The Energy Business Department announced on Tuesday that the rise in oil and gas consumption during the first seven months of this year showed that the country’s economy was recovering.
Nunthika Thungsupanich, director-general of the department, said an average of 151.04 million litres of oil were consumed daily from January to July, an increase of 13.5 per cent from the same period of last year.
The average daily consumption comprised 29.80 million litres of petrol (up 2.4 per cent); 73.44 million litres of diesel (up 16.2 per cent); 6.32 million litres of bunker oil (up 18.9 per cent); and 7.8 million litres of aircraft petrol (up 66.7 per cent).
She said the consumption of LPG rose to 18.17 million kilograms per day, a 9.4 per cent increase, and NGV rose to 3.39 million kg per day, a 5.6 per cent increase.
Nunthika added that the import of oil rose to about 1.031 million barrels per day — 963,155 barrels of crude oil and 68,427 barrels of refined petroleum — from January to July, an increase of 14.5 per cent from the same period last year.
She said the oil consumption rose mainly because of the government’s measures to stimulate the economy.
The government believes the tourism industry is on the path to recovery and expects a 1,800-per-cent surge in foreign arrivals in the second half of this year.
Deputy government spokesperson Ratchada Thanadirek said on Tuesday that several figures clearly point to a recovery in the tourism industry.
She said more than 4 million foreign tourists have landed in Thailand over the first eight months of the year, and the government expects to log 7.5 million arrivals from July to December. This will mark a 1,840 per cent increase from the same period last year.
Ratchada added that the country can expect to earn 400 million baht from tourist spending in the second half.
She also cited four factors that will promote tourism, namely:
• Airlines resuming flights and launching new routes
• Many countries easing entry and departure restrictions making it easier to travel
• China allowing the resumption of some international flights
• Thailand has reopened border checkpoints to welcome tourists from neighbouring countries
Ratchada added that figures from the Commerce Ministry’s Business Development Department also indicate a tourism recovery.
The department reported that 549 new tour-guide and hotel-booking businesses with a capital of 989 million baht were registered in the first seven months of this year. This marked a 169 per cent and 226 per cent increase in the two business streams, respectively.
As of the end of July, there were 11,891 tourism and hotel-booking operators worth about 43 billion baht.
If the investment in tourism businesses is broken down by the nationality of owners, then 37 billion baht was invested by Thais (87.2 per cent), 1.1 billion baht by Chinese (2.6 per cent), 528 million baht by South Koreans (1.2 per cent), 445 million baht by Indians (1 per cent) and 3.4 billion baht by other nationalities (8 per cent).
The spokesperson said the recovery can be attributed to the cooperation from all sectors and several government measures introduced to stimulate the tourism industry.
For instance, she said, the government has extended the period covered by visa-on-arrival and has launched several campaigns to promote popular destinations.
She added that though the government expects some 10 million foreign arrivals, it is concerned that new viruses, the Russia-Ukraine war and global inflation will affect people’s decision to travel.
SCBX Pcl, the “mothership” company of SCB Group, never officially sought permission to buy a 51 per cent stake in BitKub Online, the Bank of Thailand (BOT) has said.
The BOT deputy governor for stability of financial institutions, Ronadol Numnonda, said on Monday that the central bank had been officially informed about the cancellation of the deal.
He said that both companies mutually terminated the deal due to business reasons.
Ronadol said that BOT focuses on developing financial innovations while also regulating the overall stability and security of commercial banks in their governance, sufficiency of capital, risk management and its effects, and protection of customers .
Speaking about the BOT regulation that allows commercial banks to invest only up to 3 per cent of their capital in digital assets, he explained that the objective was:
Allowing commercial banks to have flexibility to invest in bringing innovations to provide service to customers with more efficiency
Allowing digital asset businesses in the country to grow gradually, and to restrict risks that might affect trust in commercial banks
Allowing commercial banks to invest or manage their resources carefully
The BOT believes these objectives will eventually be beneficial to users and the development of innovation in the Thai financial sector, he said.
He said that commercial banks that want to establish a subsidiary related to digital assets must first seek permission from the BOT.
Ronadol added that the regulations were not aimed at any specific deal but to regulate the risks to the overall financial system.
SCBX last Thursday announced that the group and Bitkub Capital Group Holdings had reached a mutual agreement to terminate their proposed investment of 17.85 billion baht for a 51 per cent stake in Bitkub Online.
Facebook Thailand from Meta and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) today shared the results of its latest study, which emphasized a quiet revolution in the growing adoption of business messaging in Thailand and Apac.
According to the report, over 40 per cent of Thais surveyed said they were messaging with a business more frequently than compared in the pre-pandemic period, with nearly one in two consumers chatting with businesses at least once a week.
The trend was similar across all age groups, especially among Thai Millennials and Gen Zs, who are messaging businesses up to 11.7 times every month.
The new study, “Business Messaging: The Quiet Channel Revolution Across Tech” surveyed 6,500 respondents across Thailand, Australia, Indonesia, Korea, Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam, and showed how having seamless and deeper conversations is emerging as a baseline expectation and has become an integral communications channel for both businesses and consumers.
For Thai businesses, 90 per cent recognize that messaging apps are important for success, while 80 per cent of consumers plan to continue using messaging to interact with businesses, impacting the future of business’ commercial and customer experiences as business messaging gains traction following the pandemic’s acceleration.
Tarandeep Singh, Managing Director at BCG explained, “The Covid-19 pandemic forced countries around the world to go into lockdowns, enforce strict social distancing rules, and restrict in-person business operations. This resulted in more people going online, and businesses across many industries to increase their investment and engagement on online channels to connect with customers.”
“Based on our research, business messaging adoption is gaining traction beyond small businesses. While smaller businesses have been using Business Messaging to digitize and scale their online presence for years, large businesses now recognize messaging as a critical component of their business model. Nine in 10 large Thai businesses rated messaging as very or extremely important to their overall business,” he added.
The study also shows the immense potential of business messaging for the financial services sector. Consumers across Apac said it was important for them to message a business before they signed up for a financial product, with 69 per cent of Thai consumers believing it was of high and very high importance to their consideration. This was further reflected by 75 percent of local financial services companies, who perceive Business Messaging as extremely or very important to their business.
This extended adoption also means the continued expansion of use cases across industries such as Consumer Products, Retail, Financial Services, and e-Commerce – ranging from basic enquiries, lead generation, and one-to-one consultations to customization, feedback, re-marketing, and information collecting.
More than half of Thai businesses say that they use Business Messaging for after-sales services, while 59 and 67 per cent of retail and e-commerce businesses, respectively, use it to process pre-sales enquiries. Further, an average of 44 per cent of local businesses said they use messaging to process orders and transactions.
The end-to-end potential of Business Messaging can be seen in Thai beauty brand N’LIGHT 10, which built a conversational experience that manages customer conversations and drives sales. Their innovative experience, which involved click-to-Messenger photo ads and automated responses, made it easier for customers to converse with N’LIGHT 10 and purchase its products within Messenger using Facebook Pay. This helped the beauty brand increase its sales by 600% and played a key role in N’LIGHT 10’s increased confidence in achieving business success.
Prae Dumrongmongcolgul, Country Director, Facebook Thailand for Meta, said, “We are seeing fundamental shifts in how people and businesses connect, and the last few years have accelerated these shifts. This report shows that the ability to message a business is emerging as a consumer baseline expectation. As business messaging largely takes place across social and messaging platforms, we are committed to enabling businesses of all sizes with capabilities to activate this channel for growth,” she added.
The report also outlines key recommendations for how businesses can start their messaging journey, including defining clear objectives for messaging throughout the entire customer journey; prioritizing business messaging in the marketing strategy so contacts are timely, personal, and relevant, and adopting third-party messaging technology solutions and providers to rapidly scale messaging capabilities.
Commenting on the value of business messaging, Charnae Morris, Head of eBusiness, Nestle IndoChina said “We are very encouraged by the integration of business messaging. The business and brand value proposition for Nestle has been to really engage the consumer and shopper end-to-end from the moment they might have a question about our product, providing them with rich information, and for them to decide whether to purchase the product. We are using this as a proof-of-concept to potentially scale the solution to other businesses from coffee to pet care. As a next step, I would encourage marketers to understand the role business messaging can play in their overall brand strategy and channel mix. After which, they should allocate resources to orchestra ways of working to ensure success.”
Thailand’s National Innovation Agency (Public Organization) or NIA has recently hosted the Southeast Asia Startup Assembly (SEASA 2022) in Bangkok under the theme “Open the Cities for Startup Opportunities among APEC Member Economies”.
The hybrid event brought together representatives from government startup agencies from ASEAN and partnering countries – Thailand, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, China, and India to discuss the main issues confronting the startup ecosystem and the solutions that can be achieved through a united effort.
Dr. Pun-Arj Chairatana, Executive Director of NIA, said the COVID-19 pandemic has brought changes in people’s life, as well as work and business operations. Notably, innovativeness, foresight, and resilience are some of the key factors helping firms to overcome global challenges and thrive during the post-COVID 19 era.
The government has a significant role to support in promoting invaluable assets such as Artificial Intelligence, digital transformation, technology, advanced materials, and manufacturing.
“We should leverage on each other’s experience and expertise to enhance the strength of the overall ecosystem. SEASA event is therefore the place where key players in regional startup communities can exchange knowledge and experience regarding policies, current situations, and challenges that all are currently facing.”
Dr.Pun-Arj also expressed his confidence that with continued cooperation and goodwill within the region, the startup communities will together navigate through this dire time to a brighter future.
The representatives of each country made their brief presentations on “The Roles of Governments in Promoting Startups in the Post-COVID-19 Era” focusing on policy, launch pads, and the current startup situation to maintain strong collaborations of the ASEAN startup ecosystem. It reflected that they have similar policies to support startups.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic had accelerated the digital transformation and forced people to adapt their behaviors into accepting a cashless society, now 90% of Brunei population is now completely comfortable with the QR codes. This opens us up to the acceptance of things like e-wallets and cashless transactions. To support tech innovation and capacity building, they are going to launch a Brunei Innovation scheme in July 2022.
India has India Stack model to support a market expansion through eKYC and customer onboarding. This enables its population to better access financial services. The government also developed and launched UPI to ensure that everybody has an opportunity to access the digital payment.
While Thailand has been trying to provide easy access and create infrastructure and opportunities for both Thai and international tech enterprises under the Thailand 4.0 initiatives.
And Malaysian government has been working on three pillars to promote the digital economy – digital talents, digital businesses, and digital investment.
Community and Ecosystem is also important. Hence, the Thai government started the Global Startup Hub in Thailand five years ago. They have currently set up offices in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) to facilitate local and foreign startups in various sectors.
Malaysia also has been trying to build startup communities and facilitate the market. The government has launched Malaysia Digital Hub Initiatives with over 400 startups in communities.
To foster its startup ecosystem, Vietnamese government is working aggressively on next steps by developing the policy sandbox to fund startups directly, producing more talents, setting up innovation corridor and strengthening both domestic and international networks. Recently, they also amended the Intellectual Property (IP) laws, aiming to encourage universities and startups to bring more technology and research into commercialization.
In terms of foreign investment, the pandemic disconnected most flights causing more difficulties to attract foreign startups to expand or establish in other countries.
Therefore, China has set up Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) centers in overseas including in Bangkok. Besides, it also cooperates with Chulalongkorn University to set up an incubation center and creates partnerships with the government agencies and local investors to attract Chinese startups to Thailand by focusing on the sectors related to bioeconomy, circular economy, and green economy.
The Malaysian government also welcomes foreign startups to invest in Malaysia by offering 1-5 year passes for entrepreneurs who would like to explore or want to set up a business in Malaysia
Panelists also discussed Environmental, Social, and Governance or ESG which is a huge trend influencing all sectors including startups. For some startups receiving funding from big corporates, they are already required to meet ESG compliances.
In addition, businesses and universities should escalate their collaborative efforts to make the research or studies more practical for businesses. In conclusion, the post-COVID-19 time requires resilience and agility where startups need to create business models that suit the current situation.
Therefore, the governments need to have policies in place to create business continuity for SMEs and startups as well as help ease some unnecessary regulations to improve a long-term business environment.
Apart from 6 countries joining the SEASA event, Thailand also has a strong connection with other ASEAN and partner countries namely Singapore, Korea, and Japan. And they will foster collaborations to together drive innovation in the future.
The Commerce Ministry has joined hands with a top Saudi supermarket to promote Thai products in Saudi Arabia.
Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit chaired the launch of a promotional campaign for Thai products at Manuel Market in Riyadh on Sunday.
Jurin said the trade value between Thailand and Saudi Arabia had shown satisfactory growth at 46 per cent in the first seven months of 2022.
He added that Thailand also enjoyed a trade surplus of 26 per cent with Saudi Arabia due to an improvement in bilateral ties.
The minister said Manuel Market sells 30 categories of Thai products, including canned seafood, canned fruit, rice, condiments and pet foods.
He added that Manuel Market had imported US$22 billion worth of Thai products last year, and hopes the value will rise to $30 billion this year.
According to the International Trade Promotion Department, Manuel Market is a top mall and supermarket in Saudi Arabia. There are 12 branches in big cities including Riyadh, Jeddah and Jubail.
Manuel Market imports consumer products from foreign countries, especially from Europe and Asia, including Thailand, from which it imports food products.
Thailand and Vietnam are ready to cooperate on boosting the global rice price in a bid to help rice farmers, he Agriculture Ministry said on Monday.
An adviser to the ministry, Alongkorn Ponlaboot, said Thailand had asked Vietnam for cooperation in May.
He added that the cooperation was approved by Agriculture Minister Chalermchai Sreeon and his counterpart Le Minh Hoan.
“This is the first time that Thailand and Vietnam, the world’s second- and third-largest rice exporters, have agreed to cooperate on boosting the global rice price,” he said.
Both Thailand and Vietnam believe that the current global rice price is unfair to farmers, as they are suffering from debt and poverty, he said.
He also explained that rice production costs have risen sharply due to the Covid-19 crisis and the Russia-Ukraine war.
“If the situation continues, farmers would turn to growing other crops that generate higher income, leading to a decline in rice production with its greater impact on global supply of food,” he said.
He said Thailand and Vietnam will set up an ad hoc working group to inform rice farmers and exporter associations about the cooperation.
He added that the cooperation would be expanded to other rice exporters in the future.
“Both parties have agreed to increase agricultural trade as well,” he added.
In 2021, agricultural trade between Thailand and Vietnam was valued at 74.21 billion baht. Thai imports accounted for 25.46 billion baht and exports amounted to 48.75 billion, yielding Thailand a 23.28 billion baht trade surplus.
A 6,000-per-cent rise in foreign arrivals July is among positive signs that Thailand’s economy is recovering to stability, the Fiscal Policy Office (FPO) said on Monday.
The FPO was announcing economic indicators and data for July.
July saw 1.12 million foreign arrivals, a rise of 6,126.3 per cent from the same month last year. Arrivals were also up 3.8 per cent from the previous month.
The majority of foreign tourists came from Malaysia, India, Vietnam and South Korea.
Domestic travel also increased to 16.7 million trips in July, up 1,818.6 per cent from last year and 2.4 per cent from the previous month.
Other positive indicators included a rise in consumption of durable goods.
For example, the sale of vehicles rose 15 per cent while motorcycle registrations rose 16.4 per cent compared with July last year.
Revenue from value-added tax (VAT) rose 1.8 per cent year on year while the consumer confidence index in July rose 0.8 points from June to 42.4.
Land and property tax revenue rose 8.5 per cent from July last year but dropped 4.8 per cent from the previous month.
July’s export value stood at US$23.629 billion, up 4.3 per cent from last year and seeing its 17th monthly rise in a row.
The agricultural production index also rose 1.1 per cent year or year while the industrial confidence index was up from 86.3 points in June to 89.0 points.
Private-sector investment fell by 5.1 per cent from July last year. However, investment in construction as reflected by cement sales rose by 6.3 per cent.
The FPO said Thailand’s economy was still enjoying stability with headline inflation of 7.61 per cent and core inflation at 2.99 per cent.
As of the end of June, the public debt-to-GDP ratio was 61.1 per cent. Meanwhile, newly laid-off workers applying for compensation from the Social Security Office in July constituted only 0.56 per cent of all Social Security Fund members.
The government’s think tank has declared a “food security crisis” after more than quarter of a million Thais were found to be undernourished – many of them farmers.
Some 260,000 Thais are undernourished, according to the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC)’s report on Thai society in the second quarter of this year.
Titled “Food Security Crisis: Measures and Guidelines for Improving Thailand Food Security with Sustainability”, the report cites the Economist’s 2021 Global Food Security Index (GFSI). The GFSI report states that many of the 260,000 undernourished Thais are farmers who grow crops and produce food.
This is despite the fact that Thailand is among the world’s largest food exporters, ranking 13th last year.
The GFSI ranks Thailand 51 out of 113 countries in terms of food security, based on four criteria of affordability, availability, quality and safety, and natural resources and resilience. The GFSI 2021 gave an overall score of 64.5 out of 100 score, a slight improvement on the 2020 score of 63.6.
Thailand was ranked ninth among Asia-Pacific nations in terms of food security and 15th among middle-income nations.
The NESDC noted that although Thailand’s food affordability score was 81.8, 0.38 per cent of its population was under the global poverty line, meaning about 260,000 people, especially residents in remote areas, face undernourishment.
The NESDC said food insecurity mostly occurred in rural farming areas where drought is the major problem and transportation is an issue.
This year, soaring inflation has increased economic hardship for many Thais and made food less affordable.
The NESDC report added that farmers’ ability to subsist on the food they produce is also declining.
It said vulnerable groups still need government measures to make food more affordable.
She also cited four factors that will promote tourism, namely:
Ratchada added that figures from the Commerce Ministry’s Business Development Department also indicate a tourism recovery.
If the investment in tourism businesses is broken down by the nationality of owners, then 37 billion baht was invested by Thais (87.2 per cent), 1.1 billion baht by Chinese (2.6 per cent), 528 million baht by South Koreans (1.2 per cent), 445 million baht by Indians (1 per cent) and 3.4 billion baht by other nationalities (8 per cent).
For instance, she said, the government has extended the period covered by visa-on-arrival and has launched several campaigns to promote popular destinations.
SootinClaimon.Com 