Thailand is Southeast Asia’s second largest economy with a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of around USD 500 billion. With a free-market economy, the Kingdom has a strong domestic market and a growing middle class, with the private sector being the main engine of growth.
According to the World Bank, Thailand is one of the great development success stories. Due to smart economic policies it has become an upper middle income economy and is making progress towards meeting the Sustainable Development Goals.
Today Thailand’s biggest shopping center developer, Central Retail Corp is distributing a digital currency among its employees with plans to expand the offering to customers and the public once the so-called sandbox phase is complete.
The “C-Coin,” the digital currency will distributed globally among Central Rail’s 80,000 employees. The crypto-currency can be used to make payments in restaurants and buy products or services from Central’s partners.
Kowin Kulruchakorn, chief innovative officer at Central Tech, the Central unit that invented the C-Coin, said the digital currency will be made available to the public after the company learns about its performance among employees. Kulruchakorn didn’t give further details on the currency’s distribution to the public. He did say, however, that he sees a lot of potential for C-Coin.
Thailand’s Chirathivat family owns a 70% stake in Central Retail, which runs shopping malls and speciality stores domestically and internationally. It also owns Danish retailer Illum, Vietnamese hypermarket chain Big C, and department store La Rinascente in Ital.
