Briefs

The government aims to turn the well-known Thai-Cambodia border market “Talad Rong Kluea” in Sa Kaew province into an Asean trade and distribution centre for consumers goods and foods bound for Cambodia and Vietnam.
Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn said that following the government’s policy to eliminate counterfeit goods, the government wanted the market to be free from illegal products.
“The ministry’s Intellectual Property Department has joined forces with 21 agencies to suppress copycats and turn the market to [trading] trade agricultural products, industrial goods, second-hand products, handicrafts, and OTOP [One Tambon One Product products] for serving local people, as well as those in neighbouring countries, mainly Cambodian and Vietnamese buyers,” she said.

TOT SEEKS BT5 BN FROM AIS

TOT has informed the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission that Advanced Info Service should pay the state telecom provider Bt5 billion for using its 900MHz network after AIS’s concession ended.
The payment covers AIS’ use of the network from October to December last year after its concession expired in September.
The NBTC permitted AIS to continue using the network for the so-called remedy period to prevent service disruption to customers. The NBTC assigned a panel to examine how much TOT should get from this network use.
Earlier the NBTC asked AIS to pay the commission Bt125 million for using this network during the remedy period from October 2015 to March. However, AIS refused to pay, complaining that the NBTC had set this amount as a minimum that it could increase later. This was different from its earlier practice.
That earlier calculation was applied to TrueMove and Digital Phone Co for using the 1,800MHz network of CAT Telecom during the remedy period after their concessions ended in September 2013.
Last September the NBTC telecom committee concluded that TrueMove and DPC should pay CAT only Bt742,000 for their use of its network on an interim basis. The figure was calculated based on their network use during a 10-month period from September 16, 2013, to July 17, 2014.

TOURISM INCREASES ENERGY CONSUMPTION, SAYS STUDY

The Energy Policy and Planning Office has released findings from a study on the impact of tourism on domestic energy consumption.
The study showed a rise in energy consumption for every sector of the economy, especially tourism – a main contributor to the country’s economic growth.
The tourism sector, which has shown continuing growth each year, directly and indirectly raised demand for domestic energy consumption.
According to EPPO director Thawarat Sutabutr, each one million increase in tourists resulted in a 0.10 per cent rise in electricity consumption and a 0.05 per cent increase in fuel use.
The Energy for Environment Foundation, a non-profit independent organisation, conducted a study using the “tourism satellite accounts” and the “tourism input-output table” to analyse the impact of tourism on energy consumption via the “input-output model”. The study showed that in 2015, Thailand had 29.8 million tourists, an increase of 20 per cent over the year before. Tourist spending amounted to Bt1.45 trillion, up 23.4 per cent, which comprised spending for hotels/accommodations (26.2 per cent), food and beverage (22.5 per cent) and transportation (5.3 per cent). Such expenditures are directly and indirectly related to domestic energy consumption, such as using electricity consumption for lights and air-conditioning in hotels / accommodations, cooking gas, foods / beverages and fuel for various modes of transportation. Each 1 million foreigners visiting Thailand raises petroleum refineries activity by 0.05 per cent compared to no foreign visitors. Meanwhile, consumption of electricity and cooking gas increased by about 0.10 per cent.
For the high tourism season in December 2015, the 2.99 million foreign tourists raised the demand for fuel by an average of 0.15 per cent for the entire month and 0.3 per cent for electricity and cooking gas. Most of the demand for energy by tourists are electricity, which rose 2 folds compared to the demand for fuel.
Tourism which is vital to Thailand’s economic growth also lead to direct and indirect increase in energy demand. The findings of this latest study should help the EPPO plan the country’s future energy demand to reflect the continuing rise in energy consumption in cities popular with tourists. In the meantime, the EPPO is urging tourists to curb energy consumption when possible to ensure long-term stability of energy supply, Dr. Thawarat said.