Department to equip 15 airports with advanced landing devices

The Department of Aviation is working on a project to modernize 15 airports nationwide with modern landing devices - Instrument Landing Systems - in the wake of one of Thailand’s worst plane crashes in Surat Thani last month, in which many of over 130 crew and passengers were killed.

Six ILS units, worth up to Baht 50 million each, have been currently in use at Chiang Rai, Pitsanulok, Ubon Rachathani, Udon Thani, Narathiwas and Surat Thani airports, while more will be needed for 15 other airports nationwide. Most are currently equipped with other standard landing devices like Non-Direction Beacon (NDB) or Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) systems, said the department’s chief Sawas Sitthivong.

The ILS device, which helps ensure pilots an automatic landing in bad circumstances, like in stormy weather, in place but uninstalled at the Surat Thani Airport several months prior to the December plane crash, has been blamed for the disaster, though the airport has other landing devices.

The project will be proposed to the ministry this month for the fiscal budget this year; Minister Suthep Thuagsuban has fully endorsed the department’s initiation; under a new policy, airports without safety landing devices will be closed in bad weather; 2 more ILS devices have already been allocated for Ranong and Hua Hin airports.

PTT plans counter-trade deal for Iraq’s oil

The Petroleum Authority of Thailand is to hold talks with Iraqi officials over a possible deal on oil for food, material and medicine, after a similar deal is struck with Iran for crude oil worth US$10 million. The agreement for Iran’s 20,000 barrel-a-day oil supply is to be signed in April, said PTT’s vice-president on procurement Surong Boolkul.

Iraq’s crude oils, though with high sulfur, has met the world standard and PTT’s Thai Oil refining plant is already equipped with sulfur ridding devices, said Mr. Surong. Iraq needs food, construction material and medical supplies which are overproduced in Thailand, he said.

PTT had expected 50,000 barrels a day of Iraq’s crude oil, from the country’s 2.3 million barrels a day of oil exported through the Persian Gulf under the UN’s oil-for-food rule, said Mr. Surong. Portions of the refined oil will be used as ingredients for PTT’s Lube Base, a subsidiary which produces lubricants for engines, he said.

Import duty is exempted for Iraq’s oil; supplies to Lube Base will help reduced imports on lubricant bases; PTT believed such a deal with Baghdad would be free of political affects as Thailand has been neutral in the Gulf conflict.

Chiang Mai guesthouses blacklisted by Germans

A German guide book has warned German tourist fellows to keep themselves away from dozens of guesthouses in Chiang Mai after complaints that a huge number of tourists had been lured into drugs addiction and other unlawful activities. Some of tourists have been cheated by those vice operators, said the guide book.

Hundreds of thousands of low-budget tourists are believed to opt to low budget tour packages offered by rings of illegal operators. Those tourists, who are not buying package tours by qualified organizers and who fail to book rooms in advance, have been victimized by ring operators who offer low quality services, cited the guide book.

More than 30 of about 100 guesthouses in the northern tourist resort province have been found in the complaints to illegally operate jungle treks, which often lead to drugs and sex services. A number of German tourists to Chiang Mai said they have been cheated by those guesthouse operators, others said their belongings were snatched.

Tourists advised to avoid travel desks in Khaosarn Road area, cheap tours often turn dangerous; starting at Bangkok’s Khaosarn Road, tourists are being sent to hands of greedy, unlawful operators; sex services recently found offered to tourists in Chiang Mai districts; local police force on massive raids against ‘drugs villages’.

CAT to spend Baht 1 billion in speeding up Internet connection

The Communication Authority of Thailand is working on a project to upgrade the country’s Internet connecting speed with international gateways by increasing data transferring size to 45 megabits, from only 2 megabits at present. The Baht 1 billion investment project, under the ‘Thailand Internet Exchange’ code name, has won applause from local Internet service providers.

The new 45 megabit connecting speed, which means up to 45 million characters of data can be transferred in one second, will help ISPs reduce costs and help Internet users save a good deal, they said. The new speed will enable CAT to bring the circuit renting rate charged from ISPs down by 25-30 percent, said CAT sources.

CAT, which has a monopoly in international communication services, will open bids for the project soon and the development plan is expected to be completed in the middle of the year, said sources. Internet service charges on users will be lowered form the rates of between Baht 25-30 per hour at present, they said.

Invitations to the bid yet to be announced; the development project to cope with rising number of Internet users; an earlier estimation said there will be 20 million users in the next 10 years - roughly 20 percent of the population, up from 500,000-600,000 today; the project also to cope with growing electronic commerce activities.

Expensive rooms in Phuket shoo away Europeans tourists

The past New Year season has disappointed the tourism industry as more European tourists have been found switching from Phuket to Malaysian resorts and Indonesia’s Bali, despite political instability in the two countries. The runaways have left 10 percent of rooms in Phuket unoccupied during the time and extremely high room rates are to blame as the cause.

Hotels in the southern resort island have brought up room rates as the tourism industry enjoyed a year-round high season last year, the first year of the Amazing Thailand Years 1998-1999. Industry sources, however, fear that expensive rooms will turn Thailand into a second Hong Kong, China’s southern island shopping paradise, which saw nearly 40 percent of tourists turning away during the hand-over days because of expensive rooms.

Phuket has been boycotted by more travel agents in Europe as those find that rates of their allotment in the island have been rising since last year, said the Thai Hotel Association’s secretary-general Prakit Chin-amornpong, who seeks to consult with ministers in charge of tourism.

Rooms were overbooked with just 90 percent of those checked in on new year days; more complaints from travel agents abroad on unreasonably expensive rooms; all are expensive in Thailand while competitors brought down room prices and air fares; the Tourism Authority to discuss the situation with top executives of Phuket hotels this month.

More layoffs at Caltex and Shell as companies consolidate further

Caltex (Thai) is to undergo a restructuring process for the third consecutive year this year during which up to 200 more employees face layoffs under consolidation plans of units, aiming to further cut costs by 20 percent. The new restructuring program would have a clearer look in the next 2 months, said the company sources.

The company has offered compensation packages, each of 22, 24 or 26 months of salary to employees who join an early retirement program this year. Caltex (Thai), under a region-wide reengineering program by the US parent company, has laid off about 300 employees in the past 2 years.

Shell (Thailand) has also offered another early retirement scheme to the company’s 850-man strong workforce, after 150 workers were laid off in 1998. There is no specific target for a layoff plan this year, said company sources. The restructuring this year will, however, be focused on its procurement, transport and distributing arms, to shorten the company’s command line, said sources.

Esso (Thailand) waiting for clear direction from parent company after the merge between Exxon and Mobil Oil; per diem and allowance cut by 30 percent, and no more recruitment this year; Esso to maintain the lowest price policy at every service station; oil market to slump further this year.

Investors warned to be cautious on loans offered by claimed US firm

Investors in northern provinces have been warned to be careful in dealing with a business company claimed to be a US-based financial institution now offering loans to businesses in the north. Some of the investors have been found paying advance money to an agent which purportedly works to help them access loans.

The warning has been issued by officials at the Bank of Thailand’s northern branch in Chiang Mai after Chales Liu-es, a Thai-American citizen, identified himself as chairman of Vaster Finance Corporation Co., met with local press and investors last Friday in a city hotel.

Mr. Chales said his company, a medium-sized investing firm in the US, has aimed to extend up to US $2 billion in loans to about 100 companies in property development and in medium-sized industries in Bangkok and in Chiang Mai. BOT officials, however, said Mr. Chales’ financial company was not recognized.

The company claimed to have done business in the Kingdom since 1997 and already released loans to a couple of Thai business firms; the self-proclaimed businessman to meet with local business clubs and social figures; an invitation to dinner was declined by BOT officials.

Agro-Industrial zones planned for new milliennium

The Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand has drawn up a plan to establish rings of integrated agro-industrial estates in the provinces. The plan, to be submitted to the Industry Ministry for approval, is under the ministry’s ‘Food for the World’ program under which the kingdom will produce food for the world market.

Under the plan, IEAT has classified agro-industrial estates in 5 categories - to make food from vegetables and plants, cow and dairy products, fishery products, palm seeds and to make hala food for Muslims. The new estates will be integrated with the existing industrial estates nationwide, said IEAT sources.

Under the plan, the coastal provinces of Ranong in the south, Petchburi and a few others on the east coast, Chonburi, Rayong and Chantaburi to the east and Nakorn Srithammarat to the south will be homes for factories processing finished and semi-finished seafood products and other related products, while Nong Khai, Khon Kaen, Udorn Thani and Srisaket in the northeast will house factories for foods form cows and diary products.

Companies producing foods for exports will enjoy a number of investment privileges which include tax exemptions; another agro-industry estate set up in southern provinces to make supporting products like rubber gloves and others; each estate is to cover over 500 rai of land; the plan aimed to start sustainable development in the country’s industry sector.

Nong Ngu Hao airport terminal building in hurdles

Murphy-Jahn Tamp and ACT have been told to think again in designing Nong Ngu Hao International Airport’s main terminal building as the Transport and Communications Minister Suthep Thuagsuban demanded that the terminal be more of Thai identity. MJTA was told of that in a meeting with the minister on Thursday.

The company has argued that the question concerning the Thai identity is not stated nor is it listed as a condition in the terms of reference of the building project worth Baht 40 billion in construction, or nearly one half of the over all coast of the airport project under the ministry’s New Bangkok International Airport Co.

The design has been under heavy criticism for the fact that the whole terminal building will be built of glass, materials which need to be imported, together with most other construction materials. MJTA explained that the specially made glass walls and roofs will help absorb heat from sunlight and will help save as much as 30 percent of power.

The matter is now left to an NBIA committee whether to accept the design or not; the committee said earlier the glass structure still matters; chairman of NBIA board demands the construction start on schedule as the first phase of the airport is to be in operation in 2004.

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Created by Andy Gombaz, assisted by Chinnaporn Sangwanlek.