Transport Minister Arkom Termpitthayapaisith said that the ministry will spend Bt26 billion of the budget in developing logistics in the lower northern region, including a rail and road system.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet in its mobile meeting in Nakhon Sawan province yesterday, also approved a new bill on the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) which will be used as a tool to change and upgrade NESDB’s work implementation, said Kobsak Pootrakul, Minister to the Prime Minister’s Office.

He said at a press conference yesterday that the event would be held on July 20 to raise awareness on the huge potential for increasing bilateral trade and investment. He believes it will provide a platform for Myanmar’s policy makers to share information on the nation’s economic policies, foreign investment laws and regulations.

“Thai businessmen who are doing business in Myanmar will also share their experiences and success stories with other businesses back home, so that prospective Thai investors can be well-prepared and inspired to enter the market,” he said.

Nattawin said the full-day event would include four panel discussions -macroeconomic view of Myanmar, investment opportunities in electricity and energy sector, trading and retail, as well as agriculture, fishery, and livestock sector.

In addition to those sectors, Nattawin sees much room for cooperation in other four sectors: infrastructure, manufacturing, telecommunications and tourism. At the event, Thai businesses will have the opportunity to actively discuss with nearly 50 officials from both countries, he said.

In a bid to share firsthand information about Myanmar’s business landscape with Thai businesses, TBAM frequently organises public events named Myanmar Update and Myanmar Talk. It also organised the Myanmar Insight seminar in 2015 and last year, Nattawin said.

Established in 1997, the association currently has over 240 member companies, 90 per cent of which are Thai firms. The majority of them are services, construction, trading, and distribution companies. Nattawin expects to enjoy 30 per cent growth in terms of membership this year.

At the media briefing, Jukr Boon-Long, Thai Ambassador to Myanmar, said the event would help Thai businesses to understand more about Myanmar to a large extent.

“Myanmar has great potential for Thai investors. Opportunities can be found not only in Yangon and Mandalay but in other parts of the country as well. Each State or region has its own characteristics and attractions,” he said.

Perfect timing

He encourages Thai businesses to invest in or trade with Myanmar, as it is the perfect timing.

“Over the past 70 years of our diplomatic relations, there have been ups and downs. But, we are now at the excellent stage of our relationship, in all dimensions including politics, technical cooperation especially trainings for Myanmar officials in many important areas such as health, education, banking, and development of small and medium enterprises,” he said. According to the envoy, big Thai companies such as PTTEP and SCG have been doing responsible business in Myanmar for many decades, setting up good examples for other Thai businesses that are eyeing the market.

“More and more Thai businesses want to do business in Myanmar. But they are also waiting for new laws and regulations. Infrastructure is still a challenge for them. And it is very important to have proper banking systems in place. Such things need to be taken into account,” he said.

“The most important thing is to find the right local partners because it is the key to success. If you find a wrong partner, then your business will collapse.”

Jukr said the event would help Thai businesses in this regard. He seems confident about better bilateral ties during the current government term. He believes high level visits reflect obvious improvements in the bilateral relations.

The sharing economy – such as home sharing, ride sharing and office space sharing – has become integral to the way we live. No matter where in the world we visit, we witness more and more businesses of this nature. Whilst the whole world is welcoming the sharing economy with open arms, Thailand paints a rather different picture: We are actually going against the current.

Around mid-May of this year, the Prachuap Khiri Khan Provincial Court ruled that the owner of a Hua Hin condominium residence illegally rented out their unit on a daily basis. The court stated that rentals via Airbnb or any form of home sharing in which a person rents a residence on a daily basis from a non-hotel entity would be a contravention of the Thai law. The ruling concluded that the owner was guilty of renting out their residence without a daily rent permit. Does the local law allow real-estate owner to apply for a daily-rent permit or are hotel operators the only group of entities allowed? No one has yet to offer an answer.

The people who will suffer from this ruling are buyers who have bought condominium residences as a long-term investment in response to the demand in Thailand’s tourism industry, as well as tourists looking for a new, more localised experience. I believe the issues to have a major impact on the tourism industry. Relevant entities need to tackle the them head on, especially the vagueness of the legal wording. We need to make sure that every party involved to reap the benefit equally – much like what has been done in other countries.

The Thai economy relies on tourism. The country has invited travellers and tourists, both local and foreign, to visit lesser known provinces with intriguing local customs and traditions, but their facilities are still lacking because investors are reluctant to build hotels. They are still unsure whether the demand would be as high as the government has estimated. It is the chicken or the egg causality dilemma. The economy cannot grow when every party is waiting for another to act first. Nonetheless, a home-sharing business such as Airbnb has the potential to propel the economic growth of these secondary destinations. It allows travellers and tourists to stay in existing homes of the locals. It allows them to get even closer to the local culture. Local vendors will be able to sell more. These lesser known towns will become better known. The economy will grow. With an increasing number of tourists comes an opportunity for investors to build a hotel that will help the town cope with the demand.

For the scenario above to happen, Airbnb must first operate legally in major cities, such as Bangkok, Pattaya, Phuket, Chiang Mai and Hua Hin. When authorities in these major cities reject Airbnb, travellers and tourists will be under the impression that Thailand as a whole is against the business, which means secondary destinations will not grow or grow at a much slower rate. In the end, they will look to other countries, and our tourism industry will lose out in the long run.

Is it not already time for all parties involved to put all hands on deck and tackle the issue? We need to start with amending existing laws or pass new ones to regulate the sharing economy, such as allowing operators to apply for a short-term permit, which would able the state to collect more in income tax, a portion of which has been outside the system. We simply need to look at what has been done or what is in progress in other countries, such as in the UK, France, Italy, Singapore and the US, to accommodate the emergence of the sharing economy.

For example, Airbnb has worked with the City of San Francisco to enable homeowners to obtain a permit to rent out their homes on a short-term basis. In return, Airbnb must provide information on these homeowners and guests to the city. The result is growth in the tourism industry. The city collected more in taxes. Big data have been used to make plans for the tourism industry in a more efficient manner. Homeowners have an additional source of income to help them pay rent. It is evident that amending the laws has yielded benefit to the parties involved.

In the case of Thailand, we still see taxi drivers rejecting passengers everywhere while travellers are going to local markets where we don’t think they would go, and entrepreneurs are working with just their laptops in co-working spaces. It is time to adapt to accommodate the sharing economy. We’ve seen adaptations around the globe or talks of plans to adapt. Are we going to stay still and do nothing, getting branded as a backward country?

Note: Writen by Srettha Thavisin, president of Sansiri Plc

Up to 71.8 per cent of spending was for regular expenses, with the remaining 37.1 per cent for investment, a source from the Finance Ministry said.

“We are spending the investment budget at a lower rate than our estimates, which is for us to spend the investment budget at up to 87 per cent of the total investment budget for the year,” the source said.

Currently, state agencies have signed contracts that come to 63.9 per cent of the total investment budget for this fiscal year. Most of them expect to spend the remaining allocation in the rest of this year, the source said.

Meanwhile, the state own agencies have continued to expand their investment in line with their targets, such as for the National Housing Authority of Thailand to spend its investment budget at a rate of 78.87 per cent of its total investment budget this year. The Tourism Authority of Thailand has spent 67.7 per cent of its total investment budget for this fiscal year.

The Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand has spent 59.87 per cent of its total investment budget this year. The National Science Museum has spent 41.5 per cent of its total investment budget, and the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority has spent 39.56 per cent of its total investment budget for the fiscal year. However, it is the government’s policy to speed up spending under the investment budget to boost the country’s economic growth. As a result, most agencies will have to accelerate their spending for the rest of this year, the source said.

In the first six months of this fiscal year (October 2017 till March 2018) the budget spending was Bt1.47 trillion, or 50.7 per cent of the total budget of Bt2.9 trillion – a drop of from early estimates of 1.59 per cent.

Up to Bt1.289 trillion of the total spending was for regular expenses, or 57.6 per cent of the budget of Bt2.24 trillion. Some Bt180 billion was spent under the investment budget, representing 31.3 per cent of total investment budget for this fiscal year of Bt577 billion. The investment spending in the first six months of this fiscal year was lower than the early estimates 11.81 per cent.

Deputy Industry Minister Somchai Harnhirun said it would be for the private sector to invest in the project.

The ministry will work with related parties to draw up details of the investment, which will cover spending on a bio-sector complex and the upgrade of related transportation routes to support the bio-project, he said.

Once finished, the details will be presented to the Cabinet.

The project is made up of a bio-industry research and development centre and the installation of water pipes to support the planting of plants to support the bio-industry.

The Cabinet on Tuesday also approved the private sector’s proposal for the laying down of a new double-track rail route to link the network in the West of the country with that of the northeastern part, via Nakhon Sawan.

The 902-kilometre route will run from Mae Sot in Tak province to Kamphaeng Phet province, Nakhon Sawan and Khon Kaen, before linking to the West in Nakhon Phanom.

Surangkana Wayuparb, executive director and chief executive officer of the ETDA, which operates under the Digital Economy and Society Ministry, and DataOne Asia CEO Adisorn Kaewbucha inked the MoU.

The cooperation will include exchange of knowledge and information about sciences and technologies to support the development of digital identity and e-authentication systems.

“If the summit goes well, it will boost confidence in the region because it will eliminate geopolitical risks,” said Hoe Ee Khor, chief economist of AMRO.

The economy is resilient to capital outflows from emerging market as the Kingdom now possesses high international reserves amid low inflation, said Hoe, who visited Thailand yesterday for the annual economic assessment.

Thailand’s international reserves currently stand at US$205billion, one of the highest in the region.

Several emerging economies in the region are facing large capital outflows, causing their currencies to weaken against the US dollar, largely due to investors’ fear about rate hike in the US.

However, Thailand’s economy remains intact with supportive factors including a large current account surplus, thanks to continued expansion of exports and rising number of tourists.

The US Federal Reserve is expected to raise the policy rates again this week by 0.25 per cent to 1.75-2 per cent in its meeting this week.

The expected US rate hike is expected to encourage more capital outflows from emerging economies as investors pull their money back.

In Thailand, foreign investors have so far sold Bt140 billion worth of Thai shares this year. The Bank of Thailand has kept its policy rate at 1.5 per cent for three years.

Some countries in the region, such as Indonesia, have begun to raise rates in a bid to slow down capital outflows.

“Thailand, however, may be able to keep lower interest rate longer, “he said. Yet, the threat of trade war is still a challenge to Thailand. The US has recently imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, triggering vow of retaliation from its trading partners, including Canada.

The trade tension between US and China remains the biggest threat to Thailand as the country is part of production chains in the region.

“If a trade war hits China, it will affect every country, including Thailand,” he said.

The National Economic and Social Development Board has projected economic growth would be 4.2-4.7 per cent this year after the unexpected growth rate of 4.8 per cent in the first quarter this year.

The AMRO projected GDP growth in the Asean +3 region at 5.4 per cent this year, strongest when compared with other regions. The GDP growth rate in the Asean +3 region was 5.6 per cent last year.