Briefs

Expecting power consumption to peak at 26,600 megawatts tomorrow, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand has reassured the public that there will be no power brownouts or blackouts that day.
Egat spokesman Pongdit Potejana said that thanks to cooperation from the public and the industrial sector, power reserves on Friday would be about 1,660MW. Reserves from April 9-10 would be about 1,400MW.
Some industrial plants will be closed tomorrow, including Toyota Motor Thailand’s three plants, to help boost power reserves from April 5-14 when the supply of natural gas from Myanmar’s Yadana field is cut off for annual maintenance, thereby reducing Thailand’s power-generation capacity.

Injection for SME
The Finance Ministry has recapitalised the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Bank of Thailand by Bt555 million, while expecting the bank to clear Bt3 billion of its non-performing loans (NPLs) per quarter.
Pinyo Tanviset, a member of the ministry’s subcommittee on bad debt, said the bank’s NPLs now stood at between Bt25 billion and Bt26 billion. SME Bank’s deposit base is now about Bt70 billion.
“The clearing is proceeding as planned, particularly of some loans extended unscrupulously to large customers,” he said.The working group has dealt with about 10 per cent of NPLs owned by 100 large customers.
The ministry may propose a legal amendment increasing its control over the bank’s board. The state-owned bank is now selecting a new president.

DKSH back Shell
DKSH’s consumer-goods business unit has expanded its partnership with Shell Lubricants into Myanmar, to provide marketing, sales, distribution, merchandising, logistics and back-office services.
“With the lifting of sanctions by the European Union and the US, Myanmar is a very promising market with significant opportunities and will contribute to the growth of Southeast Asia,” said Somboon Prasitjutrakul, head of the business unit.
After the unveiling of the Myanmar government’s overage car import substitution plan late last year, the car-import market is highly attractive, and the estimated increase in demand for vehicles and motorbikes is expected to result in rising demand for engine oils and lubricants as well.

Portability move
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission’s telecom committee has agreed to a proposal by cellular operators and will allow them to use electronic and SMS-based (texting) channels to facilitate the transfer of mobile-phone numbers from one network to another.
Currently, customers have to go to cellular operators’ shops to ask for number portability, which allows them to keep their existing phone numbers when migrating to a different network.
The committee also approved a preliminary agreement by the five telecom operators to base number portability on the actual demand. Currently their combined number-transfer capacity is limited to 40,000 per day.
The committee also approved three draft regulations on telecom infrastructure sharing, network roaming, and mobile virtual network operators, all of which will be forwarded for the consideration of the NBTC board on April 19.

Training to help small retailers compete
The Internal Trade Department will spend Bt190 million of its Thook Jai budget on training small retailers on how to survive heavy competition by modern traders.
Viboonlaksana Ruamraksa, director-general of the department, said it would spend the rest of its total budget of Bt1.32 billion for Thook Jai shops on helping small retailers make their businesses sustainable. It will cooperate with wholesalers to increase small operators’ efficiency and bargaining power and bring down their costs.
Moreover, the department vowed that it would send teams to inspect goods prices during the upcoming Songkran Festival to ensure that consumers, particularly travellers, are not overcharged. Places that will be closely monitored include bus terminals and train stations.

BAM bids in June, October
Bangkok Commercial Asset Management Co plans to accept bids on Bt3 billion worth of non-performing assets in June and October after selling Bt321 million worth in the year’s first round of bidding last month.
The company believes that strong growth in demand for homes both in Bangkok and the provinces will boost its sales to a growth target of 10 per cent this year, BAM president Krit Sesavej said.