The Automotive Focus Group (AFG) held their AGM during January 2016, recording another very successful year, despite downturns in some sections of the auto industry.
The new committee is a mixture of old and new, with immediate past president Frank Holzer assuming the reins for another year. Another very well experienced member, Mike Diamente is vice-president having been a multiple times president a few years ago.
Don Ugsang.
Secretary is Richard Jackson, another repeat performer, recognizable with his lap top ever ready!
Marketing is handled by Manita Boontham (the best looking member of the executive).
Watching over the IT side is Seb Robertson, a relatively new member of the AFG. The Events group has two seasoned campaigners in Armin Walter and Ken Hinkley, joined by newcomer Paul Sharp.
A good mix of old and new (young and old?) to take the dynamic AFG through 2016.
The AFG can be contacted through President Frank Holzer (frank.holzer@hotmail. com).
Before the election of office bearers, the members were appraised of the latest trends in telematics by Donald Ugsang from AAPICO ITS, including what is already currently possible with cloud computing and satellite communication.
AAPICO ITS is a subsidiary of AAPICO Hitech and specializes in GPS car navigation (software and maps), traffic management systems, fleet management and big data analytics. Donald described this as moving towards smart cities using his company’s Powermap applications.
What is now available is quite staggering in the real time monitoring of vehicle movements, even to be able to immobilize a stolen car before it crosses the border, for example.
Currently, his company is supplying Mitsubishi, Nissan, Hyundai, Proton, Honda, BMW, Volkswagen, MG, etc. The business unit of Car Navigation Systems currently has a total of 70 employees in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and India, but with plans to grow from 100 to 150 employees in 2016, with the addition of a subsidiary office in Jakarta, Indonesia.
