Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE Corporation aims to increase its revenue in Thailand by 50% next year, buoyed by opportunities stemming from the incoming wave of smart technology.
"Next year we'll be able to maintain the same pace of growth we've seen over the past three years," said Wang Helin, managing director of ZTE Thailand.
Since its founding almost 15 years ago, ZTE Thailand has kept a strong market presence in the country, especially in fibre-optic broadband networks and the Internet of Things.
Mr Wang said the information and communication technology (ICT) industry is transforming with the mobile-ICT or M-ICT era, where interconnectedness will be person-to-person, person-to-machine or machine-to-machine.
ZTE has implemented its new strategic focus on M-ICT innovations for consumers, carriers, enterprises and government agencies through 2020. The strategy is expected to drive innovations in telecommunications, enterprise computing and consumer devices to help customers adapt and thrive in the era of intelligent, always-on connectivity.
ZTE posted a 9.33% rise in net profit for the first-half of 2016 to over 9 billion baht, up from 8.3 billion during the same period in 2015, thanks to higher sales of 4G network equipment and strong IT service demand from the government sector and business.
The group's global revenue in the first-half grew by 4% to 246.5 billion baht, up from 236.9 billion during the same period last year.
China accounted for 53% of ZTE's total revenue, followed by Europe, the Americas and Oceania (25.2%), Asia (14.8%) and Africa (7%).
"ZTE expects to double its global revenue by 2020," said Zhang Jianpeng, vice-president of ZTE Corporation.
Mr Wang also highlighted the top five strategic technology trends that will have significant disruptive potential and transform the way firms do businesses in Thailand in 2017.
First there is virtual reality technology, which creates artificial environments with software and presents them to users in such a way that they appear real.
Investment in virtual reality technology on the global market is projected to reach US$150 billion (5.4 trillion baht) by 2020, he said.
Second, openness of ecosystems which require more complex levels of partnership for companies.
Third, artificial intelligence, an intelligence exhibited by machines and computer systems, is set to redefine virtually every aspect of people's lives.
Fourth, cloudification, the conversion and migration of data and application programs in order to make use of cloud computing, will be the future of the internet, bringing agility and elasticity to organisations.
Finally, Mr Wang mentioned the Internet of Everything, forming a base set of capabilities for communicating, controlling, managing and securing endpoints in the Internet of Things.
"The Thai government's policies involving Industry 4.0, smart cities and the digital economy are driving ZTE to create technology-stuffed platforms to capitalise on the emerging opportunities," he said.