Bad news for Ban Chang General Assembly Co. - Fiat Auto Spa may use the new General Motors (Thailand) assembly plant to make the first Fiat cars in Thailand. Over the past few years, the Italian carmaker has been exploring the possibility of using the Ban Chang plant to bring out Fiat cars for export in a plan to use the Kingdom as the Fiat production base in this region.

The situation changed last March when GM and Fiat SPA merged, through share swaps, in order to cut production costs.

GMT opened its new plant in Rayong last month to bring out the revolutionary new car - Chevrolet Zafira - a 7-seat minivan for both export and domestic markets. Industry sources said it was quite clear that the Italian group would choose GM’s Baht25 billion plant in order to cut costs.

Fiat plans to produce Alfa Romeo 156s for export to the Asian market.

A Fiat executive said the car production plan in Thailand was still alive but was delayed. Part of the new situation was that Malaysia had reviewed its decision to include cars in its zero-tax AFTA list. Fiat sells about 500 cars in Malaysia each year.

German financial investment institution Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau Bank, which lent Baht25 billion to the Bangkok Transit System Co., has asked the Thai government for assistance, as they are concerned that the loan could turn sour. Their concerns are based on the fact that BTSC has already lost Baht1 billion after 6 months of operation.

According to sources, Germany’s minister of economics and technology, Warner Mueller, raised the concern in discussions with Thailand’s deputy prime minister and commerce minister, Supachai Panichpakdee when the two sides met last week.

The government was urged to use the Baht60 million fund granted by KfW to study the feasibility of the elevated railway and skyway project.

KfW bank has also lent funds to several other Thai corporations over the past few years, including the TPI group.

The Japan Bank of International Cooperation had earlier shown similar concerns, for they lent billions of baht to support development projects in Thailand.

A total of 2,249 employees from Thai Farmers Bank have applied for early retirement compensation packages, a figure that reflects great reluctance among bankers to continue their careers. This despite the fact that TFB was chosen by Global Finance Magazine as the ‘best domestic bank’ in Thailand for a fourth consecutive year this year. The magazine announced the result of its survey in the June issue.

Only about 1,702 of the applications were approved by TFB management, said banking sources. The bank had set up a Baht1.8 billion fund for the early retirement program, which was launched in May, and only Baht1.095 billion was spent, said the sources. TBF plans to cut the size of its workforce down to 8,000-9,000 over the next five years, from currently 11,630.

Virat Prasongthan, an assistant managing director, is the most senior officer to join the latest exodus wave.

Pay raises are planned for those left behind to boost morale. TFB normally pays a yearend bonus of 5.5 times the monthly salary.

The launch of a new range of vending machines - the first of their kind to be used in Thailand - will boost a number of industry sectors, including the traditional vending market.

The British-manufactured range of transaction automation products, to be distributed in Thailand by Chubb Thailand, will be a major plus to consumer-focussed services such as convenience vending, public transport systems, fast food centres, and the recreation sector.

The range of machines includes banknote and coin change machines, token vendors, fee collection machines and ticketing machines.

“At present, there are no machines in Thailand providing the public with change. This means that at present for various services you must queue to get change before you make a transaction, such as buying a soft drink from a vending machine or buying a ticket to ride the skytrain. These machines will speed up the transaction considerably and make consumers more interested in utilising a given product,” says Chris Rodgers of Chubb Thailand.

“With our range we can also assist with coupon vending, which can be used, for example, by food courts in the shopping centres. It makes the whole process smoother and more controllable,” says Rodgers.

One key area will be the traditional convenience market. The machines placed in public areas, shopping centres and offices that contain soft drinks and snacks are often under-utilised because they only function with coins. The sector has never taken off the way it has done in many other countries.

ICC International’s president, Boonkiet Chokwatana, the leading player in the vending machine market says, “People in Thailand generally do not carry change around with them so coin vending machines next to our drink and snack machines would definitely help.”

He estimates that there are around 5,000 vending machines in Thailand and adds that ICC presently operates 2,500 machines, mainly in the Bangkok area.

“It is not a high profit market because of the high cost of the machines and the servicing required but we believe that there is still plenty of room for development,” he adds.

The president of ICC believes that the market sector is worth less than 200 million baht and that his company controls a 60 percent share in the market.

The other obvious link for the new range is the public transportation systems and Chubb is already in discussion with BTS over implementing a pilot scheme in some of the busier skytrain stations.

“It is a great opportunity to ease congestion at these stations during the rush hour periods. Our machines would simply take over the change providing service, thus allowing staff to focus on other functions and speed up the whole process for passengers requiring change for their journey,” says Rodgers.

The Thai Olympic Committee is putting high hopes on being able to host the 19th Olympic Games in 2008, despite criticism that the Kingdom is not prepared to be the host.

Thirachai Wutthitham, a deputy Bangkok governor and a campaign manager for the 2008 Olympics, said hosting the Olympics would bring US$5 billion into the Kingdom. He also said that Bangkok would be a different city in the next 8 years; traffic congestion would be eased, or solved.

He also said that the International Olympic Committee doesn’t care if the Olympic host is rich or poor; Athens is home to a million poor, but she still hosted the Olympiad.

Polls have shown that Thai people are lending full support to the campaign committee.

A coordination office was opened at the World Trade Center this week to be the center of a long campaign to bring the Games to Bangkok.

MMC Sittiphol Motor Co will soon start bringing out 15,000 four-door (double cab) Mitsubishi pickups for China, the first order for a Thai-made pickup from the Chinese mainland. Sources said an agreement will be signed soon between MMC Sittiphol and Chinese partners to send the big lot of four-door Strada pickups to this new market this year.

According to Dr Vatchara Pannachet, a top executive at MMC Sittiphol, exports have expanded greatly this year - especially after DaimlerChrysler bought into Mitsubishi Motor Co. in Japan. Several thousand more Mitsubishi trucks and sedans would be sent to Africa and Australia this year, new lots which would increase export numbers to around 60,000 units in 2000, he said.

MMC Sittiphol is known as the leader in car exports, with about 23,000 units already sent to overseas markets in the first quarter this year. All the Strada pickups sent to China would be completely built here while the company explores the possibility of assembling Strada pickups there.