BoT affirms readiness to track foreign capital movement

Bank of Thailand (BoT) Governor Tarisa Watanagase on Friday affirmed the central bank had sufficient tools to oversee the movement of foreign capital in Thailand.
She said the strengthening of the baht now stemmed from the foreign capital inflow into the Thai stock markets and other stock exchanges in Asia.
Although capital movements have been rather volatile, the central bank needs not come up with new measures to contain it, according to Tarisa.
What the bank could do now is to monitor the capital movement and the United States and European economies with caution.
Regarding mounting concerns that the stronger baht would negatively affect Thailand’s exports, Tarisa said that export prospects looked better and that the currency value is not a key factor to product shipments.
She said the central bank has a duty to tame currency fluctuation, but it could not move against the market mechanism.
Tarisa said that global trade conditions had changed considerably because the purchasing power of the United States had weakened due to the latest financial crisis.
Accordingly, she said, Thai entrepreneurs must adjust to the new conditions and find stronger products since the export market will become smaller.
She warned exporters and importers not to speculate on foreign exchange rates because they are volatile and risky. (TNA)

Royal Enfield eyes Thai motorcycle market

Saksiri Uraiworn
The world’s oldest motorcycle manufacturer is looking at Thailand as its next big market.

Royal Enfield chief executive, Venki Padmanabhan (center) and two models display one of the company’s motorcycles.

Royal Enfield Motors Ltd., based in Chennai, India, rolled into the Centara Grand Mirage Beach Resort in Pattaya with its Discovery Days Road Show Sept. 14-17. The goal: Get people interested in its classic British-style motorbikes and line up new parts manufacturers and distributors.
With roots dating back to the manufacturing of bicycles in 1893 as Enfield Manufacturing Co., today’s Enfield was incorporated in India in 1955 and now produces about 50,000 heritage bikes each year in 25 world markets.
The cost of imported, fully built motorcycles remains quite high in Thailand due to steep duties so the goal of the road show is to find companies willing to produce parts and assemble bikes locally in order to offer competitive prices, said Chief Executive Venki Padmanabhan.
Thailand, he said, offers a number of companies making high-quality parts for global motorcycle brands.
The road show featured a range of fully built Bullet bikes, plus all parts and components, 95 percent of which are made in India.
Padmanabhan said he wanted to build partnerships with companies looking to grow their own business by making parts and, over the next three years, establish a new sales channel in Thailand.

 

Avenue galleria hires new marketing manager

Phasakorn Channgam
The Avenue shopping galleria is hoping a new marketing manager can promote the area to new retailers and customers.

Pornpan Srisuthapan, The Avenue’s new marketing manager addresses the gathering.

Mall executives, flanked by Pattaya deputy mayors Ronakit Ekasingh and Verawat Khakhay, introduced new marketing head Pornpan Srisuthapan to Pattaya’s media Sept. 15 and offered a tour to show off The Avenue’s unique outdoor retail experience.
Home to the Major cinema and bowling complex, California Wow gym, Starbucks and McDonald’s, mall executives hope Pornpan will be able to attract many new customers to the mall’s unique layout.
Pornpan said she will be more aggressive in marketing the low-rise complex and emphasize its unique attributes, such as its airy corridors, water pond and new night bazaar and beer garden.
“This will stimulate an increase in the number of shoppers,” she said.

Police confiscate counterfeit US$100 notes

Police in Thailand’s Cambodian border province of Sa Kaeo raided a shop selling accessories for Chinese traditional religious rituals and found counterfeit US dollar banknotes - more than 12,000 bills - with a face value of 41 million baht ($1.21 million) had they been successfully passed on.
Sa Kaeo’s Aranyaprathet district police, in cooperation with officials from the United States Embassy in Bangkok, sent undercover police to buy fake hundred dollar bills from the shop in the district.
The purchasing police asked for “a bunch of bills” at a cost of 80 baht for all of them, not specifying the actual number. The owner of the shop, a 62-year-old woman, was arrested. She claimed the banknotes were to carry wealth to the afterworld by burning in Chinese ceremonies.
After searching the shop, police found 15 bundles of fake US$100 banknotes wrapped in plastic sheets, a total of 12,320 bills at a face value of 41 million baht.
All the fake banknotes were in a box, and all bore the same serial number of AL32738338D.
The owner said she bought the fake bills in Yaowarat, Bangkok’s China Town, to resell for customers to burn as offerings in Chinese traditional ritual for the ancestors who have died already.
She claimed that she was unaware that the fake banknotes were illegal, but the police said they would investigate further to seek the source of the counterfeit notes. (TNA)

PM Abhisit unsurprised by perception of worsening Thai economy

Reasserting that the Thai economy will improve in the last quarter of the year, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva nonetheless on Saturday said that he was not surprised by a new survey showing that a majority of people believe that national economy is deteriorating and most of them remain in debt.
Speaking via a web conference from New York to Government House in Bangkok, Abhisit responded to a Dusit Poll which found that 70 percent of the people believe that the Thai economy is worsening and more than 60 percent said they are still living in debt, and that it is still shrinking, despite government’s insistence that the economy would become positive in the last quarter of the year.
The prime minister, now attending the UN General Assembly in New York, said his government would more quickly resolve the economic challenge now prevailing throughout the world. (TNA)