Its president Suthassa Laohongkiat said the association would do this by working with the Thai Restaurants Association and local communities across the country.

She said many communities had unique products and a unique character that could be developed as attractions.

“This idea is our major plan for this year. We are supporting domestic tourism in order to strengthen the economy,” Suthassa said.

ATTM will help local organisations develop products and design packaging as well as to develop stories for communities based on their identities. It also hopes to help expand marketing channels to spread product wider.

Suthassa said the association would educate communities to enhance skills and improve the quality of products.

The association was founded in 2012 by a diversified tourism operator group made up of different market segments but with the common goal of promoting the sector as a whole.

As the result, the association’s structure was designed to accommodate the need for the further development of tourism marketing.

This provides a platform where tourism marketers discuss and exchange ideas with one another about new marketing techniques, which benefits Thailand tourism.

“Our purpose is to promote Thailand’s economic prosperity throughout the tourism business |by strengthening travel industry |personnel in marketing,” Suthassa said.

The association also aims to develop the sales knowledge of industry professionals.

Those companies will soon face in-depth investigation by the ministry’s Business Development Department, the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), and the Revenue Department.

Pongpun Gearaviriyapun, director-general of the department, said the seven companies in Chiang Mai were in tourism-related businesses, including souvenir, leather-goods, rubber-mattress, jewellery and resort enterprises. Such businesses are reserved for Thai ownership by the FBA and foreigners are not allowed to hold majority shares.

Pongpun said that in cooperation with the DSI and the Tourism and Sports Ministry, her agency had gradually investigated suspect firms in many provinces, and the probe recently focused on seven inChiang Mai, one of which was highly likely to have breached the FBA.

As part of the investigation, the Business Development Department will ask the suspect companies’ shareholders to speak to the agency’s legal officers. The department will also question the companies’ directors and examine their documentation. If any have committed offences, their cases will be forwarded for prosecution.

If found to be breaching the FBA, foreigners and Thai nominees can be subject to fines of Bt100,000 to Bt1 million and/or three years in prison.

In cooperation with the Tourism Department and the DSI, the Business Development Department will this year closely scrutinise the travel industry and other businesses listed in Annex III of the FBA. That annex protects certain businesses in which Thais are deemed not ready to compete directly with foreigners.

Pongpun said that although it is stringently examining companies’ share structures, the department has relaxed some regulations, unlocking some businesses such as banking and insurance from Annex III.

She said most companies conducted their business in accordance with the law.

To create better understanding about the FBA, the department has sent legal teams to educate enterprises on how to do business transparently.

The initiative is being done in partnership with global logistics firm DHL Express. Malee Choklumlerd, director-general of the International Trade Promotion Department, said the “Small Order OK” (SOOK) project aimed to encourage more SME goods traders to trade online and boost their competitiveness so they could sell goods to other countries. Under the project, SMEs can advertise their products via the department’s website www.thaitrade.com, with buyers able to purchase goods through an e-payment system. DHL Express will support the logistics and the delivery products to customers both domestically and worldwide. Previously, www.thaitrade.comonly facilitated business-to-business transaction and buyers had to order a lot of goods.

SOOK will help SMEs generate sales by them getting small orders directly from customers, Malee explained.

She said that her department also had a project to educate small business operators about online trading.

Recently, the department was awarded the World Summit on the Information Society prize 2016 of the United Nations for helping SMEs trade online.

Since 2013, the department has supported 1,684 SMEs in trading online. This could generate a combined income of Bt2 billion, it said.

In the next three years, the department has targeted promoting another 15,000 SMEs to trade online and has set a combine trading value of no less than Bt5 billion.

How fast will the AIIB expand its membership?

We have 57 founding members. We have about 30 countries waiting to join, of which we have a firm commitment from about 20 countries. Some of the countries are still working on the internal procedure and can’t give us a firm commitment at the moment. The deadline for application is the end of September, and we will try to complete the whole process of membership before the end of this year. So likely, by the end of this year, our membership will be a little less than 100. This is going to be a really international organisation with countries from Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, North Africa and some other regions. So we will be able to work with so many countries across the world. AIIB certainly promotes, first of all, the benefits of Asian countries, but we don’t forget about those that are, by definition, not Asian countries. We support other countries that have a direct and indirect impact on Asia’s development.

AIIB is considering some projects in Asia. Are all of those projects with the founding members?

We are going to deliver the first batch of projects for the board’s consideration in late June. All the projects will be in Asian member countries and I am very happy to see, geographically, they are covering broad areas, including Asean countries, south Asian countries and central Asian countries. It’s very gratifying to see that geographically we cover so many countries. We will have the second batch and the third batch by the end of this year. At this moment, we are considering projects with Asian member countries. I’m sure very soon we will be able to cover non-Asian countries, particularly if these countries’ economic relations with Asian countries are very strong.

On investment outside Asia, very recently Russian President Putin said he invited AIIB to invest in Russia. Is AIIB interested?

We finance infrastructure projects in any member countries that are eligible for our funding. It’s very clear. But as I said, any project proposed by any government must meet our three basic requirements. So I cannot prejudge any project.

Do you see China’s foreign policy complementing the objectives of the organisation?

I was asked by a New York correspondent in Davos: do you think the AIIB is a success in terms of diplomacy. My answer is “Yes”. I have to add the AIIB is a success in terms of diplomacy for all 57 member countries.

What is the desirable ratio between the number of standalone projects and co-financing projects? Are you going to provide financing to projects outside the Chinese government’s priorities, such as the Belt and Road initiative?

I’m going to get a Japanese national to serve in a very senior position in our bank. Recently your senior officials came to see me, looking for possible cooperation. I believe we can work together to promote development in Asia. We don’t have a fixed target with regard to the ratio of standalone projects vis-a-vis co-financing. We will take in projects that meet our standards.

Probably in the future, there will clearly be a higher proportion of co-financing projects. When it comes to huge infrastructure projects, it’s easy to go over US$1 billion [Bt35 billion], it’s not really a great idea for one institution to single-handedly manage the finances of a project.

But also, just because we are a little bit different from the existing institutions, we do not take poverty reduction as a direct objective. Poverty reduction will be a derivative of our efforts, so our focus will be a little bit different.

Some of the projects that cannot be done by some other institutions will be perfectly all right for us to finance. So I also think we could have a clearly greater proportion of free-standing projects, particularly after we have recruited all our operational staff in the next couple of years.

When you recruit people, you really have to be more or less sure if he or she will be a good team worker, if he or she will be working very well and would achieve very high success by working at this institution.

Imagine that you were in the middle of a board meeting and I were a board member from Thailand, and my first question to you as a CEO of the AIIB would be: Mr CEO, we seem to have a brand image problem. If we are launching a product, people may think this project is Chinese. It’s not international. The No 1 question to the CEO is how do you plan to correct the brand image?

We have heard very critical comments on China’s initiative. We never, ever, engage in any vocal arguments with these people because it’s not worth it. In my view, trust has to be earned. Credibility has to be earned. You cannot talk people into belief. You can exhaust all the nice words in any dictionary and you still fail to convince these people. Just forget about it. Do your job.

If we have a project to upgrade a slum in a country in Asean, do you think this is a Chinese project? We clean up the dirty water. We provide safe drinking water. We provide electricity to low-income people. When we finance a project in South Asian countries, improving the power transmission system and contributing to the reduction of global warming, do you think this is a Chinese project? None of the projects are Chinese projects. All of these projects, I would say, are benefiting the local people.

China does not want to borrow from this bank. It doesn’t make sense for China to start this bank and borrow massively from this bank. India can borrow, India is No 2. China does not want to borrow … even though China has 30 per cent of the bank’s shares, contributing 30 per cent of the $100 billion. China will also contribute $50 billion as a donation to this bank to establish a special fund.

You may remember President Xi Jinping said that in the last three decades, China has benefited from the general support of the World Bank, the ADB [Asian Development Bank] and all the bilateral sources, and now it’s China’s turn to contribute. That is the basic idea or principle of this institution.

So our first batch of projects will speak volumes for the basic principle of this institution. With the goal of public institutions, combined with the efficiency of private sector companies, we are going to serve as a new role model. That’s why we do not want to clone any existing institution. We want to be a new entity with the strong features of private sector companies and public sector companies. That is why we believe this bank is so attractive.

What is the responsibility of member countries?

First of all, I want to take issue with you when you say I pick the rosy pictures. I never pick the rosy pictures, I always pick the realistic pictures…. Certainly my picture involves lots of aspirations on what we aim to achieve. This is not my aspiration; it is the aspiration of the people of all these countries. So let’s be realistic.

We cannot achieve all these objectives over a really short period of time, but I think we should always aim at all these grand programmes, which would benefit all of the people of all the member countries. New members or existing members certainly will place high expectations on this bank.

They certainly try, at least for many developing countries, to get as many resources as possible from this bank. They would like to have as many projects as possible. But we cannot, I think, meet all of their expectations. We must achieve counterbalance and regional balance. Sometimes we have to decline … because we believe some other projects are more important from the regional perspective. … Probably, the response from other institutions would be the same. If your project does not measure up to their high standard for environmental protection they cannot do it.

What is the budget of the AIIB?

I enjoyed living in the Philippines for a good five years when I served as vice president of the Asian Development Bank. That platform gave me a lot of opportunities to communicate with people in member countries and also helped me learn more about your great country. The Philippines is a founding member, and we certainly will look forward to new opportunity to develop a strong relationship with your country.

We are in the early stages and it’s not responsible for me to give you some definite figure of how much we can lend a year, but maybe I can offer you some examples. ADB has a capital base of $160 billion. Roughly, there is $16 billion for lending out in a year. The World Bank has $257 billion; their lending programme is probably $25-$26 billion a year. So that kind of reference probably would help you to more or less arrive at a rough idea.

We depend on the experience of the IMF, World Bank and ADB if we want to learn more about the macroeconomic situation of the country. We don’t have to duplicate the research in these areas. Instead, we can focus our resources on research in some other areas, such as renewable energy. But we don’t have to duplicate the efforts of other institutions.

You see, it is truly important for us to keep in mind any country would have a need, a special, particular need. Just to quote Jane Austen, if I remember correctly, “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” And this wife is a matter of preference.

What is the investment target?

We start with infrastructure -physical infrastructure – to be exact. But since we have other productive sectors in mind, we can probably finance projects in the future for non-physical infrastructure. For instance, education and healthcare are non-physical infrastructure. Or, if we can help a municipal government better design the way it manages, I think it could be very important.

It’s certainly important to build roads and streets, but people don’t understand if you don’t include the traffic lights, if you don’t manage the flow of the people in the city, probably no matter how many roads you build, it’s still not enough. So you need to better manage the urban problems. That could be part of our efforts.

Now, when it comes to new technology, I have to be cautious about financing. This is not our job. Any investment in new technology has variants. And I don’t think it’s appropriate to spend our shareholders’ money on something with dubious prospects. This should be left for venture capital to take care of. But once the new technology proves workable and effective, we can’t miss it.

So, in my view, this is the way we can serve our countries. We apply new technology; we do not invest in developing new technology. This is my personal view.

How long until the United States or Japan joins the AIIB?

I cannot speak on behalf of the US government or the Japanese government with regard to the membership issues. The door has opened, and will remain open. This is our basic principle. And as we are inclusive, if any country wants to join, they pick up the phone, give us a ring and discuss the rest of the issues. You know, the conditions are all stated in the articles of agreement. But I want to highlight one point, that regardless of the membership of any country in the world, we can work together.

As I said, the companies of the United States and companies of Japan can participate in the international competition, and they will be treated equally and fairly. This is our basic principle.

I have already hired some US nationals to work in this institution, sit in various positions, and I told you that we would have some Japanese nationals. We are still in the recruitment process, interviews. I am sure the Japanese nationals will meet our standards. We are indeed very happy to have any national of any country who can serve this institution. So I highlight this point again and again, that regardless of who is a member, there are various ways that we work for the companies and work for the nationals.

When you describe reforming distribution, what do you feel was lacking in the decision-making and distribution at IMF, ADB or the World Bank, or whether their decisions were politically motivated. And did that prompt you to advance this idea?

I think we can evaluate the performance or contribution of any international institution only from a historical perspective. The Bretton Woods institutions were created before the conclusion of the World War II. So it was timely for all these countries to meet in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. China was also a member.

All the last seven days, the Bretton Woods institutions, and the new institutions that were created more or less patterned on these institutions, have contributed enormously to international financial or economic stability, to reconstruction and the readoption of recruitment.

No institution, just like no individual, is perfect. So when we talk about the international financial order, or international economic order, you may have noticed the Chinese position, that we do not intend to upend the existing international financial order because we in China have also benefited from this system, particularly over the last three decades.

Now, I understand these institutions are also trying to improve, to undertake reforms, to make them serve better.

We were all created in the 21st century, meeting the needs of countries from the 21st century, so we have a lot to learn from the existing institutions, and we also enjoy the advantages of the institutions of different cultures. And any institution will make mistakes. I do not think we will be flawless in the future.

I think what is important is, first of all, to understand the reality and acknowledge or confess that you made mistakes – and that you will have the guts to confess and to correct. No mistake is a mistake unless you don’t want to take it back. So I think this is very, very important for understanding.

It is not appropriate for me to make judgements on the merits or demerits of existing institutions. My job is to learn from the strong points. And I would say this is the shared view of all 57 members of the institution, because they are all members of existing institutions, right? So when some people asked me, “Aren’t you worried about rivalry with the World Bank or ADB?”, I told them that I worked for six years on the board of the World Bank, five years in management. If you think the sibling, the new institution, has sold out the existing institution, I would not agree.

What is lacking in the practices of existing institutions?

It’s not appropriate for me to comment on the merits or demerits. But one essential fact is that the existing institutions mostly are made of the developed nations. This institution is made by developing nations, so we can offer the development experience of developing countries that has accumulated over the last half-century, particularly the last three decades.

Will the Chinese government ask the AIIB to finance all its infrastructure projects?

The United States basically shuffled the order of the World Bank. Japan has numerous financial assistance programmes. Many European countries also have their own financing systems. So the way they handle this is also offering some experience.

If I have to be specific about the relationship between AIIB and Chinese financial systems, I do not rule out the possibility that we can work together if they follow our standards and rules. For instance we have Chinese development institutions, and they may finance ideas or infrastructure in some countries.

In an interview on the sidelines of the eighth “International Forum Atomexpo”, Nikolay Drozdov, Rosatom’s director of international business department, acknowledged that the speed of development in foreign countries, particularly Thailand, depended largely on public acceptance and the respective governments’ decisions.

“Public acceptance is a key element, and we pay much attention to it,” he said.

Last year, Rosatom and state-owned Vietnam Electricity signed a framework agreement for the building of Vietnam’s first nuclear power plant, which will have two power-generating units with a capacity of 1,200 megawatts each.

The technology is in the Gen 3+ series, which adds safety features including an independent reactor-cooling system to prevent meltdowns like the one experienced at Japan’s Fukushima power plant. One Gen 3+ plant has entered the physical start-up phase, making Rosatom the first in the world to commercialise this upgraded technology, which will be replicated in Vietnam.

Vietnam and Rosatom are now finalising the construction details. More than 100 Vietnamese engineers are now working at Rosatom sites, with more than 400 students studying in Russian universities. The construction period is normally 60 months.

After the Vietnam project, Drozdov sees the highest possibility that Indonesia and Malaysia will be the next in Southeast Asia to house nuclear power plants.

At the expo, a number of agreements with Indonesia were signed, also involving the training of specialists. This followed an agreement on the basic reactor design signed last year.

In the past few years, seven countries including Thailand have signed cooperation agreements with Rosatom. This month, a working group was established with Cambodia’s National Council for Sustainable Development after an agreement on the peaceful uses of atomic energy. Myanmar and Laos also have similar cooperation agreements.

Three Myanmar students are now studying nuclear science in Russia on scholarships.

Regarding Laos, Drozdov noted that the country owns vast reserves of bauxite, the key raw material of aluminium. However, foreign investment for aluminium production is impossible because of insufficient electricity supplies that could not be addressed by hydropower plants.

At the expo, Ponlok Tin, Cambodia’s deputy environment minister, said a nuclear power plant was an option given that Cambodia is a net energy importer and is also committed to tackling climate change. But all the advantages and disadvantages in political, economic and social aspects would be taken into consideration.

“It’s part of our efforts to be an upper-middle-income nation by 2030,” he said. “We fully realise the multifaceted challenges.”

As in Vietnam, an information centre in nuclear energy will be established to promote awareness.

The Thailand Institute of Nuclear Technology was a signatory to a similar agreement in 2014. Rosatom also keen for talks with the Thai science minister later this year to strengthen cooperation.

If Thailand goes ahead with a nuclear power plant, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand is expected to be responsible for it. According to Ratanachai Namwong, deputy Egat governor for power-plant development, preparations are ongoing.

About 100 people are being trained as nuclear-power-plant specialists, and since 2008 about 500 staff per year have received training on nuclear energy.

Public-awareness activities also continue. Without an information centre, general knowledge on nuclear energy has been included in school curricula aside from exhibitions. Lectures by Egatpersonnel at universities are included.

Egat also has technical-cooperation pacts with China, Japan and South Korea.

Drozdov said he understood that it would take time for other countries to follow in Vietnam’s footsteps, mainly on safety concerns. But he stressed that the company would be a responsible vendor to help those countries comply with all areas of international safety standards.

“First, all must go for a number of steps starting from infrastructure, involvement from the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] and a regulatory framework.”

He said Rosatom was focusing a lot of attention on Southeast Asia, reflected by the decision to establish a regional headquarters in Singapore.

He said the government was promoting the use of science and technology in business. This would add value to Thai industries and raise the country’s overall competitiveness.

“At Thailand Science Park, we work hand in hand with the private sector to support R&D activities,” he said.

“We act as a bridging agent to make it more convenient for private companies to conduct research and access the government’s supporting facilities and services. At Science Park, private firms are able to work together to add creative value to their products easily.”

There are currently about 70 private companies doing R&D in Thailand Science Park, of which two-thirds are small or medium-sized enterprises. About 30 per cent are foreign companies.

“Big companies have been acting as first movers in enhancing R&D to create new innovations, and that business practice has been followed by SMEs. They will then move the country’s economy forward.

“SMEs and start-ups are also a foundation for the country’s economic stability and better wealth distribution. Big, medium and small firms should connect together to create a strong innovation value chain and become a ‘Thailand Team’ to compete with rivals in the world market,” Janekrishna said.

He said Japan and South Korea were good examples of promoting connected innovation value chains to increase the competitiveness of their countries.

Janekrishna said the Thai government was trying to move the country forward in many dimensions. The launch of the Pracha Rath (State of the People) project, which entails a joint government-private-public working-committee approach, as key to promoting sustainable economic growth, is one of such mechanisms.

Others are the 300-per-cent tax deduction for companies allocating investment in research and development, granting the highest Board of Investment privileges for R&D activities, and government procurement in favour of innovative Thai products.

Food innovation is one of the super-clusters being promoted by the government. It recently signed a memorandum of understanding with universities and the private sector on the “Food Innopolis” as a growth engine to promote Thailand as a hub for food-related R&D.

“Thailand is getting ready to become a hub for research and development for food innovation. Food is one of the major industries of the country and involves a large number of people. It is a good idea of the government to promote the Food Innopolis project.

“At Thailand Science Park, we opened a Food & Feed Innovation Centre and Thailand Bio Resource Centre about a half month [two weeks] ago. The centres will help local companies create new innovations more easily and in a shorter period of time; the centres will also support companies doing research in Food Innopolis,” he said.

Akavut Tangsilikusonwong, chairman of the TBC, said the organisation had formed an alliance through the MoU with Salinee Wangtal, director-general of OSMEP. This was authorised by Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha and Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak to strengthen the competitiveness of Thai SMEs in the international market as well as to seek new markets.

OSMEP considers the UAE and Oman to have high economic potential and play vital roles as a springboard to other markets in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and elsewhere in the Middle East, and to further trade in Africa, another sizeable consumer market.

The implementation of the key content of the MoU began with business matching for more than 30 Thai SMEs in Dubai on May 7 and the entry of Thai goods and services in the Oman market on May 9-13.

The business matching was in nine categories: household appliances and home furnishings; consumer goods and fashions; healthcare and supplementary nutrition; spa and beauty products; food; jewellery and accessories; energy; educational services; and packaging services. The 110 buyers consisted of importers, distributors, investors and agents. The activity at the Holiday Inn in Al Barsha, Dubai, on

May 7 was co-sponsored by Dubai SME, a governmental organisation tasked with promoting the economic development of Dubai, and the TBC.

The initial value of orders gained from the event was more than Bt50 million from products and services such as fruits (including coconut), children’s clothing, herbal and health products, fashion and jewellery, and educational services.

Later, these Thai SMEs took the same nine product categories to the OSMEP Pavilion at “Thai Trade Exhibition Oman” at the Oman International Exhibition Centre SAOC in Muscat. The trade days were May 9 and 10, while the remaining three days of the expo from May 11 to 13 were for the general public. More than 1,000 buyers participated in the event and it generated more than Bt1 billion worth of export revenue.

The TGO recently disclosed that 153 products from 37 businesses in the Thai market had gained the Carbon Footprint Reduction label. Altogether, they have cut annual greenhouse-gas emissions by 890,772 tonnes.

“Thailand is among the first developing countries to adopt this programme,” TGO manager Phakamon Supappunt said yesterday.

Launched in late 2009, carbon-footprint labels appear on packaging to reveal the carbon emissions the products inside produce during their lifetime. Products that have managed to cut such emissions can earn the Carbon Footprint Reduction label.

The TGO recently held a seminar on the Voluntary Emissions Reduction Programme at “Asean Sustainable Energy Week” to present the progress from its labelling initiative.

During the seminar, it urged more entrepreneurs to join this initiative to help combat the greenhouse effect.

Prasertsuk Chamornmarn, TGO executive director, said Thailand had pledged to cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 20-25 per cent by 2020 as world leaders agreed to cap the rise in global temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius.

Phakamon said the labels helped make people and businesses aware of the amount of greenhouse gas they were generating.

She said businesses gained many benefits from joining the programme such as knowing which section of their production line generated the most greenhouse gas, so they could make adjustments to reduce the emissions.

If they can successfully reduce the emissions, their products receive the Carbon Footprint Reduction label, which notifies consumers that their products are environmentally friendly.

“By receiving the label, companies can also gain trade benefits in the international market, as consumers globally start to select environmentally friendly products, especially in Western countries,” she said.

For the consumer, Phakamon explained that the labels notified people of how much of a carbon footprint results from their consumption of a particular product, so they can adjust their lifestyles to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

“Now we are creating a smartphone application to calculate the annual carbon footprint of each family,” she said.

She added that the TGO also encouraged people to emit zero greenhouse gas by purchasing carbon credits to make up for their carbon footprint. Their purchase of these credits will be used to support campaigns to absorb or reduce greenhouse gas.

“The participants will be awarded a Carbon Neutral Certificate to show that they have done their part to save the world from adverse impacts of climate change,” she said.