BOT ready to use financial policy to stimulate economy

Bangkok (TNA) – Bank of Thailand’s Governor M.R. Pridiyathorn Devakula Thursday disclosed he was ready to use the financial policy to jumpstart the country’s economy to grow around 1-3% of gross domestic products as projected next year.
He said the bank would adjust the financial policy in the first few months of next year if the economies in many countries, particularly the United States and Japan, remained in the doldrums.
Previously, the bank had reiterated the implementation of its financial policy would focus on the economic stability. It is the duty of the Finance Ministry to stimulate the country’s economy.
The BOT chief said the country’s international reserve is currently as high as US$33 billion, which is considered sufficient to ensure the economic stability and to service foreign debts incurred by the private sector and the International Monetary Fund-backed debts.
So, the bank was ready to use the financial policy, including interest and currency exchange mechanisms, to stimulate the economy if necessary.
Still, M.R. Pridiyathorn said, it remained unnecessary for the bank to use the policy now because the Thai economy is likely to expand 1.3-.18% this year while the economies of neighboring countries experience negative growth.
He said the bank would closely monitor economic indicators, including the industrial production index and consumer confidence index, in the first three months of next year so it could adjust the financial policy in an appropriate manner.

Joint border areas of Thailand and neighbours to be developed as economic tourism zone

Bangkok, Dec. 8 (TNA) – The government has planned to develop joint border areas between Thailand, Cambodia and Laos to be an economic tourism zone, and has sought an agreement from the Lao and Cambodian governments, according to Minister to the Prime Minister’s Office Somsak Thepsutin.
Somsak, who oversees the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), told reporters that he believed the plan could be implemented shortly, as Vientiane and Phnom Penh had initially agreed on the proposed idea, said a news report of Radio Nation.
The economic tourism zone would cover border areas in Thailand’s northeastern province of Ubon Ratchathani and adjacent areas which link with those of Laos and Cambodia, he indicated.
The newly-developed economic tourism zone would also become the country’s new golf hub given its facilities and suitability, he noted.
Somsak said, however, that all landmines and other war weapons left from the past fighting must be cleared before the plan could be implemented.
The operation to clear all the landmines and other left weapons in the areas would be speedily conducted, he noted.

Vehicle exports continue to increase this year

Bangkok (TNA) – The country’s export of vehicles continued to increase by 18% to more than 144,000 units in the first ten months of this year while local sales of the automobiles began to drop to 233,415 units, according to an industry executive.
Surapong Paisitpattanapong, spokesman of the Federation of Thai Industries’ Automobile Industry Club, said the export value of vehicles, motorcycles and auto parts had increased by 37.78% to over 100 billion baht from the corresponding period the year before.
The number of vehicles produced in the January-October period totaled 375,352 units, an increase of 40,997 or 12.26% from the same period the previous year.
Of this, 129,175 units were private cars, a rise of 65.96% or 51,341 units, and the remaining 241,443 units were trucks and pick-ups, a decline of 3.82% or 9,578 units.
The number of motorcycles produced in that period had risen by 10.92% or 101,992 units from that of the same period last year.
The export volume of completely built-up vehicles totaled 144,157 units, an increase of 18.6% or 22,612 units as the export value of the CBU vehicles was 68.08 billion baht, a rise of 39.27%.
The volume of motorcycles exported totaled 234,040 units (including completely knock-down), a rise of 1.54% or 3,558 units as the value was 7.03 billion baht, an increase of 14.42% or 885.3 million baht.

Losses tallied at Bt186 billion in failed baht defence

Dec. 7 (TNA) The country’s losses from former Bank of Thailand governor Rerngchai Marakanond’s failed baht defence from late 1996 to mid 1997 had been tallied at Bt185.96 billion, banking authorities said yesterday, as they took the first step in seeking damages.
Banking authorities worked out the huge toll by calculating losses caused by use of the central bank’s foreign exchange reserves to build up foreign-exchange swaps, and adding statutory interest to that amount, an official from the Attorney General’s Office said.
Banking authorities examined more than 2,000 forex swaps made between November 1, 1996 and June 30, 1997 and found that the floating of the baht on July 2, 1997 made these positions losers to the tune of Bt185.96 billion, including interest due.
This figure is three times higher than the damage estimated by the Finance Ministry panel headed by Visut Srisuphan, which was reportedly Bt70 billion.

Pirated CDs to be ‘wiped out by New Year’

Bangkok (TNA) – The Parliamentary committee to prevent the violation of intellectual property rights yesterday vowed that pirated CDs would be eradicated from Thailand by the New Year, calling on police from across the country to execute new urgent measures to stamp out the problem.
Somsak Kiarttisuranon, Thai Rak Thai MP and deputy chairman of the House panel on the prevention and suppression of intellectual property rights violations, said that the prime minister was paying special attention to the issue of illegal CDs, as it had a direct impact on efforts to solve the country’s economic problems.
The US in particular could use the fact that Thailand was a home of pirated CDs to cut its GSP status, he said.
The deputy chairman said that the panel had set 1 January 2002 as ‘D Day’ for police across the country to eradicate all forms of intellectual property violations from the nation.
He warned that if violations were found for which there was no adequate explanation, the police force in the areas in question would have to accept responsibility.
Initially the panel would be on the lookout for violations in terms of copying rather than dissemination, as the latter offense required a change in the law before more concrete action could be taken.
The House committee was established by the Prime Minister, with Interior Minister Purachai Piemsomboon at the helm, and consists of members of the police force, military, judiciary and legal profession.
The committee has the authority to transfer government servants involved in the trade of illegal CDs, from every government agency and at all levels.
Somsak expressed confidence that the 1 January ultimatum would lead to the eradication of 80-90 percent of violations.
While short-term plans would tear off the limbs of the violators, long-term plans would strike at their heart, he said.
Somsak said that the government had received support from private sector copyright owners to establish a centre of operations at the Department of Intellectual Property, which would work to coordinate information with the police.
In addition, special teams dealing with the issue would be set up at the National Police Bureau and the Central Investigation Bureau, and at police divisional and regional levels.

BMB cuts lending, deposit rates 25 BPs

Dec. 7 (TNA) Bangkok Metropolitan Bank PCL cut its lending and deposit rates by 25 basis points Thursday, said a bank official.
The move came after Siam Commercial Bank and Bangkok Bank pared their interest rates by 25 basis points earlier this week.
Thai Farmers Bank announced late Thursday that it would also cut its rates by 25 basis points, effective Friday.
After the cut, the prime lending rate of Bangkok Metropolitan Bank stands at 7.50%. The cut will also bring the bank’s key deposit rates for fixed accounts down to 2.50% for three-months, 2.75% for six-months, and 3.25% for 12-months.

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Updated by Chinnaporn Sangwanlek, assisted by Boonsiri Suansuk.
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