Mae Sot has seen booming trade with Myanmar each year on expectations of consistent growth, he said, adding that an integration plan was required for logistics-system development and labour issues.

The Bt13.42-billion budget will be used to construct and improve infrastructure for the Mae Sot SEZ. Tak’s border trade is expanding continuously, but trucks take a long time to deliver products to Myanmar.

Planned projects include construction of a second bridge across the Moei River marking the national border, development of the area around the new bridge, expansion of traffic lanes for the first bridge, expansion of the road connecting Mae Sot with Muang Tak, and improvement of a runway and passenger building at Mae Sot Airport.

The value of Tak’s border trade is expected to rise from the 2015 figure of about Bt70 billion.

The Mae Sot SEZ also includes parts of Mae Ramat and Phop Phra districts, which allows flexibility for investors and traders.

All three districts require development of the logistics system, and Mae Sot district still lacks places for international conferences and trade exhibitions, Arkhom said

Tak Governor Somchai Hatayatanti said that if the logistics system were fully developed, border trade would be enhanced.

Tak urgently requires a logistics system to facilitate investment and trade and connect Thailand with neighbouring countries to distribute products to Myanmar, India and the south of China, he said.

He said workers also needed improved skills to deal with investment and trade in the province.

Craig Johnson, the head of reach solutions for Nielsen in Southeast Asia, North Asia and the Pacific, yesterday said the company’s digital content ratings would be introduced this year to help “total audience ratings come to life”.

Speaking at a Nielsen seminar on total audience measurement, he said the move would follow last year’s rollout of Nielsen’s digital advertising ratings measurement via smartphones.

Stuart Pike, the head of Nielsen’s digital audience measurement for Southeast Asia, North Asia and the Pacific, said Thailand would be the third market in the world to use the new service after the United States last October and Australia last month.

In preparation for the service, the leading mediaresearch company last year teamed with Facebookto enhance its ratings efficacy for online advertising campaigns.

The partnership has resulted in the further development of Facebook’s data assessment, and paved the way for Nielsen to measure the socialmedia giant’s digital content ratings across platforms such as texts, pictures, audio and video.

Sinthu Peatrarut, managing director of Nielsen’s media business in Thailand, said the company would improve traditional TV audience ratings by adding more panels to ensure more accuracy.

“After deploying to a total of 2,400 households last year, we are now ready to deliver the latest TV ratings data, which is based on the adjusted sample size of 2,400, to our clients next month,” Sinthu said.

He said the sample size would be extended to 3,000 households early next year.

Over the past two years, Nielsen (Thailand) has aggressively invested in a series of measurements to capture the growing opportunities driven by the digitisation of media.

To help consumer brands and advertisers improve the efficiency of advertising campaigns via digital media, Nielsen last year launched the ratings measurement for digital advertising on smartphones and personal computers.

Nielsen also plans to extend that to other connected devices such as tablets and wearable devices.

Meanwhile, the bullion gold price in Thailand’s spot market yesterday also surged by Bt400 to Bt21,000/Bt21,300 per baht weight gold, resulting from a $15 per ounce rise in the global futures prices that hit a new high of US$1,272 per ounce.

The ECB recently lowered the main rate at which it lends to commercial banks – the so-called refi rate – to zero for the first time ever from 0.05 per cent.

It pushed up the interest rate on its deposit facility for commercial banks to minus .40 per cent from minus 0.30 per cent. This means commercial banks in fact pay the ECB if they choose to transfer their excess funds at the end of the day.

The rate on its marginal lending facility, – the ECB’s overnight credit to banks – has been lowered to 0.25 per cent from 0.30 per cent.

The ECB also announced it would expand the volume of bonds it purchases each month under its programme of quantitative easing (QE) to 80 billion euros ($88 billion) from 60 billion euros. And it would also start buying corporate bonds under the QE programme.

Siam Commercial Bank’s Economic Intelligence said if the baht strengthened at a rate faster than other currencies, this might put pressure on the Thai central bank to cut its policy rate.

Year to date, the Thai currency has appreciated by 2.3 per cent while Malaysia’s ringgit has strengthened by 4.2 per cent, and the Indonesian rupiah by 5.1 per cent.

“However, there is little chance of the Monetary Policy Committee meeting on March 23 reducing the policy rate to depreciate the value of the baht,” the EIC said. The ECB’s money-easing measure is expected to delay a hike in the US interest rate to keep the momentum of the global economy. But this will only result in a slight depreciation of the baht, according to local economists.

As for the baht, it’s not depreciated much as a result of the ECB’s stimulus package, she said, adding the trigger that could weaken the baht was the US Federal Reserve’s decision to hike its Fed fund rate, said Pimonwan Mahujchariyawong, assistant managing director of Kasikorn Research Centre.

The Fed is expected to hold its policy rate and consider raising it again in the middle of this year, she said.

Amonthep Chawla, head of CIMB Thai Bank’s research office, said the clear result of the ECB’s stimulus measure announcement was the euro did not depreciate against the US dollar. Capital funds also flew to emerging markets, strengthening the baht in the short term.

Kematat Paladesh, president of the Radio and Television Broadcasting Professional Federation, said two months of brainstorming to solve the protracted problems in the digital-TV business appeared to amount to nothing after the NBTC could not agree to the main requests made recently by a group of broadcasters through the NBTC panel assigned to solve such problems.

The troubled digital-TV players want the regulator to support them by delaying the third instalment of the upfront licence fee to relieve their tight financial straits.

However, the NBTC decided not to follow through with the request, citing the law. Under Section 42 of the Organisation to Assign Radio Frequencies and to Regulate Broadcasting and Telecommunications Services Act of 2010, all licence holders must pay the licence fee yearly at an appropriate rate for the type of licence in accordance with the Broadcasting Act.

On behalf of the president of Bangkok Media and Broadcasting, the operator of the PPTV digital TV station, Kematat said the result of the NBTC’s special meeting was unsatisfactory.

PPTV is among the seven major digital TV stations that last year sued the NBTC for damages at the Central Administrative Court, allegedly caused by the regulator’s negligence in marshalling the transition from analog to digital TV.

The other six stations were One, Thairath TV, GMM 25, Bright TV, Now 26 and Nation TV.

In preparation for the next hearing at the court, Kematat said his company was planning to discuss this matter with the other six broadcasters next week.

Takorn Tantasith, secretary-general of the NBTC, said recently that his administration would also submit the results of Wednesday’s meeting to the court.

NBTC member Supinya Klangnarong said she believed that those digital TV operators would ask the court to issue a temporary injunction to protect them from having to pay the third instalment of the upfront licence fee, whose deadline is May 24.

Supinya’s subcommittee overseeing consumer rights protection is also attempting to set ethical and social-responsibility standards by drafting a new rule to govern all holders of digital TV licences. The rule would serve as the terms and conditions of a TV broadcasting licence.

The move comes after TV Channel 3 allowed famous host Sorrayuth Suthassnachinda to go back on the air despite his conviction for bribery, which raised an uproar over media ethics.

However, representatives of digital-TV channels who participated in a meeting held yesterday by Supinya’s panel seemed to think differently, as they preferred a self- or co-regulated approach, instead of law enforcement.

“If they want to do that [self-regulation], they must submit a code of practices and guidelines to my panel by the end of next month for consideration of the NBTC’s broadcasting committee,” Supinya said.

As to the chief issue, Takorn said the NBTC was not able to help ailing operators exit from digital-TV business by allowing them to return their licences without having to pay the remaining instalments of the auction fee, due to limitations imposed by law.

“If a TV broadcaster really wants to quit |the business, the company must comply with the broadcasting rules by paying the remain-|ing instalments of upfront licences fees,” he added.

However, to help ease the situation for ailing TV broadcasters, he said that his office would present an idea to the junta, seeking an opportunity to amend some legal details, particularly in regard to ownership transfer under Section 43 of the 2010 Act on Organisation to Assign Radio Frequency and to Regulate Broadcasting and Telecommunications Services.

The aim would be to pave the way for new players to enter the still-new digital-TV market, making it easier for troubled broadcasters to exit the business.

Under Section 43 of the law, a radio frequency licence for sound broadcasting and television broadcasting services is the exclusive right of the licensee, and not transferable.

Takorn said the decision reached at the |regulator’s special meeting was also based |on the views from representatives of the |Council of State, the Finance Ministry and the Office of the Attorney General, which opposed the notion, arguing that full payment of the licence fee was a major responsibility of each operator as a key element of protecting the national benefit.

The NBTC also decided not to pursue other key issues raised by the ailing operators, in-|cluding delaying the third instalment of the upfront licence fee and extending the term of licences.

Under Section 42 of 2010 Act, all licence-holders must pay the licence fee yearly at an appropriate rate for the type of licence |in accordance with the Broadcasting Act.

However, financially struggling digital-TV stations might still find some relief because |the broadcasting regulator will start con-|sidering lowering the research and develop-ment fee from 2 per cent to less than 1 per |cent.

Takorn said the R&D fee reduction was a key issue in the draft amended rule on fee collection for the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Research and Development Fund for the Public Interest.

The draft rule will soon be put to a public hearing.

Under the draft, a broadcaster must pay |0.1-1 per cent of its gross revenue as an |annual fee, which will be collected for the |fund.

Fee collection will not be retroactive after the implementation of the amended rule.

Under the old rule, a broadcaster has to |pay up to 2 per cent of gross revenue for the R&D fund, but the NBTC has not yet started |calling on the 24 digital-TV broadcasters to pay up.

ITB Berlin kicked off yesterday in the German capital and runs until Sunday.

Christian Goeke, chief executive of trade-fair organiser Messe Berlin, said around 10,000 travel exhibitors and organisations from 187 countries and territories had gathered for the event to obtain an overview of the tourism industry’s wide range of products as well as to seek new business opportunities.

At the fair, Myanmar Tourism Marketing in collaboration with the United Nations’ International Trade Centre is publicising the country’s Kayah State.

Myanmar wants to develop suitable cultural and sustainable tourism products |in Kayah and help the indigenous population prepare for the im-minent arrival of visitors from abroad.

The aim is to establish Kayah as a new and long-term destination in accordance with the new sustainable-tourism policy that has been adopted by Myanmar.

The Kayah region, in the east of the country bordering Thailand’s Mae Hong Son province, has been relativel isolated from the rest of the world for more than half a century and visitors have only recently been allowed access, which is now possible both by land and by air.

Unexplored area

This is one of the last unexplored areas in Southeast Asia, offering prospects for an inspiring and authentic travel experience.

With its unspoiled nature, ethnic diversity and a good strategic location, Kayah and its small mountain villages offer a very promising potential for tourism, and an opportunity to gain some insights into traditional ways of life.

Meanwhile, Thai Tourism and Sports Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrngkul said Thailand would promote sport tourism and “Asean Connect” in order to lure high-spending tourists, particularly from Europe.

At the same event, Kyrgyzstan is promoting new travel routes to draw in foreign tourists.

Travel agency NoviNomad said the new routes targeted nature lovers who those who wanted to experience everyday life in Kyrgyzstan. The routes will take travellers across the impressive Kyrgyz landscape on foot, by horse and by car.

Meanwhile, exhibitors from African countries such as Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Burundi and Sierra Leone at ITB are promoting themselves as safe destinations after the Ebola crisis.

According to Goeke, another growth area is the LGBT Pavilion, where the focus is on the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association. India and Moments, an operator from Mauritius, Quiiky Gay Tours from Italy and mCruise, a gay cruise organiser, will all be taking part in the event for the first time.