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For BITEC, a 400-million-baht facelift
Sirima Eamtako,
reporting for TTGmice
Bangkok, April 18 - The Bangkok International Trade
and Exhibition Centre (BITEC) is planning to spend 400 million baht
(US$13.27 million) for major renovations next year in anticipation of more
events.
This will come after the completion of a skywalk linking
the venue to a new BTS SkyTrain station. BITEC’s skywalk is nearly complete,
while the BTS Sukhumvit Line-Bearing Extension is scheduled to begin
operating in August.
Business development director Sarnit Karunyavanij said
the opening of the BTS extended line would allow the centre to attract more
exhibitions, from 40 trade and consumer events last year to more than 50
shows in 2012.
The easy access is also expected help BITEC attract more
international conventions as well. The venue joined the bidding process for
some large-sized conventions after receiving confirmation recently as the
host venue for the International Surgical Week 2015 for 2,000 delegates.
This year, the venue is scheduled to host about six
conventions, including the 8th Asia-Pacific Burn Congress and the 3rd
Congress of the Asian Wound Healing Association for 1,800 delegates from
September 11 to 14.
For incentives, Karunyavanij said BITEC has been chosen
as the venue for Herbalife: The Asia Pacific Extravaganza 2011 from May 6 to
8. “We are expecting to sign with two more organizations for similar
large-sized incentives to be held this year,” he said.
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Export Promotion
Department chief still upbeat
on export growth
Thailand’s exports will be able to grow 12 percent as
targeted for this year, boosted by continued impressive growth in the first
quarter, according to the Export Promotion Department.
Speaking after opening a seminar on “Incoterms 2010,”
Nantawan Sakuntanak, the department’s director-general, said the country’s
exports continued growing by up to 28 percent in the first quarter, particularly
in the farm and industrial product sectors.
Exports expanded impressively to all destinations. Because of
this, the department was confident that exports would definitely grow by 12
percent this year as targeted by Commerce Minister Porntiva Nakasai.
Main export destinations are ASEAN, China, and India where
the population, if combined, is more than half of the world’s population.
However, she conceded that the recent earthquake and tsunami
devastating Japan would affect exports and trade with Thailand over the next 1-2
months, adding that the situation should ease soon.
Global oil prices, which hover around $110 per barrel, are
now are one of the key negative factors exporters are set to experience because
it could fuel production costs.
The oil price hike stemmed from continued violence in the
Middle East. But since the region is not a major export destination for
Thailand, she believed it would not directly affect overall exports. (MCOT
online news)
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Baht fluctuates, but moves in same direction as main currencies: BoT
Bank of Thailand (BoT) Deputy Governor Atchana Waiquamdee
on Friday conceded the baht had fluctuated quite heavily for now, but still
moved in the same direction as other currencies in the region.
She said the main currencies including the euro(€) and
Japanese yen(ฅ) are very volatile now since the countries of these
currencies had paid more attention to managing their economies than
overseeing their currency exchange rates.
Atchana said foreign capital had continued flowing into
Thailand since early this year. Around 100 billion baht of this has been
invested in the fixed income market with another 19-20 billion baht in the
Thai stock market.
She expected that foreign capital would continue pouring
into Thailand because the economy still had a good outlook and interest rate
was on an upward trend.
“Looking quarter to quarter, foreign capital has flowed
into the country this year in a much larger amount than that of last year
because there have been neither prolonged rallies in the country nor further
implementation of the quantitative easing measure by the United States so
far. In the first quarter of this year, more than 120 billion baht has
already flowed into the country,” she said.
Since early this year, she added, foreign capital has
flowed into all markets in Asia except Taiwan. The central bank has closely
monitored the baht movement and capital inflow, but found nothing unusual.
(MCOT)
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