Mushroom Television Co is taking its hit SME programme “Young Self-Made Millionaire”, which has been airing on MCOT for five years, to Laos next month, and to Vietnam and Cambodia in March. “We expect the expansion will help our growth to reach 10 per cent this year,” chief executive officer Akarat Nitibhon said on January 23. The producer of TV content for more than 10 years on January 23 signed a five-year contract with Life TV Co, a Vietnam-based production house for television and online content, to broadcast the TV programme in Vietnam. “Young Self-Made Millionaire” has won the hearts of start-up types by presenting creative and strategic thinking, and has received outstanding feedback from small and medium-sized enterprises, he said. The TV programme will also respond to the government’s interest in developing and expanding a business in every way to make a stable economy in this region, he said. “Young Self-Made Millionaire” was created to inspire entrepreneurs, especially SMEs.

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The defence ministries of Việt Nam, Laos and Cambodia will step up military co-operation via programmes to be implemented this year. The agreements, boosting long-standing ties of friendship between the three countries, mark ongoing visits (January 8-11) by Lao and Cambodian defence ministers to the central city of Đà Nẵng. In separate talks, Vietnamese defence minister General Ngô Xuân Lịch and his counterparts – Lao Minister of National Defence, General Senior Lieutenant Chansamone Chanyalath and Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defence General Tea Banh – reviewed 2016 and discussed measures to boost defence co-operation in 2017. Yesterday morning, Lịch expressed high appreciation of efforts made by defence ministries of Việt Nam and Laos in 2016, especially in education and communications, and highlighted the special friendship among the soldiers of both countries.

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Leaders of the Vietnam News Agency and the Laos News Agency have agreed to improve the quality of their news exchange, aiming to more vigorously communicate the two nations’ special bond, especially as the two countries celebrate the 55th anniversary of their relations in 2017. During talks in Hà Nội on December 7, VNA General Director Nguyễn Đức Lợi and KPL General Director Sounthone Khanthavong concurred that the two sides should increase media coverage of the respective countries and their people for stronger Việt Nam- Laos relations. KPL will continue helping VNA publish the Lao language Vietnam Pictorial in Laos, and it will promote both the publication’s online presence and the VNA’s electronic newspaper VietnamPlus on KPL’s website. The KPL official also pledged to support the re-appearance of the VNA-run television channel Vnews on Laos’ cable TV system in 2017.

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Vietnam Television has provided new radio and television transmission stations for Xay district, Oudomxay province, which will become operational today following a handover ceremony in Vientiane on November 29.​ A document to hand over the two stations was signed by Laos’ Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Prof. Dr Bosengkham Vongdara, and the Director General of Vietnam Television, Tran Binh Minh. Construction cost more than 38.7 billion kip (107.9 billion Vietnamese dong), funded by Vietnam Television, with work on the project beginning in January 2014 and ending this month. Vietnam Television also provided an office, staff housing and other facilities. The power capacity of the FM radio station is 20kW while that of the television station is 10kW. The stations will be used to transmit useful information to local communities.

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A number of suspected lese majeste offenders are holed up in Laos and police will work with public prosecutors and Interpol to track them down, the national police chief says. Pol Gen Chakthip Chaijinda said the Thai and Lao governments have discussed the matter and police are waiting for the green light to proceed. Prosecutors will have to work with the Foreign Ministry to seek the extradition of suspects hiding in Laos, he said. He insisted police are not standing idle on the issue and will expedite efforts to bring them back. The police chief’s remarks came after Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon on Monday revealed Lao authorities told him they were acting to stop lese majeste suspects from staging activities and broadcasting content targeting the Thai monarchy. Lao authorities have also suspended local radio programmes with content attacking the monarchy.

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Facebook on November 17 reaffirmed its policy of protecting users’ privacy in a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Prajin Juntong. Prajin will seek to meet with Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook founder and chief executive officer, when attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Peru this weekend. Yesterday’s meeting at Government House follows an attempt by the government to get online service providers to take action against “inappropriate content” when there is a violation of local laws. Prior to yesterday’s meeting, Facebook said in a statement: “We have never provided account information or content of any Facebook user to the government of Thailand, nor do we proactively monitor people’s content or conversations for potential violations of local law.
“We apply a strict legal process to any government request for data or content restrictions and we list the requests we are getting and any content restrictions made in our Government Requests Report. 

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Business needs to adapt to confront and catch up to the coming disruptive technologies and innovation, which will have a drastic effect on people’s daily lives, a seminar heard on November 16. Bala Chakravarthy, professor of strategy leadership and execution at IMD Southeast Asia, said disruptive technologies would have a significant impact on the product and service, media, entertainment, retail, financial, telecommunications, tourism, manufacturing, health, medical, and oil and gas industries. Disruptive technologies will replace old technologies and spawn new industries and products. In his keynote speech at the “Thailand: Moving with Disruptive Technologies” forum held by the Thammasat Economics Association, Chakravarthy said the evolution of technology would create great successful start-up companies called unicorns, those with more than US$1 billion in market capitalisation. There are more than 174 unicorn companies around the world. Of the top 25 unicorns, about 13 are in Asia, including eight in China, four in India and one in South Korea. “For Thailand, the country needs to create an environment that is appropriate with the growth of local start-ups. 

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Adobe Systems, a US-based multinational computer-software company, sees strong growth in use of its Creative Cloud product in Asia-Pacific countries because the number of subscribers outside the United States grew almost 50 per cent as of end of the third quarter. The 46-per-cent year-on-year subscription growth outside the US was very significant and important, Mala Sharma, vice president and general manager of Creative Cloud Product, Marketing and Community at Adobe Systems Inc, said in a press conference with media from Japan and other Asia-Pacific countries. However, she declined to break down the number of users by country. Sharma showed new figures from the Adobe “State of Create Study”, which dug into what people think about creativity and its impact on business. The study found that globally 70 per cent of participants agreed that being creative was valuable to society, while 64 per cent said that same trait also contributed to the economy.

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Service fees and product standards offered by telecommunications companies as well as the import of discarded electronic products were among the concerns raised by National Assembly members during a debate on the newly drafted Law on Information and Communication Technology. The draft law was made available for NA consideration on November 7, with NA Vice President Dr Bounpone Bouttanavong presiding over the debate. The available 3G and 4G internet signals have been a source of public complaint, with consumers saying that the quality of these services does not match what is advertised. But many Assembly members found the explanation given by telecoms officials reasonable as they said that numerous customers are sharing a small bandwidth because providers cannot invest in the installation of larger bandwidth in this small market of about 5 million users. Speaking at the debate, NA member for Savannakhet province Mr Sanya Praseuth referred to the explanation given by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications but said users were being taken advantage of as the services were not appropriate with the amount of money invested in obtaining 3G and 4G coverage.

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Engaging online content and more targeted social media outreach are major keys for commercial success in Cambodia, whose youthful population has been identified as the world’s most receptive to social media advertising and content, a market researcher said on November 3. Eelco Dijkhuizen, general manager of market research firm TNS Cambodia, said during a breakfast discussion hosted by EuroCham on November 3, that online connectivity was growing rapidly in Cambodia, with a third of the 15 million population and nearly half of all urban-dwellers now connected to the internet. He referred to the findings of a Kantar TNS study, Connected Life, which found that the average Cambodian consumer spends almost two hours a day on social media networks and visits an average of 3.4 platforms a week – accessing the online content almost entirely through their mobile device rather than computers. Given these trends, it is important for marketers to recognise their targeted audience, but also for them to understand how online users consume content on the internet, he said.

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