BANGKOK BUSINESS BRIEF January 2012 1 www.bangkokbusinessbrief.com www.bangkokbusinessbrief.com Inside 3 Years and Counting Down to the AEC: Will Thailand Be Ready? As Asean nations gear up for the formal establishment of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) in 2015, both the public and private sectors in ailand are realizing that with just three years remain- ing, the time to lay the ground- work for regional cooperation, and even expansion, is now. Various industries have begun preparing for regional economic integration and have made progress, while others remain skeptical and are taking a much more deliberate ap- proach. While this may be prudent for many ai companies, there is a danger that when 2015 arrives, certain sectors of the economy will be leſt behind and lose out to other Asean countries and companies that are better prepared. e urgency of the situation was indicated recently by comments By Dean Outerson General Interest 2 Economy 3 Government 4 Finance/Investment 5 Production 6 Infrastructure/Logistics 7 Retail/Services 8 IT/Comms 9 Tourism 10 Real Estate 11 Environment/CSR 12 Business Organizations 13 e Chambers 14 e Calendar 22 Vol. No. 1, Issue No. 2 January 2012 BANGKOK BUSINESS BRIEF from Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan, who advised that the ai government, in the wake of this year’s flooding crisis, realize the importance of the AEC and to attempt to boost confidence in the ai economy, both regionally and around the world. Indeed, ai- Story continues on Page 20. Single Market and Production Base Competitive Economic Region Integration (IAI) Equitable Economic Development external economic relations global supply networks Integration into the Global Economy Strategic Schedule Main Elements of AEC Human Resource Development Research and Development URGENT! British expats see Page 12 NOW!
Transcript
BANGKOK BUSINESS BRIEF January 2012 1www.bangkokbusinessbrief.com
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Inside
3 Years and Counting Down to the AEC: Will Thailand Be Ready?As Asean nations gear up for the formal establishment of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) in 2015, both the public and private sectors in !ailand are realizing that with just three years remain-
ing, the time to lay the ground-work for regional cooperation, and even expansion, is now. Various industries have begun preparing for regional economic integration and have made progress, while others remain skeptical and are taking a much more deliberate ap-proach. While this may be prudent
for many !ai companies, there is a danger that when 2015 arrives, certain sectors of the economy will be le# behind and lose out to other Asean countries and companies that are better prepared.
!e urgency of the situation was indicated recently by comments
from Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan, who advised that the !ai government, in the wake of this year’s $ooding crisis, realize the importance of the AEC and to attempt to boost con%dence in the !ai economy, both regionally and around the world. Indeed, !ai-
Story continues on Page 20.
Single Market and
Production Base
Competitive Economic
Region
Integration (IAI)
Equitable Economic
Development
external economic relations
global supply networks
Integration into the Global
Economy
Strategic ScheduleMain Elements of AEC
Human Resource Development Research and Development
URGENT! British expats see Page 12
NOW!
2 BANGKOK BUSINESS BRIEF January 2012 www.bangkokbusinessbrief.com
Laos agreed to delay construction of a $3.7 billion hydropower dam
study concerns among neigh-boring countries that the project would disrupt %sheries and rice production downstream.
Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Despite the high price tag, the plan will be worthwhile – Although a
!ai businesses should incorpo-rate natural disaster risks in their risk management plans and the government should empower a single agency to take charge of
watchdog groups, yesterday launched the “Clean !ailand DIY” campaign to monitor the government’s spending of Bt800 billion earmarked for post-$ood recovery e*orts.
said the group is inviting people to join its campaign for 2012 to watch post-$ood recovery e*orts, which the government has said...Full story at http://goo.gl/C8if0
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Laos to Delay Mekong River Dam, Agrees to Further Studies
Business council advises disaster plans
‘Only minor impact’ on European market
Tunnel analysts push for study
Anti-graft alliance vows to keep close watch
goo.gl/bH6PF...added that the company had set aside a signi%cant investment budget of Bt200 million to Bt300 million for overseas expansion.Full story at http://goo.gl/bH6PF
proposed initiative to construct a 100-kilometretunnel to prevent future $ooding in and around the capital will carry a he#y price tag, it is worth the cost, say under-ground tunnelling system ana-lysts.
major city relies solely on the canal. !e advantage of under-ground tunnels is they don’t re-quire any additional land,” said Zaw Zaw Aye, secretary-general of the World Tunnel Congress 2012 Organising Committee. “For ex-ample, if the damage from $ood-ing is 1 trillion dollars, an under-ground tunnel system could...Full story at http://goo.gl/k60NS
natural disasters, says the !ai-land Business Council for Sustain-able Development (TBCSD).
TBCSD chairman Prasert Bun-sumpun said companies have learned from the country’s worst $ood in %ve decades the signi%-cant risks to their business.
“Business operators have only fo-cused on %nancial performance and gaining market share. !ey overlooked...Full story at http://goo.gl/wzks0
!ailand will ask Japan’s govern-ment “and other international de-velopment partners” to help assess the impact of planned hydropower
a joint statement today. Vietnam earlier recommended a 10-year
projects.
Opposition to the Xayaburi dam may force...Full story at http://goo.gl/N1Rxd
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In spite of some concern over the $ooding in !ailand and the euro-zone debt crisis, more traders and tourists from the European Union will go to !ailand next year, ac-cording to a !ai envoy
“!e inundation has had a minor impact on the number of tourists and very little on trade or invest-ment. Tourists and investors still have high con%dence to visit and keep doing business with...Full story at http://goo.gl/cN7lh
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liam Shakespeare in JuliusCaesar. Nature and life are cyclical _ the seasons of the year, life and death, the phases of the moon, the tides. Caught up in daily details, we easily forget that the business world has cycles, too. We are all familiar with the economic business cycle
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!e continuing %nancial crisis in Europe is causing uncertainty but it will not have much impact on the !ai economy, a central bank o+cial said Tuesday.
-roeconomics director Songtham Pinto said the BoT has been keep-ing a close watch on the situation. It would have only a minimal af-fect on the overall economy of !ailand.
He said the central bank’s growth projection of 4.8 per cent for next year was based on the hypothesis that Europe’s economy was not so good but there was no sign that the situation was deteriorating further.
Full story at http://goo.gl/9MWnQ
Exports next year are expected to grow at a moderate single-digit pace as the unresolved world economy erodes consumption, says the Export-Import Bank of !ailand (Exim Bank).
Bank president Kanit Sukontha-man said !ai exports would ex-pand slowly in 2012 compared with this year’s 17-18% growth of US$22.8 billion.
Exim Bank is predicting a con-traction in global demand because of lingering economic woes in the large economies, which make up 30% of the !ai export market.
whether China’s government may have tried to...Full story at http://goo.gl/kJZPV
winning Canadian economist, is con%dent the 13-year-old Euro-pean monetary union will survive and has rea+rmed his wish for a universal currency.
Speaking yesterday in Bangkok, he predicted European leaders will address the euro zone’s embattled economies with important chang-es in the economic bloc.
amending the existing %scal treaty and making troubled economies adopt austerity measures.
“It is di+cult if not impossible to go back in the current crisis, and going forward requires a big...Full story at http://goo.gl/ZkIky
Gross domestic product is ex-pected to grow in 2012 by about seven per cent on the back of government investment to re-
BoT: Europe crisis won’t hurt economy
Export growth to narrow to single digits next year
Single world currency ‘inevitable’
Strong economic growth again predicted in 2012
build the country, Commerce
said on Wednesday.
said the government will imple-ment policies focusing on dis-tribution of income, increasing prices of agricultural products and raising of daily minimum wage of workers.
The government will intervene in the market to ensure that prices of agricultural goods are reasonably high, particularly...Full story at http://goo.gl/1m0Dj
Asian economies are facing “much greater downside risks” now be-cause of the possibility of a reces-sion in the U.S. and Europe and the threat of destabilizing capital $ows, the Asian Development Bank said.
!e biggest challenge for policy makers in emerging East Asian nations is to safeguard growth against the threat of another global
lender said in its Asia Economic
over the world economy means...Full story at http://goo.gl/TVkMM
Asia Faces ‘Much Greater’ Risks on Global Slowdown, ADB Says
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goo.gl/bH6PF...added that the company had set aside a signi%cant investment budget of Bt200 million to Bt300 million for overseas expansion.Full story at http://goo.gl/bH6PF
!e government’s plan to increase the labour minimum wage to 300 baht per day from April 1 next year will still be carried out despite the $ood which has severely a*ected the economy and the value-added tax (VAT) will not be increased from the current rate of 7 per cent,
Ranong said on Sunday.
He said that despite the $ood situ-ation, the increase in the coun-try’s exports during the %rst eight months was as high as 24 per cent, and the overall increase in...Full story at http://goo.gl/RklBA
Amid high concerns over recur-
Ranong vowed to protect indus-trial and trading areas under the soon-to-be launched master plan on water management.
!e Cabinet will today convene a special meeting to consider a post-$ood reconstruction bud-get, which Kittiratt hinted would exceed Bt40 billion if the Cabinet gave the green light to all the proj-ects being considered at the meet-ing. !e budget ceiling for recon-struction is said to be about Bt120 billion.Kittiratt said the government...Full story at http://goo.gl/CrRYW
!e reported management con--
ter Sukampol Suwannathat and his two deputy ministers, Chatt Kuldilokeand Kittisakdi Hatha-
A#er months of inundation, the government has announced that most factories in $ooded industri-al estates should be able to resume operation early next year.
To ensure this will take place, the %rst set of tax measures have re-cently been announced for the Board of Investment-promoted projects. Let’s %nd out what mea-
Kittiratt: B300 daily wage plan still on
Tax measures to subsidise industries
Govt vows to protect industry
Transport Ministry clashes ‘slow projects’
JSCCIB wants change to Article
!e Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking (JSCCIB) suggested the govern-ment rapidly amend Article 190 of the charter to allow state o+ces to freely deal with foreign countries.
Payungsak Chartsuthipol, chair-man of the Federation of !ai Industries, said on Wednesday that JSCCIB had set up a working panel to coordinate with the gov-ernment, asking it to quickly move to change the Article 190. JSCCIB thought the article is a major...Full story at http://goo.gl/DBiRf
songkroh, could a*ect the minis-try’s e*orts to push forward mega-project developments to serve the government’s policy, a source says.
During the past four months the ministry has shown little progress on mega-projects promised by the Pheu !ai Party during the gener-al-election campaign, including 10 mass-transit routes, the dual-track project, and high-speed rail. !e ministry is key to bringing such projects on stream, which would lead to massive investment in...Full story at http://goo.gl/bs1ri
sures are available at the moment.
import duties for machinery and raw materials come attached with conditions regarding the type of machinery and the exemption pe-riod. Also, the investment...Full story at http://goo.gl/ZyDYr
Government
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liam Shakespeare in JuliusCaesar. Nature and life are cyclical _ the seasons of the year, life and death, the phases of the moon, the tides. Caught up in daily details, we easily forget that the business world has cycles, too. We are all familiar with the economic business cycle
Foreign investors will return to !ailand next year because the Stock Exchange of !ailand (SET) is still attractive, !ianthip Supan-
Research Institute, said on Tues-day.
!ai capital market’s price to earn-ing (P/E) ratio of !ai shares is lower than that of the US stock market, while their dividend pay-ment rates are higher. In addition, the stock market in Europe has yet to recover and therefore it is expected that more foreign fund will $ow into the SET in 2012, said
Foreign investors made total net sales of 17 billion baht over the %rst eleven months of the year, but they returned to make net pur-chase of 9.3 billion baht in Decem-ber. !is was a sign showing that...Full story at http://goo.gl/QrEUw
Several European small and me-dium-sized enterprises are look-ing into making new investments in Asean, particularly !ailand, as the region is an emerging market with great opportunities for busi-ness growth.
To facilitate this, the European Commission has budgeted €2 mil-lion (Bt16 million) for the new Bangkok-based European-Ase-an Business Centre in !ailand (EABC).
Freya Lemcke (Eurochambres)
Union from various sectors would like to start businesses in the...Full story at http://goo.gl/3wJKS
-%ce expects foreign capital to $ow into !ailand’s bond market be-cause of the protracted sovereign debt crisis in Europe.
Chakkrit Parapuntakul, director-general of the o+ce, said yesterday that Standard & Poor’s, an inter-national rating agency, would fur-ther downgrade the creditworthi-ness of many countries in Europe.
Investors will not have opportuni-ties to deal in Europe or the Unit-ed States, he said.
!ailand, among other countries in this region, stands to gain from the next wave of capital $ows.
Foreign investors have plenty of room to expand in the !ai bond market, as they...Full story at http://goo.gl/T3hpZ
Asian economies are withstanding Europe’s debt crisis so well that some investors are positioning for credit-rating upgrades in the region.
watching the trading in (Asian credit-default) swaps, which pro-tect against non-payment, and how Asia copes with capital...Full story at http://goo.gl/jskTV
!e e-payment system of !ai banks is unlikely to be ready for
More foreign fund flow next year
SME: Thai hub planned to back stakes from Europe in Asean
Euro crisis expected to spur inflows
Asia Surviving Europe ‘Stress Test’ Boosts Case for Upgrade
New rules needed to get e-payment
the Asean Economic Community in 2015 because of problemswith the country’s fundamentals and regulations, and a joint govern-ment-private-sector committee should be set up quickly to imple-ment a cross-border payment sys-tem, banks executives said.
Anuchit Anuchitanukul, senior executive vice president of Krung !ai Bank, noted that the current e-payment systems served only lo-cals, unlike foreign banks, because of the regulations and business lo-gistics.
“We still see messengers riding motorcycles to collect cheques and invoices instead of using electron-ic payment systems,” he said. “!is indicates that the payment system in !ailand will not be ready once the AEC arrives.”...Full story at http://goo.gl/cBl5T
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goo.gl/bH6PF...added that the company had set aside a signi%cant investment budget of Bt200 million to Bt300 million for overseas expansion.Full story at http://goo.gl/bH6PF
Production
http://goo.gl/UrVpE
Given the magnitude of the $ood-in$icted losses to manufacturers both small and large, !ailand’s industrial competitiveness can only be maintained if a compre-hensive water-management mas-ter plan is developed, panellists at a seminar said.
!ree industrial-estate operators
!ai products will be promoted with a “!ailand Trust Quality
Promotion Department (DEP). Research shows !ai products are known for their diversi%cation and neat design, so the DEP will...Full story at http://goo.gl/Mdw2BSeagate Technology (!ailand)
Failure to develop water plan not an option: manufacturers
Seagate completes B1bn Korat factory
Quality stamp for products
Amata sees post-flood boom
Better safe than sorry
11% rise in demand projected next year – Amata Corporation expects a windfall from the $oods, increasing its target land sales to 2,000 rai next year, up from 1,800 rai, on demand from factories wanting to escape $ooded estates.
Viboon Kromadit, Amata’s chief operating o+cer, is con%dent the company can increase industrial land sales next year, pumping its revenue to 5 billion baht, up from a previous target of 4 billion.
With seven industrial estates in Ayutthaya and Pathum !ani in-undated, causing massive damage to the auto and electronics indus-tries, Amata has been contacted by several factories that are ready to move...Full story at http://goo.gl/UMKWR
Ltd, the world leader in hard-disk drives (HDDs) and storage solu-tions, has released the %gures for its new read/write-head factory in
Costing 1 billion baht for both construction and equipment, the 29,800-square-metre building will start operations next February.
!e new plant will create several thousand new jobs once it...Full story at http://goo.gl/yk9Wk
said that aside from the construc-tion of more robust $ood barri-ers at the estates as a short-term measure, investors are demanding a water master plan for long-term security.
“!e plan is a priority to ensure quick recovery in the manufac-turing sector,” said Kobkarn Wat-tanav-rangkul, chairwoman of Toshiba !ailand and Bangkadi Industrial Park – one of seven in-undated industrial estates.
“!ough it may require seven to eight years to implement, the plan is a must; there are fears that this...Full story at http://goo.gl/KUYkJ
!e $ood crisis has highlighted the desirability of diversifying op-erations across multiple locations.
!e unexpectedly huge scale of the ongoing $ood crisis has driven home the need for companies to diversify their operations base af-ter many saw their entire produc-tion process shut down.
Total damage has yet to be %gured, but already the potential price tag is sending shivers down the spine of companies that had their entire operation in a single location or even based in one country.
“Yes, we’ve learned a lesson from this natural disaster. We thought...Full story at http://goo.gl/eBZDB
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liam Shakespeare in JuliusCaesar. Nature and life are cyclical _ the seasons of the year, life and death, the phases of the moon, the tides. Caught up in daily details, we easily forget that the business world has cycles, too. We are all familiar with the economic business cycle
Infrastructure/Logistics
!e International Air Travel As-sociation (IATA) has called on the government to continue expand-ing Suvarnabhumi Airport rather than renovating $ooded Don
very costly, noting |that having dual airports does |not attract ei-ther airlines or tourists.
president for safety, operations and infrastructure at the IATA,
media day in Switzerland last week that the government should carefully consider the cost before
association believes the money would be better spent on expand-ing and developing Suvarnabhumi Airport, which would provide...Full story at http://goo.gl/9OoP8
Solvox technology from Germa-ny-based Linde to accelerate the puri%cation of contaminated $ood water and ensure the good quality of tap water distributed in Bang-kok and nearby provinces.
!ai Industrial Gases (TIG), a subsidiary of Linde, is committed to providing liquid oxygen used in the treatment process in addition to the installation of a puri%cation system worth Bt10 million to the
yesterday said tap water to date was still clean and safe for daily use. However, the amount of water contaminated a#er two months of $ooding is enormous, and the...Full story at http://goo.gl/IuuBK
Asian local governments search-ing for funds to pay for a slew of infrastructure projects may need to contemplate municipal bonds as an alternative funding source, according to a new report by Stan-dard & Poor’s Ratings Services.
!e report discusses some of the region’s infrastructure needs, as well as the key challenges facing Asia’s policymakers as they at-tempt to %nd funding solutions and address long-standing inves-tor concerns about the region’s bond markets. It also examines what needs to be done to kick-start the region’s municipal markets.
“Economic and market conditions are probably ripe for many coun-tries in emerging Asia to contem-plate new funding solutions...Full story at http://goo.gl/exy4L
Ch Karnchang, the country’s second-largest construction com-pany, is ready to take on Bt50 bil-lion to Bt60 billion worth of post-$ood work.
Chief executive o+cer Plew Trivisvavet said yesterday that a#er all $ood waters have been mopped up, old infrastructure such as roads would need to be repaired while new infrastruc-ture, such as roads, buildings...Full story at http://goo.gl/vfvIl
!ai logistics services providers have been advised to adjust them-
IATA urges single airport for Bangkok
MWA using German technology to accelerate water purification process
Some Asian cities urged to fund infrastructure with municipal bonds
Ch Karnchang gears up for billions’ of contracts
Logistics firms told to shape up before AEC
selves in response to rising compe-tition when the Asean community becomes a single market, e*ective in 2015.
Chula Sukmanop, inspector-gen-
said that transportation among Asean countries would become more convenient a#er Asean be-comes a single market.
!ailand would also open its road routes, covering a total length of more than 4,000 kilometres, in-cluding railways, for other Asean countries. !erefore, !ai logistics %rms need to increase their...Full story at http://goo.gl/IWWq0
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goo.gl/bH6PF...added that the company had set aside a signi%cant investment budget of Bt200 million to Bt300 million for overseas expansion.Full story at http://goo.gl/bH6PF
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reinsurer, estimates its net claims from the $ooding in !ailand at about 500 million euros ($671 million) before taxes.
!e estimate “is still subject to un-
Crisis management and social-media solutions will be the two key issues of interest to businesses next year because of the high level of uncertainty over the economy, politics and natural disasters.
Danai Chanchaochai, chief execu-tive o+cer of DC Consultants and
it was imperative for !ailand to...Full story at http://goo.gl/2eEOh
!anks to the development of mo-bile technology, a rising number of Internet users and more con-%dence in online payment, many leading retailers are planning to enter the e-business %eld next year.Phattaraporn Phenpraphat, vice-
Munich Re Expects Thai Flood Claims
Million Euros
Retailers eye online distribution channels
earnings take a hit
Thais’ average online spending at
Thai AirAsia delays IPO
Online shoppers in !ailand are sticking to the same online holiday shopping budget they set for them-selves last year, with half planning to spend the same amount as they did in 2010, according to the Visa Holiday Season Online Shopping Study.
!e study revealed that 33 per cent of respondents plan to set aside a higher online holiday shopping budget this year, while 18 percent said they would spend...Full story at http://goo.gl/gz3lX
president for marketing and public relations at Central Food Retail, which operates Tops Su-
said the company would o+cially launch its “Top Shop Online” divi-sion next year. Its e-division is al-ready in operation on a trial basis and has received good customer feedback.
Under this new marketing strat-egy, Phattaraporn said the compa-ny would also launch mobile ap-plications for this service next year and believes these channels will...Full story at http://goo.gl/O2EHH
certainty, as the water is draining away only very slowly and has still not fully receded in some areas,”
in a statement today. “It therefore remains di+cult to estimate losses in the worst a*ected industrial ar-eas around Bangkok.”
Swiss Re Ltd., the world’s second-biggest reinsurer, earlier this week estimated its claims from the $oods at $600 million and said it expects a total insured market...Full story at http://goo.gl/q9Irf
AirAsia insisted yesterday that the proposed initial public o*ering of its !ai a+liate was still on track, though with an apparent shi# to the %rst quarter of next year in-stead of this month.
Tony Fernandes, the CEO of Southeast Asia’s biggest low-cost carrier, said the planned IPO of !ai AirAsia (TAA) and that of Jakarta-based o*shoot AirAsia Indonesia (AAI) were both on schedule with regard to due dili-gence and regulatory approval.
“!ai AirAsia is submitting its ap-plication to regulators for market listing early in the %rst quarter of 2012,” he said, with AAI to...Full story at http://goo.gl/0raoW
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liam Shakespeare in JuliusCaesar. Nature and life are cyclical _ the seasons of the year, life and death, the phases of the moon, the tides. Caught up in daily details, we easily forget that the business world has cycles, too. We are all familiar with the economic business cycle
IT / Comms
Global survey says more compa-nies bank on new-media tools to deliver information to employees
A majority of companies world-wide say they are becoming more knowledgeable about the use of social-media tools to connect with and keep their workforces informed.
In fact, more than two-thirds of companies surveyed by global professional services company Towers Watson, plan to increase their use of social-media tools over the next 12 months though many question their...Full story at http://goo.gl/7p1wn
Tele-communications Commis-sion has given approval to cellular operators to test fourth-genera-tion cellular broadband service on the 2.3-gigahertz and 1,800-mega-hertz frequencies.
watchdog had approved a joint application by Advanced Info Ser-vice (AIS) and TOT to o*er Long Term Evolution (LTE) technol-ogy 4G service on TOT’s 2.3GHz spectrum on a trial basis. !e state
-trum in the trial.
AIS and TOT will jointly...Full story at http://goo.gl/XOzbQ
!e government plans to set up a state data centre to support busi-ness continuity during natural di-sasters and political turmoil, says the Electronic Government Agen-cy (EGA).
“In early January, the EGA will submit a proposal to seek cabinet approval for the data centre proj-ect,” said director Sak Segknoon-thod.
“!e centre will consolidate all state agency data centres into a single unit” to eliminate redun-dancy. If we want any data now, we have to hop on and o* in di*erent places instead of taking essential data from a single place.”
!e agency will assess the e+cien-cy of government data centres and integrate related ones. !e central data centre will be sited in a prov-ince such as Chon Buri to shield it from...Full story at http://goo.gl/nptTm
Companies in South Asia are con%dently wading into cloud computing, but they admit com-plicated operational security is a top concern, according to the 2011 state of cloud survey.
Conducted by the leading data security %rm Symantec, the sur-vey found 84% of 1,100 organ-isations surveyed in !ailand,
Vietnam, Philippines and India are con%dent about shi#ing to cloud computing _ the use of ap-plications hosted online.
Full story at http://goo.gl/mFizU
Firms embrace social media
NBTC approves
cellular broadband service
EGA plans master centre for business continuity
Survey: Cloud security emerging concern among users
Thailand’s IT ranking slips a notchCAT Telecom and True Corp group next week will discuss amending their contracts for joint !ailand has slipped one spot in
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its IT competitiveness ranking, but the country’s PC so#ware pi-racy rate is fast declining, says a new report by the Economist In-telligence Unit.
!ailand’s IT competitiveness ranking slipped to 50th in this year’s IT Competitiveness Index, from 49th two years ago.
!e Business So#ware Alliance (BSA), which sponsored the re-port, said blame falls mainly on...Full story at http://goo.gl/R5y6q
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goo.gl/bH6PF...added that the company had set aside a signi%cant investment budget of Bt200 million to Bt300 million for overseas expansion.Full story at http://goo.gl/bH6PF
Tourism
Representatives of both the private and public sectors are predicting that the tourism industry will see strong growth in the coming year
Although the countries bidding to host the World Expo 2020 have grown from two to %ve, the !ai-land Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) is con%dent that Ayutthaya remains the top...Full story at http://goo.gl/sgOS0
!e Tourism Authority of !ai-land (TAT) plans to restore the Chinese market a#er the main-land li#ed its travel warning last week.
-ty governor for Asia and the South Paci%c, said the agency will sup-port half of the marketing cam-paign cost for travel agents who join the project to promote 10 charter $ights from Chinese prov-inces that have never had $ights to !ailand such as Shanxi Sheng, Chongqing, Hebei, and Henan.
Full story at http://goo.gl/ySo1u
!e !ai Hotels Association is
ensure that all registered hotels
!e Tourism Authority of !ai-land (TAT) will introduce “!ai-land Welcomes the World”, its new campaign aimed at impressing international travellers from their %rst step inside the country.
“!ailand is now rehabilitating it-self in the wake of massive $ood-ing, so we must make a strong impression on tourists by giving them a warm welcome as soon as they arrive,” said governor Sura-phon Svetasreni.
!e 20-million-baht campaign,...Full story at http://goo.gl/8Yhsc
Kingdom set for post-flood tourism rebound
THA presses govt to enforce ‘nurse room’ requirement in all hotels
Despite more rivals, TCEB confident of winning
TAT hungry for Chinese market
New TAT campaign aimed at getting off on the right foot with foreign arrivals
have a functioning nurse room for emergency %rst aid, as it is a re-quirement of the Hotel Act.
“Even genuinely registered op-erators should not receive a li-cence extension if they don’t have a nurse room,” THA president Prakit Chinamourphong said yes-terday.
!e association has submitted
Yongyuth Wichaidit for the gov-ernment to continue to help up-grade hotel standards and safety through the Hotel Act.
!e requirement for a nurse room in every hotel was...Full story at http://goo.gl/rpBUq
as visitors return to the Kingdom a#er delaying trips because of the $ooding crisis.
of Pullman Bangkok King Power Hotel, said that not only foreign tourists, but also business travel-lers and !ais would require the use of hotels for meetings and events.
put their plans to travel to !ai-land on hold during the $ooding
but they are expected to...Full story at http://goo.gl/71iFh
BANGKOK BUSINESS BRIEF January 2012 11
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liam Shakespeare in JuliusCaesar. Nature and life are cyclical _ the seasons of the year, life and death, the phases of the moon, the tides. Caught up in daily details, we easily forget that the business world has cycles, too. We are all familiar with the economic business cycle
Real Estate
An extension of the current maxi-mum lease term to 90 years from 30 years would help to address problems of !ai nominees hold-ing property ownership for for-eigners while more than doubling property values and generating more tax revenue.
!e inability to own land in !ai-land and an unattractive maxi-mum lease term of 30 years for a property prompt some foreigners to appoint !ai nominees to hold the property for them.
!ey may also set up a %rm to hold the property, which o#en results in a dispute between the foreign-ers and their !ai nominees.
Sorachon Boonsong, a partner in the international law %rm Baker &
does not bene%t the country, as...Full story at http://goo.gl/X2Ryw
!is year’s $ood crisis will spark a sea change in home loan criteria
!e mortgage sector will likely change signi%cantly following the $ood crisis as banks readjust their debt approval criteria.
Project location, appraisal prices, home insurance and the property’s business strategy will all be scruti-nised more closely.
Location has normally been the main factor in a property project, corresponding positively to the cost estimate and in turn a*ecting banks’ credit line approvals. De-velopers have favoured areas out-side Bangkok proper but...Full story at http://goo.gl/F5a26
Government Housing Bank (GH Bank) expects zero growth next year due to the impact of the $oods.
President Worawit Chailim-pamontri said GH Bank has set a 2012 loan target of 99 billion baht, on a par with this year’s goal, as the deluge in recent months will tame the pace of housing de-mand.
!e $ood crisis has not only hit homebuyers in the pocketbook but also caused them to delay their decisions.
“People who want to buy a new home right now are mostly delay-ing their decisions to reconsider,”
review the location to make sure it is safe from $ooding.”
He believes next year’s %rst quar-ter could be an opportunity for...Full story at http://goo.gl/L1T33
Land prices in Bangkok’s inner areas such as Siam Square have surged dramatically to Bt1.4 mil-lion per square wah(4 square metres) in the a#ermath of the severe $oods that hit many areas, according to the latest survey of the Agency for Real Estate A*airs (AREA), an independent proper-ty-consulting %rm.
!e areas along Sukhumvit Road, where Siam Paragon Shopping Complex and Siam Square are located, have seen rates shoot up to as high as Bt1.4 million per square wah, or Bt560 million per rai, a 17-per-cent surge from Bt1.2 million per square wah last year. !e Siam Square area also...Full story at http://goo.gl/ctvxg
lease term proposed
Mortgage rethink
GH Bank sets flat growth for 2012 loans
Land prices rise sharply after floods
Anupong wins top award!e listed developer Asian Prop-erty Development Plc (AP) won Best A*ordable Condo Develop-ment (Bangkok) for its project Rhythm Ratchada while its CEO Anupong Asavabhokhin won Real Estate Personality of the Year in !ailand Property Awards 2011.
!e Residences at !e St. Regis Bangkok was the winner of three awards at yesterday’s event in-cluding Best Condo Development !ailand, Best Luxury Condo De-velopment (Bangkok) and Best...Full story at http://goo.gl/BC2bF
12 BANGKOK BUSINESS BRIEF January 2012 www.bangkokbusinessbrief.com
BriefsTo read the full article of a story brief, enter the short code at the end of the story into your browser:
goo.gl/bH6PF...added that the company had set aside a signi%cant investment budget of Bt200 million to Bt300 million for overseas expansion.Full story at http://goo.gl/bH6PF
Environment / CSR
!ailand aims to increase con-sumption of alternative energy to
Tesco Lotus last week an-nounced the opening of !ai-land and Asia’s %rst zero carbon store in Bang Phra in Chon Buri province,demonstrating its con-tinued commitment to serving the !ai people and supporting the !ai economy, while continuing to care for the environment. !e store, which emits zero net carbon...Full story at http://goo.gl/U0Nhx
!e American Chamber of Com-merce in !ailand (Amcham) has picked the ‘BETTER’ programme
award from among 36 companies,
!e usage of biofuels in the avia-tion sector is set to gain momen-tum next week with the launch of !ai Airways $ights using the crop-based energy source. While airlines see the shi# as contribut-ing to their %nancial bottom-lines, as well as reducing global warm-ing, it is against the backdrop of a growing debate over the impact it will have on long-term land-use ratios and the price of food.
In an announcement last week, THAI said it is set to be the %rst airline in Asia to $y a commer-cial passenger $ight using biofuels to support the company’s Travel Green initiative that is part of its corporate social responsibility... Full story at http://goo.gl/0ruX5
Plan to raise alternative energy consumption
Microsoft’s BETTER project bags CSR award
Tesco Lotus opens Thailand and Asia’s first zero carbon store
China and Asean explore green future
Balancing the biofuel dilemma
Huge potential in harnessing world-leading Chinese solar tech-nologies to meet soaring demand for cleaner energy.
Asean and China have pledged to exchange knowledge on how to create low-carbon and livable cit-ies as part of the region’s growing green awareness.
While Asean countries are en-dowed with rich natural resources, a lot of damage has been done to the environment over the past few decades of industrial....Full story at http://goo.gl/lKVzU
for its active role in bolstering the !ai workforce through technol-ogy.
Under the BETTER project, the company, established in 1993, gives tools to the !ai workforce nationwide to improve their com-puter literacy, apply practical ICT skills and tools to their business, upgrade their job skills using ICT, improve their self-learning skills towards life-long-learning experi-ences, and gain more information accessible through the Internet.
Currently, 21,467 people are ben-e%ting from the programme with expectations that the number will reach 40,000. Participants con-%rmed that the IT knowledge and con%dence they gained improved...Full story at http://goo.gl/H4l2Z
25 per cent within 10 years, which would lead to a signi%cant drop in crude-oil imports.
-
the new alternative-energy plan. From 2012 to 2021, alternative-energy consumption would be raised from 7,400 kilotonnes of oil or equivalent – the amount of energy released by burning that...Full story at http://goo.gl/nzQTZ
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BANGKOK BUSINESS BRIEF January 2012 13
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liam Shakespeare in JuliusCaesar. Nature and life are cyclical _ the seasons of the year, life and death, the phases of the moon, the tides. Caught up in daily details, we easily forget that the business world has cycles, too. We are all familiar with the economic business cycle
Business Organizations
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Led by Securities Commission -
nance (CG) experts are collabo-rating on the development of a “CG scorecard” to rank publicly listed companies in the region.
-sity of Singapore Business School, Rongruja Saicheua of the !ai In-
specialist Prof Salleh Hassan, and Prof Sidharta Utama from the In-donesian Institute for Corporate Directorship.
!ey will assess Asean public companies against an array of evaluation criteria and develop a ranking list of companies. !e list is expected to be released in the %rst quarter of 2012.
“For example, !ai companies have always come up with detailed
Singapore can learn from...Full story at http://goo.gl/k6eIE
In spite of the successful outcome of the Asean Leaders Summit in Bali last week, the association and its key tradingpartners are expect-ed to strengthen cooperation on peace, social security and intra-regional trade to ensure a smooth integration into a single commu-nity by 2015.
“We are living with challenge and a bubble economy. Asean and East Asian countries are expected to enhance cooperation in eco-nomic, social and environmental spheres so that they will ensure stable growth,” Surin Pitsuwan...Full story at http://goo.gl/1usYv
!e Federation of !ai Industries (FTI), the country’s most power-ful private-sector organisation, has urged enterprises to strength-en their businesses through trade associations to increase their bar-gaining power.
At a seminar on good business practice, panellists urged enter-prises to become members of trade associations so that the gov-ernment will listen to their con-cerns.
GIZ representative David Ober-huber said enterprises, particular-ly small and medium-sized ones, should strengthen their coopera-tion so that they will have more power to make their needs...Full story at http://goo.gl/QYrOX
Asia Paci%c economies are urged to lend their hands in balancing the global economy in light of fragile situation in the euro zone,
Fund managing director Chris-tine Lagarde.
She said that it is important to avoid other risks to the global economy, especially those relat-ed to low growth and unaccept-ably high unemployment. “For APEC’s advanced economies, this means primarily adopting strong medium-term %scal consolida-tion plans, which will create...Full story at http://goo.gl/h2d7w
Leaders of the 10-member As--
chair the group in 2014, a move they say will provide further mo-mentum for reform in the former military dictatorship.
“All leaders are in agreement that signi%cant developments have
those changes have made it more
this responsibility,” Indonesian -
gawa told reporters in Bali today. “We are trying to ensure that the process of...Full story at http://goo.gl/eASO4
Asean countries should be open to intra-region investment and speed up market integration as well as invite foreign direct in-vestment (FDI) as fast as pos-sible to reap the bene%ts from the creation of the Asean Economic Community (AEC), the head of !ailand’s largest industrial con-glomerate said yesterday.
Kan Trakulhoon, president and chief executive o+cer of Siam Ce-ment Group (SCG), also assured investors during the Asean...Full story at http://goo.gl/de0BL
When Asean decided to invite the United States and Russia to join the premium leader-led East Asia Summit (EAS) in July 2010, it had no idea that their presence would impact on the overall pattern of
Twenty one member countries of World Trade Organisation (WTO) %led 425 questions to the !ai delegation joining the sixth trade policy review in Geneva, Switzerland.
To Srirat Rastapana, director-gen--
partment, the questions showed !ailand’s relative attractiveness to foreign investment.
“!ailand is now among the top 20 countries in global trade and investment. In 2010, the value of exports and imports accounted for 135 per cent of gross domestic product. !ailand was ranked...Full story at http://goo.gl/WouxX
Governance ‘scorecard’ planned for public companies in Asean
Asean chief outlines broad goals of regional integration
Enterprises urged to join trade associations
Apec economies can do their part: IMF
Asean Leaders Agree Myanmar Will Chair
Can Asean centrality be maintained at East Asia Summit?
SCG chief calls for more intra-ASEAN investment, FDI
Thailand remains attractive
engagement with other dialogue partners.
As it turns out, the desire to con-struct an expansive Asean-led regional architecture is being challenged fervently by other non-Asean EAS members. !ey have already collectively de-manded to be treated as equal, as the sixth EAS scheduled on 18
is a red-herring as it could under-mine the...Full story at http://goo.gl/iJ2KZ
BANGKOK BUSINESS BRIEF January 2012 www.bangkokbusinessbrief.com
The ChambersThe American Chamber of Commerce in Thailand (AMCHAM Thailand)
2012 Board of Governors Elections !e Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel
-
Lunch, with an address from U.S. Ambassador Kristie Kenney.
During lunch ballots were count-ed and at the conclusion of lunch
elected Governors to the 2012
http://goo.gl/mbUpG
Board: Daleen (Dee) Richmond,
-ing Director, Dana Spicer; John
-ager, Seagate; Douglas Harter de
-tor Telematics. Re-elected for a second term were: Peter Fleet,
Company; Pornlert Lattanan,
Use your smartphone’s QR Code scanner or enter the short code to go directly to AMCHAM’s website.
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liam Shakespeare in JuliusCaesar. Nature and life are cyclical _ the seasons of the year, life and death, the phases of the moon, the tides. Caught up in daily details, we easily forget that the business world has cycles, too. We are all familiar with the economic business cycle
A Good Time for a Good Cause: >e Annual Festive Eggnog Party!e American Chamber of Com-
celebrated the annual Eggnog Fes-tive Holiday Party on December 8 and raised Baht 71,810 and a full cart of toys for donation to the Human Development Founda-
President and CEO, General Electric International Opera-tions; David Lyman, Chairman, Tilleke & Gibbins.
!e newly elected Governors will be joining returning board mem-bers: Peter Eliot, Country O+cer for !ailand, Citibank; Janice Van Ekeren, Chief Financial O+cer, Bank of Ayudhya; Bruce Hoppe, Vice President of Asia Operations, Emerson Electric; Brian Housh,
English Solutions; Vorapong Vo-rasuntharosoth, Government Af-fairs Leader for South East Asia/
Dow Chemical.
Congratulations to the newly elected 2012 Board Governors!
Eggnog party to thank its mem-bers for their support. !e party includes Christmas foods, gi#s and of course plenty of eggnog. Even Santa Claus was on-hand to take gi# requests from future members.
In keeping with the holiday spirit,
-cy Centre. Since 2007, this annual
Centre toys and Baht 321,690.
be received by children staying at the Centre and by children who lost possessions due to the $ood.
provide education support for children of poor neighborhoods. Today the Centre is part of the Human Development Founda-tion under the Royal Patronage of HRH Princess Srirasmi and pro-vides education and quality of life assistance to over 6,000 children and over 5,000 adults.
AMCHAM "ailand Charitable Foundation presents check for Baht 71,810 to Father Joe and his sta#. Donated money was raised at AMCHAM’s annual Festive Eggnog Party.
16 BANGKOK BUSINESS BRIEF January 2012 www.bangkokbusinessbrief.com
The ChambersThe Australian-Thai Chamber of Commerce (AustChamThailand)
Disruptions from the $oods not-withstanding (and we were one of the lucky ones), the Australian-!ai Chamber of Commerce is pleased with our achievement for 2011. We delivered a strong pro-gram of outputs and activity for our members throughout the year. We had a highly successful year of events, averaging more than one event per week and serving some 7,000 customers. We were proud to host the Australian Head of
20th Floor, !ai CC Tower, 889 South Sathorn Road, Yannawa, Bangkok 10120
State, the Governor-General, Her Excellency Quentin Bryce AC, to open AustCham’s community services project at Wat Phutakian Kindergarten in Kanchanaburi. And we spearheaded our renewed focus on business through the es-
and Infrastructure Group and an alliance with a top-tier Australian consulting %rm, AEC Group, to research the nature and extent of Australian business in !ailand.
Use your smartphone’s QR Code scanner or enter the short code to go directly to AustCham’s website.
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liam Shakespeare in JuliusCaesar. Nature and life are cyclical _ the seasons of the year, life and death, the phases of the moon, the tides. Caught up in daily details, we easily forget that the business world has cycles, too. We are all familiar with the economic business cycle
Contact the AustCham OQce for further details. Phone: +66 2 210 0216 Email: [email protected]
Also in 2011, we formalised an agreement with the !ai-Aus-tralian Association (TAA) to jointly run the AustralianAlumni program, and for the %rst time brought together all of the Aus-tralian university representatives in !ailand under a single Alumni Council umbrella. We won a grant from the Australian Government for the AustralianAlumni initia-tive, which we intend to o+cially launch at a major event in early 2012. Stay tuned for details.
Our AustCham Ball and AFL Grand Final celebration were again highlights of the year, be-tween them attracting some 900 guests. Courtesy of Air Australia we gave away four tickets to Aus-tralia, among the 220 other prizes available in AustCham charity raNes and door prizes. Our e*orts contributed to more than Baht 1.3
!e AustCham website received more than 3,000 visits each month during 2011, and we dispatched 166 e-news notices. !ere were at least 48 newspaper reports of Aus-tCham’s activities in 2011. And an AustCham opinion-piece was published in the widely-respected broadsheet the Australian, which attracts a daily readership of more than 135,000. We published twelve
issues of our own magazine, Ad-vance, printing some 120,000 words and 60 business articles. It was a busy year.
Finishing the year on a high note, the Australian Ambassador to !ailand, HE James Wise, and his wife Teresa once again kindly hosted AustCham members for Christmas Sundowners at their residence. !is was a fantastic celebration for which AustCham would like to thank the Ambas-sador and his wife. Along with the British, French, Irish, and
-merce, AustCham also donated
for its Rugby program ‘Changing Lives Forever’ which targets un-derprivileged children in the slum communities of Bangkok. !e money was raised through spon-sorship of the Combined Cham-bers Rugby World Cup Series of Events.
We also closed out the year by partnering with Baker Tilley !ai-land to support a brie%ng by the Australian-led Save of Children operation on the social and hu-manitarian impacts of the !ai $oods. !anks to Baker Tilley for helping us to spotlight this impor-tant issue.
BANGKOK BUSINESS BRIEF January 2012 www.bangkokbusinessbrief.com
The ChambersBritish Chamber of Commerce Thailand (BCCT)
!e end of the year has been a busy period for BCCT. In the four
mid December we held 11 events, many focusing on business reha-bilitation and business recovery from the $ood impact.
In addition the Chamber dedicat-ed resources to help raise funds for $ood victims at our two $agship events. !e Ploenchit Fair raNe sales with support from our mem-bers in selling, buying and donat-ing prizes earned a neat 800,000 THB. !e full amount without deduction, together with money raised from other stalls at the fair, will be donated to a charity to aid $ood relief.
Our annual Christmas lunch on 15 December was another special occasion where members, col-leagues, friends, family, sta* and business partners celebrated to-gether. In the true sharing spirit of Christmas, money raised from the sales of raNes and from the auc-tion will also be donated to a char-ity to assist those who were a*ect-ed by the $ood. !is amounts to another 400,000 THB. !is could
not have been possible without the support of our prize donors, our auction winners and everyone that bought raNe tickets.
As we bid goodbye to the year, we also sadly have to say farewell to
-cided to step down from his po-sition as Chairman of the board of BCCT. Graham has been on the board of BCCT for 14 years, the last two of which he served as Chairman. He will of course remain active within the BCCT community, and has o*ered to provide advise to the new board that will be elected at the Annual
2012.
As we enter into the new year, our commitment and focus remains on facilitating ties between !ailand and the UK, and to creating opportunities for our members. For more information and for our upcoming activities visit www.bccthai.com or like us on Facebook ‘British Chamber of Commerce >ailand’.
Use your smartphone’s QR Code scanner or enter the short code to go directly to BCCT’s website.
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liam Shakespeare in JuliusCaesar. Nature and life are cyclical _ the seasons of the year, life and death, the phases of the moon, the tides. Caught up in daily details, we easily forget that the business world has cycles, too. We are all familiar with the economic business cycle
Open weekdays from 8.30 am – 5.30 pm, the BCCT o+ce also in-corporates a small library provid-ing access to UK and !ai trade
of Commerce handbooks, busi-ness journals and magazines. !ere is also a small meeting room available for members use during o+ce hours.
Key BeneLts of joining the BCCT
business community
and lectures
charitable activities
Graham Wainwright, auction winner for the England 1966 Football World Cup replica team shirt signed by 10 of the 11 winning players.
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liam Shakespeare in JuliusCaesar. Nature and life are cyclical _ the seasons of the year, life and death, the phases of the moon, the tides. Caught up in daily details, we easily forget that the business world has cycles, too. We are all familiar with the economic business cycle
15 Soi Tonson, Ploenchit RoadLumpini, PathumwanBangkok 10330
BANGKOK BUSINESS BRIEF January 2012 www.bangkokbusinessbrief.com
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liam Shakespeare in JuliusCaesar. Nature and life are cyclical _ the seasons of the year, life and death, the phases of the moon, the tides. Caught up in daily details, we easily forget that the business world has cycles, too. We are all familiar with the economic business cycle
!ai C. C. Tower 9th Fl., 889 South Sathorn Rd., SathornBangkok 10120
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20 BANGKOK BUSINESS BRIEF January 2012 www.bangkokbusinessbrief.com
3 Years & Counting: Will Thailand Be Ready?Story continued from Page 1.
land’s slow response in preparing for the AEC, combined with the recent $ooding, may undermine its position as a major production base for the world’s supply chains, a development that would seri-ously damage !ailand’s economy.
In addition to comments from regional and even national minis-ters, calls from the private sector for faster market integration and increased foreign investment have also been heard. Speaking at the
Asean Business and Investment
Khun Kan Trakulhoon, President and CEO of Siam Cement Group (SCG), said the time for Asean is now.
“!e faster we open our countries for FDI, the faster we will ben-e%t from the integration,” he said. “Truly speaking, I wouldn’t be concerned whether foreign inves-tors choose to invest in !ailand or not. I’d still be happy if they choose any location in Asean. !is should be the spirit of Asean coun-tries.”
While this may be a welcome sen-timent and represent sound busi-ness strategy, intra-region trade and investment still lags far behind Asean trade with the rest of the world. Since 1993, intra-regional trade in Asean countries has ac-tually declined as a percentage of overall trade (see chart). Revers-ing that trend will be a signi%cant challenge for both the public and private sectors, but companies like SCG are starting to make a move toward regional investment. SCG announced recently that they have committed $5 billion over the next four years to investment in !ai-land and the region, with 75% of this going to regional mergers and acquisitions.
Despite the banking sector having an additional %ve years from 2015 to be fully liberalized, larger !ai banks are actually starting to lead the way in terms of regional expan-sion. Bangkok Bank recently au-thorized its wholly-owned subsid-iary, Bangkok Bank Bhd, to open
while K-Bank is also expanding in the region with two partners in Vietnam and is currently negotiat-ing with banks in Laos, Indonesia
and Singapore. Central banks in the region are also working on the rules for Quali%ed Asean Banks (QABs) and will announce these rules in late 2012.
In other sectors, however, com-panies are taking a more cautious approach. In the hospitality and tourism sector, and as reported in e Nation in December, the Erawan Group, for example, will develop 14 new hotels in !ailand, but will only commission a feasi-bility study into investing in hotels in the region.
Overall, weaker global demand for consumer products and the supply chain problems caused by disasters in Japan and !ailand this year, have a*ected growth in Asean countries, in general, and in !ailand, in particular. But the prospect of full regional economic integration in 2015, despite the challenges that !ailand and !ai companies face in achieving this goal, represents a signi%cant op-portunity for growth for the !ai economy. Whether the !ai gov-ernment and !ai companies will realize this in time for 2015, is an-other question.
