About 150 guests attended the Bangkok Bank-SMU Industry Leaders Dialogue on 11 July 2016 in Bangkok. Themed “Partnering to drive innovation”, panellists from government, academia and the private sector came together to discuss how they can collaborate for greater and faster value creation.

Mr Chartsiri Sophonpanich, President and Director of Bangkok Bank Limited, delivered the welcome remarks in which he shared his observations of how Thailand, under the leadership of Dr Pichet Durongkaveroj, Minister, Ministry of Science and Technology of Thailand, is transforming into an innovation- and research-centric country. He spoke highly of Singapore and it being a global leader in finance, logistics as well as tourism and hospitality, attributing Singapore’s success to the country’s strong promotion of innovation.

The panel discussion that followed, moderated by Professor Annie Koh, Vice President  (Business Development) at SMU, elicited a lively discussion among the panellists.

[Caption: (R-L) SMU President Prof Arnoud De Meyer, Singapore’s National Research Foundation CEO Prof Low Teck Seng, Thailand’s Minister of Science and Technology Dr Pichet Durongkaveroj, and Mr Kan Trakulhoon, Director and Chairman of the Management Advisory Committee at Siam Cement, participated in a panel discussion moderated by SMU’s Prof Annie Koh.]

SMU President Professor Arnoud De Meyer spoke about the importance of university-industry interactions. Silicon Valley’s growth and success, for example, is fuelled largely because of the universities in the area. Universities provide good human capital and stimulate creativity. The creative thoughts can in turn become value-added products. To be successful in the partnership, he cautioned that expectations will need to be managed as universities, unlike private organisations, usually take a longer-term view of their research strategies and output.

Dr Pichet updated the audience on the progress the Thai government is making to “uplift” the quality of education/ programmes for science and technology. He also spoke about the tax incentive programmes the Thai government has put together to encourage private and academia to work together.

Professor Low Teck Seng, CEO, National Research Foundation of Singapore (NRF), shared about the fostering of public-private sector partnerships through purpose-driven institutions such as NRF  and Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star).  Both entities have advanced and accelerated innovations to produce real benefits for companies, industries and the economy. He spoke about why tri-sector collaboration is important for a country like Singapore and the need for all parties to be committed. He shared the importance of having universities and companies to partner each other and the important role the government plays in catalysing some of these partnerships.

Speaking from his past experience as the President and CEO of Siam Cement Public Company Ltd, Mr Kan Trakulhoon spoke about how the organisation has been successful in tapping on local and foreign universities to build its research and development capabilities. Mr Kan retired earlier this year and was appointed Director and Chairman of the Management Advisory Committee at Siam Cement. He detailed the benefits of such partnerships, including new product creation and enhancement, value creation for the organisation, reduced cost, to name a few. The winning formulae, in his opinion, is the need to create an innovative environment and culture within the organisation, encourage teamwork, build capabilities internally and collaborative networks for synergy. 

[Featured photo: Mr Chartsiri Sophonpanich, President and Director of Bangkok Bank Limited, delivered the welcome remarks at the Bangkok Bank-SMU Industry Leaders Dialogue.]