The Minister of Finance said after meeting with a group of Japanese businessmen, which consisted of representatives from important industries in Japan, that the Japanese management group agreed to aid Thailand initially in 3 aspects: 1. Support Japanese enterprises in Thailand to be able to continue their businesses in Thailand; 2. Consider new investment plans under the frame that has been set by Thailand; and 3. Follow up with development practices concluded by the Okuda mission.

The group is interested in making investments in service businesses for the reason that there has been a large amount of investment in production areas. However, it all depends on the new law regarding foreign investors in Thailand.

The issue that the Thai government brought up was to have Japanese government and business enterprises support agricultural products from Thailand. A working group of Japanese and Thais has been set up to work together on the issue.

Yoshimasa Tamura, from Matsushita Electric Thailand, 1999 year end accounting shows the company’s revenue increased 22% over the previous year. The group now plans to expand its business base and restructure its organization accordingly.

Total sales in 1999 were 23,747 million baht, mainly from AV products, electronics, and batteries. The export market accounted for 20% of total revenue. The market experienced a growth rate of 7-8%, or 5,100 million baht, 300 million baht more than the previous year’s 4,800 million baht value.

For the new accounting year, which is to begin in April 2000, the group plans to invest 728 million baht to develop new products, expand marketing channels, and other activities. 29 new digital products will be launched into the market with a promotional budget of 500 million baht this year.

Sources from the Department of Foreign Trade said that 3 fishery product items from Thailand have been tested and found to contain cholera. The report was received from the Trade Office in Brussels, Belgium.

The report said that these products were shipped trough Norway and Denmark before entering into Belgium. Even though Norway is not an EU member, finding cholera in Thai fishery products will urge all EU countries to become stricter with products from Thailand.

Norway is currently considering whether to return the whole lot of said products back to Thailand. Norway will announce their decision this month. As for products shipped via Denmark, the Department of Foreign Trade is tracing back to find out the name(s) of the Thai exporters.

Prasai Gunkriangwong, General Manager of CP Plaza, which operates the IT Mall at Fortune Town, talked about the business progress over the past year that IT Mall has been running. The company has leased 95% of the area under 3 years’ contracts to wholesalers and retailers as well as dealers of well known computer companies.

Products being sold in the IT Mall can be roughly divided into 2 categories ญ 50% Hardware and 50% Copyrighted Software. IT Mall currently has 5% space available. The remaining space is under consideration to be used in providing computer lessons.

IT Mall’s marketing plan this year is primarily focusing on organizing promotional activities to help the shops in the IT Mall boost sales. Several seminars will be organized year round and open to all interested people free of charge to draw more visitors to IT Mall.

Jullapas Kruesophon from Samart Corporation said that Samart Internet, a subsidiary ISP company, will be launching a new marketing promotion campaign on April 1st to attract Internet users.

Under the campaign, users will pay a 5,000 baht admission fee and obtain 30 Internet hours. The excess hours will be charged 10 baht per hour. The campaign will last for 3 years, during which time Samart expects to attract 30,000 new users.

Samart Internet has its own subsidiary company - Samart Online ญ that is providing interactive media services, such as portal websites, audiotext 1900, SMS via mobile phone, and paging services. Samart Connect is another subsidiary company which is involved in Internet network, web hosting, and other application services.

The secretary general of BOI announced that BOI forecasts exports will achieve a 10% growth rate this year, in US dollars. The figure is higher than the 6% growth rate forecasted by the Ministry of Commerce.

The new 10% figure was obtained from information and sales forecasts by 600 BOI promoted companies. Among all industrial groups, electronics has highest forecasted growth rate of 19%.

However, the factor that has the most effect on the growth rate is the price of fuel. If the world market for fuel is increased to US$30/barel, economic growth in Thailand will decrease automatically, as Thailand still relies heavily on imported fuel. Moreover, many production costs are hooked to fuel prices.