- HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:
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Cabinet nods for retail business bill
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Thailand’s meetings industry goes Hollywood
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Banks don’t respond fully to BoT’s move to cut policy interest rate
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Cabinet nods for retail business bill
The Cabinet last week gave a green light to a draft bill on retail business
which, if passed into law, would require hypermarket operators to seek
permission from the authority before opening new branches - a move aimed at
creating fair trade competition between transnational hypermarkets and
locally-owned businesses.
Director General Yanyong Phuangrach of the Internal Trade Department said
the draft bill stipulates that hypermarket giants like Makro, Tesco Lotus,
Carrefour and Big C, must seek permission before opening a new branch on an
area exceeding 1,000 square metres and with sales volume of over one billion
baht.
The bill also covers small outlets of hypermarkets like Lotus Express.
The stipulations would not be retroactive but operators have to inform the
authority of any new branch under construction.
After the bill is passed into law and enforced, the Commerce Ministry will
issue a ministerial regulation outlining relevant details including the
distance of a hypermarket from a city centre and its business hours.
The bill authorises a central body on retail business policy to set the
regulations and issuance of licences to hypermarket operators.
Small retailers have repeatedly called on the government’s intervention
after their businesses have been hurt by the rapid expansion of hypermarkets
throughout the country. (TNA)
Thailand’s meetings
industry goes Hollywood
Leaders from the meetings industry in Asia will use Hollywood
movie themes to boost Thailand’s meetings industry, which has been in a downturn
for a year.
The “Big Picture” workshop taking pace this Friday, October 26 in Bangkok, aims
to enhance Thailand’s meetings industry skills. Expert practitioners will
analyze best practice case studies with a view to upgrading skills among
Thailand’s event organisers, marketers and destination management companies.
The event, organised by the Pacific Asia Travel Association Thailand Chapter,
will give practical tips and motivation to a sector that the Thailand Convention
and Exhibition Bureau estimates will bring in about 56 billion baht in foreign
exchange this year. The Bureau estimates that some 814,000 “MICE” - meetings,
incentives, convention and exhibition - delegates will visit Thailand this year.
The global medical, automotive, fashion, jewellery and agriculture industries
often spend lavishly on events in Thailand. Normally, Thailand also attracts
thousands of corporate incentive visitors, many of them on motivational or
reward trips paid for by their companies.
“For political and perception reasons some overseas event and meetings
organisers have been unsure about Thailand in the last year or so,” said Bob
James, chairman of the PATA Thailand Chapter. “Our objective is to upgrade
meetings industry marketing and operational skills so that when the political
situation improves our meetings sector will be well placed to aggressively win
back market share from other Asian destinations.”
The Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau, the Thailand Incentive & Convention
Association, the Society of Incentive & Travel Executives, and Diethelm Events
are all playing a major role in the Big Picture. One of Thailand’s newest
meeting venues, the Centara Grand and Bangkok Convention Centre at Central
World, will hold the event.
Meeting industry buyers from Singapore, India and China will explain what
meetings industry buyers in those markets are looking for in a session called.
“Close Encounters”. Other Hollywood “Big Picture” sessions are: “Casino Royale -
hit the jackpot with 007 upselling shots”, “Mission Impossible - The Perfect
Event?” and “The Oscars of the Incentive Industry - three case studies of
outstanding events that are worthy of an Oscar”. Speakers from UK, South Africa
and Australia will also attend the workshop.
David Barrett, executive manager at Diethelm Events (Thailand) said meetings
industry professionals, like sales people, needed to hit their targets. “We are
expected to out-perform, out-sell and provide outstanding service as never
before. Our aim on October 26 is to provide the industry in Thailand with the
tools do so.”
Banks don’t respond fully to BoT’s move to cut policy interest rate
Thai commercial banks remain reluctant to fully respond to
the Bank of Thailand’s decision to gradually decrease the policy interest rate,
according to the central bank’s report on inflation in October.
The report said the BOT’s Monetary Policy Committee cut the policy interest rate
by 0.25 per cent to 3.25 per cent per annum at its meeting on July 18. However,
it maintained the rate at the following two meetings on August 29 and October
10.
However, commercial banks were reluctant to respond fully, with most reducing
the fixed 3- and 6-month saving rate to 2.06 per cent per annum at the end of
the third quarter compared with 2.25 per cent in the second quarter.
Many banks failed to decrease the fixed 12-month saving rate and some even
increased it.
The report stated that stiff competition to maintain their deposit customer
bases made some banks raise the fixed long-term saving rate.
Deposits continued to grow slowly at 2.9 per cent in August while loans provided
by financial institutions stayed low at 2.8 per cent compared with 3.5 per cent
in the previous quarter. (TNA)
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