The project was now due to be completed in the middle of 2019, Pakpoom said.

“We should have realised gains of about Bt4 billion a year from the project over the past three years. But we only partially booked about Bt1 billion last year,” he said.

Last year, Stec posted Bt18.33 billion in revenue, a 15-per-cent drop year-on-year.

Pakpoom said the delay in the new parliament was caused by several factors – a delay in the government making land available, and a delay in the company’s digging as a result of the government not making a place available to dump dug up earth. He said the project also had shortcomings in IT, security, its audio and video system, and insufficient area for car-parking. Under the current design, underground car parking would be available for 2,000 cars for an estimated 12,000 regular visitors a day.

The Stec president said if the government decided to build another carpark for 4,000 cars – which would be three-storeys underground and in the building compound – and was built in parallel, it would be completed at the same time as the parliament.

Pakpoom said the interior design, which requires extensive use of large teakwood – procured from the Forest Industry Organisation – for decoration might also cause delays. The company would inform the interior designers if the teak required could be procured.

Currently, the project was about 22 per cent completed and expected to reach 30 per cent by the end of this year.

Pakpoom said the company’s revenue this year was likely to match last year since bidding was yet to begin on the government’s mega-investment project worth more than Bt10 billion.

In the second half of the year, he said the company expected to realise revenue from existing projects such as the double-track railway (Chachoengsao-Klong 19-Kaeng Khoi), which would book revenue of Bt1.5 billion to Bt2 billion, and power plant projects.

“This year, Stec will get a combined Bt4 billion to Bt5 billion from new jobs, well short of its target of Bt20 billion,” Pakpoom said.

With a backlog of Bt50 billion, he said about Bt8 billion was revenue waiting to be realised from the new parliament project and another Bt8 billion was from the project to double railway tracks.

He said the company had tried to maintain an equal portion of government and private sector projects to ensure its margin remained high. The company now has a gross margin of around 8-9 per cent and a 6-7 per cent net profit margin, which was better than the average of rival contractors.

Stec’s revenue breakdown is from three major businesses – power, infrastructure, and buildings – all contributing equally.

Pakpoom expected the company would secure more work by winning the bidding for government infrastructure projects after this year. It has picked up bidding documents for the Orange Line (Cultural Centre to Min Buri), Yellow Line (Lat Phrao to Samrong), and Pink Line (Khae Rai to Min Buri).

Of the other projects that will likely open for bidding this year, he said the company expected to win about three to four contracts for each motorway project. It will also participate in the bidding for four routes of the dual-track inter-city rail projects.

“Many private hospitals, a big Thai family with senior people living with them, and Japanese [buyers] have already ordered a total of 500 Dinsow Mini robots from the company.

As a result, the company expects its income this year will double from less than Bt20 million last year,” she said.

Next year, CT Asia Robotics expects to sell more than 1,000 Dinsow Minis as Thai society pays more attention to elderly care and this robot is affordable for middle-income families.

Dinsow Mini costs Bt85,000. It was developed from the company’s Dinsow 3 model, which is larger.

Dinsow Mini has various functions that can serve elderly people who are alone at home. It can provide a motion-monitoring notification, make emergency calls, remind users to take their medication, and measure blood pressure. Its database contains a photo gallery, music and brain exercises.

Pravee said some private hospitals had ordered Dinsow Mini as an assistant to nurses looking after patients in private rooms. The company has foreseen a bright opportunity for more orders from private hospitals as well as from government hospitals, and middle-income families who have little time and too few people to take care their elderly folk.

CT Asia Robotics will also continue to promote the product in Japan as it is an ageing society. The company now has an agent in Japan to help distribute the robot and provide after-sales service.

The company has also been developing its robot to enable interactive responses, and the new model should be ready for commercialisation in three to five years.

CT Asia Robotics has initial capital of Bt15 million. It has been a software provider for 19 years. It shifted its focus to robot development six years ago, and produces Dinsow 3, a robot that can take food orders from restaurant customers.

The company’s clients include MK Restaurant, Muang Thai Insurance and Government Savings Bank. Dinsow 3 has also been exported to Sweden.

Prajin was asked if the ministry had the authority to order Thaicom to pay an annual concession fee for the satellites.

In response, he said the negotiations should conducted carefully to avoid a legal backlash.

Last week Philip Tan, group chief executive officer of InTouch Holdings, the parent company of Thaicom, said Thaicom was open to entering into discussions on the matter in order to seek the best solution for all parties.

Payment until 2021

The ICT Ministry wants the annual concession fee paid until 2021, on top of the yearly licence fee for the two satellites Thaicom pays to the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission. The ministry believes the Thaicom 7 and 8 satellites have to be brought under the current concession regime covering the satellite sector as the regime does not end until 2021.

The Thaicom 4, 5 and 6 satellites operate under an ICT Ministry concession that will expire in 2021, while Thaicom 7 and 8 operated under the NBTC licensing regime. Thaicom will face higher regulatory costs if it has to the pay concession fee in addition to the licence fee.

The annual licence fee is 5.25 per cent of Thaicom’s gross revenue, while the annual concession |fee is 20.5 per cent of its gross revenue.

In June Thaicom chief executive Paiboon Panuwattanawong said in a statement in reaction to this case that the government should consider the impact on Thaicom if it slaps additional conditions or more regulatory fees on two of the company’s satellites.

Nakao is the ninth president of ADB. He was the sole nominee after ADB’s governors were invited from May 31 to June 30 to make nominations for the organisation’s presidency.

“It is a great honour to receive the mandate of ADB members to serve as president of the ADB for another five years,” said Nakao. “I will devote myself to continuing to lead ADB to an even more elevated standing as the primary development institution in the region that helps achieve inclusive and sustainable development in Asia and the Pacific.”

During Nakao’s first term, ADB has realigned its strategic priorities through the Midterm Review of Strategy 2020 and increased its lending capacity from US$13 billion (Bt453 billion) in 2014 to $20 billion by 2020 through the merger of Asian Development Fund operations with the Ordinary Capital Resources balance sheet. The scaling up of its operations has already made good progress.

Last year, ADB’s loan and grant approvals reached a record $16.3 billion, including private sector operations of $2.6 billion, which is also a record high. ADB’s board of governors in May approved a replenishment of the Asian Development Fund of $3.8 billion.

Under Nakao’s leadership, in order to serve client countries better, ADB has also implemented institutional reforms including delegating more authority to resident missions, streamlining procurement and other procedures, establishing the Office of Public-Private Partnership, and strengthening sector and thematic expertise.

Prior to joining ADB in 2013, Nakao was a senior official in the Ministry of Finance, Japan, where he gained extensive experience in international finance and development. Nakao also taught international finance as a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo in 2010 and 2011. Born in 1956, Nakao holds a BA in Economics from the University of Tokyo and an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley.

Established in Thailand in 1989, Kingsmen CMTI is part of the Kingsmen Group’s network of 19 offices across the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East.

The company plans to expand its reach abroad, focusing mainly on Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, as they are neighbouring countries with land borders so that business management will have few complications.

The future branch offices in these countries will serve to increase the potential for the company’s growth, especially in an era when consumers will access and recognise prosperity and modernisation instantly through technology. Therefore, developing countries need to upgrade themselves to capture the newest trends.

Chayawat Pisessith, chairman and executive chairman of Kingsmen CMTI, said the company had implemented several business collaborations between the parent company and Kingsmen Creatives. The partnership includes the exchange and development of business potential among Kingsmen’s 19 offices and the rest of the world.

Examples are the exchange of technical know-how, staff training and coaching, business-development strategies and the sharing of design expertise to serve international clients.

Most important, the partnership includes project referrals and joint-venture projects – domestically and internationally. Therefore, such collaborations pave the way for the joint expansion of businesses to other regions in future.

Currently, Kingsmen is headquartered in Singapore and has 19 offices in 13 countries, with the Kingsmen Myanmar office run by Kingsmen CMTI being the newest.

Chayawat said Kingsmen CMTI was expanding its business vertically and horizontally. The company plans to add more business units to accommodate higher demand from clients and the market, especially in industries such as architecture, engineering and interior design. One example is design-and-build for high-end condominiums. It is expected that these kinds of projects will increase with higher purchasing power and income levels.

The company expects the revenue contribution from interior design-and-build business will increase faster than the trade-fair and event business.

“Our collaboration with Singapore will focus on developing business together, undertaking jobs together, referring customers to each other via ‘technical know-how’, and conducting seminars in all 19 offices focusing on targeted topics, such as marketing, project management and design strategies,” Chayawat said.

“Regarding the overview of the business in the past, we have adjusted our strategy by expanding to the design-and-build interior business. Our customers are department stores or shopping centres that want to renovate their public areas, as well as hospital and restaurants, high-end condominiums and office buildings.

“We have diversified our business from high-end retail businesses to mass public service areas, such as the lobbies of malls. “We are also expanding our team to support the high growth of this market in the next three to five years,” he said.