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Thai investors should
look abroad, says official
Private business investors should be looking to
Thailand’s neighbors as a way of diversifying their investments away from
the domestic economy, according to a senior Industry Ministry official.
Speaking at a seminar, Ministry Permanent Secretary
Chakramon Phasukavanich said investment in Thailand was expected to soar to
about 700 billion baht this year largely due to increased investment in the
steel industry. He also said manufacturers were currently using about 70
percent of total production capacity, an indication of high confidence in
the economy.
But Chakramon said Thai investors ought to be putting
more focus on investing in neighboring countries such as Laos, which has
good opportunities in textiles, auto parts and farm produce, and is
well-situated for the China market. Myanmar and Cambodia are also good
investment targets.
He said the Industry Ministry was willing to provide
information and other necessary facilities to those wishing to embark on
investment in those countries. Current risks facing business operators are
changes in technology and international currencies, he added. (TNA)
Police, health authorities to prosecute 7-Eleven for inconvenience
Helping Thailand’s smokers ‘kick the nicotine
habit’ and protecting the nation’s young people from exposure to it
appears to be ‘inconvenient’ for the country’s more than 3500 7-Eleven
‘convenience’ stores, plus an unknown number of vendors who are thought
to be copycatting resistance to the widely-publicized anti-smoking campaign.
The Public Health Ministry is determined for police to
halt illegal displays which, it says, constitutes ‘advertising’ at
7-Eleven stores which violates the ban.
Police have gathered evidence and will file charges
against the offenders, said Dr. Narong Sahamethapat, deputy director of the
Communicable Disease Control Department.
The panel agreed that 7-Eleven’s conspicuous display of
cigarettes at check-out counters is a clear violation of the 1992 Tobacco
Product Control Act. The committee agreed that placing cigarette packets at
points of sale caught the attention of shoppers and was thus deemed as
advertising, which is now against the law. The Ministry is cooperating with
police to conduct arrests of offenders in Bangkok and its suburbs next week,
while provincial health officials will work with local police to serve
warrants and make arrests at convenience stores in the provinces.
Violators face a Bt 200,000 fine or can try to defend
themselves in court. Dr. Narong said that charges will be filed against 7-
Eleven operators nationwide and its head office in Bangkok.
In the long run, Dr. Narong said, the law must be amended
to cover the ban on displaying cigarettes at points of sale. The Finance
Ministry plans to propose such an amendment of the tobacco-related law.
(TNA)
Thailand’s rubber industry
to grow by 10-15 percent next year
Thailand’s rubber industry will grow by as much as 15
percent next year as demand continues to outpace supply due to both
continuing high oil prices and growing demand from the automotive sector.
According to Lakchai Kittiphol, chairman of the Thai
Rubber Association, Thailand’s rubber industry is poised to expand by up
to 15 percent next year into a Bt 350 billion (US$ 8.75 billion) industry as
rubber demand still outpaces supply. Lakchai, who is also president of Thai
Hua Rubber Public Company Limited, said the Thai rubber industry is
currently worth Bt 300 billion.
The projected growth, he said, is attributed to the
continuing demand beyond supply capacity. Over 70 percent of output goes to
the automobile industry. The rubber association chairman sees rubber prices
rising steadily.
This year, rubber prices have risen to the range of 50-70
Bt./kg. However, at over Bt.70/kg, customers are likely to switch to
artificial rubber whose prices are subject to oil prices.
Lakchai said his own company, Thai Hua Rubber Public
Company Limited, would expand its production capacity, as well as maintain a
sales growth of 20-40 percent per year. Currently, the company is utilizing
80 percent of its production capacity. (TNA)
‘Commissions’ and bribery most typical woes faced by Thai companies, survey finds
Fraud represents a significant problem for almost all
Thai companies and most of the culprits are operational staff, according to
the results of a recent survey. But seven out of 10 firms also say they
would not report the wrongdoers to police.
The Stock Exchange of Thailand, the Institute of
Directors and consultancy firm KPMG PHUMCHAI GROUP conducted the survey
jointly. It said the most common fraud among Thai listed companies was the
soliciting of bribes and improper commissions.
KPMG has conducted similar studies on business ethics in
Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and New Zealand. Findings from the
Thai survey were unveiled on Monday.
KPMG Phumchai President Khaisri Nuangsikhapian said the
Thai survey was carried out in May, and covered 1,180 listed companies and
the country’s top 500 firms.
The soliciting of improper commission payments and bribes
was nominated as the top fraud issue for 32 percent of firms polled; while
financial and accounting fraud came second, named by 27 percent of
companies.
The firms surveyed identified inefficient internal checks
and monitoring systems; collusion between staff and outsiders, and a lack of
measures to promote work ethics as the key reasons for fraud within
organizations.
The survey found that 82 percent of wrongdoers were
operational level staff, and 18 percent managers. Company insiders also
perpetuated most fraud. But 71 percent of companies surveyed said that to
protect their corporate image, they would prefer to investigate any fraud
internally rather than handing the matter over to police.
Khaisri said 98 percent of companies considered fraud a
significant business problem. About 61 percent of companies surveyed also
claimed to have witnessed fraud within their organizations during the past
two years, and 28 percent of them said company executives remained
indifferent to reports of fraud. Khaisri said the survey findings were being
published in a bid to motivate companies to increase their efficiency by
preventing and combating fraudulent practices. (TNA)
Thai economy believed to grow higher than World Bank’s projection for 2005
Finance Minister Thanong Bidaya said here on Friday he
believed that the Thai economy this year would grow higher than what the
World Bank forecast. The World Bank recently made a downward adjustment of
its projection for the Thai economic growth rate this year to 4.2 percent,
from its previous forecast of 5.2 percent.
Thanong said the World Bank’s new projection was not
based on the most updated data.
“Normally, the World Bank adjusts its estimated
economic growth rates of several countries once a year, and its recent
downward adjustment of Thailand’s economic growth this year was not based
on the most updated data, but on economic indicators in the past 3-4
months,” he noted.
The Ministry of Finance has forecast that the Thai
economy will grow around 4.1 - 4.6 percent this year, according to Thanong.
Given the country’s improving economic prospect with a basic inflation
rate of no more than 3.5 percent on average, a controllable level, the
finance minister said he personally believes that the Thai economy would
grow even more than the ministry’s estimated figure.
Last week, the Bank of Thailand (BOT) raised its
estimated economic growth rate of the Thai economy this year to 4.25 - 4.75
percent, from 3.5-4.5 percent, boosted by improved economic prospect and
expanded exports in the third quarter of this year.
According to the central bank, prospects for the Thai
economy has improved since the second quarter of this year (April to June)
with a better outlook becoming clearer in the third quarter (July to
September) backed mainly by increased exports.
The country’s exports in the first two months of the
third quarter expanded in nearly all sectors, particularly in the
automobile, computer and electronics sectors.
“The country’s expanding exports have continued since
then, so the BOT has also raised estimated export growth rate for the entire
2005 year to 17-18 percent,” said Suchada Kirakul, BOT’s senior director
of the Domestic Economic Department, Monetary Policy Group.
She revealed that the country’s total imports had begun
to drop since the third quarter, thanks to a high-level of accumulated stock
of oil, steel and other raw materials.
Given the improving economic prospect, she said, the
central bank projected that Thailand’s trade deficit would be around
US$8-9 billion, while current account deficit would not exceed US$3-4
billion at the end of this year.
The BOT projected that the inflation rate this year would
rise to 4.5-5.0 percent, from 4.0-4.5 percent as earlier forecast, and from
2.7 percent last year. Suchada noted that recent recurrence of bird flu
would actually have little impact on the country’s economic growth, as
poultry exports now focus on cooked chickens with rising purchase orders.
Also, local chicken raising has been transformed to the standardized closed
farming system.
She said, however, that the central bank had not
dismissed global oil price rises and world economic slowdown as major risk
factors which could affect the Thai economy. The central bank, nonetheless,
initially estimated that the Thai economy would grow 4.5-6.0 percent next
year, said the senior BOT official. (TNA)
Three Leading Associations Support the “E5 - Energy Series”
(L to R)
Poonpiphat Tananasin, TEMCS’s president, Chamnan Horkiet, TIES’s
president, Wirawat Kulwongwit, MECT’s president, and David Aitken, general
manager of BES.
Three associations, the Thai Electrical and Mechanical
Contractors (TEMCA), the Illumination Engineering Association of Thailand
(TIEA), and the Thai Mechanical and Electrical Design and Consulting
Engineers (MECT), signed a contract to officially support the “E 5 Energy
Series” - Indo-China’s leading international energy event that
incorporates five powerful energy profiles in one international event. The
exhibition was organized by the Bangkok Exhibition Services Ltd. (BES)
Thailand pushes for review of US curbs on Thai shrimp exports
Thailand is continuing to push for a review of a recent
US decision to maintain its anti-dumping measures against Thai shrimp
exports, the government said today.
Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Somkid
Jatusripitak told journalists that he would meet the US Ambassador to
Thailand, Ralph Boyce, this week to discuss the issue.
“I’ll ask Washington, through the US envoy in
Bangkok, to review the decision. I believe that a compromise will then be
reached between the two long-time allies,” Somkid said. The deputy prime
minister’s remarks followed a rally at Government House in Bangkok by
local shrimp farmers from the southern provinces of Krabi, Trang, Pattani
and Ranong, which called on the government to push for a change in American
policy.
Under the existing anti-dumping regime, Thai shrimp
exports to the United States face a 5.95 percent tariff, hampering
large-scale sales of the product to the big American market. Washington had
promised to review the tariffs as a way of helping Thailand recover from
last December’s Indian Ocean tsunami disaster.
Somkid said that Thai authorities concerned would
continue to take the shrimp farmers’ demands fully into account during
their negotiations with US officials. (TNA)
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