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October APEC Investment Mart attracting enormous interest
Exhibitors and potential visitors have displayed a huge
level of interest in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Investment
Mart due to be held in October, according to Board of Investment (BOI)
secretary-general, Somphong Wannapha.
Somphong said that a large number of both domestic and
foreign private sector companies in five core industrial sectors had said
that they would exhibit in the event, which will be hosted by Thailand on
October 16-21.
To date 70 percent of the total exhibition area of 30,000
square meters had been booked by leading companies, making for over 400
exhibition booths. The five targeted industrial sectors are automobiles and
automobile parts, fashion, agriculture and food, and IC.
Companies which have already said they will join include
Toyota Motors Asia, Honda Motors, Thai Summit, Sony (Thailand), Samsung
(Thailand) and Toshiba (Thailand).
Teams of high-ranking public and private sector
executives are also due to join the event from countries outside APEC
including Japan, Mexico, China, Korea and Chile.
Somphong expressed hope that this would help companies
create international brand images, and lead to the eventual creation of
global marketing bases. (TNA)
Exporters fear strong baht will cripple growth target
Exporters have urged the government to help stabilize the
baht amid fears that the appreciation of the Thai currency could push export
growth below target.
Mrs Yajai Choowicha, chairperson of the University of the
Thai Chamber of Commerce’s business survey working committee, said that
recent polls showed that 69.5 percent of exporters were concerned that the
current strength of the baht would deal a blow to exports in all sectors of
industry, and that the majority of exporters felt that exchange rate
fluctuations posed the largest current risk to export growth.
She said that exporters want the government to issue
urgent measures to cushion the blow. They want the government to reduce
taxes and open up more export markets, and ensure that the currency remains
stable.
However the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) moved to
assuage fears that export growth this year would drop. Pornsilp
Pacharintanakul, who chairs the FTI’s export and import committee,
predicted that export growth for most sectors would remain on target.
However, Pornslip expressed concern about the affects of
US regulations stipulating that exporting nations had to state the origins
of all goods in order to prevent bio-terrorism, saying that this would cause
production costs to skyrocket. (TNA)
Thailand, Australia and Brazil join forces against
EU sugar dumping
Ruengsak Ngamsomphak, secretary general of the Sugarcane
and Sugar Board, said that the board has given approval for the Thai
Sugarcane and Sugar Co. to use 7 million baht from the Sugarcane and Sugar
Fund to sue the European Union for breaking free trade legislation by
subsidizing its domestic sugar producers and ensuring the dumping of 4
million tons of low-cost EU sugar onto world markets each year.
The EU measures have pushed the EU into second place in
the list of global sugar exporters, despite the fact that EU retail prices
for sugar were extremely expensive, causing wild fluctuations in world sugar
prices and suffering to other global sugar exporters.
Thailand will join hands with Brazil - the world’s
largest sugar producer - and Australia in taking its complaint to the World
Trade Organization.
Thailand’s sugarcane farmers have repeatedly complained
that fluctuations in world prices have pushed revenue below production
costs, forcing the Sugarcane and Sugar Fund to borrow from the Bank for
Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) to intervene in order to
solve the problem. (TNA)
MOF to set up fund to solve financial problems
The Ministry of Finance (MOF) is currently studying the
possibility of setting up a fund to act as an investment arm to solve
various financial problems. Finance Minister Suchart Jaovisidha said the
fund will mean that the Financial Institutions Rehabilitation and
Development Fund will no longer be called upon to issue bonds to accumulate
capital.
Suchart said that the new fund would differ from the
Financial Institutions Rehabilitation and Development Fund in that the
latter was set up in response to the economic crisis of the late 1990’s;
while the new fund would anticipate problems, would be available to all
government agencies and would use various government assets to ensure that
it could act rapidly and effectively when the necessity arose.
The finance minister expressed confidence that the final
size and form of the fund would be known within the next couple of months,
adding that it would probably take a form similar to that of the Government
Investment Corporation of Singapore (GICS). (TNA)
Government to promote Thai orchids for export
The Department of Agriculture is tightening up
inspections of orchid exports and urging the public and private sector to
promote Thai orchids on the world market, following the publication of
studies showing that orchids have enormous export potential.
Noting that the beauty of Thai orchids had achieved world
renown, the department’s director general, Chakan Saengraksawong, said,
“Annual exports of orchids bring in around 2 billion baht in export
revenue each year. Major markets are the United States, Japan, Europe, Hong
Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea.”
Pointing to trends showing enormous potential for orchid
exports, Chakan said that the department had issued strict measures to
inspect for crop pests in orchids destined for export, and had given
information to farmers and exporters on how to protect orchids against pests
so as to avoid coming up against trade barriers.
“Orchid exports and growers are now extremely aware of
the need for protection against crop pests, and the department’s
agricultural goods export service group has gained 1.48 billion baht in
revenue from issuing pest-free certification for orchids”, Chakan said.
The department’s director general said that 80 percent
of orchids destined for export went through the department’s random
inspection procedures, noting that even though not all bunches were
inspected, the failure rate was only 1 percent.
Urging the public and private sectors to promote Thai
orchids on a continuous basis, Chakan said that orchid contests should be
held regularly to encourage orchid growers to develop their strains. He said
that the department was also encouraging orchid growers to band together to
boost their bargaining power and assist each other in increasing the number
of new strains, and to exchange knowledge and ideas. (TNA)
Zero tariffs on fruit and vegetables between Thailand and China paves way for more ASEAN free trade
Thailand will sign an agreement with China to reduce
tariffs to zero on fruit and vegetables traded between the two countries
starting in October.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his Chinese
counterpart Wen Jiabao met on the sidelines of the AEAN-China emergency SARS
summit held in Bangkok in April to complete negotiations. The agreement is
part of the framework between China and the 10-member Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to create a free trade area.
Commerce Minister Adisai Bodharamik said, “This
agreement to reduce tariffs on fruit and vegetables will pave the way for
more free trade between the two countries. In the future, negotiations will
expand to cover other sectors.”
Both Thailand and China plan to cut import tariffs on
more than 200 items of fruit and vegetables. Presently import taxes stand at
25-30 percent.
President of the Thai Food Processors’ Association
Poonkeite Thangsombat said, “Thailand’s food industry will benefit from
lower import tariffs when it is possible to import cheaper raw materials
from China such as peaches, apples, white asparagus, and mushrooms. By the
same token China will profit from the agreement since they import a lot of
tropical fruit from Thailand.” (TNA)
‘Best’ initiative for Laem Chabang Port will expedite shipping container entry into USA
The United States and Thailand have reached an agreement
to launch a scheme under which shipping containers already screened at Laem
Chabang Port can enter the US without additional checks.
Representatives of the private sector came up with the
initiative called “Bangkok Laem Chabang Effective and Secure Trade”
(Best) to ensure safe and efficient trade between Thailand and the USA and
reduce shipping costs.
The US government launched the Container Security
Initiative (CSI) in January 2002 to protect containerized shipping from
terrorists. The ‘Best’ initiative will compliment the US security
measures.
Countries participating in the CSI scheme are required to
introduce certain screening measures at their major ports. The Laem Chabang
deep-sea port is one of 20 ports worldwide that have already complied with
the measures. Thailand will buy gamma-ray equipment to scan the metal
elements in containers. The machine costs around 1 billion baht. (TNA)
Japanese importers turn
to Thailand after chickening out of China
Japanese importers have transferred orders for chicken
products from China to Thailand due to concerns over Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), raising hopes that Thailand’s chicken exports
this year could hit 42 billion baht.
Suksan Jiamjaisawangruek, president of the Chicken
Breeders Association, said that concerns about the SARS situation in China
had led to an increase in orders for Thai chicken products, particularly
from Japan. At the same time, the public and private sectors had worked
together to overhaul the structure of Thailand’s chicken farming sector,
successfully reducing production by 15 percent over a 10-week period to
eradicate excess supply. This in turn had pushed up the price of chicken
meat in Japan.
“The result of these joint activities has been that
chicken farmers have seen a rise in income, enabling their businesses to
continue to survive. Thailand’s 27 major chicken producers will continue
to work together to ensure price stability and to upgrade the quality of
their products,” Suksan said.
Mekong countries urged to draw up trade and investment strategies
Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak is urging
countries in the Mekong Sub-region to work together in drawing up trade and
investment strategies in a bid to attract higher levels of foreign
investment.
Chairing a meeting of the Mekong River Commission, Somkid
said the regional grouping’s rich biodiversity, whether in terms of
agriculture, fisheries, mineral resources, petroleum, or hydro-energy,
together with efforts to create intra-regional communications links, has
increased the region’s potential. “From now on, the sub-region should
work together to lay down in-depth trade, investment and tourism
strategies,” Somkid said.
Somkid called for more meetings between the leaders of
the six countries in the grouping – southern China, Thailand, Myanmar,
Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam – and private sector companies. He also urged
the creation of links between the Mekong grouping and the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations Free Trade Area (AFTA).
Official trade negotiations in the Chinese province of
Yunan have already begun. Yunan lies within the Mekong Basin area, and is a
gateway to southern China for Thai goods. (TNA)
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