Index Creative Village Plc, Thailand's largest event organiser, has strengthened its presence in Myanmar by forming its own exhibition company.
‘We will go to Malaysia and Indonesia to reduce risks,’ says Mr Kriengkrai.
"We will run our business in Myanmar with five key areas this year. This will reflect our strong desire to have a solid presence in Myanmar, which is our overseas treasure," said co-chief executive Kriengkrai Kanjanapokin.
The five businesses include event marketing and festive events, which will be handled by Myanmar Index Creative Village and Forever Event Solutions.
Consumer insight and research will be conducted by Envirosell (Thailand).
ICVex, a fully owned exhibition organiser and a joint venture with Forever Group, will provide an integrated media service. Forever Group is Myanmar's leading media company and runs Channel 7, MRTV 4, TV Guide and Digital 4.
Nucharin Paradeevisut, managing director of ICVex, said trade shows and fairs are another channel to reach Myanmar entrepreneurs and this business has room to grow in the neighbouring country.
The few exhibition and fair organisers in Myanmar are mostly from Singapore, Malaysia, China and Vietnam.
With the strong presence of Index in Myanmar, it will soon become a provider of marketing tools and services. It hopes to draw international and local companies as well as Thai customers to use its integrated services.
Index is jointly developing a big event hall, Myanmar Event Park in Yangon, with Forever Group.
ICVex plans to organise six Myanmar trade fairs this year: Myanmar Auto Plus, Automobile and Auto Salon, Myanmar HORECA (hotel, restaurant and catering), Myanmar International Food and Beverage, Myanmar International Education Fair, Myanmar MediHealth and Wellness and Myanmar Architect and Decor.
However, Myanmar's trade show and event-organising business still has some risks. Any fair and trade show company wishing to organise an event will have to seek a licence from the regulator, which will take about 2-3 months.
ICVex aims to generate 100 million baht in revenue this year by organising events for Thai companies (80%) and foreign companies (20%).
Mr Kriengkrai said the business in Myanmar is expected to generate 250 million baht this year, up from 100 million last year.
"We will strongly expand our business in Southeast Asia to cash in on the coming Asean Economic Community by the end of 2015. We will go to Malaysia and Indonesia to reduce risks at home, mostly from political uncertainty," he said.
Half of Index's revenue will come from overseas in the next five years, up from 5% last year.
At home, the event-organising market is expected to fall by 10% this year to 12 billion baht, largely affected by political turmoil and the economic slowdown.