Thailand risks losing momentum through lack of automation: Survey

[webfact]

Thailand risks losing momentum through lack of automation: Survey
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Only 36 per cent of businesses in Thailand plan to automate a key operational process over the next 12 months, well below the average in the Asia Pacific which is facing an increase in labour costs, according to a survey.

The figure in Thailand is low though the Kingdom has a very low unemployment rate. Moreover, a rapidly ageing population means it risks falling behind unless its ramps up its attention to automation and productivity, reckoned Grant Thornton International.

Against only 36 per cent of businesses in Thailand, two thirds of businesses in emerging Asia Pacific are planning to automate a key operational process over the next 12 months, according to data from the Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR), slightly ahead of the global average (56 per cent)

These companies are looking to lower costs, and for greater accuracy and increased flexibility to increase or decrease production, while three in five expect this automation to replace workers.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Thailand-risks-losing-momentum-through-lack-of-aut-30263589.html


-- The Nation 2015-07-02

[Just1Voice]

Typical Thailand. Last again.

[Assurancetourix]

Not for all;

First about people who are dying on the roads

[Katipo]

Our factory is investing heavily in automation. Reduced manufacturing costs and improved yield are necessary to combat the higher labour costs and increasing competition. While in the short term this will hurt the poorest, it is necessary if the country is going to modernise and hopefully increase demand for more skilled workers. Thailand doesn't want to just be a low cost factory forever.

[Mudcrab]

Doesn't bode well for the working girl.......then again maybe this is one area that is off limits for the time being.

[wabothai]

which momentum?

[Mudcrab]

Our factory is investing heavily in automation. Reduced manufacturing costs and improved yield are necessary to combat the higher labour costs and increasing competition. While in the short term this will hurt the poorest, it is necessary if the country is going to modernise and hopefully increase demand for more skilled workers. Thailand doesn't want to just be a low cost factory forever.

Agree

I've spent my working life in automation. I usually find that it is not in response to rising labour costs as automation is very expensive especially when compared to the labour cost in low cost countries. What automation does do though is ensure quality of product and through put.

Edited July 2, 2015 by Mudcrab

[EricBerg]

Thailand is a labour economy. Low wages and low cost of life. It should remain like that. One can imagine the horror if this would change. F.i. a high rate of you th unemployment would have huge negative impact.

[WhizBang]

Losing momentum? Is it not necessary to first have momentun, in order to lose it?

Thailand's mei pen rai attitude will lead to it's downfall.

[MockingJay]

What momentum?

[trogers]

Automation? The first question should first be about mechanisation.

When you still see 80% of the Royal Thai Police force busy pressing buttons of traffic lights, you don't need to ask further.

[DrTuner]

Lack of automation? They obviously haven't seen Thais eat every 15 minutes. The atomic clock is loose compared to that automaton.

[Srikcir]

A higher minimum wage would pressure businesses to increase productivity, ie., through greater automation. But the Junta seems fixated with lowering business operational costs by freezing or lowering the minimum wage.

[halloween]

There are 2 ideal situations. In the older, everybody is fully employed and paid a decent wage. Despite the claims of low unemployment, Thailand is a very long way from that with uncounted unemployed and a huge sector of those self-employed in barely functioning businesses as an alternative to starving. Such as small area rice farming.

In the newer ideal, the machines do all the work while people reap the benefits.

In a country yet to develop more than the most minimal social security programs, which would be the most easily achievable?

[spidermike007]

This one is quite funny. Thailand risks losing momentum. Thailand has lost momentum. It is has been happening for over a decade. This nation, which was once a giant in the region, is getting less impressive, and less influential by the day. Where to start. I quote a recent editorial from one of the Nation's writers on the loss of political momentum:

There is nothing new about the urgency of getting economic restructuring and reform under way if we're to embark on the path of real economic recovery. The fact that it's still at the talking stage reflects just how populism has blurred the need for real no-nonsense action. Talking tough may be Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's political "brand image". Now, he has to prove that he can also act tough. That will mark the difference between him being "just another politician" and a statesman who really gets things done. Thailand Rating and Information Service (TRIS) managing director Warapatr Todhanakasem's warning about the need for real reform to get our international credit rating up another point before the end of the year doesn't contain any new elements. In fact, there is nothing that PM Thaksin and Finance Minister Somkid Jatusripitak aren't aware of. The only question is: Why isn't reform getting the priority it should? The short answer is: The political will isn't there. The real answer is: Reform isn't really a very popular item on the national agenda of a populist government in the first place. Why isn't such an important key to the country's economic recovery an urgent and crucial part of the government's action plan? The answer is simple, if sad: Reform will affect too many groups with vested interests. And they happen to be vital to the government's survival. Besides, some of the factors that contribute to high public debt are also part and parcel of the government's populist policies. These were the planks that got this government elected with a massive majority. Implementing real reform will only dismantle the very foundation of this government's (supposed) popularity. There is nothing mysterious about how to get Thailand's rating upgraded by international rating agencies. As Warapatr suggested, Thailand must consolidate its fiscal position by reducing unnecessary spending, particularly in the current budget. It should also lower guarantees for state enterprises and boost state income. How many times have we heard that the government should speed up its reform of the financial system by controlling new bad loans and limiting non-performing loan relapses? The TRIS managing director also emphasised that debt restructuring must be continued, including corporate reform, while the state-owned Thai Asset Management Corp must proceed efficiently. The government says all these remedies are well under way. Critics say action has been haphazard and cosmetic at best. Business leaders and professionals who are being hurt by the higher cost of doing business because of the low credit rating can only send "signals" to a government too overwhelmed by immediate sensitive issues to have the stamina to tackle the real causes of the national macro-economic - and tangible - malaise. The paradox is glaring. Here is a prime minister with a staggering majority in Parliament. The electorate mandate for PM Thaksin was loud and clear: Go in there - forget about politics and fix the economy because Chuan Leekpai was too much of a politician who didn't appreciate the depth and breadth of economic problems. But once in power, Thaksin seems to have been sucked into the game of consolidating political power rather than plunging into his assigned mission of putting Thailand on the painful but necessary path of real reform. Reform was never supposed to be easy or politically popular. It might have sounded good on billboards and posters during the election campaign. But once the voters bought that promise, it could turn out to be a great political burden. PM Thaksin needs no reminding that the "bottom line" of his performance as the country's CEO will be judged on how seriously and successfully he tackles reform in all aspects. In his first year, he has proved to be a reluctant leader when it comes to political reform and a mediocre politician over social reform. On economic reform, the jury is still out. He is still blessed with the benefit of the doubt. But time is running out and the pressure is growing day by day for him to prove that he is not just another businessman who entered politics to protect his own business interests. Reform was only a fad. It was never meant to be a serious plank in the populist platform in the first place. PM Thaksin aspires to be more than just a politician who can play his game well. He wants to go down in history as a statesman who led his country into a new era of sustainable growth, prosperity and justice. If that's still his objective, he will have to get back on the reform track. Time is running out.

And another article on the loss of momentum when it comes to the fight against AIDS:

Model Thailand has lost momentum in AIDS battle, UN warns

BANGKOK (AFP) Jul 08, 2004
Thailand has lost its momentum in the fight against AIDS and the pandemic is now threatening to undo progress which made the country a global model for HIV prevention, the UN warned Thursday.

In a highly critical report released days before thousands of leaders, experts and activists converge on Bangkok for the fifteenth International AIDS Conference, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) said Thailand faced a "nasty surprise" if it did not revitalize a flagging anti-AIDS campaign.

"The epidemic is evolving and there are now clear warning signs of a new wave of infections," UN resident coordinator Robert England wrote in the report, "Thailand's Response to HIV/AIDS".

"The virus is spreading unchecked among certain vulnerable groups. Young people in general are becoming increasingly vulnerable to infection," he wrote.

More than one million people in Thailand have become infected with HIV since the first case was reported here 20 years ago. Some 460,000 have died.

The country was widely praised in the 1990s for its unflinching response to the epidemic, including massive condom promotion and public awareness campaigns, which reduced new annual infections from a high of 143,000 in 1991 to 19,000 last year.

But the epidemic has become the leading cause of death among young Thai adults, with 53,000 people dying of AIDS in 2003, about twice the number of road accident deaths, the report stated.

Current prevention efforts have flagged, it said.

"Public information and education campains are faint. Public concern about HIV/AIDS has ebbed. AIDS spending no longer matches the renewed threat. (And) levels of HIV infection are unacceptably high among injecting drug users, men who have sex with men, mobile populations and seafarers," the report stated.

It also sounded the alarm about rising infections in southern Thailand, where prevalence rates among pregnant women, a key barometer for AIDS trends, has doubled since 2000 to 2.0 percent, compared to 1.5 percent nationally.

"Thailand may very well be in for a nasty surprise," said Hakan Bjorkman, UNDP deputy resident representative and an author of the report.

"If Thailand's success turns into failure, the world would lose a leading light in the response to HIV, and this could have great implications for global response."

Citing figures in the report, Bjorkman said the prevalence rate for injecting drug users has reached an alarming 50 percent, up from 30 percent in the mid-1990s, while new studies show that 17 percent of young gay men have become infected with HIV, versus four percent in the mid-90s.

Regular condom use among young Thais was dropping and stood at 20 percent, while just five percent of young people were being reached by adequate prevention services, he said.

The government's budget for prevention programs has been slashed by nearly two-thirds since 1997, to just two million dollars per year, Bjorkman added.

"HIV needs to be put back on the political radar screen," he said.

The International AIDS Conference, which has the theme of "Access for All," begins on Sunday.

All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Press

In regard to Thailand losing momentum in the area of Medical tourism:

Medical Tourism: Is the Land of Smiles Losing its Crown?

Ansuya Harjani|News Assistant, CNBC Asia Pacific

CNBC.com

3

SHARES

COMMENTSStart the DiscussiThailand, known to many as Asia's center for cosmetic surgery and sex-change operations, is beginning to lose its competitive edge in the medical tourism space, according to analysts.

The strengthening Thai baht, which is currently at a 13-year high against the dollar, together with political instability, have tainted the image of a country once viewed to have affordable and accessible medical offerings.

"Thailand is losing momentum and its position. They don't appreciate how much other countries are moving up," said Julie W. Munro, CEO of InterMed Global, a leading website that caters to tourists looking to undergo medical procedures abroad.

For April-May of 2010, many local hospitals reported a drastic drop in the number of foreign patients traveling to Thailand for treatment.

Munro said the country's international health service industry was "very badly hurt" following the violent protests in the country's capital Bangkok earlier this year. "This came on top of the damage done by the global economic crisis and related decline in air travel," she added.

Richard RothHaas of Medical-Tourism-In-Thailand.com, shares her view.
"People aren't going to come here if they can't go home," he said, noting that many of the protests that rocked the city were in close proximity to prestigious hospitals.

The rising price of airfares and hotel rates also means that many medical procedures can now be carried out in the United States at a comparable cost, Munro said.

The cost of breast augmentation in Thailand at a reputable hospital, for example, averages 120,000 baht ($3900), excluding travel and accommodation expenses. A similar procedure in the United States would cost $3,331, according to American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

But not everyone agrees that Thailand's medical tourism, which accounts for $2 billion of Thailand's overall $17 billion tourism sector, is falling behind.

John Lee, vice president of Bangkok Dusit Medical Services - the largest private hospital operator in Thailand - remains upbeat about the sector's prospects.

"Last year our foreign patient growth was next to zero... but they are coming back especially in the last two months," said Lee.

He expects a backlog of patients, who were held back by the financial crisis, to return to Thailand for treatments at the beginning of 2011. Due to strong demand, the healthcare operator is planning to expand two of its facilities in the coming year.

"The Thai baht has had no major impact on the industry. From Southeast Asia, all currencies are going up. Between us (Thailand) and Europe the price difference is so much we are about one-tenth of Europe and U.S. prices," Lee said.

Still, Thailand's position is being threatened by new competition.

According to Munro, affordability is the key reason why countries like India and Mexico, are emerging destinations that will challenge Thailand's dominance in the market.

A report by Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, forecasts that India's medical tourism space will expand up to 30 percent annually from 2009 to 2015.

But she added that these countries still have some way to go in terms of developing their infrastructure to effectively compete globally.

In regard to the drop in public safety standards, and the nearly complete lack of regulation in this sector:

Spain was ranked the world’s most tourist-friendly country while Thailand was limited to 35th place due to poor safety in the World Economic Forum’s Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report.

Spain's top showing in the bi-annual report released Thursday was attributed partly to its cultural resources, airport and infrastructure strength, and prevalence of wireless internet services.

France, Germany, the United States, and the United Kingdom rounded out the top five.

Thailand improved from 43rd place in the WEF's 2013 report, but still ranks 10th in Asia, behind Japan (9th), Singapore (11th), Hong Kong (13th), China (17th), Malaysia (25th), South Korea (27th) and Taiwan (32nd).

The next closest competitor was Indonesia at 50th.

Safety rating plunges

While the forum ranked Thailand 10th overall in the Southeast Asia region, it scored last, behind even Myanmar and the Philippines, in terms of "safety and security".

Worldwide, Thailand's safety rank plummeted to 132 out of 140, worse than Lebanon, Mali, Burundi and Iran. Two years ago, the kingdom ranked 87th.

"Thailand experienced a decline in tourists' confidence beginning in December 2008 when international airports started closing and many foreign tour agents quit the country," the WEF wrote in its report. "The effects continued into 2010, with nearby countries benefitting from an increase in visitors."

The kingdom's best marks came in "human resources and labour", where it ranked second. Thailand placed third in the region for "health and hygiene", "ICT readiness" and "business environment".

The country earned high marks for its tourist infrastructure, but ranked only in the middle of the Southeast Asian pack when it came to environmental sustainability.

Thailand fared well in Asia when judged on price competitiveness. Worldwide, it ranked 36th. In Asia, it ranked behind Indonesia (3rd), Malaysia (6th), Vietnam (22nd), Philippines (24th) and China (34th).

And, despite its recent problems with the International Civil Aviation Organisation, Thailand's air-transport infrastructure was well regarded, ranking 17th overall and third in Asia, behind only Hong Kong and Singapore, which placed fifth and sixth overall, respectively.

The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report is designed to assess how well countries can deliver sustainable economic and societal benefits through their travel and tourism sector.

[Johnny S]

Typical Thailand. Last again.

True - the idiot in the class room