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BOI approved Bt560 billion in foreign investment incentives
Thailand’s Board of Investment (BOI) has approved
incentives for foreign investment activities worth Bt560 billion (US$14
million) during the first nine months this year, according to BOI
Secretary-General Sathit Sirirangkhamanon.
At this rate, the target of Bt700 billion worth of
extended BOI privileges to foreign investment projects for 2005 should be
within reach, he said.
In 2006, the BOI hopes to receive applications from
foreign investors amounting to Bt750 billion, with the frontrunner expected
to remain the automotive and automotive parts manufacturing industries,
which are investing more to increase their capacity. Other target industries
the Thai government is promoting are the electronics and electric appliance
sectors.
Although Malaysia outperforms Thailand in these two
particular sectors, Thailand is experiencing a healthy growth rate, to such
an extent, Sathit believes, that in five year’s time, investment in the
electronics and electric appliances sectors will double their existing
volume of investment.
Another star performer is anticipated to be the energy
and petrochemical sector. The European Union, which this year has already
invested about Bt30 billion in Thailand, is likely to increase its
investment by another 25 percent, said the BOI secretary-general. (TNA)
Commerce Minister thanks car industry for smashing production target
Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Somkid
Jatusripitak has praised the country’s vehicle makers for exceeding the
planned production target of one million vehicles by 15 percent.
Dr. Somkid’s remarks came as he toured car factories in
the Eastern Seaboard provinces of Chonburi and Rayong.
After visiting the car-making facilities of Mitsubishi,
Ford and Chevrolet to thank them for their performance, the minister
announced new production targets of 1.2 million vehicles for 2008, and 1.8
million by 2010.
Of the 1.15 million cars manufactured in Thailand this
year, 700,000 were for the domestic market and 450,000 for export,
generating 330 billion baht in earnings. Thailand is now ranked seventh
among car exporting countries, he said.
Of the 2006 target of 1.2 million cars, up to 500,000
would be destined for export, with a value of more than 500 billion baht.
The minister also predicted that given the level of
government support for the industry and the various free trade accords being
negotiated by Thailand, the manufactures’ target of 1.8 million vehicles
by 2010 is likely to be exceeded within three years. (TNA)
PTT to make huge investment to accommodate higher NGV consumption
PTT Public Company Limited (PTT) plans to invest tens of
billions of baht as part of its efforts to accommodate the increased
consumption of natural gas for vehicle (NGV) in the future.
Chitrapong Kwangsuksathit, senior executive vice
president of PTT’s Natural Gas Business Group, said that the company had
adjusted the NGV consumption promotion plan so that it could ease impacts
from hefty fuel prices as much as possible.
Under the adjusted plan, the company would focus on
encouraging NGV consumption by trucks.
PTT views the number of vehicles using NGV will increase
from 300,000 units in 2008 to 500,000 in 2010 and that of NGV service
stations from 60 late this year to 700 in 2010.
He said the company had accelerated increasing the number
of NGV service stations in the eastern and northeastern regions,
particularly in Saraburi, Khon Kaen and Nakhon Ratchasima.
It is expected that the NGV consumption expansion plan
would require an investment of tens of billions of baht. However, it would
help reduce the oil consumption nationwide by 20 percent, or 10 million
liters per day, or around 200 million baht per day. (TNA)
TNT industry leader in Dow Jones Sustainability Index
In its first year of achieving a rank in the Dow Jones
Sustainability Index (DJSI), Dutch mail, express and logistic company (TNT
N.V.) also achieved the highest score in its industry. The company entered
the DJSI with an overall score of 75.
“At TNT we are committed to running our business and
serving our customers with excellence. In addition, we are committed to
integrity, governance, financial clarity and sustainability,” said TNT CEO
Peter Bakker. “This recognition validates our approach to sustainability,
and will be a solid foundation for further improvement.”
The Dow Jones Sustainability World Index covers the top
10 percent of the largest 2,500 companies in the Dow Jones World Index in
terms of economic, environmental and social criteria.
TNT achieved industry-leading scores in seven of the 20
criteria: Investor Relations, Codes of Conduct/Compliance/Corruption &
Bribery, Advanced Customer Relationship Management, Climate Strategy, Talent
Attraction and Retention, Stakeholder Engagement, and Corporate
Citizenship/Philanthropy.
Its scores in other areas, such as Environmental
Performance and Social Reporting, indicate room for improvement.
TNT publishes its DJSI assessment on its corporate Web
site: group.tnt.com. A copy of the TNT 2004 Sustainability Report can be
found there as well.
Civil society group seeks court order to revoke electricity price rise
Efforts by the government to partially privatize the
state electricity firm EGAT Plc are facing a new legal hurdle, just days
after a landmark court ruling, putting the planned share market float on
hold.
The latest petition to the Supreme Administrative Court concerns the
government’s order to increase electricity tariffs.
Dr. Weng Tojirakarn and Weera Somkwamkid of the civil society group
Confederation for Democracy lodged the petition against the Cabinet and the
National Energy Policy Committee.
Their petition wants the court to revoke the price rises, arguing they were
designed to boost the value of EGAT for the initial public offering (IPO)
and were, thus, unfair to consumers.
The Confederation for Democracy is demanding the government reveal its
calculations for the new pricing formula and act with greater transparency
over the matter.
Weera said it was a lucky coincidence that his group had completed its
investigation and filed its suit hard on the heels of the court’s EGAT IPO
ruling.
Another favorable ruling from the court would trigger an avalanche of
complaints relating to transparency and governance, he said. (TNA)
Finance Minister confident of 4.5% growth
The Thai economy is expected to grow by 4.5 percent this
year, finance minister Thanong Bidaya said today. Dr. Thanong attributed his
optimism to a robust performance in the latter half of the year on the back
of stabilizing oil prices, strong export growth and an exchange rate of
40.50 - 41 baht to the US dollar.
With inflation under control and the ability to contain bird flu, he said
the Finance Ministry would be announcing an upward revision of its previous
growth forecast for the year.
The finance minister also predicted that if oil prices stayed within the
current range, economic growth in 2006 could exceed five percent.
The Thai economy would also benefit from a government decision to extend the
deadline for the start of a number of major infrastructure projects in order
to give further opportunities to foreign investors.
Foreign involvement in the projects would allow the government to borrow
less for the ambitious 1.8 trillion baht undertaking. (TNA)
Oil imports drop more than 9% in first nine months of this year
Thailand’s imports of crude oil in the first nine
months of this year dropped by 9.4 percent, while the country’s total
import of petroleum products in the January-September period decreased by
5.4 percent, according to PTT Public Company Limited (PTT).
PTT reported on Wednesday that demand for petroleum products during the
period totaled 1.17 million barrels per day on average, a 4.1 percent
increase from the same period of last year.
These include demand for diesel oil, accounting for 345,700 barrels per day,
a 5 percent increase from the same period of last year; gasoline 126,000
barrels per day, a year-on-year drop of 5.7 percent; aircraft fuel 73,200
barrels per day, a 1.1 percent increase; heating oil 109,600 barrels per
day, a 1.9 percent increase; Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) 72,800 barrels
per day, a surge of 6.6 percent; and kerosene 400 barrels per day, a drop of
7.5 percent.
Crude oil imports plunged by 9.4 percent to 769,500 barrels per day on
average. The country spent Bt24.32 billion total on imported refined oil - a
surge of 63 percent.
The figures excluded imports of gasoline, aircraft fuel, LPG and kerosene,
as there were no shipments of the petroleum products from abroad during the
period.
However, Thailand’s imports of natural gas from Myanmar surged by 22.5
percent to 149,800 barrels per day, according to PTT.
Domestic supply of petroleum products in the nine-month period accounted for
more than 50,000 barrels per day on average. (TNA)
Thailand moves to meet product demand of FTA partners
The Industrial Economics Office is strongly determined to
prompt operators in automobile and parts, textile and garment, footwear and
leather industries to develop products to meet demand of Thailand’s
trading partners of the free trade area (FTA).
Director-General Atchaka Brimble said on Sunday that IEO
has made a clear action plan for the development of industrial products so
that it could boost their recognition on overseas markets, increase product
value, and promote raw material and product technology exchange with FTA
trade partners such as Australia, New Zealand and Japan.
She said the development would help reduce production
costs of local industrial operators and make products competitive in the
world market.
Under the plan, an in-depth analysis would be made on
target industries, including automobile and parts, textile and garment,
footwear and leather, she noted.
She said the government has a clear policy to support the
production and investment plan since the products could create economic
value on a continual basis.
Atchaka said that Thailand needs to adopt a strategy for
industrial development in which it should prompt operators to focus on
improving the production process to satisfy the needs of trading partners,
and increase the proportion of raw materials used in order to meet the
criteria.
She added that IEO would study, in detail, the target
industries to ensure that industrial products made in Thailand could be
exported to markets of trading partners at competitive prices. (TNA)
Commerce Ministry launches three-pronged strategy to curb rising inflation
The Ministry of Commerce is liaising with agencies
concerned to implement a three-pronged strategy to effectively curb rising
inflation caused by increased prices of consumers’ products, Deputy Prime
Minister and Commerce Minister Somkid Jatusripitak said Sunday.
 Deputy
Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Somkid Jatusripitak
The strategy consists of measures to control the price of
consumer goods on the domestic market from all three concerned groups
concurrently - manufacturers, traders and consumers.
Given the continuing upward trend of global oil prices
and its impact on rising inflation in the Thai economy, Somkid said all
agencies under the Ministry of Commerce must help curb inflation by
controlling product prices from all three parties concurrently.
Following a workshop on internal trade strategy which he
chaired, the commerce minister said he had instructed Commerce Ministry
agencies to also liaise with agencies of other ministries, including the
Office of the Consumer Production Board under the Prime Minister’s Office
and the Department of Energy Business under the Ministry of Energy, to
achieve the goal.
When an equilibrium is achieved from the three-prong
strategy, in which production costs of manufacturers are well controlled,
and profiteering attempts of traders, and demand or shortage of supply of
consumers are addressed, the inflation rate will be under control, as
overall products’ prices will be at a reasonable level, according to the
deputy premier.
Mobile inspection teams will investigate the real causes
of rising production costs, of rising prices of consumers’ products in
local outlets and of excessive demand or shortages of supplies in a specific
period, he said.
“If rising production costs are caused by fuel hoarding
by local oil traders, and if rising prices of semi-finished or finished
products are caused by profiteering on the part of sellers, or by excessive
demand or shortages of supplies, prompt action must be taken to immediately
address the problem.”
The government-sponsored blue flag project of inexpensive
ready-to-eat food and consumer products will be expanded countrywide to
lessen the rising cost of living caused by rising oil prices. “If the
three-pronged strategy is seriously and effectively implemented, I believe
that the consumer price index (CPI), a key indicator of inflation, will be
at a controllable level of 4.4 - 4.5 percent on average this year,” said
Somkid. (TNA)
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