Pair tipped as top Commerce candidates

The ministry, which mainly deals with consumer prices and exports, will need a tough person in the position with a good educational background and wide experience to strengthen administration as well as fight against political corruption, observers say.
There are only two months left for reshuffling and promotions of bureaucrats in every ministry. Besides Banyong and Srirat, other top officials are under consideration for the top job at Commerce. Banyong’s record includes development of plans for small and medium-sized enterprises, amendment of the Foreign Business Act and other laws, and improving his department’s services.

MindShare tops Recma report
Media and marketing-services company MindShare has once again topped the Recma billings report in the Asia-Pacific, including Thailand, India, mainland China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and Hong Kong.
Recma (Research Company Evaluating the Media Agency Industry) is the global media-agency benchmark. The report compares 64 countries, 14 of which are in Asia and the Pacific. In all these markets, Recma compares media agency brands and holding groups to determine buying power of each of the network brands.
In the Asia-Pacific region, MindShare ranked first in two-thirds of the markets and within the top few in Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines. GroupM holds the No 1 spot in 10 markets and is second in Japan, New Zealand and the Philippines.
MindShare comprises nearly 14 per cent of the industry share across the Asia-Pacific region, with Starcom at 11.4 per cent and OMD at 9.5 per cent.

More steel export |to Australia eyed
Thailand will have greater opportunities to export steel to Australia after that country recently revoked an anti-dumping duty on hollow structural section (HSS) steel, while imposing duties on export competitors, according to the Thai Commerce Ministry’s Foreign Trade Department.
Surasak Riangkrul, deputy director-general of the department, said Thai steel should enjoy higher exports to Australia thanks to the lower tariff, while competitors such as mainland China, Taiwan and Malaysia continued to face anti-dumping duties. Australia announced cancellation of the anti-dumping levy on June 7.
Thailand is now a leading steel exporter to Australia, with market share of 21 per cent. However, export volume to that country dropped from 51,504 tonnes in 2011 to 20,834 tonnes last year because of the high anti-dumping duty.
 
BAAC backing for tree-planting project
The Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives yesterday agreed to cooperate with the Forest Industry Organisation to plant trees on 51,000 rai (8,160 hectares) over the next five years for mixed purposes of conservation and sustainable income for farmers, Luck Wajananawat, president of the BAAC, said yesterday.
The bank will provide financial support of Bt225.6 million for farmers who live on the fringes of conservation forests in the Northern region, he said. Farmers in 14 provinces will join the scheme.
Farmers will be assisted to grow indigenous trees on their land and in community forests, he said. – The Nation