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Thailand to become
automobile R&D
hub within 10 years
Thailand is on track to become a regional center for
automobile research and development within the next ten years. Japanese car
manufacturer Toyota has announced intentions to invest in research and
development in Thailand.
Somphong Wannapha, secretary general for the Board of
Investment, said “Toyota’s plans hail the beginning of a new era in the
Thai automobile industry. Whereas in the past research and development had
been conducted abroad, car manufacturers are now likely to follow Toyota’s
lead in setting up R&D bases in Thailand.”
Toyota plans included Thailand-based research and
development into both saloon cars and pick-up trucks, with investment valued
at 4.5-5 billion baht. The R&D center will be located near the new
Bangkok airport. Honda has already announced plans for motorcycle research
and development in Thailand worth 800 million baht, while Stone is due to
invest in research and development into car wheels.(TNA)
Laos to follow Thailand in developing OTOP products
Laos is showing interest in following Thailand’s
strategy on building its economy from the grassroots level by developing its
own One Tambon, One product (OTOP) scheme. Thailand’s Minister of Industry
Somsak Thepsuthin recently held talks with his Lao counterpart On-nua
Pommachan who said that Vientiane wants to promote the small and
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) industry, focusing on the development and
production of its own OTOP products, and seeks Thailand’s assistance in
helping meet the goal.
“The Thai government’s successful policy on
development of OTOP products as a mechanism to generate growth of the Thai
economy from the grassroots level inspires Vientiane to follow the same
path,” On-nua said.
Laos wants Thailand’s help in marketing its OTOP
products and requested to ship the community products overseas through
Thailand’s deep-sea ports, including Laem Chabang in Chonburi Province and
Mabtaput in Rayong Province. (TNA)
Two new executives appointed at Hard Rock Hotel Pattaya
Andrew Khoo, general manager of the Hard Rock Hotel
Pattaya, has recently appointed Alfred Lin as the hotel’s director of
marketing & communications, and Sunshine Jeamjirarut as the hotel’s
assistant sales manager looking after the European and Asian wholesale
markets.
Sunshine
Jeamjirarut
Alfred
Lin
A Thai & Taiwanese citizen, aged 33, Alfred Lin holds
a Bachelor’s degree of Advertising Management from the Faculty of Business
Administration, Assumption University (ABAC).
His last position before joining the Hard Rock Hotel
Pattaya was as senior marketing manager of the daily English newspaper The
Nation. With his 8 years experience in marketing & product management,
Alfred, as a newcomer in the hotel business, is ready to take on his new
challenge with the Hard Rock Hotel Pattaya.
A Thai citizen aged 25, Sunshine Jeamjirarut holds a
Bachelor’s degree in Business English from the Faculty of Humanities,
Rajabhat Institute Suan Sunandha Bangkok.
His first sales job in the hotel business was with the
Merchant Court Hotel at Le Concorde, Bangkok as a sales executive for 1
year. Later, he was selected as a Thailand cultural representative, working
a year in guest relations at Walt Disney World, USA.
Before he joined with Hard Rock Hotel Pattaya, he was an
assistant sales manager with Raffles International Hotels and Resorts.
SET targets 3 trillion baht for capitalization
The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) expects its market
capitalization will reach 3 trillion baht this year, an increase of 20
percent from the present 2.5 trillion baht.
SET’s president Kittirat Na Ranong said within a one
year period, the SET has been able to post an investment return rate of 45
percent, the highest in the region followed by India, which had a return
rate of 30 percent.
Kittirat said, “Thailand’s stock market has seen a
greater improvement in the performance of its listed firms, boosting the
combined dividend payment amount to 57.6 billion baht in 2002, from 32.3
billion baht in 2001.” He said the dividend payment would be even higher
this year since the listed firms are expected to post over 250 billion baht
in profit while the SET index is projected to be more than 500 points at the
end of 2003. (TNA)
Cabinet approves establishment of company to insure food standards
The cabinet has given the green light to set up a limited
company to oversee food and agricultural goods standards, act as a central
agency to inspect both imports and exports of food and agricultural goods,
and to issue certification.
Prime Minister’s Office Spokesman Sqn. Ldr. Sita Divari
said that the establishment of the 1.95 billion baht company would be funded
either through the central budget or via the competitiveness budget.
The government will initially be the sole stockholder,
with the Ministry of Finance holding a 49 percent stake and the Office of
Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Promotion the remaining stake.
Shares in the company will be divested to exporters and
members of the public within five years.
The company’s headquarters will be located in Bangkok,
with five branches in Chiang Mai, Songkhla, Khon Kaen, Samut Prakan and
Samut Sakhon provinces.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has designated 2004 as
the ‘Food Safety Year’.
This means that procedures for inspecting agricultural
and food imports and exports need to meet international criteria. The center
would speed up the inspection process and boost Thai’s agricultural
sector. (TNA)
Thailand more dependant on natural gas
Energy Minister Prommin Lertsuridej recently stated that
newly-discovered natural gas fields and pressure from environmentalists are
making Thailand more reliant on the energy source, despite plans to
diversify. He said natural gas would likely remain the major source of fuel
for electricity for at least the next 10 years due to its local abundance.
“Even though we try to balance types of fuel we use for
power generation, coal will be given less priority,” Prommin said.
Diversification plans sought to reduce the nation’s
dependency on gas, which supplies around 75 percent of fuel demand for
electricity by using coal, but were met with strong resistance from
environmentalists and villagers.
Prommin said the ministry aimed to cut the consumption of
imported oil in transportation, which accounts for 40 percent of all oil
used in the country, by offering tax incentives and soft loans for public
vehicles to use natural gas.
“Thailand is now following the global trend toward gas.
We find new gas every day and we are encouraging other sectors apart from
power generation to use more gas,” Prommin said. (TNA)
Consumers advised to open
their minds to genetically
modified products
Amaret Bhumiratana, dean of Mahidol University’s
Faculty of Science, recently called on Thai consumers to open their minds to
genetically modified products (GMOs) which he said could be developed
alongside organic products.
“Thailand should apply genetic engineering to produce
new strains of rice, tapioca and the other local plants that would yield
more nutrition,” Amaret said.
Amaret forecasted a worldwide trend towards consumption
of more fruits and vegetables with higher protein and vitamin content
through the use of biotechnology. He explained that the current objection to
genetically modified products in Thailand is due to the country’s
inability to compete with the new technology, however he stressed that
growers will have to come to terms with the GMOs eventually. He added that
it will be a real challenge for Thailand to cope with new food standards
introduced by importer countries now that free trade agreements are lowering
tariffs.
The food industry is among five industries that the
government is focusing on for economic growth. Thailand is a major food
exporter and ships out products worth about 270 billion baht annually.
The government is also touting Thailand as the “Kitchen
of the World” and plans to increase the number of Thai restaurants around
the world from about 7,000 currently to 8,000 in the next two years. (TNA)
US businesses look likely to transfer investment bases to Thailand
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s recent unofficial
visit to the United States made headway in the US business community. Visits
to US businesspeople gave indications that they were increasingly interested
in transferring their investment and production bases to Thailand.
The high level of interest was attributed to the
government’s clear policies of establishing Free Trade Areas (FTA’s)
with countries including China, India, Australia and Japan in the near
future. FTA’s with these countries gave support to the use of Thailand as
a production base.
The prime minister said US business sectors that are
interested in expanding their investment bases in Thailand included Unocal
Aviation, which may establish an aircraft maintenance center in Thailand,
various international freight companies, and even electronic companies such
as Microsoft. (TNA)
State to buy less rice from farmers
Siripol Yodmuangcharoen, director-general at the commerce
ministry’s internal trade department recently stated that the government
will buy less rice from farmers under the state-buying scheme.
“We have instructed all state agencies throughout the
country to reduce the amount they buy from farmers. The market price is now
higher than the government’s intervention prices, therefore there is no
point for farmers to come to us since they can make more money selling to
private exporters,” Siripol explained.
Bangkok began buying rice from the country’s smaller
2002/03 second crop on March 20 under a scheme which ends on July 31. The
target was set to buy two million ton of rice.
Traders said the government’s policy adequately
supported the market. However, the commerce ministry will now become
stricter regarding purchases.
“From now on, if farmers still want to sell rice to the
government, they have to come up with really good reasons,” Siripol said.
(TNA)
Energy Ministry plans to make Thailand regional oil export base
Thailand is preparing to develop the kingdom as a new oil
export base in the region. The Ministry of Energy is exploring ways to
expand oil exports to China. Metta Banturngsuk, Director of the Office of
Energy Policy and Planning said that the office is preparing a feasibility
study of the plan and cooperation from parties concerned have been called on
to seek ways to achieve the goal.
“To meet the goal, the country’s infrastructure,
including information technology as well as transport and communications
should be further improved, and human resources should be developed,
especially their English proficiency to facilitate international
contacts”, Metta stated.
Metta said his office is exploring ways to expand oil
exports to China following Beijing’s recent announcement that it was
prepared to liberalize its energy sector, with the opening up of its market
for imports of foreign oil and petroleum products in 2005.
“We’re studying the possibility of shipping the
country’s oil and petroleum products to the Chinese market through the
Chiang Saeng -Sib Song Panna route,” Metta said. (TNA)
Bangkok to become ‘Fashion City’ at the end of this year
The Ministry of Industry is preparing to launch Bangkok
as a ‘Fashion City’ at the end of October or the beginning of November.
Director-General of the Office of Industrial Economics,
Damri Sukhotanang, announced that the initiative had been given the go-ahead
by the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB), and waits
cabinet approval.
Damri speculated that the program would be launched in
spectacular style shortly after Thailand hosted the Asia Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) summit. Journalists from across the world will be invited
to attend the official launch together with VIP guests including foreign
film stars, and other fringe activities would be organized at the same time
in order to boost public interest in the event. (TNA)
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