The national airline will also help its budget carrier Nok Air, which has called mass cancellations of flights while sorting out internal problems.

THAI president Charamporn Jotikasthira said yesterday that the company has no plan to sell its stake in Nok Air, despite the issues besetting the budget airline.

Moscow will be added back to the schedule in October – the beginning of the high season for Thailand’s tourism industry.

The airline also expects to return to the US market next year.

It will add more routes or increase frequencies in Asean countries this year as part of tourism-recovery plans being pushed by the Tourism and Sports Ministry and the private sector.

THAI took delivery of eight new aircraft and decommissioned 15 in line with the strategy to shrink the fleet to 95 by year-end from 102 the previous year.

The flight-frequency adjustment and change of aircraft to match passenger demand resulted in more effective aircraft utilisation and improvement in various key indicators, including increases of 0.6 per cent in passenger production and 6.5 per cent in passenger traffic.

Its cabin factor rose to 72.9 per cent from 68.9 per cent last year.

The number of passengers carried was up 11 per cent to 21.25 million.

The airline posted a net profit of Bt5.4 billion for the final quarter of last year, but an operating loss of Bt13.0 billion for all of 2015.

The key driver for the upturn was on the expense side – a reduction of 11.2 per cent primarily from falling fuel and non-fuel expenses resulting from rigid cost control and management programmes.

Krungthep Turakij, The Nation’s sister newspaper, and Mirum (Thailand), the local unit of a global digital agency, last month surveyed local entrepreneurs from various backgrounds including real estate and construction, finance, technology and communications, agriculture and food, logistics, tourism and recreation.

Most of the entrepreneurs believe economic indices will be able to improve slightly this year.

About 31 per cent put growth of gross domestic product at 2.5-3 per cent, while 30 per cent expected 2-2.5 per cent, lower than last year. The remaining 19 per cent were looking at 3-3.5 per cent.

The National Economic and Social Development Board forecasts a wide range of 2.8-3.8 per cent with the median at 3.3 per cent.

Lack of confidence in SET

From the capital market’s perspective, the respondents have not clearly stated the economic direction of this year, suggesting a lack of confidence in the Stock Exchange of Thailand. About 31 per cent of them predicted the SET Index at 1,300-1,400 points, 22 per cent at 1,200-1,300 and 21 per cent at 1,400-1,500.

Duangkamol Chotana, chief executive officer of Nation Multimedia Group, said yesterday that most of the respondents were optimistic about turnover this year. Two-thirds were looking forward to increased revenues, 32 per cent to no change and 2 per cent to the worst-case scenario – decreased income.

Similarly, 60 per cent thought overall net profit would increase, 36 per cent expected very much the same figures as in 2015 and 3 per cent were worried about a drop.

As for investment, a majority (52 per cent) expected stable figures, 36 per cent more investment and 12 per cent less.

For the reasons behind encouraging investment, 44 per cent of the chief executives cited an increase in potential competition, 31 per cent suggested expansion for top industries and 19 per cent preparation for economic growth. Only 6 per cent specifically offered the idea of market expansion towards the Asian Economic Community (AEC).

Possible threats were mostly customers’ purchasing power (98 per cent of respondents), economic reliability (97 per cent), government policy (95 per cent), the world economy (95 per cent) and political instability (90 per cent), with 6 per cent seeing rising competition as a threat.

The major trends in changes of industries were digital trends that will affect business formats and consumption (97 per cent), the greying of the population (91 per cent) and health (88 per cent), determining healthcare businesses to be very successful.

Uraiporn Cholsirirungsakul, CEO of Mirum (Thailand), said the data collected from the survey of digital technology business policy from a group of CEOs showed that almost every one of them realised the necessity of adapting to and importing digital technology.

About 80 per cent regarded digital technology as a crucial factor in running their business, and 72 per cent see an opportunity in implementing digital technology for business competition in the AECera.

However, the country’s largest music and entertainment giant still carries a loss of Bt1.145 billion.

Group chief executive officer Boosaba Daorueng said the music business reported Bt3.252 billion in revenue last year, a rise of 14.4 per cent from 2014, as a result of a reorganisation.

Although the digital-TV business has been facing several challenges, such as regulations and government support that affects advertising spending, the popularity of One 31 and GMM 25 channels has been surging.

Last year, One 31 channel showed significant growth in financial and rating aspects, thanks to its outstanding content, especially prime-time dramas, sitcoms and variety programmes, she said. The channel aims to increase revenue by 80 per cent this year.

At the same time, GMM 25 saw substantial advancement in both revenue and brand awareness during the year.

The channel is continuing to rearrange its scheduling and varying its content.

Banking on such all-time favourites as “Club Friday the Series”, dramas like “O Negative”, variety shows such as “Chae” and “The Red Carpet” and Korea-based programme “M Countdown”, it aims to catch up with new trends. It targets revenue growth of around 85 per cent this year.

The “O Shopping” home-shopping channel posted a solid year-on-year growth of 53 per cent in 2015 to Bt1.738 billion. Sales per day, towards the end of 2015, increased to more than Bt5.5 million with a customer base of more than 900,000.

Last year, GMM Grammy booked several extraordinary items, which were one-time transactions including gains from investment-portfolio restructuring. For instance, it gained Bt959 million from the disposition of its interests in Se-Education and Index Creative Village.

It recorded an impairment loss of Bt1.03 million for pay-TV operator CTH. However, Boosaba said the loss was not counted as a cash item, so it did not have any negative impact on the company’s liquidity.

Palaces, which began its manufacturing operations in Bangkok in 2013, and exports more than 90 per cent of its output, took part for the first time in the Bangkok Gems and Jewellery Fair that concluded yesterday at Muang Thong Thani.

“It was a tremendous experience taking part in the fair,” said the Dubai-based Basel, who flew down for the fair. “After this experience, we’ll ensure our presence at all such events in Thailand.”

Basel is 100-per-cent owner of the Board of Investment privileges company that also has offices in Canada, UK, Geneva and Dubai.

Buoyed by the response at the fair, Basel, who learned the jewellery craft from his father at the age of 10 in Damascus and was selling his own creations by the age of 13, is also looking at tapping markets in Asean and Asia.

“Surely the region, and also China figure very high in our plans for the next few years,” he said.

“Our traditional markets have been Canada, western Europe, the Middle East and Russia. We’re relatively new to the region. We see the need to focus on the region. But we’ll maintain Bangkok as our manufacturing hub and look to expand it,” Basel said. “It’s not easy to find the level of skills Thais have in other places,” he said.

“We have designed everything at the factory to Swiss standards with state of the art equipment,” Basel said.

Basel used to visit Bangkok many years ago and buy millions of dollars worth of jewellery every year. He was so impressed with the skills of Thai workers that when he decided to expand his operations, he decided to make Bangkok his manufacturing base.

“What makes our operations extraordinary is, we don’t outsource any of the work,” says Christopher Sen, Palaces operations director. “We have about 15 different processes. All this happens in-house. Before and after each process, it goes for quality control. Because it’s all done under one roof, we can repeat a process until we’re happy with the results. This wouldn’t be possible if we depended on outsiders.”

“If we want, we can get the job done at a much lower cost by hiring foreign workers, or getting it made in other countries. Being in a free zone, there are no restrictions on hiring foreign workers. But we believe Thai skills in this field are extraordinary and we don’t want to compromise on quality,” Sen said.

“This exhibition was a reminder for us to explore the region,” says Sen. “We’re relatively new to the region. Our traditional markets have been the Middle East, Canada, western Europe and Russia. We’ll start seriously evaluating Asean and China markets, look at the current trends there, come up with designs and widen our presence.”

“In the next two years, we’ll be expanding in a big way,” says Basel. China is market Palaces is interested in because of the great number of Chinese who are travelling abroad, looking for high-end jewellery.

Basel’s businesses are languishing in his home country, strife-torn Syria. “I’m praying it will all end and Syria can return to normalcy. Nothing is impossible,” he says, sounding a note of cautious optimism.

The company, which has leased 3G 850-megahertz airtime from CAT Telecom to offer the MVNO service, will officially launch it on the Myworld3G brand next month, after the recent soft launch.

The company currently has around 4,000 subscribers.

Its promotional campaign charges users Bt999 per month, with unlimited free calls to all operators for 24 hours and unlimited data services at 512 kilobits per second.

The company’s SIM cards allow users to receive incoming calls free of charge for six months while travelling in 41 countries, including China, South Korea, England, Germany, Hong Kong, and Singapore. All its SIM cards contain the Myworld pay-point application, which enables users to wirelessly pay all their utility service bills from mobile devices.

Data CDMA Communication president Nipon Chucherd said that Myworld3G would tap niche markets, including Thais travelling overseas and the operators of truck fleets using the Global Positioning System.

The company has appointed master dealers in each province to sell its SIM cards and they will get Bt150 per card. Each dealer has to commit to selling at least 2,000 cards within three months.

The company is also offering Internet Protocol TV services under the MyworldTV brand, which enables SIM card users to watch around 100 TV channels, including Myanmar and Cambodian TV programmes, on their mobile devices. They are charged Bt20 per month, with currently around 7,000 subscribers.

“We are confident of securing at least one million users within this year and will break even with only 100,000 users,” Nipon said.

Data CDMA Communication is one of four MVNOs that last week formed the Thailand MVNO Club to share the cost of operating systems and create more competition. The other MVNOs are i-mobile Plus Co, of Samart I-Mobile, 168 Communication, and The WhiteSpace Co.

All are part of CAT’s MVNO |network, which provides a 3G |cellular service on the 850MHz spectrum. It is the first time |small and medium-sized tele-|com operators have formed an alliance.

“This appears to be the biggest lay-offs at the company in the last seven years,” the source, who did not want to be named, told The Nation.

The 100 employees will be laid off with effect from tomorrow. GMM Grammy is reportedly also considering cutting more jobs from its current staff strength of 3,000 employees.

The affected staff will get full compensation under labour laws plus an extra three months of salary due to the urgent notice.

The redundancy follows slide in the performance of its business units such as music, digital content production, public relations and accountancy. The company has been restructuring its internal management since the last two years in transforming the music and entertainment-based company into a total media solutions provider.

Under the restructuring plan, the company has set up a content-marketing unit to work with other departments to optimise and monetise content through various media platforms, both at home and overseas. The new department is also working closely with clients and sponsors to design and develop TV and radio programmes, film and marketing activities to engage with target audiences.

In line with those activities, last year the company decided to exit non-core business, selling its shares in SE-Education, Post Publishing, Matichon and Index Creative Village. The company also sold its magazine business to C True, which is majority-owned by Thai AirAsia chief executive officer Tassapon Bijleveld.

However, the source insisted that the recent move was not related to its terrestrial-based digital TV businesses – GMM 25 and One channel – who are seeing a boost in popularity and advertising revenue.

In a previous interview, Paiboon Dumrongchaitham, chairman of the music and entertainment giant, said he was impressed with the performance of both digital TV stations.

“Although its digital-TV business is still suffering from the huge investment cost of content production, the ratings and audience share of both One and GMM 25 channels have continued to rise after the revamp of its programming with prime-time soap operas and situation comedies,” he said.

In Thailand, the company has plans to open an average of up to six new franchised outlets a month, as it aims for 600 franchisees by 2020, its advisory chairman Phitsanuchai Kaewphichai said. Currently, Doi Chaang Coffee has 300 outlets nationwide – 10 of which are owned by Doi Chaang Coffee Original Co Ltd and the rest franchises.

The company has about 50 franchised outlets overseas, including in China, South Korea, Malaysia, Canada, UK, Singapore, Laos, and Myanmar.

“We will have production capacity to produce coffee beans of up to 7,000 tonnes a year on 34,500 rai (5,520 hectares) of Doi Chaang land in Chang Rai. As a result we have to limit our coffee houses to only 600 in Thailand, and not over 300 outlets overseas,” Phitsanuchai said. Doi Chaang franchisees pay an entrance fee of Bt150,000 and a monthly fee at least Bt6,000 for a 40-square-metre branch.

Return on investment is between 18 months and 48 months, depending on the location, Phitsanuchai said.

At present, Doi Chaang Coffee produces 3,000 tonnes of coffee a year on 15,000 rai. Half the total is exported overseas, with the rest distributed domestically.

Doi Chaang Coffee has received a Thai Geographical Indication and EU Organic Farming recognition.

It is a premium coffee that sells between US$10 (Bt357) and $20 per kilogram at a time when the average market price for the industry is between $3.50 and $4.20 per kilogram.

Doi Chaang Coffee was established in 2003 by Wicha Promyong, and Panachai Pisailert, the headman of the Doi Chaang village.

The business was started over 500 rai. It produces quality Arabica coffee.

Phitsanuchai said that since the company was launched, it had gone from a local coffee to a premium coffee brand. But he said its financial results still showed net losses because its key to doing business was to focus on developing the quality of life of the Akha hilltribe, the Lisu hilltribe, and the Haw Chinese who live at Doi Chaang.

“Ten years ago, the hilltribes who stay in Doi Chaang had income from the sale of coffee beans that was on average Bt5,000 per rai per year,” he said. “But now they have income from the sale of coffee beans that is on average Bt45,000 per rai. This [raising the hilltribes’ income] is our motto to do this business,” he said.

He reiterated that Doi Chaang was a social enterprise that did not do business for net profits but to generate high incomes for farmers.

As a result, when the company expanded it was based on how to boost the income of the farmers.

He said the demand for premium coffee had strongly grown, especially for organically grown coffee.

This had the potential to boost Doi Chaang Coffee to achieve its target of having 900 franchised outlets in Thailand and overseas by 2020.

A ministry source said the ministry had asked the ITU it was withdrawing reservations for orbital slots 50.5 degrees East, 78.5 degrees East, and 119.5 degrees East, the last originally reserved forThaicom 9.

The withdrawal targets only future satellites to be positioned there, not the existing satellites on these slots. The ministry said it wanted to wait for a new and clear government policy on satellites, as reason for this move. The source added that while Thaicom could ask the ministry to make such a reservation filing again, each filing process takes time.

A Thaicom source said Thaicom is ready to explain to the ministry that reserving the orbital slots for future satellite launches protects national interest.

The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) has already granted the licence for the planned Thaicom 8 and Thaicom 9 satellites. Thaicom is seeking a manufacturer to build the Thaicom 9. It plans to launch Thaicom 8 to a position 78.5 degrees East by the middle of this year.

Thaicom operates three existing satellites under the ministry concession -Thaicom 5 and 6 broadcasting satellites and the Thaicom 4 broadband satellite, better known as iPSTAR. Thaicomsatellites under the existing NBTC licence are Thaicom 7 and all those to be launched in the future.

ICT Minister Uttama Savanayana said the ministry is waiting for a report from Chulalongkorn University, assigned by the ministry to study the country’s space and satellite policies. The study will be finished in April. It has also asked the university to work out the appropriate fee a satellite operator should pay to the government for coordinating with the ITU to reserve the orbital slots. This fee will be levied on the satellites under NBTC licensing regime only.

He added that the ministry wants to discuss the issue of fee with Thaicom regarding its satellites under the NBTC licensing regime.

He said the ministry is revising the overall satellite policy with the initial focus on what to do in case the satellite concessions expire before the expiry of the satellite’s life span. The three options are to allow existing operators to continue the operation, awarding the concessions to new operators, or for the government to step in to operate them.