Mr. Watchai Vilailuck, the Executive Vice Chairman, Corporate Strategy and New Business Development at Samart Corporation Plc., said 2024 is another challenging year that businesses encounter the global economic slowdown due to the international conflicts and the inflation. The tightness of the Thai government’s budget allocation and the intense market competition also cause business difficulty.
To cope with the situations, Samart plans to focus on establishing the group’s stability and sustainability through three key strategies.

• Proposing the “Outsourcing Business Model” by seeking new funding sources to broaden the group’s opportunities in acquiring new projects and to reduce the reliance on government projects.
• Establishing new forms of business collaboration with strategic business partners to enhance business advantages and competitiveness.
• Enlarging customer bases locally and internationally to establish long-term growth through the provision of comprehensive technology services the group has experiences and expertise.

Despite facing the challenging factors, Mr. Watchai said the group is confident that with its potential, Samart Group will be able to grow by 30 per cent with a Bt13 billion revenue target to be achieved in 2024.

Digital ICT Solution Business Group
In 2023, Digital ICT Solution Business Group signed new project contracts worth Bt2.3 billion, making its total backlog value achieved Bt4.5 billion. The group plans to enter new bidding projects worth more than Bt10 billion and anticipate to grow by 30 per cent, acquiring a Bt6 billion revenue target within this year.

Samart Telcoms Group (SAMTEL) sets its aggressive plan to offer state-of-the-art technologies and solutions to respond to the Digital Transformation scheme, helping Thai organizations in the public and private sector to elevate their operations and achieve the transformation journey efficiently.

SAMTEL will integrate new technologies with its existing solutions and make further developments to enhance their efficiency. The targeted solutions being offered include Digital Banking Solutions and Organizational Management Solutions such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), Human Capital Management (HCM), and Customer Relation Management (CRM).

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is employed to help increase the efficiency of IT systems, enabling various equipment such as CCTV to become much smarter, thus uplifting the government agencies’ working process when they come to provide services to the people.

SAMTEL also emphasizes on delivering social and environmental-oriented solutions including clean energy, solar energy, industrial pollution monitoring solutions as well as energy management systems. These solutions will help establish sustainability for the society, the environment, and the nation as a whole.

Utilities and Transportations Business Group
In 2024, Utilities and Transportations Business Group set its target to accomplish Bt5.5 billion revenue, increasing 23 per cent from the previous year.

Samart Aviation Solutions Public Company Limited (SAV), a major shareholder of Cambodia Air Traffic Services Co., Ltd. (CATS) which is the air traffic and navigation service provider in Cambodia, anticipates its income from CATS will increase by 30 per cent, thanks to the region’s economic growth, a full support in tourism by the Cambodian government, and the development of basic infrastructure and essential facilities in Cambodia.

Cambodia has officially opened the new Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport, the country’s largest airport which can handle 65,800 flights and seven million passengers annually. The country expects the new Dara Sakor International Airport will also be fully operated within 2024.

With the increasing growth of the region’s tourism industry, SAV sees opportunities in broadening its business to cover airport management and aeronautical radio business in the region as well.

In an area of Power Construction & Services, TEDA, Samart Group’s subsidiary overseeing high voltage transmission system construction, and Transec Power Services Co., Ltd., the high voltage specialist in providing a complete range of power utility services, showed their business performance, accomplishing a total backlog of Bt4 billion combined in 2023. This year, the two companies plan to enter new bidding projects worth more than Bt3.5 billion.

For the Direct Coding Project, a Bt981 million revenue target is expected to be achieved in 2024 with an increase of 10 per cent growth. The projected growth is a result from the opening of new breweries and the expansion of production capacity among the existing factories to support higher demands from the “Free VISA” policy and the extension of entertainment venues’ operating hours.

Samart Group plans to utilize the Direct Coding technology in tax collection for other products such as medicines and oils distributed in Thailand.

Digital Communications Business Group
Digital Trunked Radio Systems (DTRS) business showed an outstanding growth in 2023 with an increase of revenue recognition from radio receivers and air time service fee at 300 per cent.

The company plans to widen its subscriber base to cover service agencies in the public and private sectors, hoping to gain not less than 120,000 service users in 2024.

Business related to faith and astrology is another potential area demonstrating significant growth. Lucky Heng Heng, the latest subsidiary under Samart Group, sets a goal to become a leading astrological and merit-related service provider in Thailand and in ASEAN through the provision of its four key comprehensive services included:

• Online horoscopes via mobile application and website under Horoworld service. The service is a center accumulating more than 200 fortune tellers providing online horoscopes around the clock.
• Online merit under Thai Merit, a platform to allow merit makers around the world to make a merit with more than 100 holy places throughout Thailand. Dragon Temple Kammalawat (Wat Lengnoeiy) and Mahabodhi Temple in India are also open for making online merit on this platform.
• Mu-Commerce, a platform to offer a variety of life-style products for “Mu” lovers.
• Mu-Keting, the Mu marketing agency offering marketing services to allow corporate customers such as banks, mobile service providers and retail business to create added values related to belief and faith to their brands and organizations. The company plans this year to expand its customer base to other new sectors as well.

Moreover, Samart Group has a plan to announce the establishment of new businesses including Samart Digital Media and ISPORT within 2024.
Mr. Watchai said thanks to the stability of the group’s financial status, the economic recovery and the reduction of financial costs, Samart Group will have more opportunities for new business expansion.

He added that the competency of the group’s certified workforces combined with the adoption of state-of-the-art technologies are also key factors to drive the group to grow steadily.

“We do believe that in 2024, Samart Group will bounce back and grow with steady income while having capabilities to offer worthwhile returns to all groups of stakeholders,” Mr. Watchai concluded.