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   BUSINESS NEWS

HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:
Seafood exporters in crisis due to sharp decrease in raw materials

Star Alliance confirms intention to buy Thai Airways’ shares

Banks hold reserve money to back up overspending during Songkran

Bright future for E-Retailing

TCS injects 100 million baht to increase production capacity

Jasmine sets budget for business alliance strategy

Oracle establishes business alliance to develop e-business

Seafood exporters in crisis due to sharp decrease in raw materials

Sources from the Association of Preserved Food Producers revealed that exporters of canned seafood are currently facing problems with insufficient amounts of raw materials.

The problem became an issue in 1999 and has continued to grow. Demand for Thai seafood products has been brisk, but starting early this year, exporters have been having to postpone deliveries and sometimes cancel orders because of an inability to meet with time requirements.

The decrease in seafood raw materials is a result of changes in natural factors. The quantity of raw materials acquired has been continually decreasing since 1998, while demands for products in export markets are increasing at a growth rate of more than 50%.

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Star Alliance confirms intention to buy Thai Airways’ shares

The CEO of Lufthansa Airlines - one of the Star Alliance’s founding partners, revealed that the group, which consists of 13 airlines, confirmed that they have decided to participate in the strategic partner bidding in accordance with Thai Airways’ privatization plan.

According the privatization plan, in August this year Thai Airways International will be announcing an invitation to bid for 10% of the airline’s shares, seeking strategic partners worldwide. Interested prospective partners may submit their bids in October. The list will then be shortened until there are 2-3 competitors remaining.

Star Alliance made its 2nd confirmation to join the bid after the first letter of intention was sent to Thai Airways last year. “We had some experience from buying Air Canada’s shares,” Lufthansa’s CEO added.

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Banks hold reserve money to back up overspending during Songkran

Sources from commercial banks said that banks are prepared to serve customers’ money needs over the Songkran holidays, which continue through the weekend nationwide and throughout next week in Pattaya. The banks are prepared to fill ATM machines should the machines run out of money during the holidays.

BBL has a backup of 3,000 million baht, TFB 2,100 million baht, Ayuddhaya Bank 838 million baht, DBS Thai Dhanu 600 million baht, and Krung Thai Bank has added 10% to their regular amount.

It is expected that the amount of money spent during the national 5-day Songkran holiday will be 11,000 million baht within Thailand, and 5,000 million baht on trips out of Thailand. However, it is forecasted that Thailand will earn 15,000 million baht from foreign tourists traveling to Thailand during Songkran.

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Bright future for E-Retailing

The Managing Director of Direct Sales Trading Co. said that the future trend of delivery service should be one of growth because it can serve well the constantly changing behavior of consumers. Consumers tend to seek convenience when buying products.

Furthermore, e-commerce business will gain a wider role in retailing businesses in Thailand. An obvious indicator is that major retailing businesses such as Seven Eleven, Tops, Big C, Lotus and Wal-Mart are expanding distribution channels to cover delivery services.

Tops Supermarket set up an e-commerce project and launched its webpage www.tops.co.th in December last year to promote Tops’ promotional programs and to catch the attention of potential customers on the net. Both Tops and Seven Eleven have set up programs to send management teams to study e-commerce business abroad.

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TCS injects 100 million baht to increase production capacity

Sakphan Iam-adul, Managing Board from TCS under the Sahaviriya Group, said that the company will be investing 100 million baht this year to increase the production capacity of Electro-galvanized steel to reach 150,000 MT per year.

Last year TCS produced 136,000 MT of Electro-galvanized steel for use in automotive, electrical, and computer industries. 20,000 MT was exported and the remaining 116,000 MT was for domestic consumption.

TCS obtains 50% of its raw material from Thai suppliers and the other 50% is imported from companies in Japan. This year TCS expects 96% production and minimal scraps. As a result, the company will be able to achieve production cost reduction and, hence, can make profit in the long run.

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Jasmine sets budget for business alliance strategy

Somsak Pattana-anek, MD of Jasmine Internet Co., while talking about the company’s plans for Internet business, said that the company is organizing the Jasmine Cyber Work project, which will be officially opened in May this year.

The project is being set up under the aim to become the leader in applications and e-commerce markets in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as gain revenue in terms of business. Under the project, the company is making 50-250 million baht available for prospective business alliances that posses Internet expertise but are short of capital.

Jasmine will be supporting its alliances with capital, office furniture, LAN networks, high speed Internet connection networks, and office space in the Jasmine Building. Initially, 3,000 square meters has been set up, which is expandable to 10,000 square meters for future needs.

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Oracle establishes business alliance to develop e-business

Oracle Systems Thailand has joined in a business alliance with EMC and Cisco to establish “ECO Structure Initiative”, a system that supports e-commerce start-up procedures.

The system provides basic structures for e-businesses. It is easy to install and run. The system was created from a combination of important technology and necessary devices that made it easy to start up and able to run continuously.

The 3 alliances have put their open-system products together and created “ecosystem”, which had the Resilient ECO Structure as its first prototype product. Oracle’s e-business startup technology has been well accepted and adopted by organizational customers because of its reliability and perfectly-matched technology.

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Updated by Chinnaporn Sangwanlek, assisted by Boonsiri Suansuk.