The MRTA is preparing to launch a trial credit card service so that commuters can tap in and out of MRT Blue-Purple Line stations.
Vithaya Punmongkol, vice governor of the Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand (MRTA), revealed that the MRTA will begin a trial to allow payment of fare for the MRT Blue Line and Purple line via EMV Contactless (Europay Mastercard and Visa) with all major credit cards having the contactless symbol, beginning January 29.
The service is a collaboration between MRTA, Bangkok Expressway and Metro Public Company Limited, as the concessionaire, and Krungthai Bank, which has taken responsibility for the development and installation of the card reader system and management of the fare payment system.
The MRTA has installed an EMV card reader in the 53 stations on the MRT Purple Line and Blue line for trial from January 29.
An average 37,000 passengers used the MRT Purple Line every day in December 2021, less than half of the average 75,000/day during the pre-Covid-19 period. The Blue Line too was sharply down to an average of 200,000 passengers/day, from 530,000 in the pre-Covid-19 period.
In January 2022, passenger traffic on both routes is likely to increase due to the improving pandemic situation. The Purple Line carried an average of 39,000 passengers/day, while the Blue Line had more than 200,000 passengers/day.
Direct flights between Saudi Arabia and Thailand could resume in May, Suttipong Kongpool, director of the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT), said on Wednesday.
He was responding to an announcement by Saudi Arabia Airlines, the national airline of Saudi Arabia, about resuming flights to Thailand in May.
Suttipong said the announcement by the airline was likely just advance information to interested passengers, however the airline has not yet applied for an official flight schedule.
The Saudi airline announced direct and regular flights. This is considered a revival of the route between the two countries, as Saudi Airlines has not flown regular flights to Thailand for over 30 years. The number of scheduled flights per week is still unknown.
“From the schedule announced by the airline to start flying in May 2022, it is considered the time for the summer flight schedule where CAAT has allocated flights. But we still find some slots available. If Saudi Airlines begins the process of requesting to fly in, I believe that it will be able to fly during the specified period,” Suttipong said.
In order to request a flight, the airline must:
Apply for the right to fly as a Designated Airline through diplomatic channels.
The government should not control the price of goods but encourage the utilisation of market forces to allow imports of goods in short supply in a bid to ease inflation, former Commerce minister Narongchai Akrasanee said.
He pointed out that since the third quarter of last year, a number of private companies had sent signals warning the government that the price of oil and other sources of energy would increase, which is happening right now.
Thailand is encountering steep price surges in consumer products.
The government should realise that a price increase of commodity raw materials such as oil or animal feed, coupled with rising transportation costs due to the pandemic, will affect the cost of living and impact livelihoods, Narongchai said in an interview with The Nation’s LIVE morning news program “Voice of The Nation”.
“The way to do it is we, as a market economy, should bolster market forces. We should also allow imports, based on market forces, of animal feed such as soybeans and maize. We must ease controls and manage the export of goods, taking into account domestic demand. Price increases will then be minimum and more manageable,” he explained.
There will be some price adjustments fluctuating according to oil prices. However, the economy will fare better if we do not control the price of essential goods and reinforce market forces, the ex-minister reiterated.
He pointed to two separate economic crises in the recent past.
The first crisis came when the Sanya government was advised to lift its policy controlling transparent bottled drinking water in 1973 when the government capped the price of such goods as a result of the oil shortage.
Narongchai said he was part of the economic advisory team at the time.
Narongchai believes that the government should utilise the existing oil fund to minimise the oil price increase and suitably manage the fund when costs are low by contributing to the fund to achieve balance in preparation for difficult times in the future.
He noted that Thailand’s policy in managing an oil price increase in the past has worked very well, much to the envy of fellow Asean members. Narongchai feels that if there is a shortage of pork, we should allow more imports of the meat and not control the price. This is the benefit of utilising international market forces to help ease shortages and competition in pricing.
When asked to identify Thailand’s economic position in ASEAN, he spoke about the 1973 oil shortage. The government at that time allowed a slight price increase, he said, and again in 1979-1980 during the Chatchai government, “we managed the situation very well”.
“If we utilise the same principle, it should work well again,” Narongchai added.
The government has extended the state of emergency until March 31. The 16th extension of the emergency declaration following the Covid-19 outbreak was published in the Royal Gazette on Tuesday.
The emergency will be effective from February 1 to March 31.
The government had declared the health emergency situation, invoking the Emergency Decree on Public Administration in Emergency Situations BE 2548 (2005) for the first time on March 26, 2010, and has extended it 15 times until January 31.
The announcement stated that the SARS-CoV-2 virus has mutated into Omicron variant, which is highly transmissible, spreading another wave of infections in the country.
The announcement said although most Thais have been vaccinated against the virus, the number of people who have received a booster dose is still low, and thus the situation can pose risk to the public health system and the health and life of Thai people if the pandemic worsens in the country.
Moreover, it has been found that more and more people from neighbouring countries were trying to flee violence and economic hardship in their countries to Thailand, which could worsen the pandemic situation in Thailand.
As a result, the government said it needs to continue emergency measures for controlling and preventing the pandemic so it had invoked Section 5 of the Emergency Decree on Public Administration in Emergency Situations BE 2548 to extend the declaration of the health emergency situation.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha signed the announcement on January 24.
Police will join forces with Internal Trade Department officials to check palm oil stocks nationwide and prevent hoarding amid the rising prices of cooking oil, a senior police officer said on Wednesday.
Deputy Police Commissioner-General Pol Gen Damrongsak Kittipraphat said police would make random checks of stocks after Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha and Deputy PM Prawit Wongsuwan expressed concern over rising palm oil prices.
Damrongsak said relentless rains in the South had led to a reduction in palm fruit harvesting, leading to a supply shortage. The PM and Prawit, who is the chairperson of the National Palm Oil Committee, wanted to ensure there was no hoarding and had asked police to assist the Internal Trade Department.
Damrongsak said Police Commissioner-General Pol General Suwat Chaengyodsuk has instructed the Consumer Protection Police Division and the Central Investigation Bureau to dispatch special units to work with provincial internal trade officials and local police to check palm oil refineries in 25 provinces.
Most of the refineries are in the southern provinces of Krabi, Chumphon, Trang, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Pattani, Phang Nga, Ranong and Surat Thani.
Police also will randomly check palm oil warehouses, Damrong added.
Owners found hoarding palm oil without informing the provincial internal trade officials of their stocks or guilty of under-reporting stocks face a fine up to Bt20,000 and/or a maximum jail term of one year.
Owners of the hoarding refineries or warehouses face a daily fine of Bt2,000, Damrongsak added.
He said police would provide full support to internal trade officials to ensure consumers are not exploited. He urged people to call the Consumer Protection Police Hotline of 1135 or call the Commerce Department Hotline 1569 if they suspect hoarding activities.
A TikTok clip showing a male customer at a cat café throwing a cat out of the shop to the dangerous roadside has infuriated netizens.
The clip was posted by the owner of a cat café and homemade ice-cream shop in Hua Hin on Tuesday night and it generated over 138,000 views and 3,920 comments by Friday.
The clip showed a male customer entering the shop with a girlfriend. While he was browsing the menus, a cat apparently tried to clear its furball from its throat in the middle of the shop.
The customer tried to use the menu card to drive the cat from the spot, but the feline kept eluding him. When he returned to his seat and table, the cat ran after him and stayed behind him. This time the angry man grabbed the cat, opened the shop’s door, and tossed it outside.
Anxious other cats in the cafe ran to the glass door soon after the incident.
The shop owner, who uses the account itimgon_ong, said he was very sad to find out about the incident.
He said his chef later spotted the cat outside and brought it back into the shop. He said fortunately the cat did not panic and run onto the road amid the traffic.
The shop owner posted that as his shop is a cat café, a cat hater should not have come there in the first place.
He said he had also put up signs around the shop that if any patron feared cats, they should inform the staff who will put them away.
The owner said the incident happened when he was not in the cafe and his chef was alone. The chef was busy preparing meals so he didn’t see what was happening outside the kitchen. The chef was surprised to later find out about how the cat had landed outside, so he informed the shop owner to check the shop’s security camera.
The clip drew many angry comments. Some TikTok users even urged the shop owner to locate the “culprit” and take legal action against him for putting the cat’s life in danger.
They said the man should have realised that it was a cat café, and avoided the place if he did not like cats.
Fourteen patients in Thailand have been infected with Covid-19 Omicron subvariant BA.2, with one dying, Department of Medical Sciences director-general Dr Supphakit Siriluck reported on Wednesday.
Omicron BA.2 has been nicknamed the “stealth variant” due to difficulties in comparison between this particular variant and Delta using the RT-PCR method.
BA.2 is spreading rapidly in around 40 countries, including Singapore, India, Denmark, Sweden and the UK.
“The Omicron variant that has been found in Thailand since December 6 last year is the BA.1 variant that has mutations in the K417N, T478K, N501Y and del69/70 positions from the original Covid-19 virus,” Supphakit explained.
“About three weeks after it was first discovered among foreign travellers, the BA.1 variant has spread quickly throughout a number of countries with several clusters reported in populated and tourism areas,” he said.
“The Omicron BA.2 subvariant was first found in Thailand on January 2. Since then, 14 patients have been reported to have contracted it,” Supphakit said, adding that Omicron BA.3 “has yet to be discovered in Thailand”.
Supphakit said that so far there was no evidence BA.2 was different from BA.1 in terms of transmissibility, the potential for a patient to develop severe symptoms, or the ability to evade immunity created after recovering from Covid-19 or by receiving a vaccine.
“Apart from being hard to differentiate from Delta variants with RT-PCR testing, the BA.2 subvariant is different from BA.1 and BA.3, meaning that it does not show any mutation in the positions 69-70 of the spike protein,” he added.
So far, seven patients in Thailand infected with the Omicron variant have died, bringing the fatality rate of Omicron in the country to 0.1 per cent. Omicron is now the dominant variant in Thailand, accounting for 94.6 per cent of patients. For Delta it is 5.4 per cent.
When divided by origin, 99.4 per cent of imported cases are of the Omicron variant while 0.6 per cent is Delta. Currently, 92.3 per cent of domestic cases are Omicron and 7.7 per cent Delta.
A massive oil spill of 400,000 litres off the Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate in Rayong on Tuesday night led to concerns over its marine environmental impact with some fearing it could be much worse than the spill in 2013.
Star Petroleum Refining Plc said in a statement that the oil leakage occurred at 9.06pm at its single point mooring, which is a floating jetty offshore to allow petroleum tankers to transfer crude oil for its refinery in the industrial estate.
The statement said the company has dispatched emergency teams to apply all necessary emergency measures for dealing with an oil spill. The company has also alerted all government agencies concerned as well as adjacent communities, the Environmental Monitoring and Control Centre of Eastern Seaboard Industrial Estate and the Emergency Incident Command Centre. Other companies in the area were also alerted to the oil spill, the statement added.
Star Petroleum Refining apologised for the accident and pledged to investigate.
The company announced in a subsequent statement that it had managed to stop the leakage from its undersea pipe at 12.18am on Wednesday and it had brought the situation under control.
It said it had deployed boats to spray chemicals to get rid of the spilled oil and the company would survey the area in the morning to assess the situation.
But the Pollution Control Department said that its Oil Map simulation predicted the spilled crude oil could reach Mae Rampueng Beach and Khao Laem Ya-Mu Ko Samet National Park in Rayong at 5pm on Friday. The department said the areas could be hit with 180,000 litres of the spilled crude oil.
Puchong Saritchaikul, director of the First Marine and Coastal Resources Office, said there was a small leak in the underwater pipe and the 0.9-centimetre hole was caused by biological degradation, mainly caused by barnacles.
Pollution Control Department director-general Atthapol Charonechansa and Marine and Coastal Resources Department chief Sophon Thongdee are visiting the area on Wednesday afternoon to evaluate the situation.
The spill prompted marine life expert Thon Thamrongnawasawat to warn that the situation could be worse for Rayong than in 2013.
Thon, a marine life expert, posted on his Facebook wall that the current spill was more massive than in 2013 and the northward wind could cause some of the oil to reach the Rayong coastal line.
He said the north wind might help Koh Samet escape disaster but residents of the tourist destination island should be on alert because the island is not far from the shore.
In July 2013, the oil pipe of PTT Global Chemical leaked while it was receiving crude oil from a Greek oil tanker, causing a spill of 50,000 litres of crude oil. The accident, which happened some 20km southeast of Map Ta Phut, damaged tourism on Koh Samet and caused marine environmental impact for a few years.
A young girl captured in a viral TikTok clip stumbling because of her heavy school bag was not carrying her textbooks, her teacher and her mother insisted on Wednesday.
The clip was posted by a TikTok user named “Teerayutjayjak” on Tuesday. It was viewed more than 9.7 million times before the end of the day and has been widely shared on social media, leading to harsh criticism against her school and the Thai education system.
The clip showed the girl, at a road corner in a southern province, desperately attempting to place the school bag’s straps over her shoulders. The frail-looking girl could not do it while standing because the bag was apparently too heavy.
She eventually sat down and succeeded in placing the straps on her shoulders but then couldn’t stand back up because of the bulky load.
She eventually gave up.
She decided to drag the bag along instead of carrying it on her shoulders.
While the girl was struggling to carry her bag, the man who shot the clip was heard giggling with his friend and saying they should wait and see how the girl deals with the situation. But his friend could not stand it anymore. He crossed the road to the girl and helped lift the bag’s straps onto her shoulders. The girl subsequently stumbled away, leaning forward under the sheer weight of the bag.
Netizens tried to find out why the school bag was too heavy for a young schoolgirl and where the incident happened.
It was later learned that she is a 7-year-old first-grader of a school in Moo 2 village in Tambon Lagnu, Satun’s Langu district.
Her teacher, who asked not to be named, told reporters she felt sorry for the girl when she saw the clip, adding that the 7-year-old is a strong kid and normally helps with family errands.
She said the school had classes until midday on Tuesday and children were supposed to wait for parents to pick them up because each would have to carry along a big box of milk cartons home.
However, the girl might have been too excited to receive the entire box of milk because she put it inside her bag and walked out without waiting for her mother to pick her up as usual.
Her mother, who identified herself only as Suchada, confirmed that the heavy bag held an entire box of milk cartons, not school books as claimed by social networkers. The hefty box contained 36 cartons inside and there were only four thin, light books, the mother added.
She also said the school was one kilometre away from her house and she normally rode her motorcycle to pick the girl up.
When she arrived at the school this time round, she found her daughter had already left. She later caught up with the girl midway and, unseen by the clip, rode her back home, she added.
Thailand and Saudi Arabia agreed to take important steps to reinvigorate bilateral relations, including the appointment of ambassadors to their respective capitals in the near future, government spokesman Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana said on Wednesday.
Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha led a team of ministers and spokespersons on an official visit to Saudi Arabia from Tuesday to Wednesday – the first time in 30 years that a Thai PM has visited the Gulf country.
The premier and his team arrived in Riyadh at 11.20am on Tuesday (Riyadh local time). Prayut then met Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud at Al Yamamah Palace at 1.30pm.
“His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia received the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand, and they held an official meeting, during which they reaffirmed their mutual determination to resolve all pending issues between Thailand and Saudi Arabia and normalise relations between the two kingdoms,” Thanakorn said.
“The two sides also stressed the importance of strengthening the two kingdoms’ bond of friendship and the opening of a new chapter in relations between Thailand and Saudi Arabia. The Thai prime minister stressed that Thailand places utmost importance on the bond of friendship with Saudi Arabia, and expressed his sincere regrets for the tragic cases that took place in Thailand between 1989 and 1990. He reaffirmed that Thailand had exerted utmost efforts to resolve the cases and that it stands ready to bring the cases to the consideration of competent Thai authorities if new, well-founded evidence should emerge,” the spokesman said.
“He also reaffirmed Thailand’s commitment to providing appropriate security to members of the mission of the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Bangkok in accordance with the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.”
“Both sides reiterated their commitments to do their utmost to ensure the safety of each other’s nationals in their respective countries,” Thanakorn said.
“The two sides also exchanged views on various regional and international issues, and discussed means and ways to strengthen their bilateral relations in all areas. They also agreed to increase interactions and coordination between their respective government agencies as well as private sectors in order to elevate their bilateral ties to new heights for the mutual benefit of the two kingdoms.”
“In the spirit of cooperation and shared determination to revive the friendship and cordial relations between the two kingdoms and their peoples, as guided by the bold leadership and vision of the custodian of the two holy mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand agreed to fully normalise diplomatic relations,” Thanakorn continued.
“This historic breakthrough is a result of long-term efforts on many levels from both sides to restore mutual trust and friendly relations.”
“The two sides agreed on important steps to be taken to reinvigorate their bilateral relations, including the appointment of ambassadors to their respective capitals in the near future and the setting up of consultative mechanisms for consolidating their bilateral cooperation.”
“Intensive coordination will commence in the coming months to discuss bilateral cooperation in key strategic areas,” he said.
“The two sides discussed means and ways to strengthen and enhance economic and trade relations between the two kingdoms by exploring investment and other opportunities in the context of Saudi Vision 2030 and Thailand’s national development agenda, namely the Bio-Circular-Green Economy policy. They also agreed to explore new areas of cooperation, such as renewable energy, environment, digital transformation and cybersecurity.”
“They further emphasised the importance of fostering people-to-people relations, which will be the cornerstone of the two kingdoms’ growing relations, as well as the promotion of interfaith dialogue and multiculturalism,” Thanakorn said.
“The two sides agreed to support each other in international organisations and stressed the importance of the commitment of all countries to the Charter of the United Nations, international norms, and principles of good neighbourliness, respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty, non-inteference in internal affairs, and the peaceful settlement of disputes. They welcomed each other’s constructive roles in their respective regions, particularly Thailand’s vital role in Asean as well as Saudi Arabia’s leading role in the maintenance of peace, security and humanitarian and development assistance,” he said.
“The prime minister of the Kingdom of Thailand congratulated Saudi Arabia on its success in hosting and organising the G20 Summit, which has yielded positive outcomes in many areas, such as the economy, development, environment, health, energy, etc. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia also expressed confidence that Thailand’s hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation [Apec] summit and the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation [Bimstec] in 2022 will be successful and greatly contribute to the sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth of the regional and global economy in the post-Covid-19 era,” the spokesman said.
“The prime minister of the Kingdom of Thailand welcomed the Saudi Green Initiative and the Middle East Green Initiative, launched by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He also commended the leading role of Saudi Arabia in various common international issues, including combating climate change and its positive impacts on the region and its population. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia also praised Thailand’s Bio-Circular-Green Economy policy, which aims to enhance resource efficiency, transform waste into wealth, regenerate biodiversity and mitigate impacts on the environment,” Thanakorn added.
Owners found hoarding palm oil without informing the provincial internal trade officials of their stocks or guilty of under-reporting stocks face a fine up to Bt20,000 and/or a maximum jail term of one year.
But the Pollution Control Department said that its Oil Map simulation predicted the spilled crude oil could reach Mae Rampueng Beach and Khao Laem Ya-Mu Ko Samet National Park in Rayong at 5pm on Friday. The department said the areas could be hit with 180,000 litres of the spilled crude oil.
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