Leading bank promotes business opportunities in the GMS

Dr Veerathai Santiprabhob, governor of the Bank of Thailand, gave a keynote address, while Krungsri executives shared their visions about trade and investment prospects in GMS, highlighting Krungsri’s local expertise and global strength as a member of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG). 
Rohit Khanna, Krungsri’s head of corporate strategy and planning group, said in a seminar on “The GMS and Its Major Trade Partners” that GMS holds an economic potential for growth in cross-border trade and international investments given its connectivity to Asean. In recent years, Krungsri has played a major role in supporting the Laos agencies and a leading energy firm to raise fund for expansion. As a commercial bank, Krungsri continues to look for an opportunity to offer financing for other GMS countries, including Myanmar and Cambodia, and to support Thai businesses to expand and invest in the neighbouring countries, where production cost is lower. In addition, Krungsri aims to leverage MUFG’s global network to offer supply chain solutions to Thai-based Japanese companies who are keen to invest in the subregion. 
Thakorn Piyapan, head of Krungsri consumer group and of its digital banking and innovation division, spoke on “Digitalisation and E-Commerce Boom in GMS”, noting that Krungsri has seen a strong potential in building cross-border e-commerce platform and e-payment to facilitate Thai businesses to invest in the subregion. The growth in electronic transactions in GMS has been bolstered by rising number of smartphones and Internet users. With a focus on the electronic data security, Krungsri has taken proactive measures on preventing cyber attacks and continuously invested to increase cyber security toward the highest level. As GMS countries are under technology development, they can apply lessons learned from other developed markets and implement measures to prevent and mitigate risks from cyber attacks. 
Speaking on “Experiences and Challenges in Greater Mekong Expansion”. Tak Bunnag, Krungsri’s head of global markets group, said that with an extensive network and great experience in business expansion across the subregion, Krungsri has gained knowledge and expertise in various areas such as regulations and strategies to manage risk exposures onshore and offshore. Krungsri has also seen a huge potential for trade activities across the subregion. However, given that local currencies in GMS are still not internationalised, the US dollar will continue to be a major currency and dominate trade activities in the subregion. Krungsri has recommended customers to adopt risk management measures to minimise foreign exchange risks.