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Toyo-Thai Corporation and its subsidiaries last week signed a memorandum of agreement with Myanmar’s Electric Power Ministry for the development, operation and transfer of an ultra-supercritical (USC) coal-fired power plant.

The construction of the thermal facility in Mon state is estimated to take four to six years starting next year. Investment will run US$2.8 billion (Bt91 billion).

The project will be equipped with Japan’s USC technology with total capacity of 1,280 megawatts for the 30-year concession.

sustainability drive for MAI-listed firms

The Market for Alternative Investment (MAI) will embark on a campaign to enhance listed companies’ quality towards sustainability, covering investor relations, good corporate governance and sustainable development.

The MAI, which is under the Stock Exchange of Thailand, has also launched a corporate sustainability advisory programme by inviting five outstanding MAI-listed companies in quality development to share their business direction and strategy, MAI president Prapan Charoenprawatt said yesterday.

World Bank trims East Asia growth forecast

The World Bank cut its 2015 growth forecasts for developing East Asia and China, and warned of “significant” risks from global uncertainties including the potential impact from a strengthening US dollar and higher US interest rates.

The Washington-based lender expects gross domestic product in the developing East Asia and Pacific region, which includes China, to grow by 6.7 per cent in each of 2015 and 2016, down from 6.9 per cent last year. That’s down from its previous forecast in October of 6.9 per cent this year and 6.8 per cent in 2016.

Growth in developing East Asia and Pacific excluding China is expected to accelerate to 5.1 per cent in 2015 and 5.4 per cent in 2016 from 4.6 per cent in 2014, the World Bank said. Malaysia, the region’s largest oil exporter, is likely to see growth slow this year, as low oil prices hit capital spending in the energy sector and private consumption cools because of the implementation of a goods and services tax this month, it said. – Reuters

guarantee cut a boost for thai bonds

Thailand’s bond market is expected to receive a boost in the next half, when investors re-deploy funds sitting in guaranteed deposits after the government scales back an insurance scheme implemented after the credit crisis.

Thailand is scheduled this year to amend a 2008 deposit-insurance scheme to provide a government guarantee for a maximum deposit of Bt50 million. The figure will be halved this August before falling sharply to Bt1 million in the same month next year. The amendment covers all types of deposits, but is expected to have a greater impact on people with structured deposits, because they will cease to enjoy government protection for yields that are higher than plain bank deposits, but come with no extra risk, said Ariya Tiranaprakij, executive vice president of the Thai Bond Market Association.--Reuters

Kyowa Hakko Bio builds a manufacturing plant for amino acids in Thailand

Thai Kyowa Biotechnologies in Rayong province, a subsidiary of Japan’s Kyowa Hakko Bio, has completed the construction of a new manufacturing plant for amino acids worth 10.6 billion yen (Bt2.87 billion).

The market for amino acids has expanded rapidly in recent years, because of worldwide growth of the pharmaceutical, medical and healthcare markets, and Kyowa Hakko expects this trend to continue. In particular, the amino-acid market in the Asian region is growing rapidly, brought about by the Westernisation of lifestyles, as well as population growth and economic development, said the firm’s chief executive officer, Chikakuni Kotani.

The new plant in Thailand will have annual production capacity of 2,200 tonnes after it begins operations this month.

Glow orders fault current limiters

Glow Energy, an independent power producer, has placed an order with Applied Materials for two superconducting fault current limiters (SCFCLs).

Glow intends to commission the SCFCLs in its utility grid in the Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate. Glow anticipates that the fault current protection provided by the SCFCLs will enable it to increase generation and supply more power at higher quality to its customers.

Representing the first use of SCFCLs in Thailand, these systems support adding capacity to address growing energy demand by reducing fault currents while minimising voltage dips on distribution and transmission utility networks.

SSCS partners with British firm

ebpSource, a UK-based provider of high-volume electronic billing and payment (EBP) and electronic invoicing and payment (EIP) solutions for Tier 1 banks, telecoms and payment processors, has announced a new strategic partnership with SSC Solutions of Thailand.

SSCS is an information-technology developer and applications-integration specialist, focused on the delivery of document workflow, data management, knowledge management and payment solutions.

ebpSource specialises in advanced applications in the fields of consolidated e-billing and payment and centralised e-invoicing for banks and payment processors. The British firm claims that many of its clients have gone on to achieve international recognition for their innovation in the automation of billing, invoicing, financial supply chain and payment services.

It says the combination of solutions and expertise from ebpSource and SSCS will help clients in Southeast Asia “unwire” their enterprises. They can deliver bills, statements, documents, invoices and other regular transactional information to multiple, fully integrated customer channels ranging from online banking and customer portals to smartphones, tablets, kiosks, and ATM networks.