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“SMART” ID cards for security
at Laem Chabang Port
The Laem Chabang Port in Chonburi Province plans to use
“SMART” cards to increase security. Visitors to the port will be given
the latest security identity tags on par with other international ports,
according to the director of Laem Chabang Port, Theerayuth Thumanond.
The scheme should be operational within the next two
months. Tenders have been called to install the necessary technical
equipment and produce the “SMART” identification cards.
Theerayuth said the improvement in security was necessary
to prevent incidents occurring which could tarnish Thailand’s reputation
as a safe country. A “SMART” identification card will contain a
photograph and personal information, including employer, job title, name,
address and so on about the ID cardholder.
The Laem Chabang Port will bear the expenses of
introducing the “SMART” cards for its employees, but private businesses
will have to cover the cost of providing their staff with the “SMART”
IDs. The Laem Chabang Port authorities will be responsible for issuing the
“SMART” identification cards.
All port personnel, shipping staff, and truck drivers will have to wear
the “SMART” identification cards, or access to the port will be denied,
Theerayuth said. (TNA)
Record car sales expected
in spite of high oil prices
Thailand’s sales of automobiles this year are likely to
be an all time record high, according to government officials. Despite
constant rising oil prices, domestic sales of vehicles are expected to reach
a record high of 630,000 units, according to the Chairman of the Federation
of Thai Industries (FTI), Ninnart Chaithirapinyo. The country’s continuing
strong economic growth and low interest rates have helped boost car sales,
Ninnart said.
Total domestic vehicles sales in the first half of this
year were almost 300,000. Traditionally, vehicles sales tend to increase in
the second half of the year, so the country’s motor industry is now
projecting total sales of at least 630,000 units for the whole year.
Originally the industry target for 2004 was 600,000, but
in the light of sales so far, the target has been revised upwards.
Automobile sales this year seem certain to surpass the previous record of
586,000 vehicles. This was achieved in 1996, the year before the Asian
economic crisis hit Thailand.
Ninnart said he supported the government’s plan to
revise the excise tax on vehicles. This would result in higher taxes for
vehicles with an engine capacity of above 2,400 cc, in line with the
country’s energy conservation policy.
However, the government’s proposed 15% excise tax rate
for small vehicles (with an engine capacity of less than 1,500) may violate
Thailand’s obligations under the AFTA. Member countries have already
agreed on a 0-5 percent tax reduction for both domestic and imported
vehicles. Tax differentials may also lead to an influx of imported vehicles
into Thailand.
The sharp reduction in excise tax on small-engine vehicles may not
significantly help reduce the country’s oil consumption since most of the
vehicles used to transport goods and agricultural products do not fall in
into this category, Ninnart said. (TNA)
Hospitals rush to introduce
one-stop service for AIDS patients
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) recently
revealed that it is accelerating plans to introduce a one-stop service for
AIDS patients in nine of the hospitals under its jurisdiction.
Dr. Prawit Patarawicha, director of the BMA’s Medical
Service Department, said that the first hospital to introduce the one-stop
service would be Taksin Hospital.
The service will include advice and suggestions from social workers, as
well as medical treatment from doctors and the provision of anti retroviral
drugs. Treatment will also be provided for diseases often related to AIDS,
including tuberculosis. The Taksin Service Center will initially open every
Thursday afternoon. (TNA)
Pilot projects to boost village economies
The prime minister has announced plans to go ahead with
pilot projects which will pump an economic stimulus of 20 billion baht into
villages across the country. The key idea of the twenty-billion-baht-plan,
called the SML, (small, medium and large) would allocate funds to all
villages for the local authorities to manage. The amount they receive will
be based on the size of the village.
Small villages with less than 200 households will receive
200,000 baht each per village, medium-sized villages with 200-400
households, 250,000 baht, and large villages with more than 400 households
would receive 300,000 baht.
The prime minister dismissed objections to the scheme
saying the plan aims at empowering people at the grass-roots and will help
reduce the authority of the government - in line with the government’s
decentralization policy.
“Highly-educated people living in urban areas do not
trust the ability of those in rural areas to manage budgets, but they
actually can. We are going to give those poor people more opportunities to
make their lives better,” said the PM. (TNA)
Thai beef has bright future
The Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry has urged local
farmers to try to meet the local appetite for high quality beef dishes, using
steers’ beef. About 26,000 steers are currently needed by the local market a
year, according to the ministry’s officials.
However, the local capacity to produce high-quality beef
falls far short of actual demand. Currently, there are only two co-operatives
producing most of the steers’ beef for the upper-end of the market, fine
restaurants and department stores. Their combined production capacity of 9,000
animals a year meets around a third of the market demand. The director of the
Cooperative Promotion Department, Boonmee Juntaravong, said that the government
had planned to support the production of beef to meet the need of the high-end
market, and later for export.
Steers’ beef comes from steers raised in an enclosed area,
fed and fattened before they are slaughtered. As a result, the meat is of a
higher quality than that from beef cattle. This quality beef is a lucrative
business. It costs around 80 baht per kilogram to produce and fetches as much as
300 baht a kilogram on the market. (TNA)
Tax reduction for energy-efficient plants
The Thai government is considering tax concessions for
energy-efficient factories. A three-year program of tax incentive is being
discussed, including reduced import tariffs on energy-saving equipment and
devices for industrial plants, tax allowances on the amount of energy saved
after the installation of energy-saving equipment and devices by industrial
plants, and tax incentives to promote local manufacturing of industrial
energy -saving equipment and devices.
Thailand’s industrial plants consume more than a third
of the country’s total energy consumption. The government hopes that these
tax incentives will contribute to a reduction in the country’s energy
usage. (TNA)
Campaign underway to reduce
chemical fertilizers in agri sector
The Department of Land Development has revealed its
strategy plans for the year 2005, which will see a concerted campaign aimed
to encourage farmers to steer away from the use of chemical fertilizers. Ard
Somrang, director-general of the Department of Land Development, said that
next year’s strategies would focus on reducing the use of chemical
fertilizer and other chemicals in Thailand’s agricultural sector.
The department hopes to be able to reduce the use of
agricultural chemicals by 50 percent next year. This year the department has
campaigned to reduce chemical use by 30 percent, with a series of exercises
designed to encourage the use of organic fertilizer and biotechnology
products.
It has been projected that the use of organic fertilizer
would slash agricultural costs by 10 percent, boosting revenue by 2,500 baht
per year for each farming family.
One success story was provided recently by Somsak
Kreuawan, a durian farmer from Rayong Province. For the past four years,
Somsak has been following government campaigns to reduce the use of chemical
fertilizer on his land. Somsak says that by slashing his use of agricultural
chemicals, he has cut production costs by as much as 80 percent. While
conceding that his overall income has remained virtually unchanged due to
the volatility of crop prices, he says that the use of organic fertilizer
has boosted the fertility of his land and led to a better environment to
live and work in. (TNA)
Vocational schools to develop
low-price computers
Thailand’s vocational schools will begin marketing
their own brand of locally-assembled computers within the next six months,
according to a senior education official. The price of the computers will be
lower than the current market brands and will be sold under the trademark of
“VEC” - an abbreviation for the Vocational Education Commission, its
general secretary, Veerasak Wongsombat revealed.
Under the commission’s scheme, hundreds of vocational
schools throughout the country will be ready to launch their first batch of
computers on the local market with the next six months. “Many of the parts
of our computers will be made by our students. Our purpose is to show that
our kids have developed strong skills in high-technology,” Veerasak said.
“Many technological innovations in Thailand have been
created by vocational students and now benefit the country as a whole. For
example, ten of the country’s vocational schools have been chosen to join
the Army’s project and produce parts for 500 four-wheel-drive trucks that
are to be used for military purposes,” Veerasak said. (TNA)
Housing loan interest rates unlikely to rise
Interest rates on housing loans are unlikely to increase
for the rest of this year since competition in the home loan market is still
stiff, according to a leading banker. Laddawan Thanathanit, senior vice
president of Bangkok Bank Plc, projected that the property business would
continue to grow in the second half of this year, given the steady growth in
the country’s economy, hefty consumer confidence, and higher demand for
residences. Under these circumstances, the housing loan growth should
continue to gain momentum.
However, interest rates on the loans were unlikely to
rise within the rest of this year because competition in the loan market
remains fierce. At the same time, Laddawan forecast interest rates would not
decline during the rest of the year. She said she did not expect the
interest direction would have an effect on people’s demand for their own
homes. On mounting concern that there was more speculation on real estate
due to low interest rates, she said the information she obtained did not
indicate the speculation had increased so significantly that it could affect
the economy. Presently, more purchases of real estate stemmed mostly from
real demand and not speculation, she added. (TNA)
Energy-saving program stepped up
The cabinet has agreed to step up its energy-saving
program, according to a deputy government spokeswoman announcement. The
cabinet has been pleased with the results of a recent national campaign so
far which have produced a fall in oil consumption of 5.8 percent.
Consumers and entrepreneurs have cooperated in the
campaign, especially the closing of gas stations from midnight to 5 a.m.
Throughout the country, more than six petrol stations in ten are closed
during the voluntary curfew period.
The government is now looking for more cooperation from
the business sector. Companies and individually owned billboards have been
asked to switch them off after 10 p.m. So far owners of more than seven
hundred advertising boards have cooperated.
The government recently also announced a new automobile
tax structure which benefits those cars that conserve energy. Cars with new
technology or which have switched from oil to other fuels, like natural gas,
hydrogen, or electricity, will be taxed at the lower rate of 15%. This lower
rate is intended to encourage Thai consumers to turn to automobiles which
use less fuel.
The government is also trying to promote the production
and use bio-diesel. A bio-diesel factory was built in the northern city of
Chiang Mai. The hope is that the fast food restaurants in the region will be
encouraged to use bio-diesel.
In another government fuel scheme - a combination of
bio-diesel and diesel - will be sold twenty satang (0.20 baht) cheaper than
diesel. It will be tested on 1,200 local taxis. If the combination works,
the project will be extended to several provinces, including the eastern
province of Chonburi, and the southern provinces of Phuket and Surat Thani,
according to the deputy spokeswoman. The government also plans to increase
the number of palm oil plantations for fuel alternatives. (TNA)
Pak Panang project given full go-ahead
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has given the Pak
Panang basin development project the full go-ahead. During his inspection
tour before the cabinet meeting in the southern province of Nakhon Si
Thammarat, the prime minister said he believed progress on the project was
satisfactory. He was told that most of the construction, except for an
irrigation canal system, would be completed by the end of September.
The provincial governor reportedly told Thaksin that
there were problems though, and they needed nearly two billion baht to
complete the five development projects involved in the scheme. The projects
include flood control and prevention, the construction of a new road, a
public health project, a market for local farm produce and the renovation of
an ancient Buddhist temple. (TNA)
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