Since its launch in 2015, Shopee, which is owned by gaming firm Sea, has grown into one of South-East Asia’s leading e-commerce platforms, with operations in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan.

In the second quarter of 2019, the platform achieved 246.3 million orders regionally and recorded a gross merchandise volume of US$3.8 billion (S$5.3 billion).

Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat, who officiated the opening, said Shopee’s growth is aligned with Singapore’s plans for growing the economy and positioning itself as a hub for the region to harness the potential of the growing digital economy.

“The rise of South-east Asian and Asian economies brings opportunities, and we must position Singapore well to harness them. We have to constantly strive to ensure that companies like Shopee, doing business across the region, will continue to see Singapore as an ideal base for serving the region,” he said.

He added that companies in the region can also look to Singapore as a springboard to going global. “We strive to serve as a global-Asia node – in linking the world to Asia and Asia to the world.”

Mr Heng also spoke about efforts to build up Singapore’s value to the business economy. He cited ongoing plans for a pathfinder Digital Economy Partnership Agreement with Chile and New Zealand, collaboration with Australia on digital economy initiatives, and investments in research and development in the services and digital economy domain.

“Our efforts to grow our digital economy, transform our industries, and build new capabilities are wide-ranging, but our overarching intent is clear. Ultimately, these must translate into good jobs for our people,” he said.

In four years, Shopee has grown from just 10 employees to over 1,500 staff and the new office can accommodate up to 3,000 employees.

An August report by product comparison website iPrice showed Shopee extending its lead over rival Lazada as the top Internet shopping platform in the region.

Shopee had a monthly average of 200.2 million visits via both desktop and mobile gadgets in the second quarter, while Alibaba-owned Lazada was ranked second with 174.4 million visits.

Shopee’s new 244,000 sq ft office is almost six times larger than the previous one at Ascent Building in Science Park Drive. The new building has a 3,000 sq ft gym, nap pods on every level, and a fun zone with pool tables and foosball tables.

Chief commercial officer and head of Shopee Singapore Zhou Junjie said the new office reaffirms Shopee’s long-term commitment to Singapore.

“Expanding the tech talent pipeline and nurturing an entrepreneurial ecosystem for sellers and SMEs will continue to be areas of focus for us,” he said.

As the company continues to expand, The Straits Times understands that Shopee will look to hire more data analysts, data scientists, software engineers, and developers who specialise in machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Shopee is also working with Digital Industry Singapore to develop tech talent. The company has committed to training more than 100 employees under the Infocomm Media Development Authority’s TechSkills Accelerator initiative to become software engineers and data analysts.

Shopee has also partnered the Economic Development Board and local universities to nurture data scientists at the postgraduate level.

Mr Zhou said: “This new office marks a significant milestone in our journey thus far, and sets the stage for us to solidify our leadership position.”

Chatchai Sirilai, the bank’s president, said many provinces, especially in the North and Northeast, were affected by the storm, with many areas hit by flash floods that destroyed homes and farms.

As part of its “housing loans for natural disaster victims”, the bank has earmarked Bt1 billion to provide individual loans based on the amount of damage caused by floods.

As the first measure, GH Bank will offer a respite to people who owe house loans or mortgages by bringing the annual interest rate down to 0 per cent for the first four months, and then raising it to 4.125 per cent from the fifth to 16th month. From the 17th to 24th month, the annual interest rate will rise to 4.625 per cent and on the third year, the interest rate will rise to 5.625 per cent per annum.

After this, the GH Bank will reduce its minimum retail rate (MRR) of 6.625 per cent by 1 percentage point for welfare clients and by 0.5 percentage point for retail clients.

As the second measure, the bank will allow new and old home-loan holders to seek additional funds to repair damages at home. This loan will be provided at a fixed interest rate of 3 per cent per year for three years, after which welfare clients will be charged a floating rate of MRR that is 1 percentage point less than the bank’s normal rate, and retail clients will be charged 0.5 percentage point less.

The bank will also consider loans of Bt1 million each for clients seeking a second loan, and will cancel some fees.

In the third measure, debtors who are affected by the disaster and unable to make payments, the bank will bring the interest down to zero for the first four months, and then set the interest rate at 1 per cent for the fifth to 16th month. Once this period ends, the debtors will have to pay the normal rate.

For the fourth measure, debtors who have been affected by the flood and are unable to earn a living will only have to pay 1 per cent interest for a year.

In the fifth measures, families of debtors who have died or have been handicapped by the disaster will pay off the loan at 0.01 per cent annual interest rate.

For the sixth measure, clients whose homes were irreparably damaged by flooding will only have to pay for the land.

As a seventh measure, the bank will speed up compensation for clients who have insurance that covers natural disasters. The bank will immediately approve compensations of Bt15,000, but will provide no more than Bt20,000 for homes that have sustained damage from floodwaters higher than 100 centimetres.

Phiphat did not elaborate when or which countries he would visit but he said he was looking at Italy’s model that allows pubs and bars to remain open until dawn to draw tourists.

“Several countries stimulate tourism by opening entertainment places in tourist destinations to encourage foreign tourists to spend. But the country whose policy interests me the most is Italy, where entertainment venues stay open until dawn. I want our entertainment venues to remain open until 4 am because our target group is not local residents but foreign tourists,” Phiphat said.

He said he would discuss and seek opinions from foreign officials on the pros and cons of allowing entertainment places to remain open late.

The minister said he has assigned the Tourism Authority of Thailand to survey opinions of operators of entertainment venues before submitting the plan for the Cabinet to consider.

TAT governor Yutthasak Supasorn said the TAT has checked opinions of operators of pubs and bars in several tourist destination areas, including Pattaya, Khon Kaen and Hat Yai. Next week, the TAT would conduct the survey in Chiang Mai as well as in selected southern provinces.

Yutthasak said operators in Khon Kaen did not want to extend the closing hours beyond 2 am, saying there are no foreign tourists left at 2 am.

But operators in Pattaya would like to remain open until 4am, the TAT governor added.

Wuttikorn Stithit, senior executive vice president of PTT’s Gas Business Unit, said the study would initially concentrate on marketing opportunities before focusing later on demand.

China has high demand for LNG, he added.

PTT has thrown its full support behind the government’s policy of turning Thailand into a regional LNG trading hub as the kingdom has robust infrastructure to support the plan.

The gas conglomerate also plans to study the construction of two new LNG distribution routes – Korat-Khon Khaen-Nam Pong and south Bangkok-Bang Pakong – to serve the government’s LNG hub plan.