What's new in business news: January 8, 2015

Urgent govt meeting with business representatives, Facebook 'likes' reveal your true personality & investment funds more popular as investors shun low deposit rates at banks.

No eye contact: At an "urgent" meeting Monday, Supant Mongkolsuthree (right), chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI), and Isara Vongkusolkit, chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, flanked by Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, head of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO). (Photo courtesy of Government House)

ECONOMY

Urgent govt meeting with business representatives

The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), chaired by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, held an urgent meeting with businessmen Monday to find solutions for the ailing economy. Key business leaders across all sectors attended including government ministers and NCPO advisers. The chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce said the government desperately needs to rev up government spending to spur the overall economy, which remains sluggish.

Businessmen suggested that pending government policies such as a value-added tax (VAT) hike from 7% should be delayed as long as possible because it would weaken already weak consumer purchasing power. Calls for the government to tackle corruption as well as make the best use of free trade agreements (FTAs) were repeated. Companies were warned to be wary of a fragile global economy and volatile foreign exchange rates this year. The government was told it must implement additional measures to boost exports.

The Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) wanted more action to ensure the 200,000 registered small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) receive government help, especially those with non-performing loans (NPLs). Seafood giant Thai Union Frozen called on the government speed up tackling human trafficking saying it was possible for Thailand to rise from Tier 3 on the US watch list this year. Expansion of the special economic zones (SEZ) to cover Nong Khai in addition to the approved locations of Mae Sot, Mukdahan, Songkhla, Aranyaprathet in Sa Kaeo as well as Mukdahan, Songkhla and Trat.

Representatives from the retail sector suggested that the retail sector could not rely only on domestic consumption, so the government must beef up tourism promotion and ensure tourists' safety, calling tourism one of few existing lifelines that could help to shore up the tepid economy. Calls for the government to lift martial law were dismissed, warning of a repeat of political mayhem, adding that martial law had little effect on tourism sentiment, citing The Mall Group's sales increasing by more than 25% last year.

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SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook 'likes' reveal your true personality

AFP News agency

A computer program that analyses your Facebook "likes" (data analysis) may be a better judge of your personality than your closest friends and family, research at Cambridge and Stanford University shows. The emergence of emotionally-intelligent and socially skilled machines in the future is predicted which raises concerns about privacy and the need to give users full control of their digital footprint.

Personality test scores using the app myPersonality rated 86,220 volunteers on Facebook stood in terms of openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism -- the five major personality traits. What pages a person like was found to predict what their personality was. For example, liking "Salvador Dali" or "meditation" predicts a high degree of openness. Facebook likes were found to often be a better predictor of a person's personality than their coworkers, friends or family, who were  invited by the app to judge the person's personality.

Machines have an advantage in judging personality because they can sift though lots of data and not get bogged down in a few particularly memorable moments from a person's life. The new research areas of Big Data and machine-learning provide accuracy that the human mind has a hard time achieving, as humans tend to give too much weight to one or two examples, or lapse into emotional non-rational ways of thinking.

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ASSET MANAGEMENT

Investment funds more popular as investors shun low deposit rates at banks

The mutual fund industry’s assets under management (AUM) surged 23.8% last year, from 733 billion baht to 3.8 trillion, with high-yield bond funds, foreign investment funds (FIFs) and equity funds in demand as investors shunned low deposit interest rates at banks and moved to more risky assets. Of the total, 380 billion baht consisted of fixed-income funds, 243 billion was equity funds, and the rest was for other types such as property funds and real estate investment trusts (REITs).

Kasikorn Asset Management (KAsset) retained its status as the biggest mutual fund firm with total AUM of 873 billion baht. They were followed by SCB Asset Management (SCBAM) with 792 billion baht and Krungthai Asset Management (KTAM) with 507 billion.

Fixed-income funds continued to dominate the industry. High-yield bond funds were the most launched product in 2014 and From 2013-14, high-yield bond funds saw fund inflows of more than 1 trillion baht. Another active fund class last year was Foreign Investment Funds (FIFs) which enjoyed 126% growth in AUM to 79 billion baht. The top investment location was Europe at 13.2 billion baht or 33%, followed by Asia-Pacific excluding Japan with 8.43 billion or 21%.

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