The airport is currently waiting for the results of bids for the U-Tapao Airport and Eastern Airport City Development Project. The winner will be awarded the contract to construct the third passenger terminal.

Director of U-Tapao International Airport, Vice Admiral Kritchaphon Rianglekjamnong said that once the airport is fully open for commercial service, the number of passengers and flights would continue to increase, going from 177,000 people a year in 2015 to 1.99 million people.

“Fifteen airlines operate 15,767 flights on 33 routes both domestic and international,” he said. “We expect that the number of passengers will increase to 2.5 million people from the previous 800,000 passengers.

The airport is planning to renovate the first passenger terminal and manage the newly opened second terminal so it is fully utilized.

“We believe that the renovation of the first terminal and utilisation of the second terminal will enable the airport to serve 3-5 million passengers in the next five years,” said Kritchaphon.

“It will help maintain continued passenger growth while awaiting the third terminal, the first phase of which will be completed in 2024 and support 12 million people.”

In addition, the airport will collaborate with private investors to support development of airport services such as small aircraft maintenance, warehouse management, and the import-export process of bonded goods.

For now, the bidding result is pending as the Administrative Court’s verdict, while the project committee is considering the technical and business proposal from the Charoen Pokphand Group-led Thana Holding Consortium.

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Viu, a video streaming provider with more than 36 million users per month, has already been working with media giant GMM Grammy for two years, bringing content of GMM25 channel to the Viu platform, as well as adding more content from GMM Music, GMM TV, and Change 2561 to it.

Grammy Music’s chief executive officer, Prawit Chitrakorn says from now on, the company will join up with more platforms and partners. “In addition to music, we produce other kinds of content to cater to various tastes including tourism and food programmes, as well as variety and game shows.

Channel 3 is cooperating with Netflix in bringing two series, “Thong Ake Mor Yah Tah Chaloang” and “Buppesannivas” to the streaming platform. The channel sees the new platform as way to earn more revenue and feels the series will satisfy audiences in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam (CLMV).

“Content is our core and that leads to new revenue channels” said Ariya Banomyong, the president of BEC World, or Channel 3. “Presently, 80 per cent of Channel 3’s main income is from advertising. However, that is likely to drop to 80 to 50 per cent in the future and the remainder will need to come rom new channels”.

Music company BEC-Tero Music has joined with music streaming service Joox, to create a project called “Seven Journey”, which will take golden oldies and have them sung by new artists in new arrangements.

Going in the opposite direction, streaming provider Line TV, is aiming to expand its customer base by working with Workpoint TV to create entertaining content and shows.

The tunnel expected to be fully completed in 2020 and will be ready to connect with the railway system. Measuring 3.6 metres in width and located 30 metres underground, it will connect Chidlom and Lumpini and Chidlom and Sukhumvit. A security system for both flood and fire along with drainage and ventilation are going to be installed. The tunnel will help reduce the risk of high voltage incidents in the event of accidents and flooding while also increasing electricity capacity in the business area.

“Although the government has rolled out several economic stimulus schemes such as the ‘Eat, Shop, Spend’ campaign, crop-price guarantee, tourism promotion, property business promotion, the GDP and exports in the third quarter are still lower than estimated, while the trend could continue into the first quarter of next year if suitable solutions are not employed on time,” he warned.

“JSCCIB would like to suggest to the government to issue short-term economic stimulus measures from now until early next year to push the economy in the last quarter of 2019 and keep it at an acceptable level throughout the first quarter of 2020,” said Kalin. The proposed measures are as follows:

1 “Shopping for the Nation” scheme should be once again employed at the year-end. Similar to previous years, this scheme allows an individual a maximum of Bt15,000 in tax rebate when they purchase consumer products at domestic stores during the New Year festival (except certain items like tobacco, liquour).

2 Tax return measures to promote domestic tourism. JSCCIB has proposed a tax return based on what a person spends while travelling domestically. The limit should be set at a maximum of Bt15,000 for individual persons and five times of what they spent for juristic persons.

3 Push state-funded projects that will generate continued investment from the private sector and SMEs, such as building water reservoirs in every province using only local contractors.

4 Promote the operation of projects under Thai Credit Guarantee Corporation such as Portfolio Guarantee Scheme Phase 8 for SMEs, and the use of a credit scoring system to calculate business risk and guarantee fee for SMEs applying for loans.

5 Speed up the VAT refund process for exporters and domestic entrepreneurs by networking with e-payment system.

6 Expand the export guarantee scheme to cover new markets as well as new territories. Also, the government should subsidise the guarantee fee for SMEs in target industries, and waive premium fee for export transactions at related agencies like Exim Bank.

The campaign opened on November 27, and will run until March 31, 2020, offering Bt50,000 cash-back per buyer on down payment. Also, buyers must earn Bt100,000 a month and be registered with the Revenue Department’s tax database.

In late October, the government approved a drop in both transfer and mortgage fees to 0.01 per cent from 1.0 per cent and 2.0 per cent for those residences with maximum Bt3 million price. This measure will work from November 2019 to the end of 2020.

Housing Business Association president Atip Bijanonda has said that ‘Good House with Down Payment’ will help those who bought condominiums two years ago.

LPN Development’s chief executive officer and executive director, Opas Sripayak, said that if there are 100,000 persons registering in the campaign, the market’s earnings will be at least Bt100 billion.

“The effectiveness of the campaign will be a good sign for the total economy of Thailand,” he added.

Meanwhile, an academic of the Thailand Development Research Institute, Norarit Pisolyabutr, has said that the government prioritised short-term problems regardless of those long-term, causing entrepreneurs to delay launching projects and leading to the market slowdown. “This situation brought long-term risk to the market, and once a big problem happens, those stimulus measures would be useless,” he added.

As part of the upcoming royal barge procession ceremony on December 12, the procession by land will take His Majesty the King to the royal barge. Traffic Police will close the following roads from 4.30pm to 6pm:

1 Rachini Road; from Somdet Phra Pinklao Bridge to Parnpopob Leela Bridge

2 Na Phra Lan Road

3 Chan Road

4 Na Phra That Road

5 Maha Rat Road

6 Thai Wang Road

Police have suggested to use these roads instead:

1 Rajdamnoen Nai Road

2 Sanam Chai Road

3 Atsadang Road

It was also found that in general, Thais Tweet more about TV series (77 per cent) than movies (23 per cent), bucking the regional trend where 64 per cent of the conversation is about movies and just 36 per cent about TV series.

1. Leaned In vs Leaned Back

Based on a qualitative analysis of the Tweets around entertainment in Thailand, the audience on Twitter can be divided into two main profiles – Leaned in vs Leaned back.

Leaned in audiences look for shows that reflect their interests and seek to feel part of a bigger community with similar interests. Three main interests stand out in this group – local (Thai) entertainment fans, Netflix fans, and Korean entertainment fans.

Leaned back audiences, on the other hand, approach entertainment as a way to fill time when they’re not at work or school, or during holidays.

2. TV holds strong as a platform due to content 

Amid the rise of OTT and streaming platforms, TV still commands high demand as compared to paid or illegal streaming platforms.

Comparing the Tweet and Google search volumes, it is noted that search interest in paid and illegal streaming platforms are comparable, but both are lower than TV.

Content is a top factor affecting Thai users’ choice of viewing platform – a number of users have switched to online streaming platforms due to their interest in Korean programmes, as well as a greater variety of niche genres such as horror and/or fantasy.

3. Local titles trump global titles

Across both movies and TV series, Thai Twitter users are more inclined to Tweet about locally produced titles than international ones. This is despite the fact that the number of local film launches is considerably lower than international films – the difference is that local films generate significantly more conversation volume.

Amongst the top most-talked about local films in 2018 were “BNK48 Girls Don’t Cry” and “Brother of the Year”, both of which generated even more conversations than Hollywood blockbusters “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Black Panther”. Local films also tend to be talked about more positively than international films.

Dramas are a highly popular genre for TV series and in Thailand, local drama dominates the TV series conversations with “Buppesannivas” and “Love Destiny” taking the top spots of most talked-about TV series in 2018. Similar to movies, local TV series also enjoy higher positive sentiment than international TV series.

While Thailand has the highest rate of conversation around local TV, this preference for locally produced TV content is reflected across Southeast Asia with 77 per cent of conversations around TV revolving around local TV series, compared to 23 per cent around international TV series.

“Our recent research gives valuable insight into the way Twitter is used in Thailand. Thai users are very passionate about TV series and movies, more so about locally produced content than international, and enjoy debating storylines and plot with fellow fans on Twitter. The engagement and community interaction is very high, providing brands valuable opportunities to connect with a very leaned in audience on Twitter,” said Martyn U’ren, head of Research Asia Pacific, Middle East & North Africa.

4. Tweets about TV series and movies vary in style

When Thais tweet about TV series and movies, they do so in different ways. Passionate and engaged, fans discuss in length TV series’ plots and storylines, and in the case of historical TV dramas discuss historical accuracy.

While the TV conversation is detailed and takes place over a longer period of time, the movie conversation is much shorter with users more commonly sharing links to reviews they agree with or Tweeting their own brief review to avoid spoiling the movie for others.

The movie conversation also focuses around upcoming titles and users’ excitement prior to the launch, while the conversation around TV series is often real-time, rapid, detailed and ongoing.

Minister of the Office of the Prime Minister, Tewan Liptapallop informed the meeting that the meeting on December 4 should be harmonious to prevent an attack by the opposition.

Prime Minister replied, “We are a coalition government. You cannot do everything you want here.”

Interior Minister, Anupong Paochinda was harsher in his response, saying: “Previously, when the Democrat Party was the government, I helped you to manage national affairs. Now that you are part of government, why don’t you act appropriately in accordance with the current situation?”

Deputy Minister, Somkid Jatusripitak added that the issue was crucial to the continued functioning of government and the Democrat Party should not veto it.

During the 11am break, the Prime Minister held a meeting with Finance Minister, Uttama Saowanayon, Industry Minister, Suriya Juangroongruangkit, Education Minister, Nataphol Teepsuwan, and Minister of Social Development and Human Security, Juti Krairerk.

“If the parliamentary session tomorrow (December 4) fails again, we have to reshuffle the cabinet or dissolve the parliament” the Prime Minister said.