Ricult had previously raised $600,000 in earlier seed funding including a $100,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This brings the company’s total funding to date close to $2.5 million.

Founded by MIT alumni, Ricult is a digital platform to increase the efficiency of the agricultural value chain in developing countries, helping lift smallholder farmers out of poverty. The start-up has already launched in Thailand and Pakistan, providing farmers with tools that employ machine learning to analyse satellite imagery and microclimate weather data. The data allows farmers to better predict crop yields, pest prevention, proper fertilisation, key harvesting times and optimal crop rotations.

Aukrit Unahalekhaka, co-founder and CEO of Ricult Thailand, said the company is a double-bottom line start-up, “where we don’t only care only about the financial profitability of the company, but also the social impact that we can create for the smallholder farmers and their communities.

“We want to make sure that our technology can really help make the farmers’ lives better and make the agricultural value chain more efficient,” said Aukrit. Ricult also provides services to agricultural businesses, including input suppliers and food processors. Its solution can help them accurately target their sales and sourcing.

Who doesn’t like cash? Our love affair with the stuff is millennia old and still going strong everywhere.

Everywhere except for Hangzhou, that is. The nine million residents of this city in eastern China are proud of belonging to a “cashless” society thanks to the payment apps in their smartphones.

Cash may be king elsewhere, but here the smartphone reigns.

The largest cashless city in the world is home to tech giant Alibaba, which pioneered Alipay, China’s most popular online payment platform.

Mobile payments in China now total about $16 trillion (Bt530 trillion) annually, according to the Financial Times. The market is dominated by China’s two tech titans – Alibaba and Tencent.

Alipay, operated by Alibaba-related Ant Financial Services Group, accounts for about 54 per cent of China’s online payment market while WeChat Pay of Tencent hosts 40 per cent, according to http://www.marketingtochina.com.

Alipay now has over 870 million users globally, 520 million in China alone. The WeChat app meanwhile boasts 1,040 million active users per month in the first quarter of 2018.

In a recent visit to Ant Financial headquarters in Hangzhou, the writer joined a group of international journalists on a trip through the world’s most digitally integrated supply chain and saw how the city is fast developing into a cashless world.

Barcodes in the blue colours of Alipay and green of WeChat Pay are seen at every shop and service, from street stalls to department stores and public buses.

Whether a small stall in a back street selling plum juice for 12 yuan (Bt60) or a 400-year-old traditional Chinese medicine shop, customers can pay with their phones.

The city is so advanced that customers can “smile to pay” at a KFC restaurant. In alliance with Ant Financial, the KFC facial-recognition service allows customers to pay simply by smiling at one of the fast food restaurant’s self-service screens.

During our tour of a night market, fresh market and walking street, all vendors and users The Nation talked to echoed the same points: app payment is very convenient, and solves the problem of fake banknotes and of losing your wallet or cash.

A spokesman from Ant Financial told us of a “dramatic” robbery in which thieves had struck at three convenience stores. They managed to get away with just 500 yuan (Bt2,500).

This is the benefit of a cashless society, he said.

Cashless embraced

Our morning at Hangzhou’s Wen’Er street vegetable market brought the sight of customers queuing with mobile phones in one hand, ready to scan the QR payment code while ordering produce from vendors. Shop owners said upwards of eight out of 10 customers used apps to pay. However, there were still people paying by cash.

Gan Jin Fang, who sells fresh seafood at the market, complained that she had lost money because cheating customers paid her with fake bills. But with app payments now taking over, she and her husband can concentrate on preparing their wares without worrying about counterfeit notes.

Gan uses money received from customers’ Alipay accounts to pay her suppliers. She neither has to go to the bank to deposit the takings nor withdraw money later to pay her suppliers.

“That’s very convenient. I felt unsafe having to carry cash and go to the bank,” she added.

Even elderly join bandwagon 

You might think mobile payments is a trend only adopted by young people, but market vegetable seller Jiang Gou Fang said the number of her elderly customers using the apps is gradually increasing. But poor eyesight means they sometimes key in the wrong figure, she admitted.

“I will also tell them to be more careful when using the mobile payment. But if the figure is wrong, I return the money to them through the app as well. See, it’s very convenient!”

For Gao You Zhen, who sells tofu at the market, receiving payments through Alipay helped her secure a loan from Ant Micro Loan, which helps out to small enterprises.

Ant Financial uses big data and AI to assess users’ creditworthiness based on their purchase, payment and other commercial activities within the Alipay app and partner platforms before approving the loan, a spokesman for the firm said.

The fintech firm offers several kinds of incentives to encourage users to adopt their payment app. For example, they offer shoppers discounts at some shops when paying through Alipay, while merchants get a free doctor’s appointment when they accumulate a certain credit.

The company also has staff instruct elderly vendors in how to use Alipay, Xia Jin Lian, the 55-year-old owner of a rice shop at the market, explained. Xia faces few problems with the system since it is the customers’ responsibility to scan the QR code.

Chen Shuihua, chief of Wulin night market in Hangzhou, has set an international benchmark by turning the whole market into a cashless domain. In September last year, all 180 stalls in the six-year-old downtown market began accepting mobile payment.

Chen said vendors no longer need to worry about payment and transactions, which frees them up to concentrate on their service. Also being freed up is the Hangzhou traffic.

All 8,000 public buses began accepting mobile payment almost two years ago, which has encouraged more people to use public transport, said Luo Xuqi, a representative of the public bus company. “We also offer a seamless service for visitors who don’t have city bus cards, as they can pay by mobile phone,” he added.

Chinese dream

For Wang Zhimin, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, this futuristic world is a boon.

As a child he dreamt of not needing a wallet, since he had a habit of losing stuff – including his money.

“Now my Chinese dream has come true. It’s easier for me to carry just my mobile phone when going out,” said Wang, who is also director of Institute of Globalisation and China’s Modernisation.

Huang Tianyi, a 23-year old postgraduate student at Shanghai International Studies University, used to lose her wallet and bus card, but since she started using a mobile payment app almost five years ago her worries are gone. “Of course, for me, a smartphone is more important than cash. It’s very convenient [to pay this way] as long as I don’t lose my phone. I just go out with my key and mobile phone, without carrying any money. Otherwise I might lose my cash,” Huang said.

Like other young Chinese, Huang seldom uses cash. Before the semester began she brought 500 renminbi (Bt2,500) in cash from her hometown and she still has 100 yuan left four and a half months later.

Huang uses a payment app to buy things and services – to call a cab, buy a public transport card, cinema tickets, air tickets, to pay for her mobile-phone card, and more. She also puts money into her student card and pays tuition fees via the app.

Not always seamless

However, Huang has experienced some difficulties due to mechanical payment errors. Embarrassed to find herself without any cash backup, she had to borrow from friends.

Nowadays she only carries cash when she travels. Hotels in China ask for a cash deposit of 100-200 renminbi (Bt500-1,000) although most accept full payment by app.

So is cash about to disappear from China?

Absolutely not, Huang replied.

In modern cities such as Shanghai or Hangzhou, you can go out without cash every day, she said. But China has a huge population of 1.3 billion and not everyone has the know-how to use a smartphone or download and use the apps, she added.

Builk plans to improve the service with artificial intelligence and blockchain technology and expand its business to all 10 Asean countries.

Patai Padungtin, the chief executive officer and co-founder of Builk One Group, the developer of the construction contractor platform, said that joining hands with AddVentures by SCG as a strategic partner would boost Thailand’s construction industry to catch the global digitisation trend by fully utilising a technological platform. They aim to develop a B2B purchasing-buying process for the construction industry and expand the platform to all Asean countries.

Builk One Group, a Thai start-up, has been operating since 2009. It is the first start-up in Asia that provides the construction business management software for free.

Currently Builk.com, an online cost-control system, serves more than 25,000 small and medium-sized contractors in five Asean countries – Thailand, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia.

The distinctive point of Builk.com is its cost-control feature, which helps contractors control the project’s workflow including budgeting, cost accounting, expenses and revenue via the online system. It also keeps SME contractors aware of turnover with real-time updates, and manages workflow efficiently.

Apart from Builk.com, it also has other services including Pojjaman2, Builk.com, Yello Smart Purchase, Jubili, Ploy and KwanJai.

Pojjaman2 is a cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) system for large-sized contractors; Yello Smart Purchase is an online system of purchasing construction materials for contractors; Jubili by Builk is a sales management and customer relations system; Ploy is a sales-construction-transfer management system for property developers; KwanJai by Builk is a maintenance and after-sales service management for property developers.

Joshua Pas, the managing director of AddVentures by SCG, said that the contractor and construction materials business has grown continuously in Thailand and Asean.

In 2017, the total market value of construction materials among Thai contractors was estimated to be worth more than Bt68 billion. More than 75 per cent of the value was generated by SME contractors, many of whom still run their business with inefficient procurement and cost management systems, he said.

“Builk’s technology can help solve these pain points and enhance the efficiency of procurement and cost management system for an estimated 80,000 contractors in Thailand alone. This cooperation will boost the competitiveness of the region’s construction industry and help contractors reduce costs and manage their businesses in real time,” said Joshua.

Following this investment, SCG will support Builk to scale up and strengthen its marketing, distribution, logistics and supply chain by cooperating with dealer networks and penetrating international markets, where SCG has a strong customer base. Before deciding to provide funding and tightening the partnership, AddVentures by SCG made a commercial deal with Builk in the first quarter of 2018 to explore the best option to generate maximum benefit to the supply chain of construction businesses.

AddVentures by SCG was launched in mid-2017 to invest in start-ups domestically and globally. The investment was aimed at helping SCG adopt new innovations in order to boost its competitiveness and provide better products and faster services to lift consumers’ quality of life.

The event will take place from November 1 to 3 at the Impact Forum, Hall 9, Muang Thong Thani.

Dr Thanes Weerasiri, president of the EIT, said: “This year we are presenting creative innovations that are key to our country’s transformation into a smart nation.”

Dr Tossaporn Sreeiam, president of National Engineering Conference, said: “There will be discussions to offer new knowledge in engineering, new engineering trends from around the world with more than 50 topics in total. These topics draw attention from engineers and those interested in technology, with more than 8,500 registered attendants in total, as well as around 1,500 Asean and foreign engineers.”

Dr Uttama Savanayana, minister of industry, will talk about industrial strategies and Siri Jirapongphan, minister of energy, will talk about energy strategies.

The forum organisers said it would highlight the importance of engineering technology and how it will move the country forward and link economies around the world, in line with Thailand’s 20-year national strategy. The government has planned to invest Bt5 trillion to increase the country’s GDP by at least 4.5 per cent a year.

Engineering businesses must move faster and keep up with global trends in order to support various industries, whether they are mega projects or small- and medium-sized enterprises, the EIT said.

Thailand aims to become a high-income country by 2036.

The activity was hosted at C asean by International Computer Driving License (ICDL) Thailand, the leader in International Standard of Digital Literacy.

This project was targeted to encourage the young workforce/talents to have digital capabilities at the international level.

Voradis Vinyaratn, Executive Director and Acting Managing Director of TCCtech, said, “TCC Technology, as a private entity, is ready and aims to become a key contributor to develop human capital towards digital literacy. Our objective is to create most benefits for all parties, including the personnel competency, organisation and society.

“We realise that any business opportunities, whether in the past, present and future, are shaped by two significant factors – technology and workforce. However, typically, human resources are sometimes unable to catch up with current advanced and complicated technologies. This challenge has led to insufficiency of market-qualified workforce, especially in the digital era.

“TCC Technology realises the importance of people development. We understand that although our country is in the beginning stage of producing Digital Talents to fulfil Digital Workforce Models, the challenge has to be addressed urgently. We need cooperation from all related parties.”

Digital technology is impacting on workforce requirements, particularly in industries. Many organisations are seeking skilled resources with digital knowledge and ability while emphasising employee development to have creativity, know-how and expertise in digital technology at international level.

“I believe that not only organisations and institutions but students are also aware of the technology advancement effect,” Voradis said. “This stage has reflected youth attitude towards technology challenge as an opportunity rather than an obstacle. ICDL Digital Challenge 2018 can be considered as one of all great stages that urge young generation to aware and be prepared in order to enter real labour market in the digital era. We are honoured to be part of the contributors to this digital-driven project.”

In Spain, Italy and Poland, an explanatory, protest statement about the upcoming vote came up when the online encyclopeead of the usual web page on whatever celebrity, legal case or historical event users had searched for.

“The directive would threaten online freedom and would impose new filters, barriers and restrictions to access the web,” Wikipedia Spain said in its statement.

“If the proposal was approved in its actual version, actions like sharing news on social networks or accessing news via a search engine would be more complicated on the Internet.”

It added that Wikipedia would be “at risk” and asked users to phone their MEPs.

The overhaul of European copyright law is divided into several sections, one of which is the reform criticised by Wikipedia and others who have warned it will lead to blanket censorship by tech giants.

Another reform would force online platforms such as Google and Facebook to pay for links to news content, which news agencies including AFP have hailed as a “major step”.

The European Commission has replied saying that “Wikipedia and other online encyclopaedias would not fall within the scope of the Commission’s Copyright proposal.”

But Wikipedia chief Jimmy Wales and Greens MEP Julia Reda, a leading campaigner on the issue, insist that it will.

Thursday’s parliament vote is not final, but only sets out the negotiating position of MEPs.

There then follow negotiations with member states for a final position, during which the full extent of the law and whether it does apply to Wikipedia will be worked out.

Austria, which has just assumed the EU’s six-month rotating presidency, has said this will be difficult, so there will have to be some sort of compromise.