Thailand experiencing Yen shortage as Thais flock to Japan

A shortage of Japanese yen in Bangkok’s local exchange market is mainly due to an excessive demand by a large number of Thai tourists visiting the East Asian country during the Thai New Year holiday, the central bank said today.
Bank of Thailand (BoT) Governor Prasarn Trairatvorakul said the disappearance of the yen from commercial banks and authorized money exchange outlets was unrelated to the central bank’s liquidity management of the Japanese currency.
The demand for the yen has surged among Thai tourists and its depreciation by 17 percent has made the currency more attractive for purchase with baht, he said.
He added that domestic yen reserves are limited but the shortage is only short term.
The temporary shortage will not have a negative impact on Thailand’s monetary system as the Thai private sector does not rely on cash in their business with Japanese firms, he said. (MCOT)
 

Thailand presses on to get off money laundering blacklist

Thailand is set to announce the first batch of 100 “terrorists” in an attempt to be removed from a blacklist by a global intergovernmental organization, the Thai justice minister said last week.
Pracha Promnok said the government will actively enforce two recently-passed pieces of legislation on money laundering and financing terrorism and make public the names of those implicated in financial support for terrorists.
The move is in compliance with the global network Financial Action Task Force (FATF) which will assign a team of experts to Thailand next month to check if the country has fully implemented the laws which involve coordinated actions by 135 state agencies.
The team will submit its findings to the FATF meeting in Norway in June when a decision is expected on whether Thailand will be removed from the “grey list.”
Sihanart Prayoonrat, secretary general of the Anti-Money Laundering Office, said over 4,000 people are on the government’s watch list while the first group of 100 people will be publicly named later this month.
He said the government’s suppression of money laundering and terrorism financing will continue nationwide including the three provinces in Thailand’s restive South which have reported money transactions at unusually high levels.
Transactions in the three provinces are over Bt1 billion higher than in the border trading provinces of Ranong opposite Myanmar and Sa Kaeo on the Thai-Cambodian border, he said. (MCOT)

Thailand overwhelmed by influx of foreign tourists

The Thai travel industry has called on the government to urgently increase the number of personnel in the tourism sector to cope with surging numbers of foreign visitors to Thailand.
Thongyoo Suphavittayakorn, an executive board member of the Association of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA), reported a record number of foreign tourists from late last year until the Songkran or traditional Thai New Year festival.
If foreign tourists keep on visiting Thailand at a steady rate, the country should see an increase by 15-20 percent this year, he said.
He is concerned about insufficient facilities and personnel including coaches and tour guides to service foreign tourists.
Bangkok, Pattaya, Krabi, Hua Hin, Samui and Chiang Mai are most popular destinations among tourists.
Thongyoo said the Thai travel industry is short of the necessary labor force and agencies concerned should speed up producing human resources in this field.
The highest number of foreign visitors is from China, followed by Russia, Japan, South Korea, India, Vietnam and Indonesia.
He said Suvarnabhumi Airport served more than 51 million people last year and the number will likely increase to 55 million this year, while it is technically capable of servicing 45 million passengers annually. (MCOT)