John Chen, regional sales director for Southeast Asia, said on Monday that priced at Bt2,790, the Redmi 5A is an effort to close the digital divide among Thai people outside Bangkok, where in some areas smartphones have penetrated only slightly more than half the population. Data from the National Statistical Office revealed that in 2016, 70.3 per cent of Thai smartphone-user penetration was still concentrated in Bangkok.

Xiaomi’s commitment is to deliver innovation across all price ranges, which allows it to bring access to technology to as many people as possible.

“With the Redmi 5A, we are confident that can contribute to digital penetration across Thailand. It’s time to ensure that smartphones and technology are accessible to everyone, [and] as you can see our products are almost half the price of smartphones with similar specifications,” Chen said.

The 5-inch Redmi 5A comes with a metallic matte finish and an array of high-quality features never seen before in this category, including a Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor, 13MP rear camera, dedicated microSD card slot for storage expansion and 3000mAh long-lasting battery.

Now placed among the top 1.3 per cent of universities in the world, UBD is also one of only 13 universities from Southeast Asia to be ranked in the top 400 in the world.

Other achievements for UBD include being ranked 105th in Asia, up from 123 the previous year, and it is also placed 37th among universities in the world founded less than 50 years ago. According to the QS Top 50 Under 50, UBD is sixth in Asean and 16th in Asia of universities under the age of 50 years.

According to a press release, UBD was ranked top in Asia for student exchange, demonstrating the demand for its Degree, Master and PhD programmes not only from within the country but also from international students.

Through its flagship GenNEXT programme, UBD takes a multidisciplinary approach to teaching and learning, allowing graduates to not only master their major subjects but also explore areas of interest in other faculties.

This provides graduates with wider options upon completion of their studies. A particular area where GenNEXT shines is the annual UBD Shell Eco-marathon team, comprising individuals from across the university, utilising their diverse backgrounds and various skills to work towards producing efficient vehicles. Last year’s team broke the national record for the Prototype Battery Electric Car category. With its goal to become a ‘University of Innovation and Enterprise’, UBD also incorporates the entrepreneurial mindset in modules throughout its faculties, encouraging students to be more enterprising with their ideas regardless of whether they intend to go into entrepreneurship or not.

Spearheaded by UBD, the Entrepreneurship Village (EV) facilitates workshops, trainings and forums helping students to realise their ideas into actual business plans as well as viable products and services.

Some of the incubatees have successfully launched their own businesses, and they continue to give back to the community by helping out and mentoring other aspiring student entrepreneurs.

Through its cutting-edge technology and facilities, impactful research thrusts and internationally recognised academic staff, UBD graduates are equipped with the knowledge and skills to face current and future challenges in an increasingly competitive world.

And even after they have completed their studies in UBD, the university continues to offer additional modules and programmes as part of its belief in lifelong learning.

Along with other faculties, the Centre for Lifelong Learning (C3L) enables graduates as well as other members of the public to pursue further knowledge in various areas of interest. With its Blended Learning programmes, students are able to study at the pace, place and along the path of their own choosing.

China has gone so far as to ban the trading of virtual currencies, and Europe and the United States are searching for ways to strengthen regulations. In Japan, an exchange that lost a huge amount of virtual currency was subjected to an on-site inspection by the Financial Services Agency on Friday. The virtual currency market, which has grown extremely rapidly, appears to be at a turning point.

On Thursday, the Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley indicated in a speech to the nation’s parliament that his government would seek to put a stop to illegal financing and other transactions linked to virtual currencies. The government does not consider crypto-currencies legal tender, he said in the speech. Virtual currency markets have subsequently seen a significant sell-off, reflecting concerns that the markets could be more tightly regulated worldwide.

According to CoinDesk, a website that specializes in virtual currencies, the price of one bitcoin (BTC) temporarily fell below $8,000 on Friday. This represents a drop of about 30 per cent compared to five days before, and is less than half of the peak value of about $20,000, reached in mid-December 2017.

De facto ban in China

A variety of countries are considering regulations on virtual currencies.

There has long been concern that the strong anonymity offered by virtual currencies will lead to malicious use, such as money laundering. Moreover, virtual currencies have been repeatedly stolen via cyber-attack as the rapid worldwide growth in the usage of virtual currencies has led exchange operators to hold vast amounts of customer assets.

Behind the calls for increased regulation also lies a dramatic increase in the number of people who hold virtual currencies for speculation purposes.

Asian countries have taken a particularly hard line. China, which once had the largest trading volume in the world, now has the strictest rules.

China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China, implemented a total ban on initial coin offerings (ICO), in which companies and other vendors raise funds from investors by issuing their own virtual currencies or coins. China has essentially banned trading in virtual currencies, which has caused exchanges to close.

Chinese authorities say they acted because of negative effects on the financial market, but some analysts believe China wants to stop capital flight overseas.

Indonesia’s central bank, Bank Indonesia, indicated in January that it would not permit virtual currency trading.

Europe and the United States are also exploring regulations. Senior officials of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and others are scheduled to testify Tuesday in a U.S. Senate hearing on virtual currency scams and ICOs.

Germany and France have called for international cooperation. They are expected to jointly propose regulations at a March meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of 20 nations.

Japan’s rules ‘not keeping up’

Japan was one of the first in the world to introduce a registration system for exchanges by establishing relevant legislation that takes virtual currencies into account as a means of payment.

However, rather than being used for payment, virtual currencies are being used more as a financial product for speculation purposes.

So Saito, a lawyer who is knowledgeable about virtual currencies, said Japan’s regulations “did not envision [this kind of situation] and have not kept up with the current state of affairs.”

Concerns have been voiced over a general lack of transparency — including suspected market manipulations — for some virtual currencies and exchange operators.

Some corporations have started to review their stances toward virtual currencies. Peach Aviation, a low-cost carrier, announced Friday that it would indefinitely postpone a plan to allow customers to purchase tickets using bitcoin.

The latest virtual currency theft will likely lead to heightened discussion in Japan regarding whether, or how, its regulatory scheme should be reassessed.

Russia’s 15-year-old figure skating sensation Alina Zagitova performs a fast triple lutz-triple loop combination on the ice. The moment passes by so quickly, and it’s hard to see what’s going on from your seat in the back of the stadium.

Propping on your 5G-enabled virtual reality headsets, you get a 360-degree view of entire rink. On a smartphone, you slide your finger across the screen to view a particular jump to see how it was exactly performed in the split of a second.

On a 5G-connected tablet, you can join the US men’s bobsled team in action by following their view of the tracks in real-time as they skid down the track at speeds of more than 150 kilometers per hour.

These are some of the interactive 5G-based services that will be showcased to the public for the first time at the upcoming Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, which is also striving to bring the world its first ever “5G Olympics.”

With just a week left until the start of the Olympics, South Korean mobile carrier KT has completed fully deploying its ultra-fast 5G trial network infrastructure in and out of stadiums across PyeongChang and its surrounding regions.

And together with its partners Intel and Samsung Electronics, it will be offering the public a chance to experience a number of data-heavy video streaming services hosted by the 5G trial network during the international sporting event.

Short for fifth-generation, 5G network systems are designed to be at least 10 times as fast as the current 4G Long Term Evolution networks, promising download speeds of up to 20 gigabytes per second and a response time of less than 0.0001 seconds.

Able to transmit large amounts of data with ultralow latency, 5G is set to form the backbone of futuristic technologies like virtual reality and the Internet of Things, while opening up access to on-demand ultra high-definition videos anytime, anywhere.

KT has set up a 5G experience space at the Olympic Park in Gangneung and selected stadiums in the PyeongChang region where guests can check out various 5G-hosted video services on the world’s first 5G-enabled tablets built by Samsung.

The telecom company has installed a similar space within its headquarters in Gwanghwamun of Seoul for those who can’t physically make it down to PyeongChang during the games.

Visitors to these locations can check out four types of data-heavy video streaming services hosted by KT’s 5G trial network, including sync view, interactive time slice, 360-degree VR live and omni point view.

Sync View, to be used for the bobsleigh events, is a technology that transmits live, real-time footage from the athletes’ point of view as they race down the tracks. It only works because large amounts of data-heavy videos can be transmitted without latency through 5G networks.

Interactive time slice, applied in the ice arena sports including figure skating and speed skating, is a 5G-dependent video streaming technology that lets viewers control the time, target and angle of the footage they are viewing live.

This means that viewers who are watching a figure skating routine, can halt the screen at any time to see a particular jump moment in different angles and points in time. And they can return to watching the live footage when they want.

The 360-degree VR live feature, to be used for the ice hockey and snowboarding tournaments, will let viewers watch the game in virtual reality by strapping on a 5G-connected VR headset.

Ten cameras have been installed around the ice rink to capture the game from all angles, and will be used to form the 360-degree footages, according to KT.

Powered by Intel’s technologies, the 360-degree VR recordings will be saved and offered for future consumption so that people can relive the Olympics via VR headsets even after the games end.

Meanwhile, omni point view is a live broadcast service that hosts multiple live-feed videos at once. It will be applied to the cross country skiing event in which multiple players ski across long distances.

Viewers will be able to choose the broadcast angle they want to view from, including personalized views of each GPS-equipped athlete on the move. The 5G networks is fast enough to ensure there is no latency despite the large-scale data transmission.

KT’s 5G trial network will offer digital communications at 28 gigahertz, which offers more bandwidth than traditionally cellular channels that stand at below 6GHz.

The next-generation network is expected to be commercially deployed across the world by around late 2019, after the 3GPP — the organization that develops global cellular standards — finalizes its technical specifications for 5G.

LG Electronics’ cordless vacuum cleaner saw boosted sales on an online price comparison website last month, beating its UK rival home appliance maker Dyson.

According to local e-commerce platform Enuri.com, LG Electronics’ cordless vacuum cleaners accounted for 45 percent of sales in the sector in January, about 18 percentage points above Dyson’s 27 percent.

Until the second quarter of 2017, Dyson topped the list on the price comparison website, accounting for 40 percent of total sales share, more than double LG Electronics’ 15 percent.

When LG launched the Cordzero A9 vacuum cleaner in July, it rocketed to 39 percent sales share. In the fourth quarter, LG Electronics racked up 46 percent sales share, while Dyson lagged at 29 percent.

“Despite continued popularity of overseas premium brands such as Dyson, local home appliance giants are gaining attention with strengthened product quality and technological prowess, beefing up for the competition with global rivals,” said an official from Enuri.com.

The two rivals, meanwhile, remain locked in a legal dispute.

Dyson Technology filed a provisional injunction against LG Electronics in November with the Seoul Central District Court, claiming the company’s cordless vacuum cleaner is described in a misleading manner and the court should ban TV, print and online advertisements for LG’s Cordzero A9 products.

Posco ICT, an affiliate of steelmaking giant Posco, is one of a few stocks that step outside the box of dominantly strong sectors such as biopharma on the second-tier Kosdaq bourse, showing a stellar performance on its “smart” business portfolio.

Growing global demand for building “smart” cities — those built on infrastructure powered by information and communication technology — has brought to the spotlight the first Korean company to join smart city projects overseas.

Posco ICT closed at 9,240 won ($8.50) per share Friday. Ithas jumped 11.3 percent in the past 20 trading days.

Also in those 20 trading days, foreign investors net purchased 864,671 shares. Institutional investors have net sold 518,321 shares in the past month. The figure nearly halved through an institutional net purchase of 464,283 shares in the past three trading days.

On Jan. 9, during the week of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Posco ICT signed a memorandum of understanding with San Francisco-based smart construction company DPR Construction.

In April last year, Posco ICT unveiled plans to build ICT-powered infrastructure in a $4 billion project in South Saad Al-Abdullah, Kuwait‘s first smart city, becoming the first Korean firm to join such an overseas project.

The demand to build smart cities is “drastically increasing,” said Jeon Sang-yong, an analyst at Taurus Investment & Securities, citing increased investments from Alphabet-affiliated Sidewalk Labs, Huawei and Amazon.

Posco ICT also runs other “smart” businesses, including smart construction, a smart factory and smart data center. Local factory operators, including Posco Chemtech and Posco Coated & Color Steel, have sought to build automated smart factories by partnering with Posco ICT.

Posco ICT is looking to up the game, pledging on Jan. 15 to launch “Smart X” this year, a solution to incorporate its smart technology with artificial intelligence, augmented reality, big data and blockchain. Solely on Jan. 15, the share price surged 7.7 percent and foreign investors net purchased over 730,000 shares.

Separate from the smart businesses, Posco ICT has built domestic infrastructure for electric vehicles. Posco ICT, one of five firms licensed to provide electric vehicle-charging stations, has installed over 500 public electric vehicle chargers and over 4,000 home chargers. It has partnered with carmakers such as Hyundai Motor, BMW and General Motors.

Moreover, news of the launch of KRX 300, a new composite benchmark index to represent the nation and replace the benchmark Kospi 200, is expected to result in greater capital influx to Posco ICT from foreign and institutional investors.

With Kospi 200 tracked by major exchange-traded funds, exchange-traded notes or futures, there had been concerns that Kosdaq firms were largely excluded from large-scale investments, leading to a failure to address Kosdaq giants’ fleeing to the top-tier Kospi, until the arrival of KRX 300.

Posco ICT, the 24th-largest by market cap on Kosdaq, is expected to account for 0.05 percent of the combined market cap of KRX 300-listed firms.

Park Chun-young, an analyst at Daishin Securities, has picked Posco ICT as one of the nine Kosdaq-listed firms to enjoy enhanced inflow of investments. However, Posco ICT was one of two among nine to receive lackluster response from pension funds. Pension funds’ investment tendencies have changed since the announcement to create the KRX 300 on Jan. 11, compared to the previous three years’ average, according to Park.

As for earnings, Posco ICT‘s net profit and operating profit in 2017 came to 42 billion won and 56.1 billion won, respectively, up 11.8 percent and 7.3 percent from the previous year.

However, Park Jong-kuk, an analyst at Kiwoom Securities, wrote in a note in January that the firm’s growth was below expectations, citing a deficit of 13.9 billion won in its alternative energy-related business in the second half of 2017.

Founded in 1989, Posco ICT, then known as Posdata, was listed on Kosdaq in 2000. Posdata and Poscon, both affiliates of Posco Group, merged in 2010 under the name Posco ICT. Posco owned 65.38 percent of Posco ICT as of the third quarter of 2017.

Choi Doo-whan, chief executive officer of Posco ICT, owns 0.03 percent of shares. Formerly with Nokia Bell Labs and KT, as well as Seoul National University, the 64-year-old Choi joined the company in 2014 as CEO.

A SPEECH by young Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai has inspired YouTubers from Thailand who have promised to do good deeds for Thai society even when their impact may not be huge.

[YouTube funds videos to inspire worldwide positive change]

Co-founders of the Picnicly channel said they have realised how fortunate they are to participate in the YouTube Creators for Change Summit and vowed to use their voice to return good deeds to Thai society.

Cassady Dorion, better known as “Luke”, and Thapanont “Tae” Phithakrattanayothin – the co-founders and hosts of Picnicly channel on YouTube – were chosen to represent Thai YouTubers at the summit held in London last week for the second consecutive year.

One of the guest speakers at this year’s summit was Malala, a Pakistani teenaged education activist who had been shot by the Taleban.

Her speech about how people could use their voices to change the world impressed over a hundred YouTube video creators, including the two Thai representatives, who gave her a big round of applause in the Oval Space, an arts and event venue in London.

Malala, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, recounted from the stage her travels around the world to visit refugee camps. She knew that things would not change in one day, a year or even in five years, she said.

“But I do know that at least I can [make an] impact if I can have just one girl go to school … and that means a lot,” she said.

“So whenever you make a video or want to highlight an issue, just remember that it has an impact. So use your voice or video to change the world,” Malala advised.

The speech inspired Thapanont, who said he and Luke had discussed their intent to create videos that would help people improve their lives, even if that video would get less than 10,000 views.

“Like Malala said, even just one voice can change people’s lives. I will do that,” he said.

Thapanont said that he thinks that for business purposes, Thai YouTubers too often care only about the number of views in their channel and so they focus on producing viral content to get more views.

The Picnicly co-founder said he also plans to create a video content project focusing on campaigning against labour abuse and promote society’s acceptance of gays.

His idea is to pursue low-budget travel around the world to visit and do reviews of food shops and restaurants where people cook food with “love”.

He said he will visit and create video content featuring shops that promote labour rights and use ingredients that do not exploit nature.

Inspired by the food served by London’s Mazi Mas restaurant at the summit, Thapanont wants to review the award-wining social enterprise that provides training and work experience to help women build careers in food industry.

“I’m impressed with the shop’s concept,” said the 35-year-old YouTuber. “They showcase the cultural heritage of migrant and refugee women, as well as use eco-friendly disposable material.”

Cassady and Thapanont are also planning to visit the countries that promote LGBT rights to show LGBT people – who are their prime audiences – how gay people can live happily. They hope it would help people see the possibilities of living openly and encourage gays, lesbians, bisexual and trans people to come out of the closet.

Picnicly started its YouTube channel in 2015 after realising that the video-sharing site is more accessible to teenagers than is television.

Its website claims that Picnicly is one of the fastest growing Thai language social news, entertainment and educational sites on the web, providing the most shareable original reporting about new experiences, personal stories, fashion, entertainment, food and health across the social web.

The channel was initially formed by five foreigners who were friends and could speak Thai as main hosts, (along with Thapanont, who is Thai). Later, Luke and Thapanont took over running the channel, which now boasts 463,000 followers.

Although its current content is focused on travel and food, the video duo inject content meant to build awareness about social issues. In 2016, Picnicly was chosen to represent Thailand on YouTube’s “Proud to be” campaign celebrating the LGBTQA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, questioning, and asexual) community all across the globe.

Seven months ago, Picnicly added English subtitles to their videos after being inspired from the summit. They wanted global communities to get to know more about Thailand.

Thailand is a small country with a population of around 60 million, said Luke. “If we see Thailand as the extent of our market, our message cannot reach audiences world-wide. With the English subtitles, we can deliver our message and reach out to more viewers.”

Luke first visited Thailand 13 years ago as a traveller, but fell in love with the Kingdom and chose to live here.

He graduated with a bachelors degree in the Thai language at Ramkhamhaeng University.

“I’m glad that I can share ‘Thainess’ with people globally,” said the 40-year-old American host in fluent Thai. “I want to expose Thai content for foreign viewers too.”

Luke was very proud to be able to share Thailand’s culture when he called on his hometown in the US.

A video of him teaching his mom and her friends in the States how to cook a Thai Omelette garnered almost a million views in just a few days.

As he participated in the summit for the second year, his priority was to encourage the young Thais who are his channel audience to change their attitudes by looking for solutions and not obstacles.

“We should look for opportunity. We can do anything if we work hard. Nothing is too late,” he said.

In particular, he would like young Thai’s to not be afraid of speaking foreign languages, or to fear refugees, or LGBT people. Then the world would be a better place, he said.

For Thapanont, this year’s participation in the London programme helped him see the power of creators, And he learnt three new things: “First, be yourself and do not lie. Second, be brave to speak out. And last, dare to act and never give up.”

The reinvestment was announced at its Creators for Change Summit held last week in Oval Space, London. Over a hundred YouTube creators gathered at the arts venue to celebrate last year’s progress and foster collaboration between leading advocates of social change for the year ahead.

The investment will include providing production and marketing support for diverse voices who harness the power and scale of YouTube in groundbreaking and positive ways, said Juniper Downs, global director of public policy for YouTube, in an interview with The Nation.

“We will engage more creators in the program, arm the wider YouTube community with new tools and education on how to create change, and empower more young people to use their voices to encourage positive social messages,” Downs added in a company blog post.

YouTube Creators for Change is a global initiative that supports creators tackling social issues and promoting awareness, tolerance and empathy on their YouTube channels.

“Video is a powerful medium to open minds to new perspectives and shared experiences. Creators prove that to us every single day,” said Downs. “And we think Creators for Change this year will reach and inspire even bigger audiences.”

For Downs, the word “change” means participating in, and helping to create, the world we want by having an impact on important social issues. At the summit, Downs took to the stage to tell participants that at YouTube, they believe that everyone deserves to have a voice, and that the world is a better place when we listen, share and build community through our stories.

YouTube Creators for Change is a critical part of our mission to facilitate understanding and empathy by combating messages of hate, xenophobia and extremism online, she said.

Downs quoted Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, the founder and editor-in-chief of Muslim Girl, a platform for Muslim women’s voices in the West, and one of last year’s “fellows” from the United States.

“In a moment of competing headlines and harmful misrepresentation of people different than us, this programme is a reminder that none of us are voiceless.” Al-Khatahtbeh said in 2017. “Our stories deserve to be told, and anyone has the power to hit ‘record’.”

Downs added that 2017 was a difficult year as people were increasingly divided about the kind of world they wanted and how we would go about creating it.

Also, she said, 2017 was the hardest year in YouTube history in term of the kind of content they saw. That’s why the social video channel invests in people and technologies need to enforce standards, she added.

The company said that in coming months it would announce the global recipients of the production grants for this year.  Since YouTube launched its Creators for Change programme in September 2016, the American video-sharing website has partnered with 39 inspiring creators from around the world, helping amplify their voices to counter hate and promote tolerance.

Last year, YouTube chose 11 ambassadors from 10 different countries as the faces of the programme. Those ambassadors helped them to identify 28 fellows from around the world and then helped mentor and support them to become a change leader on YouTube.

Over the last year, those creators, each of whom was given a financial grant, have released dozens of thought-provoking videos that show the power of video to encourage empathy and understanding.

Downs said her company has been very happy with the first year of the programme.

In 2017, total views of YouTube Creators for Change videos broke 60 million, and 731,000 total hours were spent watching them.

Most importantly, Downs saw a growth in the number of people who wanted to be a part of the initiative.

“From what we see here [in this year summit] these creators are so inspiring, and wanted to make video themselves and see what good they could do with their voices,” she said.

Creators for Change collaborated with social impact organisations and experts in Australia, Germany, Indonesia, Israel, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, France and Belgium.

Among ambassador last year, Downs gave particular credit to YouTube Creators for Change ambassador Humza Arshad.

Arshad is a British and Pakistani YouTube comedian based in the UK. Widely known for his “Diary of a Badman” series on YouTube, Arshad also uses his self-deprecating comedy to tackle difficult issues like extremism and gang violence.

Creators for Change, has educated over 15,000 young people in over 200 locations through local grassroots efforts, including workshops and school programs, to take a stand against hate online, Downs told the summit.

In fact, students surveyed in Germany and the UK reported a significant increase in confidence in their ability to identify and counter hate speech online as a result of the workshops, she said.

Despite achieving a three-year revenue high in the last quarter, Lenovo Group Ltd the world’s second-largest personal computer maker－posted a loss due to a one-off charge of $400 million resulting from a United States tax reform, the company said on Thursday.

Yang Yuanqing, CEO and chairman of Lenovo, said the Beijing-based company has moved back onto the growth track, and the US corporate tax reform would not have negative impact on future earnings of its operations in the country.

Lenovo recorded a loss of $289 million in the last quarter of 2017, compared with an average forecast of a $124.5 million profit compiled by Bloomberg. The company said its pre-tax profit hit $150 million, up 48 percent yearon-year.

After struggling in both the personal computer and smartphone businesses in recent quarters, Lenovo said its hardest period is nearing an end, and it is reviving good growth momentum.

The company’s revenue increased 6 percent year-on-year to reach $12.94 billion, marking the best performance in three years.

“Lenovo has re-entered the ascending track. As the PC market bounces back to growth, our core business will see an evident rise,” Yang said.

In the three months ended in December, Lenovo’s PC unit sales rose 8 percent, thanks to higher average selling prices driven by innovative products and a better product portfolio.

In the same time frame, global PC shipments rose for the first time in six years, albeit by less than 1 percent, according to market research company IDC. But HP Inc expanded its lead over Lenovo, its closest rival.

“We had been more conservative than HP in the past several quarters, especially in the North American market. But we are readjusting our strategies,” Yang said.

When it comes to the mobile phone business, the company saw a narrower loss, with more efforts made to sharpen their focus on user experience.

Xiang Ligang, CEO of telecoms industry website Cctime, said Lenovo still faces mounting competition from rivals. It will still take time for the company to come up with competitive smartphone models that can resonate with consumers, he said.

Bolstered by an all-time high operating profit of 53 trillion won ($49.6 billion) in 2017, Samsung Electronics’ top management displayed an upbeat mood for the launches of new innovative products, including chips that support artificial intelligence and foldable organic light-emitting display smartphones, this year during a conference call on Wednesday.

After announcing that it posted 239 trillion won in consolidated sales and 53 trillion won in operating profit last year, the South Korean tech giant vowed to earn a larger profit this year with upcoming flagship products featuring technological advancements.

According to the plan, Samsung will launch foldable smartphones with OLED panels and Exynos chips that are enhanced with neural processing units that support AI applications this year.

“Samsung will continue to make differentiating points by launching cutting-edge products including foldable smartphones this year,” an executive at Samsung Electronics said during the call.

An official from its subsidiary Samsung Display added that the display unit is developing a variety of applications of foldable displays in order to meet customers’ demand.

“The company is preparing for a new production line for foldable OLED panels,” the official said. “But nothing’s confirmed about when to begin operation.”

Samsung will also introduce Exynos application processors that adopt NPUs for larger data processing in digital devices that provide AI functions, and other new NPU-adopted chips specialized for connected vehicles and consumer electronics, the company said.

“We expect AI technologies to spread from mobile devices to consumer electronics and vehicles starting 2019,” an official said. “Responding to the trend, the company will launch Exynos processors that support facial recognition and intelligent image processing functions this year, and further introduce exclusive NPUs for other electronics and automobiles.”

As an outlook for the memory market this year, Samsung’s biggest cash cow, the company expects stable supply and demand conditions to continue due to strong demand for server products and trends toward high-specification mobile products.

The company plans to increase the competitiveness of DRAM products by expanding its 10-nanometer-class process migration at its fabs. With NAND flash chips, the firm is to focus on supplying profitability-oriented products, while continuing to expand its 64-layer migration.

However, Samsung announced its investments for this year would decrease from last year’s.

Samsung reported the annual investment in facilities stood at 43.4 trillion won, which breaks down to 27.3 trillion won in semiconductor and 13 trillion won in display.

“The investment was larger than before due to construction of the new Pyeongtaek fab, expansion of the foundry process lines and OLED facilities last year,” said Robert Yi, executive vice president for investor relations at Samsung Electronics. “Although our capital expenditure for 2018 has not yet been finalized, we expect the total amount to decrease on a year-on-year basis.”

According to the regulatory filing, Samsung’s fourth quarter net profit came at 12.25 trillion won, up from 7.08 trillion won a year earlier. For the whole of 2017, the net profit reaches 42.18 trillion won, up 85.6 percent from 2016.

The operating profit also broke records, by reaching 15.15 trillion won in the fourth quarter and 53.65 trillion won for the whole year.

Sales rose 23.7 percent to 65.9 trillion won in the last three months of 2017 from a year earlier, also marking a quarterly record. For all of 2017, sales came to 239.5 trillion won.

Semiconductor businesses were undoubtedly the scene-stealer, by accounting for 65.6 percent of its total operating profit in the fourth quarter at 35.2 trillion won.

Samsung Electronics attributed the strong performance to robust chip demand and increased sales of flexible organic light-emitting diode panels.

The tech giant said that the IT and Mobile Communications division in charge smartphones posted an operating profit of 11.83 trillion won in 2017, the highest since 2014.