|
Creation of brand names will open more markets says PM
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra recently opened a small
and medium enterprise (SME) fair with a plea to manufacturers to create
brand names and penetrate more foreign markets to generate acceptance of
Thai products at home and abroad.
Presiding over the opening of the OTOP-SME-BIO Made in
Thailand fair at the Impact Convention Center in Muang Thong Thani in
Nonthaburi, Thaksin spoke of a shift of focus away from foreigners employing
Thais to manufacture their products and towards a greater level of
Thai-owned production.
"Today Thailand must become a manufacturer by
creating brand names, and must then use these various types of goods
produced by Thais, whether OTOP goods or SME goods, to generate added value
in foreign markets," the prime minister stressed. He urged Thai
entrepreneurs to engage in integrated marketing.
To this end, the Board of Investment of Thailand is now
working to promote integrated investment in a bid to reduce raw materials
imports, which in turn will serve to create a trade surplus for the nation.
It is hoped that by grouping industries into five broad
clusters - the automobile sector, the electronics sector, the electrical
goods sector, the fashion sector and the processed agricultural goods sector
- Thailand’s industry can grow to meet international demands. (TNA)
Thai National Power Co Ltd receives BOI promotion certificate
Michael
Baker (right), country manager and CEO Thai National Power Company Limited,
international power producer, recently received a new BOI promotion
certificate from Somphong Wanapha (left), the secretary general of the
office of the Board of Investment, for its new district cooling scheme at
Siam Industrial Park.
Consumer confidence index declines in May
The fuel price increase has dampened the country’s
consumer confidence as all indices continued to drop in May, according to
leading economists. The Dean of the University of Thai Chamber of Commerce’s
Economics Faculty Saovanee Thairungrote said that the confidence index on
overall economy declined to 99.9 points from 101.6 in May, the index on job
opportunities to 95 from 96.1, and the index on future incomes fell to 112.5
from 114.3. She attributed the continued fall in the indices to rising oil
prices and the unrest in the South, which remained of concern. (TNA)
Quality certification now needed for Bangkok-based OTOP products
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has
increased the standard of One Tambon One Product (OTOP) goods produced in
Bangkok. It now requires official quality certifications for those products
which are to be registered with the authorities.
The certificates of quality, issued by the Thai
Industrial Standards Institute (ISI), are now needed for general OTOP
products registered by all the BMA’s 50 district offices while the Food
and Drug Administration will issue the certificates for foods, traditional
cosmetics, or other consumable OTOP products, the Deputy Permanent Secretary
for the BMA Phonglak Wasiksiri said.
The government recently registered OTOP products
throughout the country from May 27 to June 4, including the BMA registration
period on 20-21 May 20-21. (TNA)
Dairy farmers call for exemption of milk products
Dairy farmers are demanding that the government exclude
milk and diary products from the proposed Australian-Thai Free Trade Area
(FTA) Agreement, threatening to gather 150,000 signatures to submit a
petition to His Majesty the King. Representatives of dairy farming groups,
including the Dairy Farming Promotion Organization of Thailand, the Dairy
Co-operatives Federation of Thailand Ltd., and the Biodiversity and
Community Right Action Thailand (BIOTHAI), have protested against the
Australian-Thai free trade deal for fear of an influx of dairy products from
Australia into the domestic market.
The proposed Australian-Thai FTA is expected to be signed
during Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s planned visit to Australia on 5
July. Director of BIOTHAI Vitoon Lianchamroon pointed out as an example that
the FTA pact between Thailand and China had led to the influx of imported
fruits and crops from China, up to 300 percent, causing an adverse effect on
local farmers.
Vitoon cautioned that the proposed US-Thai FTA could also
cause the influx of GMO products from the US to the domestic market. He said
that the Australian-Thai FTA would affect 150,000 Thai dairy farmers as a
large number of Australian dairy products would be imported into the Thai
kingdom.
Adul Wangtan, President of the Holstein-Friesian Cattle
Raisers’ Association, said that the association would submit a letter to
the Prime Minister, calling for the exclusion of milk and dairy products
from the FTA with Australia and New Zealand. (TNA)
Thailand-China to jointly invest in oil pipeline
Negotiations are underway between PTT Public Company
Limited (PTT) and China Petroleum & Chemical Company, or Sinopec, on a
proposed joint venture on an oil pipeline project across southern Thailand.
The oil pipeline project is aimed at reducing costs of
shipping oil from Thailand to Northern and Eastern Asia.
The pipeline will run from the southern resort island of
Phuket, taking crude oil and petroleum products to be loaded on tankers and
shipped to the northeastern and eastern markets, including China and Japan.
With the pipeline, shipments of crude oil and petroleum
products from the Middle East to the destinations through the Strait of
Malacca, which passes Indonesia and Malaysia, will take less time - about
one week faster.
PTT is conducting a feasibility study of the project,
which is expected to be completed by the end of this year. (TNA)
Opening ceremony
for “Propak Asia 2004”
Bangkok
Exhibition Services Ltd (BES) welcomed the guest of honor, Phinij Jarusombat
from the Ministry of Industry, to preside over the joint opening of the
region’s largest processing and packing technology exhibition, ProPak Asia
2004 (held June 16-19) and the Food Science and Technology Association of
Thailand Conference "Before and Beyond Food Safety". The events
took place at Bangkok International Trade & Exhibition Center (BITEC),
Bangkok, where over 450 international exhibitions from more than 26
countries showcased the latest equipment, materials and services from around
the world.
BOI support applications rise
Applications for support from the Board of Investment of
Thailand (BOI) this year is continuing to rise. More than 230 million baht
has been requested in the first five months of 2004. This figure is expected
to exceed more than 400 billion baht by the end of the year. Most of these
applications have come from the petrochemical and service industries, the
Industry Minister Pinij Jarusombat said after the latest BOI meeting.
A total of nine BOI-supported projects worth some 11.2
billion baht were approved during the meeting. These included the increased
production of automobile radial tires, electricity, and water for industrial
purposes, seven sea-shipping operations and plans to approve the production
of highly purified gas which is in line with government policy. (TNA)
Chiang Rai to grow quality tea
Chiang Rai Province is urging its farmers to grow a crop
which millions of people across the world would find difficult to live
without: tea.
Chaleewat Thongyuu, head of the Chiang Rai cooperative
department, said the northern border province is accelerating a scheme to
encourage farmers to cultivate high quality tea in a dual bid to solve drugs
problems and poverty.
The provincial cooperative department is gathering young
Ulong tea plants, together with equipment and fertilizer, to distribute to
farmers in the region. Financial support for the project has come from the
Interior Ministry, which is providing 24.55 million baht to fund the
project. Stringent quality checks will ensure that the tea is of superior
quality. Within the next two years, the Chiang Rai Tea Cooperative hopes to
be able to purchase the tea for processing and distribution at home and
abroad. (TNA)
US and China buy Thai rice
Leading US and Chinese importers have purchased rice from
Thailand through the Public Warehouse Organisation (PWO). PWO President
Noppasoon Ang-katawanich said that major American rice importers were
interested in purchasing 2,000 tons of rice in packages sold under PWO’s
name.
China’s state enterprise, the COFCO which handles the
import of agricultural goods, has also indicated interest in buying PWO’s
rice. It has proposed a cooperation scheme with PWO in running a warehouse
for storing Thai rice and selling Thai agricultural products in China, as
the project would open the Chinese market to Thai goods, where there is a
huge demand. PWO is also planning to increase its supply of rice to leading
local supermarket chains including Big C and Makro. (TNA)
FTI to boost trade ties with Russia and Ukraine
The Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) will lead a
business delegation to Moscow in late June to promote multilateral trade
relations between Thailand, Russia and, Ukraine, according to FTI President
Praphad Phodhivorakhun. The trip, scheduled from 23 June-1 July, will be
joined by high-level Thai business executives.
The delegation will seek investment in sugar, food,
automobile, electrical appliances, electronics, and steel sectors in the two
countries, Praphad said.
The trip to Russia is the first after Thailand and Russia
signed bilateral trade agreements through their federations of industries
during last year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Meetings. (TNA)
Human resources and technology must meet future demands
Thailand can only realize its economic growth potential
if it injects significant resources into the development of personnel and
technology, a leading member of the National Economic and Social Development
Board (NESDB) warned.
Speaking at a lecture on industrial strategies, NESDB
Deputy Secretary-Genera Wilaiporn Liwgasemsan stressed the urgent need to
development the nation’s human resources. She said the government needs to
promote vocational education and raise the quality of Thai workers to lift
the level of poverty in the nation.
She warned that the production sector was still mired in
low technological take-up rates, with most companies simply following old
patterns or copying other people, rather than developing new products.
"There is a need for a new professional breed of
entrepreneurs. We must abandon old systems of business administration and
Thai companies need to install new technology. In an age which increasingly
focuses on speed and technology, the government can no longer rely on the
export and property sectors for economic growth," she said. (TNA)
Research center forecasts 11.5 million tourists for 2004
Thailand should see an upsurge in visitor arrivals over
the latter half of the year despite the rise in global oil prices, putting
total tourist numbers for 2004 at nearly 11.5 million, according to a report
published on June 15 by Kasikorn Research Center.
While recognizing a number of negative factors had
affected Thailand’s tourism industry throughout 2004, notably the
emergence of avian flu and violence in the country’s southern border
region, the report stressed that the fundamentals of the nation’s tourism
industry remained strong. The report attributed this strength in part to
exemplary cooperation between the public and private sectors in working to
promote tourism.
However, it also warned that the public and private
sectors would have to brace themselves for tough times ahead, given the
soaring cost of travel occasioned by rising oil prices, and said that
cooperation measures would have to continue if this obstacle was to be
overcome. Tourism promotion will also help give the country greater
financial stability in the face of volatile global price markets.
The first trimester of the year saw around 2.87 visitor
arrivals in Thailand, up only 0.8 percent on the same period in 2003.
However, the report forecast that the second trimester would see around 2.55
visitors, up 75.9 percent from the second quarter of last year, when
Thailand’s tourism sector was severely weakened by concerns over Severe
Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). This would mean a total of 5.42 million
visitors for the first half of the year, a year-on-year rise of 26.1
percent.
The report also forecast continuing tourism growth for
the second half of the year, with expansion estimated at broadly similar
levels to 2003.
Despite the growing unpopularity of long haul tourism
caused by the rise of oil prices, this is unlikely to have much effect on
the upcoming high season in Thailand, as most tourists from America and
Europe have already purchased their airline tickets.
At the same time, tour companies have adjusted their tour
programs in accordance with the changing situation, and are now focusing
more on cheaper travel options. This means that the latter half of the year
is likely to see around 5.99 million visitor arrivals, with expansion
running at around 5.0 percent, putting total tourist numbers for the year as
a whole at around 11.41 million, up 14.0 percent from last year.
Thailand stands to gain around 350 billion baht in
tourism revenue in 2004, an increase of 16.7 percent.
The research center advocated a greater emphasis on niche
markets with high purchasing power, such as incentive tourism, health
tourism and the honeymoon market. (TNA)
|
