Category: Industry

Thailand shipped the first consignment of chicken products to Saudi Arabia in 18 years on Monday, as diplomatic relations between the two countries are gradually restored following three decades of suspension of formal ties.

The shipment, by Charoen Pokphand Foods Plc, took place two weeks after Saudi Arabia lifted an 18-year ban on Thai chicken and egg imports.

A launch ceremony was held at CP Foods’ Min Buri Chicken Processing Plant 2. The event was attended by Thai Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit and other senior commerce officials, Secretary-General of Central Islamic Council of Thailand Pol. Maj-Gen Surin Palarae, and executives of CP Foods.

Jurin said that Thailand’s chicken industry has taken a momentous step in the Middle East, as he thanked Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha for his visit to Saudi Arabia in January and efforts by officials of the Foreign Affairs Ministry to restore relations between Thailand and Saudi Arabia.

He said that the chicken products have passed the strict standards of Halal food, as certified by the Central Islamic Council of Thailand, adding that Saudi Arabian representatives had inspected and endorsed the standards of 11 chicken processing plants in Thailand, so they can export their products to Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia imports 75% of its chicken products from Brazil and 25% from Ukraine and France. From now on, Jurin said, Saudi Arabia will become a major export market for Thai chicken products.

Last year, Thailand exported 900,000 tonnes of chicken products, bringing in 100 billion baht into the country. This year, the exports are estimated to amount to up to 980,000 tonnes, Jurin added.

CP Foods CEO Prasit Boondoungprasert said the company will export 600 tonnes of chicken products, worth about 47 million baht, to Saudi Arabia this month and aims to export 6,000 tonnes of chicken this year.

Thai Labour Minister Suchart Chomklin and Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Human Resources and Social Development Ahmed bin Suleiman Al-Rajhi signed two agreements on Monday, related to employment in the general workforce and domestic workers in Riyadh.

The deals also include the protection of the rights of Thai workers and their Saudi employers and the setting up of a mechanism for ensuring the implementation of the two agreements.

Direct flights between Bangkok and Riyadh have resumed following the inaugural flight on February 28, the first in 32 years. The diplomatic downgrade followed a high-profile jewelry theft by a Thai worker at a Saudi palace known as the “Blue Diamond Affair”.

Thailand is among the world’s biggest exporters of poultry, particularly frozen and processed chicken meat.

Source: Thai Public Broadcasting Service

Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued a set of regulations to be applied to digital assets operators, which take effect on April 1st, barring them from using digital assets as a means of payment for goods or services.

The regulations are intended to control the use of digital assets as a means of payment, to prevent cybercrime, money laundering, data leaks and any threat to financial stability and the economic system.

The use of digital assets for investment is not affected by the new regulations.

According to the regulations, all digital assets operators are barred from providing services or acting in a way which is deemed as supporting or promoting the use of digital assets as a means of payment for goods or services, such as advertising, and from persuading people to use digital assets as a means of payment.

Businesses will have until the end of April to comply with the new rules.

The prohibition covers the opening of e-wallets or the provision of tools or systems to facilitate the use of digital assets as a means of payment for goods or services.

In case a customer of a digital asset operator is found to have used their digital assets as a means of payment, the operator must immediately warn that customer to stop the practice, as it is deemed to contravene the operator’s regulations. The operator may suspend providing services to such a customer.

The regulations cover digital asset exchanges, cryptocurrencies, digital tokens, digital asset brokers and traders.

Before the issuance of the regulations, the SEC, the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Thailand engaged in extensive discussions about the pros and cons of digital assets, the use of which has been rapidly increasing in Thailand.

Public hearings were held through January and February with all stakeholders to gauge their views of the digital asset sector and its potential impact on financial stability and the economy.

Source: Thai Public Broadcasting Service

Tourism-related businesses in Bangkok’s Khaosan area, a favourite destination for backpackers before the COVID-19 pandemic, will consult the Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) and other agencies about allowing them to hold Songkran celebrations and water splashing events in the area.

President of the Khaosan Road Business Association, Sa-nga Ruangwattanakul, said today (Sunday) that it would be a pity if Thailand loses another chance this year to draw foreign tourists to Thailand during the long Songkran holidays to enjoy the water festivities, especially in the Khaosan area.

On Friday, the CCSA eased some restrictions by allowing certain celebrations, including water splashing, to be held during the Songkran festival, but with safety measures to be observed, such as participants wearing face masks all the time, the maintenance of social distancing and screening at celebration venues. Even organisers will be required to seek prior permission from provincial communicable disease committee.

Sa-nag said that Khaosan businesses are ready to comply with the safety measures, such as the 5,000 limit on the number of Songkran revellers and COVID-19 screening.

After two years of living with coronavirus, he said that businesses are familiar with the disease and the preventive measures needed.

Although Thailand reopened its doors to foreign arrivals on November 1st last year, Sa-nga said that the hotel occupancy rate in the Khaosan area is only about 20%, due to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, but he hopes that this will pick up during the Songkran festival.

Source: Thai Public Broadcasting Service

Low-cost accommodation on Samui Island has been arranged for the many Russian and Ukrainian tourists stranded in Thailand due to the war in Ukraine.

Up to 30 rooms at a hotel on Chaweng beach have been made available by the International School of Tourism at Suratthani Rajabhat University, to accommodate the stranded tourists at about 4,000 baht a month, to ease their hardship while they are waiting for flights back to their countries.

Many hotels on Samui Island are currently empty or barely occupied due to the COVID-19 pandemic and strict screening measures, which have slashed arrivals of foreign tourists, despite being the country’s high season for tourism.

Before the war in Ukraine, as many as 700 Russian tourists arrived in Thailand a day. The figure started to drop on March 1 when 378 tourists from Russia were recorded. Popular destinations among the group are Samui, Phuket, Krabi and Pattaya.

The stranded Russian tourists’ problems are seriously compounded by their inability to use their Visa and MasterCard credit cards, due to the SWIFT interbank messaging system sanctions imposed on Russia in response to their invasion of Ukraine.

The Samui chief district officer has also called a meeting with officials of the local Red Cross unit, seeking the launch of a campaign to raise material support for those stranded.

According to Samui district office, there are about 3,000 Russian tourists stuck on Samui, Pha-ngan and Tao islands.

Source: Thai Public Broadcasting Service

House buyers are being warned that they may have to pay an additional 5-8% next month because of rising construction costs, driven by the conflict in Ukraine which has spurred an increase in global oil prices.

President of the Home Builder Association Worawut Kanchanakul said today (Tuesday) that the costs of building houses have been increasing since last year, long before the war in Ukraine, due to the cost of steel reinforcement rods, which went up by over 50% last year.

Despite the rising construction costs, compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, the housing market in the past year remained stable, as the economy gradually picked up.

That was until the war in Ukraine began in February, which has led to a surge in global oil prices.

Moreover, he said that the construction industry has been facing an acute shortage of labour, as he pleaded with the government to open the borders to allow more migrant workers from neighbouring countries to work here legally.

For house buyers, he urged them to decide now, instead of delaying the decision until the prices increase.

Source: Thai Public Broadcasting Service

COLOMBO, Revival of tourism in the Maldives, contributed to higher revenue for the country, in the first two months this year compared to the same period in 2021.

The Maldives received 137 million U.S. dollars in Jan and Feb, 2022, compared to 88 million dollars collected in the first two months of 2021, according to statistics released by Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA), the country’s national tax agency.

MIRA said, the main reason for the increase in revenue is the rise in time spent by tourists and the increase in the number of tourist arrivals.

By Feb 23, the total number of tourist arrivals was 251,339, an increase of 46.9 percent when compared to the same period of 2021, of which 39,660 tourists arrived from Russia, accounting for the largest share, according to the Maldivian Ministry of Tourism.

Source: Nam News Network

The number of Russian tourist arrivals in Phuket has decreased by 75%, while 3,000 Russian tourists are stranded on the resort island due to the international sanctions being imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

President of the Phuket Tourist Association Bhummikitti Raktaengam, says that the conflict has affected tourism on the resort island and arrivals have decreased due to closed airspace.

At the same time, some Russian tourists already in Thailand cannot fly home, especially Russians who live near the Korean Peninsula and in Siberia, where flights have been suspended since last week. Direct flights from Moscow to Phuket have also been suspended.

He said the Russian tourists currently stranded on Phuket arrived at the end of February and during the beginning of March.

An additional problem is that Russian tourists cannot use their credit cards, as many Russian banks have been cut off from the SWIFT interbank messaging system, while many Thai commercial banks do not support Visa and MasterCard issued in Russia, because the two global credit card giants have suspended operations there.

Therefore, the Phuket Tourist Association has suggested measures, to the Tourism Authority of Thailand and the Bank of Thailand, to help Russian tourists.

These include Thai commercial banks allowing use of the “Mir” payment system, for Russia to issue virtual cards, similar to those issued by China, and allowing cryptocurrency payments.

He also said that, if the conflict between Russia and Ukraine continues, it would not only affect tourism in Thailand, but around the world, adding that the cost of travel would increase significantly, due to the steady increase in global oil prices. He also noted that Phuket might have to target tourists from other countries, such as Australia, India, and the Middle East, to revive tourism.

Source: Thai Public Broadcasting Service

People in Thailand’s capital queued up this morning (Wednesday) at gold shops along the Yaowarat Road, widely known as Bangkok’s Chinatown, to sell their gold for cash, because gold prices continue to reach new heights as the Russia-Ukraine conflict affects global oil and gold prices.

At 12.56pm today, the buying price of gold bullion increased to 31,850 baht and was selling at 31,950 baht, according to the Gold Traders Association. The gold adornment buying price increased to 31,275.08 baht and the selling price reached 32,450 baht.

The Gold Traders Association predicted that gold prices would increase to 32,000-33,000 baht if the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues.

Many gold market experts believe that prices will remain volatile and may drop once the conflict is resolved.

Last week, the average gold bullion prices, between February 28th and March 5th, as announced by the association, were 29,350 – 30,250 baht. The gold prices were slightly lower the week before.

Source: Thai Public Broadcasting Service

The Thai Prime Minister’s advisor Pirapan Salirathavibhaga, recently in charge of the three-decade-long Hopewell saga, which is a case between the Thai government on one side and Hopewell (Thailand) on the other, has attributed last Friday’s success in winning approval for a retrial of the case to one dedicated SRT official whom he described as “a little man with a big heart”.

The Thai Supreme Administrative Court overturned a ruling by the Administrative Court, which had rejected the pleas of the Transport Ministry and the State Railway of Thailand (SET) for a retrial in the conflict over the elevated road and rail project. An arbitration committee has ordered the two state agencies to pay Hopewell (Thailand) 24 billion baht in compensation for unfair cancellation of the project.

Both parties had agreed to take the case to arbitration for settlement. Both the Transport Ministry and the SRT appealed the arbitration committee’s ruling to the Supreme Administrative Court which reconfirmed the committee’s ruling.

Subsequently, however, the two state agencies asked the Administrative Court for a retrial of the case, claiming that they have new evidence that Hopewell (Thailand) was not properly registered and that it was not the same company which won the project bid. The court, however, dismissed the appeal, prompting a further appeal to the Supreme Court, which has now ordered the Administrative Court to conduct a retrial of the case.

In his Facebook post on Saturday, Pirapan said he would not have succeeded in being granted a retrial without the help of Suthirak Yimyoung, aka “Yim”, an official at the SRT’s health office.

Pirapan said his work on the case over the years has involved an enormous amount of documentation and Yim was key to helping him in this area because he appears to remember every detail about the nearly thirty year old dispute.

Asked how he knows so much detail about the case, Yim told Pirapan that he had read all the paperwork and hoped that, one day, his knowledge would be useful.

Pirapan said he realised Yim had been in the same position for a long time and asked him why he had not been promoted. Yim said his superior was about to retire, but that he would prefer one of his colleagues to take the job because, if he were to be promoted, he would not have the time to help out in the Hopewell case.

Pirapan said he then asked whether Yim had thought about his future career. Yim responded by saying he was content to remain there, so he could concentrate on the Hopewell case.

“Can you believe there is such a person in this world?” asked the PM’s advisor rhetorically.

He went on to say that several people have lauded him for his legal success, but he admires and appreciates Yim as a “little man with a big heart” at the SRT.

Officially known as the Bangkok Elevated Road and Train System (BERTS) project, it involves an elevated road and rail system, extending 63.3km from Bangkok, at a total investment of 80 billion baht. In return, the project owner would have the right to collect toll fees for 30 years, estimated at 53 billion baht and has the right to utilise land, covering about 100 hectares, along the route through the concession period.

Businessman Gordon Wu, of Hopewell Holdings in Hong Kong, won the bid and a contract was signed in 1990, between then-Transport Minister Montri Pongpanich of the General Chatichai Choonhavan administration and Hopewell (Thailand).

The project encountered prolonged delays due to land acquisition problems. Two years later, following the coup which ousted the Gen Chatichai administration, a new government, led by Anand Panyarachun, reviewed the project and scrapped it. The project was revived by the next government, led by Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai, only to be cancelled again by the Chavalit government in 1997. By then only 17% of the project was complete.

Source: Thai Public Broadcasting Service