Annual Report 2017

42 Annual Report 2017 work and studies. In 2017, SET conducted the CEO Survey among executives of listed companies surveying about business operations, the overall economic situation/outlook, government policy, investment, employment, including investments in foreign countries in order to use the data and information to analyze the economic direction and to improve the strategies and policies of the government and private sectors. Additionally, SET also prepared database materials for the purpose of further research studies that focus on providing accurate, complete, and practical solutions, such as the corporate governance database, the economic exposure universe database of listed companies investing and/or having income from foreign countries, and the dividend universe database, etc. blockchain technology as it might be applied to the development of trading systems for startup companies, and to explore the application of blockchain technology to other solutions in the development of the Thai capital market, as well as developing of text analytics in extracting and retrieving data from reports to create database for effective research. Developing Corporate Culture Human resources management is one operational aspect that SET always emphasizes because SET’s employees are valuable resources for the organization. SET therefore focuses on creating an organization that employees are proud of and have confidence in, while developing employees to be prepared for future competition and organizational changes. SET places importance on Leadership & Culture Development in preparing its personnel to become leaders in a sustainable capital market. Various human resource management and development projects have been carried out since 2010 such as the Leadership Development Program to ensure leaders’ readiness as SET is moving into the future. The program covers special assignments, training, seminars, and study trips both in Thailand and abroad, and with an emphasis on communication courses. SET has created networking between the educational sector and the capital market business sector. In 2017, SET funded capital market research grants and in conjunction with 11 leading educational institutions producing 26 research studies concerning the capital market, while organizing five Capital Market Research Forums to present research results with review and idea-exchanging sessions by capital market experts. In 2017, SET collaborated with leading technology experts especially the National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC) under the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) to study the capabilities and limitations of In 2017, SET encouraged its employees to actively use innovations to enhance current work operations by establishing the SET Innovation Awards for the first time. Employees submitted 63 innovation projects. This competition will also be organized in 2018 in order