Post office has 2 million undelivered items
Thailand Post Co said flooding had disrupted mail delivery in many areas, especially Greater Bangkok, and nearly 2 million letters and parcels had piled up at the state agency.
Senior executive vice president Charnchai Promeros said that of the undelivered mail, 83,000 items were registered letters, 126,000 EMS courier packages, and the rest about 1.8 million standard letters. But he added that the state agency would complete delivery of the backlog within the next few days.
He said that in some places, home delivery had been delayed by five to 10 days because of flooded routes. – The Nation
Japan looks at backing Dawei
Japan will aim to help finance a deep-sea port in Burma provided it can reach a deal on the former military dictatorship’s “huge” outstanding debt, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said.
“We are very much interested in the connectivity between the Thai border to Dawei, but at this juncture we cannot use a yen loan,” Kimihiro Ishikane, a deputy director of Asian affairs at the Foreign Ministry, said in Bali yesterday. “We are exploring what we can do.”
Italian-Thai Development, Thailand’s biggest construction company, signed an US$8.6-billion (Bt265 billion) contract with Burma’s government last year to build a port and industrial estate in Dawei, less than 300 kilometres west of Bangkok. The project would offer Japanese companies who use Thailand as a manufacturing base a more direct route than the Malacca Strait to ship goods to Europe and the Middle East.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda will discuss plans to invest in infrastructure projects throughout the region when he meets with Asean leaders tomorrow, Ishikane said. – Boomberg
Early paycheques
The Finance Ministry will pay civil servants, state officials, state employees and pensioners ahead of schedule to lessen hardship due to the floods.
Deputy Finance Minister Viroon Tejapaibul yesterday said the ministry would pay monthly salaries, stipends and other benefits on November 18 and December 23 instead of at the end of each month. The advance payments will benefit 2.21 million people nationwide, he added. – The Nation
New Loxley China unit
Loxley has established a new subsidiary, Loxley Intertrade (Guangzhou) Co, in China with registered capital of Bt5 million.
The company will begin operating in January, focusing on trade and investment. Loxley will hold 100 per cent of the subsidiary. – The Nation
Sony unsure on restart
Sony Corp has no time frame for restarting its image-sensor plant in Thailand, Shoji Nemoto, head of Sony’s camera division, said in Chiba prefecture, near Tokyo, yesterday.
The Japanese electronics maker is considering shifting production of the sensors to a plant in Kumamoto, southern Japan, Sony spokesman Jin Tomihari said. – Bloomberg
