The Digital Government Agency (DGA) expects the administrative changes will take effect by the end of the year as people’s records are accessed online.

The DGA said it will submit to the Cabinet as early as next month a report on the resolutions of the Digital Government Development Steering Committee meeting that dealt with this issue.

The agency will also set up an entity known as the Government Data Exchange Centre (GDX) that will serve as a hub for e-government services next year.

Airada Luangvilai, senior executive vice president of the DGA, said the submission to the Cabinet will recommend the scrapping of the long-established practice of people showing paper copies of their ID and household papers.

The change would see digital verification of people’s data applied when they go to any of the 300 government agencies and 60,000 government counters nationwide.

Under the next stage of the programme, the government will enable Thai citizens to register businesses without having to hand over the paper copies of their ID and household registration.

The DGA said exceptions may apply at some government agencies, such as the Lands Department and in the court system.

“After a survey of government agencies, we are pushing to ahead to provide e-services that do away with the need for paper copies of the documents. This will enable the one-stop provision of e-government services under a paperless system,” said Airada.

Regarding the plan for the GDX, she said the facility would serve as the backbone of the government’s information network.

In this capacity, it would carry out the role of an e-government hub and enable a one-stop service linking all government agencies.

Thais dealing with government agencies and officials will be able to access the required information on touch-screen terminals.

To advance these plans, the agency has signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Metamedia Technology to develop an application known as CITIZENinfo.

It will enable Thais to find about e-government services, along with displaying maps and other location details.

In a later stage, the app will make use of Longdo Map, which is an open-data that developers use to create new products and services. The initiative can help boost tourism as it will work with the features of the CITIZENinfo app.

Commerce Minister Sontirat Sontijirawong said the Philippines’ National Food Agency (NFA) had invited bidding on 250,000 tonnes of the variety – white rice graded at 25 per cent. The balance of the rice will be provided by Singapore as a result of the city state’s trading in the commodity.

Delivery of the rice is scheduled for July and August. The four export deals follow the country’s success in winning a bid from the Philippine food agency for 120,000 tonnes of the same grade of rice on the G2G basis. Delivery from that deal is for this month and June.

The latest round of bidding success will help boost Thai export and maintain the country’s share of the rice market in the Philippines, which is the world’s biggest rice importer, the Ministry of Commerce said.

It would also help to stabilise prices for Thai rice.

By May 22, rice exports this year totalled 4.276 million tonnes, up 2.64 per cent year on year – by 4.166 million tonnes. By value, the gain was 23.26 per cent, to US$2.182 billion.

The main destinations for Thai rice are China, South Africa, Indonesia and the Philippines.

This year, shipments of rice are expected to achieve the sales target of 10 million tonnes.

Adul Chotinisakorn, director-general of Department of Foreign Trade (DFT), said the global prices for rice are expected to remain high – especially for the Hom Mali variety – in the third quarter of this year.

Hom Mali rice is trading at around US$1,225 per tonne, compared with $1,300 per tonne in 2008. White rice of 5 per cent grade is priced at $451 per tonne.

Demand for rice remains high in several countries, including Indonesia, Adul said. Earlier, Indonesia purchased 1.3 million tonnes of Thai rice and is expected to buy more, given that an election next year is likely to stoke demand for rice.

For an upcoming sale of 43,700 tonnes of rice for the home market, the bids submitted will be presented to a government subcommittee on Monday for consideration before they are forwarded to the National Rice Policy Committee. Nine producers placed bids.

An anonymous source from the DFT said that the department planned to meet exporters, rice traders and rice millers to devise a management plan for off-season rice in 2018 and in-season rice in the 2018-19 production year. This would see the rice reach the market in September and October this year. Neighbouring countries such as Cambodia have had low export prices.

“The rice industry has been concerned over high the high levels production, with the adequate water available for rice fields and this year being the 10th in the Thai rice cycle when price prices usually peak, as in 2008-09,” the source said.

Last week, The USTR office accepted the request from National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) to reconsider Thailand’s trade benefit under the US Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), a tariff privilege that give an a competitive advantage to over 1,000 of Thai products in US market.

The US pork council wants the Thai government to eliminate its restriction on US uncooked meat, allowing them to gain full access to the market. Jim Heimerl, president of NPPC cited unfair treatment as the reason behind the council’s petition.

“Thailand’s treatment of US pork provides a clear basis for removing or limiting its GSP benefits.” He said.

The US pork has been banned by Thailand due to the use of ractopamine, a feed addictive commonly used by US pork producers for muscle leanness and enhancing growth rate. Thai government claims that there is not enough evidence to prove the drug is safe for the consumers in the long term.

Dr Chaiyapoom Bunchasak, associate professor from Department of Animal Science Faculty of Agriculture at Kasetsart University, recently was quoted on Thaipost newspaper earlier this month, saying that the drug helps pigs to generate more protein and, therefore, rapidly enhances pig growth rates, helping the farmers to lower the cost of operation and maximising the productivity.

Ractopamine is also approved by The Codex Alimentarius Commission, the internationally recognized food standard setter, at a limit amount.

Chaiyapoom added that Thailand has long held Zero Tolerance Policy on the use of beta-agonists (including Ractopamine). Moreover, the drug is still restricted or banned in 160 countries (such as members of the European Union, China and Russia).

The effect of Ractopamine residue in human is still unknown. However, the drug has been linked to several harmful impacts on farm animal such as agitation, dyspnea, cardiac rates, stress, disabilities and death.

It is also important for consumer to know that the drug effect can pose great dangers to consumers with history of heart disease and high blood pressure.

Prayad Thirawong, lecturer at Kasetsart University and Animal Husbandry Expert, recently wrote an article on SiamRath, a Thai local newspaper, describing the US pig offal as ‘a ticking time bomb’ for other countries. He noted that the higher concentration of Ractopamine residue can be found in pig organs such as liver and intestine than the other parts.

Prayad added that pig parts, especially those considered to be ‘unwanted’ in US market such as head, giblets and offal will be flooded into Thailand where food safety is the top priority.

On the impacts to local pig farmers, The US pressure is viewed by the people in the industry as a unilateral attempt to take over the local market with substandard products.

The fate of the Thai pig industry is in a dilemma.

The Thai government has set up a working group to consider the risks from US pork and may take a year to make a decision.

The Bank of Thailand’s (BOT) concerns were aired shortly before the Energy Policy Committee on Thursday agreed to maintain a cap on the price of diesel at Bt30 a litre in a bid to ease the impact on businesses and farmers. The committee, convening in an urgent response to the price rises, resolved to use the state’s Oil Fund to subsidise the diesel price and for a related measure to cut the price of liquefied petroleum gas to Bt363 per 15 kilograms, from Bt395, effective from Monday. In recent years the diesel price has been far below the cap.

BOT governor Veerathai Santipraphob expressed his concerns about the impact of the higher prices triggered by the steady climb in global crude oil prices, citing Thailand’s import of large quantities of crude for the needs of industry and consumers.

“We have to closely monitor the oil prices as the cost of imported oil is relatively high considered as a proportion of the country’s gross domestic product,” Veerathai said.

The costlier oil may affect domestic consumption, increase costs for businesses and hurt the whole economy, he warned.

The march in global crude prices has been caused by a recovery in the international economy, which spurs demand for the key commodity, he said. Geopolitical tensions have also contributed to the higher prices as some oil exporters have been unable to maintain supply, the BOT chief added.

“The most important thing is that we have to review our large consumption of oil and natural gas as a percentage of our GDP. We must embrace energy savings in order to reduce the cost for our economy,” Veerathai said.

Thailand imported Bt677.6 billion in crude oil last year, when the benchmark price averaged US$55 a barrel. In 2014, the import bill was Bt979.7 billion, when the average price was US$102 a barrel, according to the Energy Ministry. Thailand’s gross domestic product was about Bt15 trillion last year.

Commerce Minister Sontirat Sontijirawong said that increased oil and as prices had not yet prompted suppliers of consumer products to increase their retail prices.

He said that, after a meeting with representatives of the major consumer product suppliers, they told him that they had not yet felt the cost pressures from the higher prices and so have kept product prices steady. The costlier oil and gas have yet to dent the optimism for the economy within government.

The Ministry of Finance’s Fiscal Policy Office plans to raise its forecast for economic growth to 4.5 per cent this year from an earlier estimate of 4.2 per cent after a better than expected performance in the first quarter.

Kulaya Tantitemit, finance inspector-general and a finance spokesperson, said: “We will formally announce the rise in the GDP growth estimate in the next two months. The estimated expansion at 4.5 per cent is the highest in six years, since 2012, when the Thai economy grew 7.2 per cent due to the low base in 2011 as a result of the floods.”

The planned upward revision comes also draws on the estimates of improved economic growth in Thailand’s trading partners, reflecting reduced risks to the global economy, Kulaya said.

Soraphol Tulayasathien, director of Macroeconomic Policy Bureau at the FPO, said that the US-China trade dispute has eased amid positive signs for the negotiations between the economic superpowers, and this would help boost Thai exports to the United States and China. An easing in political tensions between North Korea and South Korea was also positive, Soraphol said.

Most economic research houses plan to raise their forecasts for economic growth this year after the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) announced the better than expected GDP expansion for the first quarter.

The grew 4.8 per cent for the year’s first three months, the fastest pace of quarterly growth in five years, compared with the previous quarter’s growth of 4 per cent.

Kulaya said that public investment this is expected to rise by almost 10 per cent, compared with a previous projection of 8.9 per cent, while private investment is anticipated to increase more than 3 per cent.

Exports are forecast to grow 8 per cent this year. On the currency front, the baht is projected to depreciate from a previous estimate of 31.5 to the US dollar, Kulaya said. Inflation for 2018 is expected to come in at 1.4 per cent compared with an earlier estimate of 1.2 per cent.

Wichayayuth Boonchit, deputy secretary-general of the NESDB, said that all the economic engines for the first quarter – from consumption, private investment, public investment and public spending to export and imports – expanded simultaneously for the first time since the third quarter of 2011.

Zaw Min Oo, chief external relations officer at Mytel, said the firm would provide Myanmar’s first all-4G network, bringing the fastest mobile Internet access at affordable rates to enable local people to connect with each other and to the rest of the world.

“Telecommunications in Myanmar is a vital service. We want to fill the gap that this market is hungry for,” he said.

He pledged to provide the best data services in Myanmar through the firm’s nationwide network coverage.

“As the most modern operator in Myanmar, we use top-of-the-line fibre technology to provide customers high speed Internet and better signal strength, which ultimately brings the best network experience,” he said.

MyTel was first introduced at the First Call event in Nay Pyi Taw on February 11. Since March 15, the firm has provided its services in Nay Pyi Taw, Bago region and Kayin State. It plans to provide better services in the major cities in the second quarter of this year.

The telco’s fiber network will help increase Myanmar’s network density to up to 1,500 kilometres per million people. It is a pioneer in the use of the latest technology, known as VOLTE, to ensure a high definition voice and data experience at the same time.

“By exploiting the most innovative technology, we plan to provide premium-quality services that will satisfy the needs of consumers,” Zaw Min Oo said.

He said the firm has plans to build a link between education and the Internet. He said the firm’s corporate social responsibility programmes would focus on digitalisation of Myanmar’s education infrastructure.

“By providing solid platforms to improve youth education, our younger generation will be exposed to advanced knowledge in technology and innovation to move up to the global level,” he said.

Established in 2016, Telecom International Myanmar Co, with the brand name MyTel, is a consortium of Vietnam’s military-run Viettel Group and two Myanmar companies – Star High Public Co and Myanmar National Telecom Holding Public Limited (MNTH).

Viettel Group holds the majority of the shares, accounting for 49 per cent. Star High, a subsidiary of Tatmadaw-owned conglomerate Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd, owns 28 per cent of the shares while MNTH holds the remaining 23 per cent.

The firm’s total investment is expected to reach US$2 billion. Once operational, Mytel will have 7,000 sites with 30,000 kilometres of cables. Viettel Group operates in 11 countries, including Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, East Timor, Haiti, Peru, Mozambique, Cameroon, Burundi, and Tanzania. Myanmar is the ninth foreign market for Viettel.

Le Dang Dung, deputy general director of Viettel Group, said earlier that Viettel aims to deliver robust ICT offerings that empower Myanmar to grow further as Asia’s next large technology-led economy.

“We enter Myanmar at this historic phase in the country’s reform era, when the country is forecast to witness accelerated economic growth, enhanced also through increased foreign direct investment. Advancing the country’s telecom infrastructure will help us drive a surge in mobile and smartphone subscription penetration,” Dung said.

Dung said telecommunications would play a fundamental role in driving Myanmar’s next phase of economic growth. He believes Viettel’s experience in transforming Vietnam’s telecommunications landscape would drive the firm to cater to the untapped telecom market potential in Myanmar.

The impact of MyTel’s entry to the market would be widely discussed in the Myanmar Connect 2018 to be held in September. It is an annual event for Myanmar’s telecoms industry that has been running since 2013. Previously held in Nay Pyi Taw, the event is moving to Yangon this year.

At the event, industry players will discuss how existing mobile operators and Internet service providers are likely to react to MyTel’s entry. Discussions will also feature other newcomers such as Amara Communications and the launch of the Myanmar Internet Exchange, as well as metro connectivity and fibre-to-the-home services.

Evidently, countries with outstanding economic performance are emerging countries with GDP growth of more than 5 per cent for those economies as a whole , the strongest since 2014. The robust economic growth together with expansionary monetary policy of major central banks have led to large foreign capital inflows into these emerging countries.

Unfortunately, due to increasingly heating economy, one of the major central banks decides to tighten their monetary policy after a long period of massive liquidity injection through QE programme and extremely low interest rate target.

After the tightening, outlook has been supported by several important economic indicators such as core inflation of more than 1.9 per cent and unemployment at near historical low of about 3.9 per cent. The financial markets of many emerging countries faced wild rides (MSCI Emerging market index dropped more than 10 per cent from its peak in January 2018), in particular, from the rapid and considerable foreign fund outflows despite the strong outlook of the emerging economies. One of the underlying reasons for this phenomenon is that US assets have now become more attractive since they provide higher rates of returns in terms of higher bond yields and stronger US dollar.

Therefore, investors divert their investments from emerging countries back to the US. This can be seen from the increase in US bond yields as well as US dollar value that was closely accompanied by a drop in MSCI Emerging market index.

Even though most of emerging countries have unavoidably encountered the same fate, the magnitude of the effects varied widely from country to country. The reason behind this is the countries’ external positions, namely the robustness of their balance of payment.

A way to gauge the healthiness of a country’s balance of payment is not only from how large its foreign reserves are but also how fast the funds can be diverted somewhere else if something goes wrong.

For example, Thailand and Indonesia both have international reserves of more than 8 months of imports, which are quite large compared to the rule of thumb of 3 months of imports. However, for Thailand, the surplus of foreign funds are mainly from current account surplus, which constitutes mainly of trade surplus and foreign tourism income.

These types of foreign currency receipts cannot be diverted back. In contrast, Indonesia’s foreign currency receipts are largely from foreign portfolio investments and these can be diverted quite easily, ie foreign investors can just liquidate the assets and take their money somewhere they find more attractive.

Therefore, US dollar received through current accounts can be considered as less volatile compared to the one received through portfolio investments. That is why a large chunk of US dollar can be pulled out of Indonesian market quite rapidly when the market saw higher yields for US government bonds, which has caused a strong depreciation of Indonesian rupiah of more than 1.5 per cent in just a week, while foreign capital outflows from Thailand are quite small compared to the inflows through current accounts. As a result, the baht depreciated only 0.8 per cent in that week.

Emerging markets have to encounter more intensified fluctuation not only in the financial market, but also in real market as the real economies could be greatly affected by trade protectionism and fluctuating commodity prices caused by resurfacing geopolitical risks in the Middle East after the US walked out from the Iran nuclear deal and re-imposed sanctions on Iran.

Even though emerging market outlook this year remains robust, investors must bear in mind the larger volatility especially in the financial market, eg exchange rates and bond yields.

Therefore, identifying, understanding and hedging risks is always a good strategy in this highly volatile environment.

Views expressed in this article are those of the author/s and not necessarily of TMB Bank or its executives. Contributed by DUANGRAT PRAJAKSILPTHAI and POON PANICHPIBOOL. They can be reached at tmbanalytics@tmbbank.com

As part of this strategy, the agency is preparing to provide grants worth Bt2.4 million to help producers of digital content expand into international markets. Chatchai Khunpitiluk, senior executive vice president of DEPA, said that the digital content industry in Thailand is continuing to grow both in the domestic and international markets.

IDC conducted a survey that pointed to a valuation of Bt26.9 billion for the digital content industry in Thailand by the end of 2018.

Of the total, the games market would account for Bt20.5 billion, following by animation at Bt4.4 billion and characters at Bt2 billion.

The value of the total digital content industry was projected to grow around 12 per cent from last year, when it was worth Bt24.2 billion.

To drive growth in the digital content industry, DEPA is working with companies in the public and private sectors. These entities include: the Department of International Trade Promotion (DITP), the Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) and five associations from Thai digital content industry, the e-Learning Association of Thailand (e-LAT), the Digital Content Association of Thailand (DCAT), the Thai Animation & Computer Graphics Association (TACGA), the Bangkok ACM SIGGRAPH (BASA) and the Thai Games Software Industry Association (TGA).

These entities are coming to conduct the Bangkok International Digital Content Festival 2018 on June 11-12 at the Intercontinental Hotel. The festival will help promote Thailand as a digital hub in the Asean region.

Business matching

The event will provide business matching between developers and investors and promote the work of digital content entrepreneurs and digital startups.

Chatchai said that, regarding the planned grants, the agency would provide Bt120,000 in support to each digital content business. The funds would help them promote their offerings, including roads shows pitched at the international market. In all, about 20 such grants would be provided, for the total of Bt2.4 million.

“I think that the digital content industry in Thailand will continue to grow since Thai digital content developers have imagination and are developing digital content with quality to support the demands of the market,” said Chatchai.

TCEB director Puripan Bunnag said that the agency expects that in the next three years the media and entertainment sectors will reach a value of Bt2 trillion and that Thailand will become regional leader in the fields.

It has the potential to host more than 300 studios and to become the No.1 location for exhibitions in the Asean region, backed by government policies that support the digital economy and the promotion of cultural industries.