All Aboard for the E-Commerce Future

Posted by AsiaViews | Jan 2, 2018 | 0 |

The Nation

29 Dec 2017
Thai banks are hastily ‘going mobile’ to accommodate the trend in online sales and services

Thailand’s digital economy and digital society have rapidly evolved in the past year, with the latest development being major commercial banks seeking regulatory approval to board the e-commerce bandwagon, a move likely to blur business boundaries in the digital age.

Having tested the ubiquitous QR Code as a new e-payment method earlier this year, Thai banks are quickly following up, exploring other possible e-commerce platforms.

At least two of them – Kasikorn Bank and Siam Commercial Bank – have already sought approval from the Bank of Thailand to enter the e-commerce sector. Their bid appears aimed at helping them stay relevant in the digital age, in which banking and financial services are constantly facing fresh challenges from fintech and other emerging players around the world.

China-based Alibaba has become the world’s largest e-commerce platform in terms of sales, outgrowing top US e-commerce sites and underlining China’s position in the global digital economy. In the meantime, Alibaba has also challenged Chinese banks in the domestic market, prodding them to become more efficient online lenders to numerous small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that sell goods and services on Alibaba’s huge platform. All of this is thanks to the benefits of Big Data.

Chinese banks are thus facing formidable non-bank challengers on their home turf. For these struggling banks, one of the most effective solutions is to compete against giant e-commerce sites head-on. To do so, they have moved into the e-commerce sector, blurring the traditional business boundaries.

In Singapore, the banking sector’s regulatory body has also allowed banks to enter into the e-commerce sector, on condition their e-commerce operations are low-risk. Thailand is likely to follow suit, with central banking authorities now weighing the pros and cons of permitting commercial banks to climb onto the e-commerce bandwagon.

E-commerce – mobile commerce, in other words – is set to grow exponentially in coming years due to the ubiquity of smartphones, which already outnumber the entire Thai population. Unless banks have more flexibility in pursuing new forms of business, they are likely to see eroding competitiveness in the digital age, since giant e-commerce sites, as well as more nimble tech-oriented start-ups, are preparing to disrupt traditional banking and related businesses.

According to Thai banks, the age of “machine commerce” is dawning, on top of mobile commerce, as each of the major banks now has millions of customers using their mobile-banking applications. The combined value of transactions amounts to hundreds of billions of baht.

From this huge mobile market base, the top banks aim to serve as the new digital middlemen via their own e-commerce platforms, which will automatically match customers’ needs with numerous vendors of goods and services.

The selling point is that the Thai SMEs will have lower costs and a more efficient platform to market their products when adopting bank-operated e-commerce platforms that use sophisticated machine-learning models and predictive analytics to do the matching for transactions.

For the banking regulator, the top concern is probably the risks associated with banks diversifying into non-banking businesses. But the plus side is that banks will have plenty of data to make better judgements on lending to small business operators based on the transactions they conduct on the platforms.

Customers should also be happier, due to more convenient shopping, e-payment and delivery services, all done with a few taps and swipes on their mobile phones.

(source:http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/opinion/30335010)

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EXTRICATING NDONESIAN CHILDREN FROM ISIS INFLUENCE ABROAD

Indonesia urgently needs to revisit the possibility of repatriating the neediest of its young citizens stranded abroad, whose families had earlier joined ISIS. Most of these children are in camps in northern Syria but there are also small numbers in the Philippines, Afghanistan and Iraq. “Extricating Indonesian Children from ISIS Influence Abroad”, the latest report from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) argues that the government could begin by bringing back small groups of unaccompanied children under ten years of age, who pose minimal security risk and are most vulnerable to deteriorating conditions in the camps.“The problem is that health and security conditions are worsening by the day in the Syrian camps, and the children are growing older,” says Dyah Kartika, IPAC analyst. “They need access to schools, a nurturing environment, and medical attention. If the government waits too long, the children will be further exposed to ISIS ideology.” The new report examines a 2019 list of Indonesians in camps and prisons run by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Indonesian government has been trying to verify their citizenship, but with pseudonyms, misspellings and bad transliterations, it is a daunting task. At the time the data was collected, between March and June 2019, there were 555 Indonesians in SDF camps and prisons, including 367 children. Among the children, approximately 277 were under the age of ten and 34 were unaccompanied. In June 2021, there are fewer than ten children who are both unaccompanied and under the age of ten that could be prioritized for return. Bringing back children of ISIS families is no easy task. The report analyses the main challenges faced by the Indonesian government. These include definitional issues, bureaucratic competition, the difficulty of verifying nationality, evaluating the toll of exposure to conflict, assessing security risk, and finding relatives or others willing to provide care once the children are returned. In addition, COVID has meant stringent restrictions on travel, placing further obstacles in the way of repatriation. There are several models for rehabilitation of children exposed to violent extremism in Indonesia that could be modified to accommodate the needs of children repatriated from abroad. The report examines these models and argues that the government does not need to have every detail of rehabilitation programs in place before it starts extricating children from ISIS influence. It can start by bringing back the most vulnerable children and then modify programs as needed.

“It’s important that the government see these children as victims” says Dyah. “They deserve a chance to be children again.”

All Aboard for the E-Commerce Future