one qr code can be used to accept customer ’ s payments from various channels. moreover, merchants can directly have payments deposited into their bank account or e - wallet account that is linked with promptpay service. with qr code payment, cash flow management, bookkeeping, and reconciliation processes are much easier than those of cash transactions. this effectively eases operational burdens and reduces business costs. the third is enhancing payment security. scanning qr code via mobile application will increase security of payment card usage because customers are not required to provide their card or card information to merchants and thus have less concerns over frauds. furthermore, a qr code payment system is safe and reliable since it was developed on existing payment infrastructures of banks and payment service providers such as promptpay or credit and debit card infrastructures, which are highly secure, compliant with international standard and subject to regular examination. the forth is facilitating further innovations. this open infrastructure will lead to further development of various financial innovations in the future. e - payment will not only facilitate payment flows but also provide solid foundation for sme ’ s financial data collection. data from retail electronic payments can be effectively used to support credit granting, which will provides more alternatives for sme financing. financial institutions in many countries have started to provide information based lending instead of traditional collateral based lending. these four important criteria of qr code will lead to an expansion of qr code payment services to all merchants in our daily life such as department stores, fresh markets, coffee shops, and convenient stores. qr code payment services are accessible for all type of merchants, including brick and mortar stores and e - commerce. moreover, it can easily be rolled out to various locations such as business districts, tourist destinations, or rural areas. to promote standardized qr code payment, bot has allowed banks and payment service providers to propose their projects for consideration in the central bank ’ s regulatory sandbox. in the sandbox, qr code payment services and supporting systems will be tested to ensure the accuracy of transactions, the stability and security of systems, and the provisioning of consumer protection since these are new services which require interoperability between banks and non - banks. at the moment, two banks are testing their services and six banks are applying to participate in the sandbox. the qr code payment services will be gradually launched by service providers based on their readiness, it is expected to be available to the country wide within the 4th quarter of 2017. in

. at the top is the head of the business groups, again of different job sizes. the next level is four kinds of work units reporting in a hierarchy or directly reporting to the head of business groups depending on the best way the work can be undertaken. this is in place of the previous system where there were six management levels and only one level of operation, which made for lengthy approval processes and inadequate delineation of responsibility. personnel systems have also been totally redesigned with career development, performance and potential evaluation, as well as succession and replacement plans being already effective or soon to be implemented. a cornerstone of this may well be that at certain levels promotion is by examination rather than selection allowing capability to be a key determinant rather than just the traditional ability to get on well with people, primarily young superiors. in the more difficult areas of manpower, recruitment and pay structure, work has just begun or will begin early next year as this requires that the restructure of organization and work processes be rather complete. the restructure has still to be extended into a fully bank - wide process, whereas at present re - engineering of work processes and organization has begun at only four of the 25 businesses groups. pay schedule will also have to be redesigned and here probably lies the biggest single difficulty, as in the lower - ranking jobs under the present scale, some people are paid five times more than another doing the same job. as this has been the system for a very extended length of time, one ends up with a lot of people being paid a lot and doing very little. as such, people don ’ t move on in jobs or move out of jobs if they are not competent as might happen with a proper pay system. however, a problem identified is halfway solved as the saying goes. and i am happy to note that outsiders and stakeholders who have had to work with the bank of thailand lately are very receptive to the change and are saying much nicer things about us and our work. i also sense that the staff are seeing that things are better and will probably give enough support to the restructure. ladies and gentlemen, to get back to the topic of the economy : two years ago i said that we would reduce interest rates as the basic strategy for saving the country. this we have done and now the 14 - day rp, the monetary instrument we use to transmit monetary policy to the general economy, is at only 1. 5 %. the lowest lending rate is 7. 5