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Thai auto production rises to 4-month high in January

Thailand’s automobile production in January significantly increased to 140,404 units, marking the highest level in the past four months since the flood submerged a number of provinces in October, according to the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI).

FTI Automotive Industry Club spokesman Surapong Paisitpattanapong announced on Wednesday that January’s figure was up 41.21 percent from December but fell by 3.98 percent year-on-year.

Last year’s devastating flood in the central provinces, where many industrial estates are located, led to a shortage of parts to be supplied to automobile assembly plants and slashed the country’s auto production.

The rise was due to higher imports of auto parts from other countries in January as plants in the country, which were earlier hit by the flooding, have not yet been able to resume operation.

Meanwhile, 64,022 car units were manufactured for export, or 45.6 percent of overall production, Surapong said, explaining that the percentage dropped by 18.98 percent compared to the same period last year.

Domestic car sales in the first month of this year totaled 76,246 units, a 11.47 percent increase year-on-year, resulting from higher auto production for domestic sales which climbed to 76,382 units, up from December last year.

Last month alone, automakers delivered 26,054 passenger cars and 47,377 one-ton pick-up trucks to customers who had earlier reserved their orders.

In a related development, the FTI projected that a number of automobiles manufactured from February to April will grow to 465,266 units, up 12.95 percent compared to the output in February to April 2011 when auto production stood at 411,926 units.

Overall auto production this year is targeted at 2.1 million units, the spokesman said. (MCOT)
 


AFG looks at the “minimum wage” conundrum

Dr. Iain Corness

The Automotive Focus Group (AFG), Thailand’s dedicated auto interest group centered on the Eastern Seaboard, held its annual general meeting at the Amari Orchid Resort last Friday. Coming from a self-interest group sponsored by the Australian Chamber of Commerce Thailand a few years ago, the group now has 116 paid-up members and is a self sufficient stand-alone organization.

Supachai Manusphaibool.

President James Beeson addressed the members and accepted the position as president for another year, and welcomed new members of the executive Tony Emmett, Ken Hinckley and Ramesh Ramanathan.

Following the AGM there was a seminar on the “minimum wage” policy as promulgated by the new Yingluck Shinawatra Pheu Thai government.

As the ramifications of this new wage policy have not been well understood (or explained), the AFG arranged for the members to be addressed by Supachai Manusphaibool and Wasantachai Watanavongvisudhi in an attempt to clarify the future handling of this thorny question.

Supachai is the publisher of the monthly “Thai Labor Chronicle”, and before looking at the new minimum wages, he showed that it was first important to understand the various types of “wage” definitions between daily hire and monthly hire. The different contacts could have wide-ranging effects on a company’s bottom line as some items were retrospective.

Wasantachai Watanavongvisudhi.

Adding to the potential for confusion was the fact that on April 1, 2012, the first increment comes into effect, but the increments may be different depending upon the province. For example, Chonburi and Rayong have significant differences. However, the first increment will be no more than a 40% increase over each province’s current daily wage.

The second increment comes into force on January 1, 2013, at which time all provinces should have the same B. 300 minimum (even though the cost of living scales may be different in the different provinces).

The second speaker was Wasantachai, a partner of International Legal Counselors of Thailand, who went further into explaining the complexities of the Thai Labor Laws. Again the members received first hand explanations of the Labor Laws, and how there can be some laws taking precedent over others.

At the end, there were many questions from the floor by the AFG members, with some having traveled great distances just to hear the explanations given by the two speakers.

Those who are in the auto industry can get more details from the AFG secretariat Maurice.Bromley @go-dove.com.
 


Thailand being named to money-laundering blacklist will affect investor confidence

The international money-laundering watchdog’s decision on blacklisting Thailand will inevitably affect foreign investors’ confidence.

Worawan Tharapoom, president of the Association of Investment Management Companies, sees that the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) decision to include Thailand on the blacklist of countries failing to meet international standards would definitely impact foreign investor confidence and will affect Thailand as a whole.

The move will increase the cost for capital investment and financial transactions, she said. It will eventually impede international trading including opening accounts with international financial institutions and remittances as additional documents and clarification may be needed to identify the origin of the money and objective of transferring money abroad, and the time taken for money transactions will be longer.

Ms Worawan, who is also vice president of the Federation of Thai Capital Market Organizations, suggested that the public and private agencies involved should coordinate to speed up legislation against money-laundering and anti-terrorist financing laws in order remove Thailand from the blacklist as soon as possible.

The FATF added Thailand, Pakistan, Indonesia, Ghana and Tanzania to its 12 blacklisted nations. No countries were taken off the blacklist, but Honduras and Paraguay were removed from an intermediary “grey-list” of countries found to be falling behind on international standards.

The list was officially announced on Feb 20 after FATF ended its annual meeting in France last Friday.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister/Finance Minister Kittiratt Na Ranong expressed concern over the FATF’s decision for fear of negative repercussions in various aspects.

The government is now waiting an official response on the matter from the Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO), a concerned agency representing Thailand at the FATF meeting in France, Kittiratt said.

AMLO has drafted two bills concerning anti-money laundering and terrorism. He said that the government would consider whether there is any problem with the legislation procedures. (MCOT)
 


HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]

Thai auto production rises to 4-month high in January

AFG looks at the “minimum wage” conundrum

Thailand being named to money-laundering blacklist will affect investor confidence
 

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