Briefs

State budget disbursement was 2.06 per cent higher than targeted for the first quarter of the 2017 fiscal year, according to the Comptroller-General’s Department (CGD).
Oranuch Vinusit, fiscal and financial system development adviser at the CGD, said disbursement in the first quarter totalled Bt876.12 billion or 32.06 per cent of the total budget, 2.06 per cent higher than its target and 1.84 per cent higher than that in the same period a year earlier.
The CGD injected Bt692.56 billion into the treasury reserve for the first three months of this fiscal year. Of the total, Bt603.16 billion came from state agencies and state enterprises’ revenue. 

South fare promotion

Tassapon Bijleveld, chief executive officer of Thai AirAsia, said the airline had launched a “To South with Love” fare promotion to support people affected by the southern floods.
The fares start from Bt590 for a one-way ticket.
The booking period starts today and finishes on January 22 for travel between now and January 31 and covers seven southern destinations: Nakhon Si Thammarat, Surat Thani, Trang, Krabi, Songkhla (Hat Yai), Phuket and Narathiwat.
The airline is also accepting donations for flood victims from the public and private sectors, and will transport necessities to the affected region at no cost. 
Under the promotion, the airline said seats were limited and might not be available on all flights. 

Minister to attend WEF

Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantrapon Tantraporn will join the World Economic Forum next week in Switzerland, where he she will attempt to lure multinational investors to help modernise Thailand’s farming sector and create added value for Thai farm goods for trading globally.
Apiradi said Thailand would like to attract investors under the “Grow Asia” project.
He She will meet with executives from international firms while at the forum.

Trilateral FTA negotiations

Delegates from China, Japan and South Korea discussed trade and investment in goods and services at a meeting in Beijing on Wednesday for the 11th round of trilateral free-trade-agreement (FTA) negotiations.
The three countries, whose combined gross domestic product accounts for around 20 per cent of the world total, would constitute one of the three largest economic blocs.
Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen led the Chinese delegation.
The FTA negotiations were launched in November 2012.
The three parties agreed that a trilateral FTA would help give full leverage to their individual advantages, unleash the economic vitality of the three countries and boost regional prosperity and development.
In November 2015, leaders from the three nations reiterated in a joint statement that they should accelerate the FTA negotiations.
China is the largest trading partner of Japan and South Korea. 

Peach to launch Okinawa-Bangkok route

Japanese low-cost airline Peach has announced the opening of its first Southeast Asia route, from Bangkok to Okinawa.
Shinichi Inoue, representative director and chief executive officer of Peach Aviation Ltd, said it would operate daily flights from Okinawa to Bangkok starting on February 19 and from Bangkok to Okinawa beginning the next day.
“I feel a very strong sense of fate in the fact that we will be able to start servicing this route in 2017, the 130th anniversary of friendly ties between Thailand and Japan,” he said.
The concept of the casualness of Peach’s service is “flying trains”. It claims to be a totally new style of airline, which aims to be an airborne version of everyday trains.
Peach began its operations out of its Kansai Airport hub near Osaka in March 2012. It opened a secondary hub at Naha Airport in Okinawa in July 2014 and began servicing Tokyo Haneda Airport in August 2015. 
It currently operates a fleet of 18 aircraft and services more than 100 flights each day on 13 international and 14 domestic routes, serving more than 13,000 passengers daily.
It is also scheduled to set up a hub at Sendai Airport in Miyagi prefecture this year and at Hokkaido’s Shin-Chitose Airport in fiscal 2018.