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Move to smooth traffic flow at new checkpoints
The Commerce Ministry’s Chiang Mai Commercial Office has set up five working groups to promote trade, investment and tourism in five permanent border checkpoints that will open soon.
Phairoj Kullavanich, director of the office, said yesterday that the five checkpoints are at Viang Hae, Chiang Dao, Mae Eye, Fang and Chai Prakarn.
The committees have been tasked with coming up with a strategy to promote trade, investment and tourism between Thailand and its neighbouring countries.
Under the Asean Economic Community, the border checkpoints would be key gateways for free flow to help promote economic growth, he added.
Hemaraj clinches 80 deals in first nine months
Hemaraj Land and Development’s industrial estate sales for the first nine months of this year reached 1,978 rai (316 hectares), of which 121 rai were rentals.
Of the 82 contracts, 50 were with new customers and 32 were for project expansions from existing customers. Of the customers, 52 per cent are Japanese and more than 44 per cent are from the automobile industry.
Ready-built rental factories grew to 284,285 square metres, an increase of 48,476 net square metres, exclusive of 11,506 square metres with leases commencing this year, or 21 per cent in total from last year’s balance.
Hemaraj Logistics Park’s rentals increased by 55,325 square metres.
Demand for industrial estate utilities increased 6 per cent by volume from the average prior year.
David Nardone, president and CEO, said yesterday that Hemaraj finished the past three quarters with solid land sales of 1,978 rai and 82 contracts, ahead of its revised 2013 land sales target of 2,100 rai.
“We also increased our gross industrial estate land bank by 3,082 rai and industrial estate approximate sellable area by 2,378 rai from the June 2013 quarter. Thailand continues to be attractive for relocation and growth due to reasonable costs, good infrastructure and expanded market access,” he said.
Hitachi, partner to set up transformer plant in Taiwan
Hitachi is joining with its technology partner, Fortune Electric Co of Taiwan, to establish Hitachi Fortune Transformer, Inc in Taichung, Taiwan in January, aiming to strengthen Hitachi’s power transmission and distribution systems business.
Hitachi Fortune Transformer will construct a facility for manufacturing extra high- to high-voltage transformers in the Port of Taichung Free Trade Zone. The facility is scheduled to commence production in April 2015.
The transformers will be marketed through Hitachi’s global sales network and will carry the Hitachi brand. The anticipated annual capacity of the facility in 2017 is 35 units of 400MVA transformers or equivalent. Hitachi intends to take a 60-per-cent stake in the joint venture, with Fortune holding the rest.
The demand for transformers is expected to remain strong. The global market for transformers of 150MVA or more, excluding the Chinese market, is growing steadily and is estimated to reach about US$8 billion by 2020.
Besides future demand from leading countries such as the North American market for upgrades as power transmission and distribution equipment comes due for replacement, plans are also being put in place for the construction of high-voltage transmission networks that can carry the electric power generated from renewable sources.
In Southeast Asia and the Middle East, there are numerous plans for the construction of wide-area transmission networks to cope with rapidly increasing demand for electric power as economies and populations grow.
ONYX promotes Duncan Webb to COO
Thailand-based ONYX Hospitality Group has promoted Duncan Webb, who has worked for the company for 22 years, to chief commercial officer.
He has held senior positions including director of sales, vice president of sales and marketing, chief marketing officer and chief brand and communications officer.
Bureau looks to ITU Telecom for Bt3 billion in revenue
The Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau has high hopes that the ITU Telecom World event, which will be hosted by Thailand from November 19-22, would generate over Bt3 billion in revenue for the country.
TCEB president Nopparat Maythaveekulchai said yesterday that Bt2.6 billion will come from spending related to event participation and the rest from renting space for booths at the fair. The organisers target over 20,000 participants.
Joint venture to provide welfare services in region
Itochu Corp and Benefit One Inc will establish a 40:60 joint venture called Benefit One Asia in Singapore to provide Japanese companies operating in the Asian region and local companies in Asian countries with welfare services.
Both companies plan to develop welfare services in Asian countries such as Taiwan, Thailand and Indonesia, beginning in Singapore, with Benefit One Asia as the parent company, by taking advantage of the expertise of Benefit One in building and operating welfare services and of the overseas networks of Itochu.
As companies in Asian countries with strong economic growth are becoming increasingly interested in recruiting top-class personnel and in retaining employees by increasing the level of job satisfaction, demand for excellent welfare services is expected to increase solidly as one solution for these needs.
The total market scale of services related to the retention of employees in Taiwan and the six major Asean countries is estimated to be 9.8 trillion yen, according to a Nomura Research Institute survey this year.
High-level meeting discusses gold trade
The Bank of Thailand, the Finance Ministry, the Stock Exchange of Thailand and the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday discussed the direction for gold-market development in the Kingdom, as well as how to regulate gold trade to protect consumers.
Ketsara Manchusi, managing director of Thailand Futures Exchange, said the meeting did not touch on issues regarding control of gold trading to curb exchange-rate speculation. The discussion was targeted at long-term issues, including supervision of the futures market.
She said input from all stakeholders was necessary before the government could set up a gold trade centre. The economic environment must also be taken into account.
IMF urges phase-out of energy subsidies
International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde is urging governments to phase out energy subsidies as a key step to address climate change.
She said such subsidies, particularly for fossil fuels, only encouraged the use of more energy and disproportionately benefited wealthier people, who could afford to use more energy, instead of the poor.
Lagarde said US$485 billion (Bt15.25 trillion) was spent globally on energy subsidies, and these should all be gradually removed. She also encouraged governments to “get the pricing right” on energy, including carbon and other taxes on energy use.
She was speaking at a panel discussion in Washington, DC, on ways the IMF and the World Bank are trying to tackle climate change from an economic perspective. – Associated Press
FAO notes causes of rising food prices
Members of the Food and Agriculture Organisation expressed concerns over the continued increase in food prices due to the mismatch of production costs and output and demand for food and non-food items.
Returning from the second FAO Ministerial Meeting on International Food Prices held this week in Rome, Agriculture Minister Yukol Limlamthong said all members were urged to enhance output while lowering production costs to ensure availability of food to the global poor. Yukol said the reduction in food losses and waste would be a way to help this. Thailand’s agricultural zoning as well as a new logistics plan to increase the efficiency of resource allocation will also be useful, he said.
Skyscanner lauds success of Thai webpage
Global travel search site Skyscanner is upbeat with the success of its Thai-language webpage, as well as success in other Asian markets.
Andy Sleigh, Skyscanner’s Asia-Pacific general manager, said it now received more than 60 million visits globally each month, while its free mobile applications had now been downloaded 25 million times, putting them among the world’s most used travel search apps.
He attributed the growth to key trends including the continuing rapid growth of tourism in the Asia-Pacific region, fast-rising smartphone penetration in many markets, the launch of new budget airlines and terminals, and the opening up of major new destinations such as Myanmar.
