Briefs

Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak yesterday held talks with Wal-Mart Stores Inc executive vice president Scott Price, and said the US retail giant was interested in Thailand’s agricultural and fishery products and praised the country’s solutions to its illegal-fishing problems.
According to Somkid, given the country’s good solutions to the problems of illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing, particularly transparency and traceability, Wal-Mart will be able comfortably to order more fishery products from Thailand in the future.
Somkid also asked Wal-Mart to assist in development of production and marketing at the village level to help the poor, while explaining the country’s infrastructure mega-projects and Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC). 
Next week, Japan’s No 1 robot maker will hold discussions with Industry Minister Uttama Savanayana on investing in the EEC, Somkid said. 

NBTC TOP EXEC BACKS TOT’S 4G PARTNERSHIP PLAN

The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission’s telecom committee should approve TOT’s revised business plan to seek a partnership with private companies to offer fourth-generation cellular service on the 2.3-gigahertz spectrum, said NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasith.
He said yesterday that the plan should be approved to enable TOT to seek a new revenue source. 
He added that to allay the telecom committee’s concern on the legal aspects of the plan, the NBTC office would monitor how TOT utilises its 2.3GHz band to ensure it complies with the law.
On Tuesday the telecom committee rejected TOT’s business plan over concerns that it might violate Article 46 of the Frequency Allocation Law that requires licence holders to operate their frequencies completely on their own, rather than having other parties do so on their behalf.
The committee also asked the NBTC office to examine in greater detail the legal aspects of TOT’s 4G business plan.
So far 13 companies have picked up the terms-of-reference documents to consider bidding to become TOT’s partner. 
Among them are Advanced Wireless Network, a subsidiary of Advanced Info Service; DTAC TriNet, a subsidiary of Total Access Communication; and TrueMove H Universal Communication and Real Move, both part of the True Corp group.

INCOME TAX RELIEF SHOULD
ATTRACT INVESTORS : APISAK 

Finance Minister Apisak Tantivorawong expects a planned personal-income-tax measure will make Thailand more attractive for investors in special economic zones (SEZs).
The tax measure will be proposed to the Cabinet next Tuesday.
“The planned measure to reduce income taxes for certain business executives will be conditional,” Apisak said. “Their companies must gain promotional privileges from the Board of Investment and must be in [at least one of] 10 targeted industries in the SEZ in the Eastern region.”