Thailand Morning News For August 24

Thailand Morning News For August 24
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Thailand morning newsThailand delays launch of $3 bln infrastructure fund again
The launch of Thailand’s 100 billion-baht ($3 billion) infrastructure fund is likely to be delayed to after September, a senior finance ministry official said on Wednesday.
— Reuters

Ministry set to revise export target to 6-6.5%
The Commerce Ministry looks set to revise its full-year export growth target to 6-6.5% from 5% after Thai exports rose at a double-digit pace for the fifth straight month in July.
— Bangkok Post

Thailand teeters on Yingluck trial verdict
A Supreme Court verdict due on August 25 could imprison former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra for ten years for alleged “negligence” in her management of a loss-making rice price support scheme before the military toppled her elected government in a May 2014 coup.
— Asia Times

Thai GDP posts 4 year record growth in Q2 2017
A GDP growth rate of as high as 3.7 percent has been recorded in the second quarter of this year, leading to an upward revision of the growth estimate for the entire year.
— NBT World (video)

Export sector growing at fastest pace in 6 years
Thailand’s export sector in July expanded by 10.5 percent to 18.85 billion US dollars, reflecting global economic recovery. Exports in the first seven months of the year grew at the fastest pace in six years.
— NNT

ADB urges $8bn extra annual spend
An additional US$8 billion (267 billion baht) of annual infrastructure investment is needed for Thailand through 2030 to accelerate the country’s economic growth pace to 4.2%, says the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
— Bangkok Post

Trafficking in wildlife, especially pangolin, from Malaysia into Thailand
Traffickers in wildlife in Malaysia have increasingly switched to land routes instead of boat in their smuggling of endangered wild animals and plants from Indonesia and Malaysia into Thailand before being smuggled out through Laos into Vietnam and China, according to Somkiart Sunthornpitakkul, director of Wildlife and Plants Protection Office, and Prat Kongthong, chief of the wildlife inspection checkpoint in Padang Besar.
— Thai PBS

Thousands of migrants must depart Thailand
More than 3,300 undocumented Cambodian migrant workers, including children, have been deemed ineligible for legal status in interviews with the Thai Labour Ministry and will now have to leave the country, according to Thailand’s Employment Department.
— The Phnom Penh Post

Higher excise tax on sweetened drinks ready for cabinet approval
Excise Department says it is preparing a proposal to increase taxes on soft drinks with sugar contents exceeding the specified limit for the cabinet to approve.
— Thai PBS

Residents stage sit-in over new coal plant
A group of Thai-Muslims opposed to the Thepa coal-fired power plant project in Songkhla staged a sit-in protest in front of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment yesterday in the hope of halting a project they see as a development disaster.
— Bangkok Post

FTI urges investors to invest in Myanmar’s state enterprises
The Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) has organized a business matching event for Thai entrepreneurs interested in investing in Myanmar’s state enterprises.
— NNT

Typhoon Hato to cause more rain in upper Thailand Aug 24-25
The upper part of Thailand will have more rain on Aug 24-25 as typhoon Hato is expected to make a landfall over southern Guangdong, China, on Wednesday(Aug 23) afternoon, according to the 11am announcement of the Thai Meteorological Department.
— Thai PBS

DOE signs MOU with recruitment site to exchange labor data
The Department of Employment (DOE) has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with an employment website on labor data exchange, as part of the department’s campaign to develop labor skills.
— NNT

OECD to help with reforms
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has agreed to lend a hand to the Thai government in undertaking the country’s comprehensive reforms.
—Bangkok Post

Physicians find dengue vaccine more effective against repeat infection
Physicians have assured that the dengue fever vaccine is up to 81 percent effective at preventing repeat infections.
— NNT

Suvarnabhumi upgrade contract approved
The Airports of Thailand (AoT) board yesterday awarded a 14.2-billion-baht contract to PCS Joint Venture to carry out a key part of Suvarnabhumi airport’s upgrade.
— Bangkok Post

Private sector in process of improving skills of 3 5 million workers
The private sector has been working on an improvement of skills of millions of workers in a bid to be fully in line with the government’s Thailand 4.0 policy.
— NBT World (video)

JD.com, Thai retailer Central in talks for $500 mln e-commerce JV – sources
China’s JD.com Inc is in advanced talks with Thailand’s Central Group to launch an e-commerce joint venture in Thailand with a planned total investment of $500 million, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
— Reuters

Judgment day looms for Thai ex-PM Yingluck and Shinawatra clan
Clobbered by coups and courts, Thailand’s Shinawatra political dynasty is bracing for another withering blow in its decade-long power struggle with the kingdom’s establishment as judges decide whether to convict the clan’s ex-premier Yingluck.
— Channel NewsAsia

Cabinet nods to civil engineering design contract for high speed rail project
The Cabinet has approved the content of the draft contract on civil engineering design of the high-speed train project as well as the plan to repair infrastructure in flood-affected provinces in the Northeast.
— NBT World (video)

Overwhelming interest in Science and Technology Fair 2017
Science and Technology Fair 2017 has received strong interest from teachers, students and parents from across the country who have paid close attention to its science, technology and innovation lessons as well as its various activities and exhibitions.
— NNT

State-owned banks launch joint SME loan initiative
THREE state-owned banks – Krungthai Bank, Government Savings Bank, and Small and Medium Enterprise Development Bank – in collaboration with Thai Credit Guarantee Corporation will together provide loans totalling Bt31.5 billion to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), exempting the SMEs from paying the loan guarantee fee of 7 per cent for the first four years.
— The Nation (annoying popups)

PAT union insists no corruption in overtime claims
The Port Authority of Thailand’s Labour Union on Tuesday (Aug 22) strongly dismissed massive corruption in his organisation as alleged by the Department of Special Investigation (DSI).
— Thai PBS

Regime on edge as ruling nears
Former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra faces the prospect of 10 years behind bars or two other possible scenarios tomorrow when the Supreme Court rules on whether she was guilty of dereliction of duty in her rice-pledging case.
— Bangkok Post

Market nonchalant about impact of Yingluck verdict
The verdict for former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra over her contentious rice-pledging scheme is unlikely to cause volatility in the Thai bourse because investors place greater weight on financial factors, analysts say.
— Bangkok Post

Australian Defense Minister visits Thailand to tighten security relations
The Defense Ministers of Thailand and Australia have met to further enhance bilateral cooperation in security and terrorism prevention.
— NNT

NHRC opposes new bill’s “set zero” provision
The National Human Rights Commission on Tuesday (Aug 22) voted 4:2 to submit its dissenting view against the freshly-endorsed NHRC bill, demanding a tri-partite panel to be set up to scrutinize the bill.
— Thai PBS

Tourism agency plugs into 4.0
The authority will also promote new routes connecting Thailand with neighbouring countries in CLMV (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam), to cash in on the development of the government’s Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) project.
— The Nation (annoying popups)

Jiffy to expand its presence in ASEAN Market
PTT Retail Management Company Limited (PTTRM) is expanding its convenience store company Jiffy to Laos, aiming to establish 97 branches by 2022.
— NBT World (video)

Chonburi officials accuse tapioca haulers of using underage workers, and dumping waste into Sriracha Bay
An inspection of a cargo boat hauling tapioca off the coast of Chonburi province has uncovered two underage workers as well as illegal dumping of waste.
— NNT

Treasury Dept eyes making more commemorative coins after high demand
Three out of four types of commemorative coins in honor of His Majesty the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej have been fully booked, prompting the Treasury Department to seek permission to produce more.
— NNT

 

Feature photo: Asian Development Bank
Find our previous morning news feature photos in the AEC News Today Morning News Feature Photos gallery where you will find a pictorial display of daily life throughout the Asean Economic Community (AEC).

Thailand morning news by AEC News Today is your one stop source for Thailand news on matters of governance and policies affecting Asean business communities. It is published M-F by AEC News Today: Governance, not government; policies not politics.

 

 

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John Le Fevre

Thailand editor at AEC News Today

John is an Australian national with more than 40 years experience as a journalist, photographer, videographer, and copy editor.

He has spent extensive periods of time working in Africa and throughout Southeast Asia, with stints in the Middle East, the USA, and England.

He has covered major world events including Operation Desert Shield/ Storm, the 1991 pillage in Zaire, the 1994 Rwanda genocide, the 1999 East Timor independence unrest, the 2004 Asian tsunami, and the 2009, 2010, and 2014 Bangkok political protests.

In 1995 he was a Walkley Award finalist, the highest awards in Australian journalism, for his coverage of the 1995 Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo) Ebola outbreak.

Prior to AEC News Today he was the deputy editor and Thailand and Greater Mekong Sub-region editor for The Establishment Post, predecessor of Asean Today.

In the mid-80s and early 90s he owned JLF Promotions, the largest above and below the line marketing and PR firm servicing the high-technology industry in Australia. It was sold in 1995.

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