. It features 12 air-conditioned guest rooms and 18 private tents.
Victoria Cliff will host an |official opening ceremony on October 2.
The hotel has great onsite offerings, including a sea-view pool, meeting rooms and more, Somchai said. Guests experience a luxury atmosphere and top-end service with reasonable room rates.
Visitors from South
“I want to cater to Thai tourists from the south of Thailand. Our hotel wants to provide quality service at a reasonable price,” he said.
The main objective of this project is to welcome the growing numbers of tourists from around the world to southeastern Myanmar.
Somchai said Nyaung Oo Phee Island Myanmar was just an hour and 45 minutes by speedboat from Koh Song (Victoria Point), around 38 nautical miles away.
The island features a pleasant beach near the resort. Besides the full facilities to welcome tourists, the island itself offers a natural landscape of forests and marine views.
“For transport, we provide a round-trip speedboat service from Grand Andaman Harbour to Nyaung Oo Phee Island in Myanmar, for both one-day trips and overnight stays.”

FOUNDED IN October 1969, UFC has been recognised as one of Thailand’s key producers of a wide range of agricultural products for the world market. It is with this conviction that UFC decided to invest in fruit and vegetable development. The commitment in supplying the world with fruits and vegetables from Thailand also allowed UFC to contribute to much-needed employment in rural communities.

AS THAILAND’S LEADING MAKER OF PROCESSED FRUITS AND BEVERAGES, SAUCES AND SEASONING PRODUCTS, DO YOU HAVE ANY MEDIUM-TERM MISSION YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE IN THE NEXT THREE TO FIVE YEARS?
We are one of the leading manufacturers and marketers of beverages and canned fruits and vegetables.
In the medium term, we intend to invest and strengthen our human capital in all areas, especially in marketing and R&D, and also in infrastructure to position ourselves to capture the new opportunities in the market.
We have seen new investment opportunities both in innovations and new product development for the global markets to be in line with our medium [term] business plan.

WHAT ABOUT THE BUSINESS CONTRIBUTIONS FROM DOMESTIC SALES AND EXPORTS? AND WHAT IS YOUR FUTURE STRATEGY TO BOTH THE DOMESTIC AND EXPORT MARKETS?
Our present overall business contribution is slightly skewed towards the international markets. We intend to grow our domestic sales more aggressively through new products for domestic consumers and better distribution channels. The global key strategies are innovation, marketing, speed to market and improved distribution.

TO HOW MANY DIFFERENT MARKETS HAVE YOU ALREADY EXPORTED YOUR PROCESSED FRUITS AND VEGETABLES AS WELL AS SAUCES AND SEASONING GOODS? AND DO YOU PLAN TO ADD NEW EMERGING MARKETS TO YOUR PORTFOLIO?
We are now in more than 50 international markets for our beverages, canned fruits and vegetables. We are progressively moving into new markets less familiar to other players. We have recently made healthy inroads into [the] Middle East and are exploring a few states in Africa.

IN ADDITION TO THAILAND, DO YOU PLAN TO EXPLORE INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES IN OTHER POTENTIAL MARKETS, SUCH AS IN CLMV (CAMBODIA, LAOS, MYANMAR AND VIETNAM) AND OTHER ASEAN COUNTRIES?
Indeed, these are our close neighbours and they do present unique opportunities for investing in the near future.
Our UFC Refresh coconut water is the market leader in Singapore and enjoys some presence in the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei.
Our UFC canned coffee is one of the brand leaders in Myanmar. In Vietnam, our juice range is gaining popularity. We are rebuilding our Homesoy soya milk [market] in Cambodia. We will continue to invest in marketing, brand building and distribution networks in Asean and CLMV to harness the growing demand in these promising economies. Our group of companies have been investing in manufacturing assets and in brand building in Malaysia for many years, and recently in Vietnam.

WHAT ARE THE OBJECTIVES OF INCREMENTAL INVESTMENT IN PRODUCTION?
On manufacturing capability and capacity, we have been investing in excess of a few hundred million baht over the past few years in Thailand. We will continue to do so in the next three years.
We plan to have combined total production capacities of more than 7 million standard cases in our two manufacturing sites [in Nakhon Pathom and Lampang] in the next three years.

The 27-year-old entrepreneur spent a small amount of her investment capital to purchase a glass-blowing machine and raw materials to produce droplet necklaces, earrings, rings and various other ornamental jewellery items.
Now, two years on, La Jewellery products are not only sold in Thailand, but also in Singapore where her jewellery has proven to be popular
The young entrepreneur, who graduated from the Architecture Faculty at Chulalongkorn University, plans to design a new collection in the summer and winter each year.
With the good response she has received to date, she intends to produce other lifestyle products and home decorative items made from her unique designs in the future.
She also plans to sell her products in other foreign markets, such as France, Japan and Hong Kong as visitors from these areas have already shown interest.
“Sales have continued to grow in the past couple of years, as customers are satisfied with the new design goods, while we provide a one-time guarantee under which buyers can claim a replacement if an item has been broken,” she said.
La Jewellery currently has one branded shop, at Siam Discovery.

SCB yesterday reported to the Stock Exchange of Thailand that Yol Phokasub had resigned as a director, member of the executive committee and member of the corporate social responsibility committee at the bank.
His resignation was effective from yesterday. Yol joined SCB in 2007, and he was named president of the bank on April 3 last year before stepping down from the position in May this year.
SCB informed the SET yesterday that his resignation from all positions at the bank was due to his other commitments.
Separately, SCB said yesterday that its financial-technology subsidiary Digital Ventures had announced its direct venture-capital investment in Ripple, a San Francisco-based provider of financial-settlement solutions. This makes SCB the first Thai commercial bank to invest in a feasibility study and testing of enterprise-grade blockchain technology to enable fast, cost-saving, private and secure international payment transactions.
“Blockchain is an exciting emerging financial technology that is slated to transform the world of financial services and online transactions – a disruptive technology in the digital age,” said Thana Thienachariya, chairman of the executive committee at Digital Ventures.
“Through an investment in and pilot programme with Ripple, SCB can explore the opportunity in utilising blockchain to develop new products and services to better serve customers. This makes SCB the first bank in Thailand to pilot international money-transfer services using Ripple’s blockchain solutions, with due diligence conducted by Digital Ventures, whose mission is to seek new investment and development of innovative fintech to elevate SCB’s customer-service quality.”
Ripple’s global network includes several top global banks such as Standard Chartered, Royal Bank of Canada, Westpac, National Australia Bank, Mizuho Financial Group, BMO Financial Group and Shanghai Huarui Bank, which have implemented blockchain technology for their cross-border transactions.
“When the blockchain network is commercially viable and gets approval from the Thai financial regulatory authority in the future, the knowledge base gained from this investment can be integrated into our system, and will bring a significant improvement in the quality of SCB’s international money-transfer services through a fast, convenient, cost-saving and secure world-class online transaction platform,” Thana said.
SCB participated in Ripple’s Series B fundraising round, in which the blockchain company raised US$55 million last month. Notable investors in Ripple to date include Accenture, Andreessen Horowitz, Google Ventures, IDG Capital Partners, Santander InnoVentures and Seagate.
“This partnership marks a major step forward for SCB, driven by Digital Ventures, to build the most comprehensive fintech ecosystem in Thailand,” Thana said.
“As blockchain technology is still new and not widespread in Thailand, we also see an opportunity to work closely with Ripple to educate Thai people and businesses on this technology and help raise awareness on its importance and potential to be adopted in a wide variety of service transactions, both in financial and non-financial service industries.”

Olympus aims to be No 1 in the imaging market in Thailand within two years. “Olympus by Zoom Camera is the third showroom under the photo-gallery concept, following the ones in Bangkok and Pattaya,” said Shinsho Ikeda, Olympus (Thailand) director and manager of its imaging product division.
“The showroom is offered to meet the needs and lifestyles of target customers, to learn and be inspired by colourful photo captures by Olympus cameras and devices.
“The new showroom will allow customers in the northern part of Thailand to gain more understanding of features and functions for proper decision-making on their usage.”
Outside Japan, Thailand is currently the top earner of Olympus Asia-Pacific imaging product divisions. The three best-selling cameras in Thailand are E-M10 Mark II, E-PL7 and E-M5 Mark II, which Ikeda called “impressive quick-mode mirrorless cameras” with usable features and functions.
“The mirrorless cameras, with [their] new design, light system and easy handling, are expected to continue [their] growth as one of the |necessary devices for travel and vacation lifestyle,” he added.

“This year, JTEKT (Thailand) Co Ltd is preparing to become the management hub of eight companies within [the] Asean region under the name ‘Asean JTEKT Group’, which will be merged as one in order to deliver products and services that are No 1 and [the] only one to customers,” said Yoshikazu Konishi, president of JTEKT (Thailand).
The company is applying to the Board of Investment for regional-headquarters privileges and expects the process to be finalised by next March.
In his company’s first press conference in 50 years since starting its operations in the Kingdom, Konishi said JTEKT still viewed Thailand as an attractive place, and it had just established its second manufacturing site in the country last year, in Chachoengsao.
“The company expects [the] Thai automotive market to continue to slow down next year but is still confident it will pick up in 2018. Our Gateway factory still has vacant land enough to support future expansion,” he said.
JTEKT (Thailand) will become the headquarters for the group’s operations in Asean, which also include two other subsidiaries in Thailand, another two in Indonesia, and one each in the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore.
Konishi said JTEKT was studying the possibility of setting up new production lines for steering systems in Malaysia and Indonesia next year as well as enhancing its sales and after-market functions for its bearing products in Thailand and Singapore.
JTEKT targets increasing its annual sales in Asean from about 120 billion yen (Bt41 billion) at present to 140 billion yen by 2020, and in Thailand from 35 billion yen to 42 billion yen during the same period.
It expects its Thailand sales to drop by 1.7 per cent this year. Its Thai operations currently export about 20-30 per cent of their capacity, especially steering products, which are mainly shipped to Indonesia and Malaysia.
Asean sales currently contribute about 8 per cent of the group’s total.
JTEKT, which invented electric power steering (EPS) three decades ago, has more than 130 companies in 28 countries employing more than 43,000 people. It is an affiliated company of Toyota, which has a 22.5-per-cent stake in JTEKT.
For bearing products, of which hub bearings are the main product, Konishi said the parent company in Japan was in the process of developing a better product that would be manufactured and distributed in Asean to achieve its goal of increasing market share of this product in the region from 29 per cent to 40 per cent.
JTEKT recently dispatched personnel from its technical centre to provide design knowledge to the Thai-Japan Institute of Technology and is considering establishing a long-term partnership with the institute, he said.
The group’s current annual production capacity in Thailand includes 850,000 EPS sets, 1.2 million units of hydraulic power steering, and more than 2 million hub-bearing units. It also produces driveline components.

The company’s new marketing campaign, “Drink a 100Plus anywhere, anytime,” is designed to emphasise how the brand is different from its competitors.
Thai Drinks is also introducing Joey Boy as its new presenter to encourage younger customers to choose 100Plus.
Jesdakorn Ghosh, senior vice president of Thai Drinks Co, said that in the 18 months it has been in the Thai market, 100Plus had managed to capture a 30-per-cent share of the market for so-called healthier carbonated soft drinks, which is a significant |portion of the Bt2-billion segment.
“We now hold a market share comparable to other brands that have been on the market for longer than 100Plus. I am confident in our brand’s strength and research supports this,” she said.
“A recent survey found that 100Plus scored higher in several areas compared with the third quarter of 2015 and second quarter of 2016, especially when it comes to being refreshing, good for health, and having great taste.
“This success is due to proper brand positioning and meeting consumer demands for a product that tastes good, is refreshing, and offers health benefits.
“Also, our marketing campaign ‘100Plus cycling across the sky to Fuji’ offered a chance for fans to enjoy cycling, relaxing and shopping in Japan with Toon Bodyslam, a famous Thai rock singer and brand presenter. This contributed greatly to our sales, which grew by 100 per cent during the campaign period of March through May.
“To continue our success, 100Plus has launched a new marketing campaign called ‘Drink a 100Plus anywhere, anytime’ to enlarge our base of health-conscious, active consumers who enjoy drinking carbonated soft drinks but may worry about their health.

Daily drink
“The campaign will unlock more opportunities for these consumers to drink 100Plus in their everyday life, such as during meals, or to refresh themselves during workouts.”
As well, 100Plus will introduce a new logo, “The Healthy Choice”, developed by the Institute of Nutrition at Mahidol University on its packaging as well as in advertisements. This is to convey the message that 100Plus is the healthiest product of its type.