“ Our hotel, one of the 5-star properties in the  country, has enjoyed annual  growth of  five to eight per cent in gross operational profit. We are looking forward to maintain the momentum in the years to  come,”  said general manager May Myat Mon Win.

“Tourism in Myanmar is gradually recovering, and the market is faring better . We are doing well  and looking at investment opportunities in the country,” she said.

“When it comes to business performance, financial profit is not the only thing we take into consideration. There are some other factors that matter more to us, such as our reputation, our customers and the growth of human capital, to name a few.”

The executive is  happy with the occupancy rate of the hotel. On average, more than 80 per cent of the 300 hotel rooms are occupied in the high season (November to February), and  over 60 per cent in the low season (July to September). Around 70 per cent of the hotel guests are business travellers while others are tourists , she said.

“We are always trying to provide the best customer experience. We have our guests in mind at every touchpoint. In this respect, the majority of our employees have become local experts through training,  given more than 98 per cent of our guests are foreigners, ” she said.

Currently, it has 335 employees with foreigners accounting for just  4 per cent of  the staffs. The hotel also ensures the dominance of  Myanmar locals in its management  with  two of the four board members  and seven of the twelve senior executives.

“For a company to grow, it is a must for employees to come along. We always try to improve the empowerment of our team. We allow the frontline staff to make their own decision when facing with certain   issues in order to  provide the best customer service,” she said.

In addition to improving employees’ work and responsibility, the hotel reviews customer experience journey through several online and offline surveys. It also keeps an eye on its major competitors to  ensure the hotel’s  top position in the market.

“We have found out through our studies that 96 per cent of our guests are totally happy with our services. We aim to improve it to 98 per cent by the end of this year,” she said.

According to the executive, technology is the priority in Chatrium’s investment this year, followed by marketing.

The hotel launched its new website earlier this month, and will invest in Cloud and cyber security for the storage of  employees’ and  guests’ data,  and the human resource system aligned with the General Data , Protection Regulation.

She said the hotel plays a key role in grooming local talents for the labour pool in the industry. Since 2016, the hotel has provided three-month complimentary training courses to young locals seeking work in the hospitality sector. Having trained 90 people over the past three years, the next course is set to start in A ugust.

“Hotel business is simply based on supply and demand. The pie is there, and different players have to share it. We need to grow the pie, as more players come in. Otherwise, everyone will definitely vie for a bigger share of the pie, and Chatrium is one of them,” she said.

Seeing his mother toil, Nuttaporn, one day decided to write a letter to King Rama IX, pleading with His Majesty to take him under his care.

The King responded benevolently, allowing Nuttaporn to be a patient under his care until the age of 17. This allowed him to be treated for the disease free of charge at all hospitals in the country.

The cost of his medical care taken care of, Nuttaporn tried to work in order to earn some money to make his mother’s life more comfortable. He also wanted to earn money to reimburse the King.

Nuttaporn, therefore, started to learn about computers on his own from the time he was 14, with the aim of becoming an engineer. He applied for a trainee position to operate the UNIX system at KSC Internet, an internet service provider that had set up a branch office in Hat Yai city. He saved as much money as possible so that he could buy a computer and subsequently started developing websites for businesses.

His passion for computers continued to guide him and at every opportunity he added to his knowledge, constantly looking for experts from foreign countries who could educate him about the latest technology and developments. He met a consultant from the US online and that proved to be the first step towards his evolution as an e-commerce master and tech evangelist.

He finally got hired as a service engineer by an international company named hi5.com, where he was tasked with taking care of the network and studying the behaviour of Thai users by surfing social networks while also wooing new members in Thailand.

Nuttaporn rose to become an executive in various international companies, including Google where he was responsible for the Google Wave project, an app that facilitates real-time messaging. He also worked as a user operations specialist at Facebook in the US, being responsible for providing customer service and also created a Facebook template for Thai users. Nuttaporn returned to Thailand during the deadly floods in Bangkok in 2011, which became a national disaster. Wanting to make a contribution in dealing with the crisis, he gathered some friends and partners to work as volunteers. They developed a software program that could help solve the flooding problem and assist the victims.

His professional career has also included a stint as an executive at True where he participated in product development and e-commerce. He was also a co-founder and chief technological officer of the e-commerce team of Lazada in 2012 as well as country management director at Amazon Asia.

Nuttaporn has also served as group chief technology officer at Pruksa Holding, which aims to be the leading diversified property company delivering end-to-end modern urban lifestyles to customers. With his passion for technology, Nuttaporn became president of Thai Digital Trade Association (TDTA) and the chief education officer at Thailand e-Business Centre (TeC).

TeC aims to provide training courses designed for executives, directors, managers, staff and new jobbers who want to utilise information technology and be innovative to scale up their business, as well as improve the productivity of digital human resources in an organisation.

“I want to help local businesses by assisting with transfer of knowledge, know-how, leverage information technology, e-commerce and innovation to support human resources in the country so that they can make our country competitive,” said Nuttaporn.

He said TeC provides training and the consultants focus on four areas: consultants designed for business who want to scale up, retraining staff and human resources in a business organisation, training for business improvement, and business health check.

He said the firm aims to help around 50 local enterprises every year. They will conduct training courses to assist around 30 people per day to support business in the country.

Meanwhile, the TDTA, under Nuttaporn, is an association that brings together e-commerce and e-business founders, the government sector and acts as adviser to the president of China’s e-commerce association in order to transfer know-how and facilitate the export of Thai products to China as a one-stop service.

It expects to push more than Bt1 billion worth of Thai sales to China and also develop a digital workforce of more than 1,000 personnel to support e-commerce in the country within the first half of next year.

“We will help Thai businesses who want to expand their business in China and ensure sustainable digital trading in the long term,” said Nuttaporn.

Siemens opened the new 1200-square-meter service centre in Rayong to continue its commitment to deliver excellent local services to its customers while also supporting Thailand‘s new Power Development Plan (PDP) that puts more emphasis into high efficiency, natural gas based generation and renewable energy technologies.

The new Siemens service centre serves as a combined repair centre and warehouse providing full maintenance support including inspection, spare parts replacement, tooling and repair facilities to serve Siemens‘ gas turbine, compressors and industrial steam turbines.

Rayong is a key location for Thailand’s Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) development plan, which is part of the Thailand 4.0 policy. Together, these plans aim to promote high value industries and boost economic growth for the country.

Thorbjoern Fors, CEO of Siemens Power Generation Services, Distributed Generation and Oil and Gas, spoke at the opening ceremony and said the company selected Rayong as the location for the company‘s service centre in order to be close to customers, to access the great talent in Rayong for industrial services and to provide even better levels of service to Thailand’s growing industrial sector.

Fors also said the new service centre would provide benefits for the owners of the nearly 100 industrial gas turbine units in Thailand. The Thai fleet represents the largest fleet of the SGT-800 turbine in the world. – an incredible achievement for not a very large economy country.

“The new service centre is great for Siemens‘ customers and will provide benefits to the efficiency of Thailand’s energy sector,‘‘ said Fors. “It brings us closer to our valued customers in Thailand, makes our services more localised, faster and more efficient, which is exactly what our customers and the industry needs.”

Nadja Haakansson, Vice President, Head of Power Generation Services, Thailand, said: “This service centre will bring many benefits to our customers in terms of ease and quality of service and speed. Our goal is to be as close as possible to our customers – and the new service centre helps us achieve this.

“Our service centre brings a localised service for our customers to help them improve availability, operational flexibility and efficiency. The high efficiency of the SGT-800 drives improved fuel consumption and reduction of airborne emissions such as CO2,” said Haakansson.

“In addition, we also take advantage of digitisation in power generation to provide real-time monitoring and analysis for preventive maintenance and improved operational efficiency.”

In a press release on Friday, the company said the shade of green used for the leaf logo and cap has been changed to a darker hue to harmonise with the colour of nature. This reflects the brand’s commitment to keeping innovation and environment in mind while continuing to promote consumer engagement to help make the world a better place.

Namthip maintains its use of light-weight PET that consumes 35 per cent less plastic than the previous design while remaining in line with Coca-Cola’s highest standards. The new packaging can be crushed after use in order to reduce space for the recycling process.

Karthik Subramanian, Marketing Manager – Stills Category, Coca-Cola (Thailand), said: “Namthip is the leading eco-friendly drinking water brand, ranked one of the top five water brands among Thai consumers and with a history going back more than 40 years.

“The company has developed innovative products over the years from the first ‘Namthip’ in a returnable glass bottle in 1978 to a rectangular PET bottle and a tall cylindrical bottle with a blue label in 1998 and 2001 respectively.

“The attractive green leaf logo and the cleverly designed ‘Eco-Crush’ bottle were first introduced in 2012 and today we are proud to introduce a new brand identity that is even more innovative. Since that last reinvention, we have stopped using plastic cap seals – well before the government urged producers to stop using them in Thailand – in order to reduce plastic waste. These efforts are consistent with Coca-Cola’s commitment to promoting environmental responsibility together with product innovation over time.”

Namthip, the premium drinking water in its newly designed packaging, will gradually be rolled out in the parts of the country served by ThaiNamthip Ltd. For the southern provinces served by Haad Thip Public Company Ltd, the process is still ongoing and it will go on sale in June. Namthip offers a more environmentally friendly and modern choice for consumers to help heal the environment through its bottled water, which can be found at all convenience stores and supermarkets at the same price of Bt7 for 550 ml size.

The company said that it showed very strong growth in value of new business (VONB) of 22 per cent on a constant exchange rate basis, compared with the corresponding 12-month period ended December 31, 2017.

Ng Keng Hooi, AIA’s Group Chief Executive and President, said: “AIA has once again delivered an excellent performance with double-digit growth across our main financial metrics in 2018. Value of new business increased by 22 per cent to reach a new record of US$3,955 million.

“We also achieved strong growth of 13 per cent in both operating profit after tax and underlying free surplus generation. These very strong results were achieved against a backdrop of economic uncertainty and financial market volatility.

“Our business in China delivered an excellent performance with VONB growth of 30 per cent. I am also delighted that we recently received approval to set up sales and service centres in Tianjin and Shijiazhuang, Hebei. Hong Kong delivered another very strong performance with 24 per cent VONB growth and VONB in Singapore grew by 18 per cent. Thailand returned to growth with VONB up 12 per cent, as our agency transformation delivered tangible results.

“AIA’s agency channel had another excellent year with 26 per cent VONB growth and the Group now has more than 10,000 Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) members. In partnerships, our bank channel delivered 18 per cent VONB growth and we activated four new strategic partnerships including with Bangkok Bank in Thailand and SK Telecom in Korea.

“Our brand promise, Healthier, Longer, Better Lives, epitomises our commitment to customers as AIA shifts towards being a partner for life with wellness as a key focus. Membership of our wellness programmes exceeded 1.2 million, transforming engagement and delivering meaningful health improvements for our customers.

“These strong results are underpinned by our diversified, robust and high-quality business model together with our relentless focus on capturing the significant opportunities presented by the long-term structural drivers of growth across Asian insurance markets.

“The Board has recommended an increase of 14 per cent in the 2018 final dividend and a special dividend of 9.50 Hong Kong cents per share due to the change in financial year-end date. The dividends reflect the strength of AIA’s financial results and our confidence in the outlook for the Group.

“The scale, quality and breadth of AIA’s exceptional businesses across the Asia-Pacific region, combined with our unrivalled distribution capabilities, trusted brand, financial strength and innovation capabilities, enable us to meet the evolving needs of our customers for protection and long-term savings as we help them to live Healthier, Longer, Better Lives.

“We enter 2019, our centennial year, with confidence about our long-term outlook. AIA has always been committed to providing financial protection and driving economic and social development across the region. Our centenary gives us the opportunity to reaffirm our commitments and our focus on delivering long-term sustainable value for our shareholders.

Registration Link : https://events.3ds.com/3dexperience-forum-asia-pacific-south-2019

The WOW factor is coming to Bangkok. Imagine you could collaborate on the design of a multi-billion-baht flyover bridge for a big city like Bangkok using the latest 3D technology to simulate multiple design options with real-time traffic and other crucial data for the best outcome. Or using a new generation of Haptic gloves to simulate the design of a new car interior that best satisfies customers without having to build a real costly prototype for testing.

SOLIDWORKS Partner spotlight: HaptX – simulating design with Haptic gloves

These incredible technologies will be showcased at the 3DExperience Forum and its Playground demo section on March 21 at the Athenee Hotel where you can immerse yourself into the world of collaborative designing, simulating and prototyping with the help of 3D printing machines and laser cutting tools.

Pictures of Playground Demos 

For collaborative design, here is a video that illustrates the VR design process by Honda:

Honda uses 3DEXPERIENCE to create innovative, attractive new designs – Dassault Systèmes:

In short, the event is unmissable for leaders of business, industry, government and education sectors as well as other key stakeholders keen to stay abreast with the latest know-how. Entitled ”the Industrial Renaissance to Accelerate Thailand 4.0”, the full-day conference and exhibitions will highlight state-of-the-art software and other tools to re-invent Thai industries, transform businesses and build a future-ready workforce.

Impacts the Future – 3DEXPERIENCE

Separate zones and exhibitions for smart cities, transportation and mobility, manufacturing, SMEs, as well as oil and gas sector also figure prominently during the event. In the 3DEXPERIENCity Zone, for example, solutions to build intelligent, resilient, and resource-full cities will be showcased, with a breakout session on “Building Future Cities” and discussions with mayors and senior urban planning officials from Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries.

3DEXPERIENCity – Virtual Rennes

3DEXPERIENCity – Virtual Singapore

On transportation and mobility, cutting-edge solutions for design-to-manufacture of electric vehicles (EVs) and development of new in-vehicle customer experiences will  be on display, targeting OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and suppliers in Thailand’s huge automotive industry.

The race is on – Electric Connected Autonomous Vehicle opportunities

On Reinventing Manufacturing, the 3DEXPERIENCE platform allows you to capture big data and insights in a 3D virtual replica for the purpose of analysis, planning and improvement of operational performance and processes, while providing businesses and people with virtual universes to imagine sustainable innovations in a collaborative manner.

4 Trends for the Future of Manufacturing: Dassault Systèmes

Pimpawee Nopakitgumjorn, director of market management at Expedia Group, said yesterday that Thailand is among the first countries to have announced these two new features, “co-browse” and “adaptive landing page”.

These new tools are intended to bridge the digital skill-set gap and ease hotel owners’ concerns over the complexity of using digital tools, she added.

The two new features are available at the Expedia Group Partner Central portal page, which can only be accessed by its hotel partners to use the tools and data insights to help them manage their business and attract travellers.

Co-browse is a trouble-shooting tool designed to solve pain points for all of Expedia’s hotel partners when they experience navigation problems on their “partner central” webpages via a connection with an Expedia Group consultant in real time.

Once a connection is established, the consultant can view, point to, and highlight areas of their partner central webpage screen to better assist hotel partners in navigating their pages.

The “adaptive landing page” is designed as a simplified and personalised version of the current Expedia partner central portal page.

This feature is to serve new hotel partners.

Pimpawee noted that business opportunities are being missed because the majority of accommodation in Thailand’s secondary cities is still offline.

“Hoteliers who are still operating offline will ultimately lose the opportunity to capitalise on Thailand’s growing inbound tourism,” she said.

As part of Expedia Group’s recent commitment following the recent signing of an memorandum of understanding with Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), the company will also be conducting a series of educational workshops to accelerate digital skills transfer to the hospitality industry with the focus on secondary cities.

Such digital know-how could not only empower hoteliers and boost international arrivals to secondary cities, but also support the government’s Thailand 4.0 initiative, Pimpawee added.

“Together with TAT, Expedia Group is committed to playing a pivotal role in improving the digital literacy across Thailand’s hospitality sector and ultimately, help generate more income for local economies.”