The price of gold in Thailand rose by THB50 per baht weight in the morning trade on Monday.
The Gold Traders Association report at 9.22am showed buying price of a gold bar at THB27,100 per baht weight and selling price THB27,200, while gold ornaments were priced at THB26,605.80 and THB27,700, respectively.
At close on Saturday, buying price of a gold bar was THB27,050 per baht weight and selling price THB27,150, while gold ornaments were priced at THB26,560.32 and THB27,650, respectively.
Uphill task to achieve Thai rice export target as sales plunge in first half
Thailand managed to export only 2.2 million tonnes of rice in the first half of the year, down 21.03 per cent from the same period last year.
Rice exports in the first half of 2021 (from January 1 to June 23) were valued at $1.382 billion, down 28.14 per cent year on year.
The situation is not good for Thai rice exports, said Lt-Colonel Charoen Laothammathat, president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association.
Against the full-year target of 6 million tonnes, worth $5 billion or THB150 billion, Thailand could export 5.7 million tonnes.
Charoen said that in order to export 6 million tonnes of rice during the year, Thais must export an average of 500,000 tonnes per month. Thailand’s rice exports are currently below the target.
He said Thai rice was more expensive than the competition and that affected sales This was a result of the baht’s appreciation and the drought.
He revealed that Thai rice exports had declined continuously in many markets as can be seen from export figures even to neighbouring countries such as Malaysia.
In the first two months of the year, India was the top exporter with 72,203 tonnes, followed by Pakistan 19,575 tonnes, Vietnam 13,978 tonnes, Myanmar 10,899 tonnes, while Thailand was fifth with 6,059 tonnes.
The Ministry of Commerce has joined hands with the Thai Rice Exporters Association to push three main Thai rice exports:
▪︎ 4.8 per growth in jasmine rice to premium markets, and 5.2 per cent growth in fragrant rice sales;
▪︎ 4.7 per cent growth in white rice exports to general market, and 4.9 per cent expansion of parboiled rice;
▪︎ Expand glutinous rice exports by 3.6 per cent, brown rice and milled rice by 12.5 per cent to specialised markets.
At the same time, the ministry will accelerate the government-to-government (G2G) rice trading market.
Recently, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Commerce Jurin Laksanawisit revealed that the Department of Foreign Trade had negotiated an additional 20,000 tonnes of G2G white rice exports to China under the contract to buy 1 million tonnes of G2G rice. They also plan to negotiate the sale of G2G rice under the memorandum of understanding that Thailand has signed with Bangladesh and Indonesia.
Charoen said Thai rice export had been plagued by the same problems for the past 10 years. The price of Thai rice is higher than most of its competitors like Vietnam, India, Pakistan, and China. Thai rice varieties do not meet the needs of the market. Recently, there was still the problem of rising freight rates affecting the export cost of Thai rice, he said.
Marilyn Monroe, dead 59 years, is a counterfeiters best friend
Nearly six decades after her death, Marilyn Monroe is still a popular choice for mugs, T-shirts, jewelry and other products using her name — even illegally.
Authentic Brands Group, which owns the rights to the late movie star’s name and the phrase “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend” popularized by her most famous song, has won a court order freezing the assets of dozens of virtual storefronts selling counterfeit goods.
The company said in court documents that it works with marketplaces such as Amazon.com, Alibaba, EBay, Joom and Wish to shut down the sites, but it’s not enough. Court filings lay out an elaborate and often covert operation to identify the counterfeiters, file lawsuits under seal and seek judicial orders before the storefronts knew they were being targeted.
“If it’s suspected that the defendant is operating offshore and you’re operating in the whac-a-mole territory, you have to get creative,” said Anthony Dreyer, a trademark lawyer with the Skadden firm in Washington.
Dreyer, who wasn’t involved in this case, specializes in sports and entertainment intellectual property and represents the National Hockey League in suits to shut down counterfeits. Seizing the illicit goods isn’t always possible and doesn’t solve the problem, he said.
“You want to go further up the chain and you want to make it harder for them to do business,” Dreyer said. “The sophistication of varied payment methods makes it harder to freeze the assets and ultimately seize the assets.”
Lawsuits like the Marilyn Monroe case are becoming increasingly common as consumers shop online with little understanding — or even concern — of what’s real and fake.
“Within the last year, especially with Covid-19 and more consumers shopping online, counterfeiters have gotten really smart and taken advantage of that,” said Tiffany Pho, manager of anti-counterfeiting at the International Trademark Association.
The association has projected that, by next year, the total estimated value of counterfeit goods including digital piracy will reach at least $1.9 trillion annually. Internet sales are particularly popular because the counterfeiters can have a more global reach and more ways to hide, Pho said.
Monroe was 36 when she died Aug. 4, 1962, at the height of her career, which included popular hit movies such as “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” “Bus Stop” and “The Seven Year Itch.” The actress, known for her blonde hair and curvy figure, has inspired generations of entertainers and she remains one of the most valuable brands, ranking 13th on the Forbes list of “highest paid dead celebrities.”
Her estate, including certain intellectual property rights, was split, with 25% going to her therapist and 75% to famed acting coach, Lee Strasberg. After Strasberg died in 1982, the rights transferred to his third wife, Anna, and Authentic Brands eventually became owner of that share. The scope of those intellectual property rights have been litigated heavily over the decades but the ownership of Monroe’s name and the title of her most famous song are clearly owned by Authentic Brands.
“She’s got a timeless beauty that even today still resonates,” said Jay P. Kennedy, associate professor and assistant director of research at the Center for Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection at Michigan State University. “She represents a part of this history and the culture of this country that people identify with.”
That makes her name and image profitable with both legitimate companies that license the rights from Authentic Brands and those that haven’t. And Marilyn Monroe isn’t alone. Just about every product on the market has a counterfeit version sold on the cheap, Kennedy said.
“As a consumer, if you go online and look for a product, we don’t know what’s trademarked, what’s copyrighted — we just know the product we’re looking for,” he said. “One of our partners at the center joked that if you’re a company and you manufacture a product and you don’t have counterfeits, you’re making a really crappy product.”
Companies including cigarette maker Philip Morris International and trade groups last month set up a new group, United to Safeguard America from Illegal Trade, or USA-IT, to come up with new ideas for both enforcement and public education. Congress also is considering legislation that would force sellers to provide more information so consumers know what they’re buying.
Monroe’s estate was able to extract settlements with some of the websites. On June 25, District Court Judge Michael Brown in Atlanta granted the estate’s request for an order freezing assets of the other companies, who didn’t respond to the suit. Efforts to reach the companies that had reached agreements were unsuccessful, or they would only say that the issue had been resolved.
Authentic Brands, which also represents the estates of Elvis Presley and Muhammad Ali and owns the Izod, Brooks Brothers and Forever 21 brands, declined to comment on the dispute. The company is exploring going public, people with knowledge of the matter said in May.
Published : July 04, 2021
By : Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Susan Decker
The European Union is working on a plan to phase out the practice of raising farm animals in cages, a dramatic shift that is not likely to happen anytime soon but would amount to a major victory for animal rights activists.
“Animals are sentient beings and we have a moral, societal responsibility to ensure that on-farm conditions for animals reflect this,” Stella Kyriakides, the EU commissioner for health and food safety, said in a Wednesday statement.
The European Union has some of the strictest animal welfare standards in the world, including a ban on crowded battery cages, which are often used to house egg-laying hens in the United States. In recent years, however, calls to ban cages altogether have been gaining traction. That has alarmed some farm owners, who would have to radically overhaul their operations and are concerned about the potential costs of making the change.
Over the past year, a European Citizens’ Initiative petition calling for a ban on caged farming received 1.4 million signatures from 18 countries across the bloc, enough that leaders were legally obligated to take up the issue. The European Parliament approved a nonbinding resolution in support of a ban last month, and the European Commission followed with its own endorsement Wednesday.
The “End the Cage Age” petition had proposed a total ban on cages for animals such as hens, rabbits, quails, ducks and geese. Activists also called for rules that would outlaw the use of confined stalls, pens and crates for larger animals such as pigs and cows in areas where such structures are not already prohibited.
The amount of popular support that the proposal garnered demonstrated the “societal demand for more ethical and sustainable farming,” Janusz Wojciechowski, the EU agriculture commissioner, said in a statement.
But industry groups have said the change could cost millions and that the petition fails to account for the fact that farming practices are not the same across Europe.
“In my native Finland, we have down to 30, minus-30 degrees temperatures. So it’s obvious for all of us that animals have to be in an enclosure to protect them from the elements,” Pekka Pesonen, secretary general of the industry group Copa Cogeca, told Euronews.
Practically speaking, any ban will be a long way off. The European Commission plans to introduce legislation by 2023, after consulting with members of the public. The ban would then have to be approved by EU lawmakers and individual EU countries, a process that could take years. The European Commission estimated Wednesday that any ban would most likely not go into effect until 2027.
In a document outlining its plans to write new legislation, the commission noted that a large share of the food consumed within the European Union is imported and that the bloc “bears a societal responsibility also with regard to the products it imports.”
The commission will “step up its bilateral and multilateral efforts to raise animal welfare levels in third countries” and will consider asking importers from outside the bloc to have similarly strict welfare standards, the document states.
Despite the long bureaucratic process ahead, members of environmentally minded political parties and activists who had pushed for a ban expressed optimism this week and hailed the plan as a historic step.
“The Commission’s pledge to end the cruelty of caged farming represents a historic achievement and a key milestone in the fight for a greater recognition of animal rights as well as a step towards the abolition of the most aberrant intensive farming practices, which cause the suffering of hundreds of millions of animals,” Eleanora Evi, a member of the European Parliament who had backed the initiative, said Wednesday.
Compassion in World Farming, an advocacy group, said that moving to end the use of cages was “a massive step towards ending factory farming.”
Broader changes to European farming regulations also could be on the way. Lawmakers set up a special parliamentary committee to investigate animal welfare conditions last year. The committee presented a draft report in late May recommending new animal welfare guidelines and potential sanctions if farmers and companies do not comply with such rules. The draft report will be put to a vote before the end of the year.
Published : July 04, 2021
By : The Washington Post · Antonia Noori Farzan, Quentin Aries
AM Best Company, a global credit rating agency, has revised the outlook of Dhipaya Insurance Public Company Limited (TIP)
Dhipaya is the second largest non-life insurer in Thailand with a market share of approximately 9.9%, based on direct premium written in 2020.
AM Best Company, a global credit rating agency, has revised the outlook of Dhipaya Insurance Public Company Limited (TIP) from “negative” to “stable” and affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of “A-” (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of “a-” (Excellent).
Although the insurance industry has been adversely affected by weakened macroeconomic conditions and operational challenges in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic, TIP has achieved a track record of outstanding performance with impressive growth of premiums and profits that has significantly outperformed the industry benchmarks.
AM Best Company, a global credit rating agency, has revised the outlook of Dhipaya Insurance Public Company Limited (TIP)
“Dhipaya is the second largest non-life insurer in Thailand with a market share of approximately 9.9%, based on direct premium written in 2020. The company is viewed by AM Best to have a dominant position in several domestic segments, including for fire, industrial-all-risk and personal accident business. The company’s business profile also benefits from a level of shareholder support, including for business referrals and access to extensive country-wide distribution networks”
In addition to sustainable performance, the favourable credit rating revision has been underpinned by its solid risk-adjusted capitalisation and prudent enterprise risk management.
“The revision of the outlooks to stable reflects AM Best’s increased comfort level over the company’s ability to navigate the ongoing challenging operating environment driven by the COVID-19 pandemic”
Thai Vietjet unveils the second half of the year’s plan
Ready for international services and revitalize domestic tourism
Thai Vietjet reveals its operational plan in the second half of 2021, preparing for international routes resumption & expansion, and encouraging the revival of tourism in Thailand together with both government and private agencies as well as accelerating the development of service improvements in all aspects to provide the best experience to passengers.
“During the COVID-19 pandemic since the first round in 2019, Thai Vietjet has never stopped flying. We have also expanded to 6 new domestic routes in 2019, marking the airline’s growth amid the crisis. In the past, we have reduced and increased flights accordingly for the situation to meet the travel passenger’s needs and the measures of each province. Now, it is showing good signs as the number of vaccinated populations continually increases and more people start traveling again. We have also launched a campaign to encourage passengers to get vaccinated to build their immunity and protect their health, and lighten the duties of medical staff. We are giving special privileges of ‘Free Seat Selection’ to passengers who have completed 2 Covid-19 vaccinations. Moreover, most importantly, we are committed to providing services with the highest safety by strictly performing aircraft disinfection daily throughout its fleet in compliance with Thai Ministry of Public Health to ensure the health and safety of passengers” said Mr. Woranate Laprabang, Chief Executive Officer of Thai Vietjet.
In early June 2021, Thai Vietjet successfully hosted ‘Vietjet Sky Career Festival 2021’ during June 7 – 9, 2021. This year, the event was held virtually via live streaming on our Facebook fan page ‘Vietjet (TH)’. The event was held annually since 2018 to provide participants with an opportunity to explore a career in the aviation industry, learning from aviation specialists, participating in online job recruitment, developing a personal career path, and getting a chance to win free air tickets daily. The event has reached over 100,000 online views, and more than 3,000 potential candidates applied to be a part of the airline in various job functions, such as pilot, flight attendant, ground operation, engineer, and more to support our fleet expansion plans in the second half of this year. Mr. Woranate Laprabang added “In the past, Thai Vietjet has never had any staff layoffs. On the other hand, our employment rate has grown around 20-25%. In 2019, we had about 650 employees, and now we have over 800 employees already. We are now recruiting the 17th batch of Thai Vietjet Cabin Crew to support our fleet expansion which we plan to receive 7 new aircraft by the end of the year 2021. For this month, we have also increased the flight frequency on our domestic routes continuously to support higher travel needs.”
Thai Vietjet unveils the second half of the year’s plan
Customers Experience Enhancement:
Having the idea of ‘customer-centric, Thai Vietjet continues to enrich customers’ experiences with many digital movements implemented. The airline has introduced theb‘Amy’ chatbot, which went live with friendly artificial intelligence software that can interact with passengers instantly through the airline’s contact channels, including Line Official, Facebook Messager, and Skyfun Website. The next 3 following phases with further developed and integrated functions will be launched later this year. At the current phase, the newly launched chatbot can answer general inquiries from passengers, FAQs and connect to the airline’s live chat service. The service aims to further enhance passenger experience and increase their satisfaction towards the airline’s service quality.
To support passengers during COVID-19 escalation, the airline also introduced the ‘Booking Self-management’ function on its website to assist passengers in booking management. Moreover, the airline has announced the service recovery policy to support affected passengers during the outbreak of the pandemic. The airline also expanded the call center sector and added more possible contact channels to support all passengers with its best services.
The Launch of E-commerce Platform and Loyalty Program:
To further enhancing its passengers’ purchasing experience, the airline shall soon introduce its e-commerce platform ‘Sky Shop’ at skyshop.skyfun.biz.
During the first phase, customers will be able to have a multi-choice shopping experience with the airline’s in-flight souvenir, hotel voucher, travel insurance, non-life insurance, Covid 19 test package, and other transportation services with a special offer via the ‘Sky Shop’ website. In the future, the airline hopes to expand the platform into a widely utilized e-commerce platform that offers customers a wide range of products from several partners and suppliers, not just the airline’s products and services.
Customer experience is one of Thai Vietjet’s top priorities, and the new e-commerce platform will contribute to completing the airline’s customer experience chain with the idea of “customer-centric”, bringing satisfaction to the customer not only the moment they start planning to fly, but also at the end of the journey, and beyond.
And that has led to another phase to uplift the customers’ satisfaction development, with the introduction of Thai Vietjet’s loyalty program called ‘SkyFUN Loyalty’.
The SkyFUNNER is Thai Vietjet’s official loyalty program. As a SkyFUNNER, passengers will enjoy many prestigious benefits from the airline itself and its travel partners, regardless of where they fly to. Once become a SkyFUNNER, passengers can earn ‘coins’ throughout various activities, for instance, booking tickets, completing check-in, and chatting with the airline’s chatbot ‘Amy’. Passengers then can use the coin to redeem attractive benefits and privileges to enhance their journey with the airline. The SkyFUNNER loyalty program is currently under extensive development and the airline expects to announce the official launch of the program by the second half of the year.
Baker McKenzie has appointed Thinawat Bukhamana as the Managing Partner of its Bangkok office
Thinawat Bukhamana has been appointed as the Managing Partner of our Thailand office, effective 1 July 2021.
Baker McKenzie has appointed Thinawat Bukhamana as the Managing Partner of its Bangkok office, effective 1 July 2021, taking over the position from Wynn Pakdeejit. A renowned lawyer in the Firm’s Banking & Finance practice group with over 30 years of experience, Thinawat will serve a second term as Managing Partner after previously holding the position from 2014-2017.
As head of the Banking & Finance practice group, Thinawat is highly recognized for providing clients with innovative and ground-breaking solutions.
Thinawat received his LL.B. from Chulalongkorn University and his LL.M. from Southern Methodist University. Additionally, Thinawat received his Executive Program Certificate from the Kellogg Program at Northwestern University. He is also regularly featured and recognized as a leading lawyer in leading legal directories such as Chambers Asia Pacific, The Legal 500, and IFLR1000. He also serves as a visiting lecturer at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. Thinawat is also a member of the Asia Pacific Regional Council for Baker McKenzie.
Virgin Galactics Richard Branson now says hell beat Blue Origins Bezos to space
The billionaire space race is heating up.
Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson in February 2019. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Jonathan Newton
Richard Branson is set to get his long-awaited trip to space as early as July 11, flying on a suborbital mission that would allow him to beat Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos, who is scheduled to fly on his company’s spacecraft nine days later.
Branson had been scheduled to go on a later flight but clearly wanted to be the first of the billionaire space entrepreneurs to blast out of the atmosphere.
In a statement announcing the mission, the company said Branson would be joined in the cabin by three Virgin Galactic employees who would evaluate the “cabin environment, seat comfort, the weightless experience, and the views of Earth that the spaceship delivers – all to ensure every moment of the astronaut’s journey maximizes the wonder and awe created by space travel.”
Among those employees is Beth Moses, Virgin Galactic’s chief astronaut instructor, who flew to space on the company’s second spaceflight mission. Virgin Galactic’s plane, known as SpaceShipTwo Unity, has reached space on three occasions, and this would be the first time it will have flown a crew of four.
In an interview, Branson said that he was “incredibly excited” and that moving up his flight was “honestly not” intended to best Bezos.
“I completely understand why the press would write that,” he said. “It’s just an incredible, wonderful coincidence that we’re going up in the same month.”
Bezos, who owns The Washington Post, recently said he would fly on July 20, the anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. And on Thursday his space company, Blue Origin, announced he would be joined by Wally Funk, a member of the “Mercury 13,” a group of women privately tested and trained by a team of aviation medical experts for NASA’s astronaut program at the height of the space race.
Both Branson’s and Bezos’s flights will travel on suborbital trajectories that will just scratch the edge of space and give passengers a few minutes of weightlessness.
Virgin Galactic recently received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration that allows it to fly commercial passengers, paving the way for Branson to join the crew. In May, the company flew another test flight that went so well that the company felt it was safe to allow Branson to fly as part of the crew.
“I’ve been itching to go, and they said they wanted somebody to properly test the astronaut experience,” he said in the interview. “And I was damned if I was going to let anyone take that seat.”
Virgin Galactic, which Branson founded in 2004, has some 600 people signed up for flights – one of them Funk – and is expected to reopen sales around the time of Branson’s flight. The company had charged $250,000, but that price will increase. The company has not said what it would charge, but analysts have said it could be as much as $500,000.
Blue Origin has not announced ticket prices either. But it recently auctioned off a seat for $28 million for its first spaceflight mission. The company has yet not announced who the winner is.
Virgin Galactic flies out of Spaceport America in New Mexico. Unlike a traditional rocket, Virgin’s spacecraft is carried aloft to some 45,000 feet by a mother plane. The spacecraft is then dropped, and the pilots ignite its engines and fly the craft almost straight up.
In addition to Branson and Moses, Sirisha Bandla, Virgin Galactic’s vice president of government affairs and research operations, and Colin Bennett, the company’s lead operations engineer, would join the flight.
Virgin Galactic’s CEO, Michael Colglazier, said in an interview that the crew “are going to open the door for the rest of us to find a way to access space in the future.”
He said the company did a thorough safety review and determined that the previous test flight met all its objectives, meaning the company could move Branson up to its next test flight instead of the one to follow.
“It really gave us a choice as to whether Richard would prefer to fly on the first or the second,” Colglazier said. “And guess which one he chose?”
Branson said that after waiting to go to space for 17 years, he was most looking forward to seeing the earth from a distance, and allowing his customers, some of whom have been waiting for years to go as well.
“I truly believe that space belongs to all of us,” Branson said in a statement. “After 17 years of research, engineering and innovation, the new commercial space industry is poised to open the universe to humankind and change the world for good. It’s one thing to have a dream of making space more accessible to all; it’s another for an incredible team to collectively turn that dream into reality.”
SET down nearly 1% as Thailand logs record deaths from virus
The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Index closed at 1,578.49 on Friday, down 15.26 points or 0.96 per cent. Transactions totalled THB80.92 billion with an index high of 1,596.05 and a low of 1,574.92.
In the morning session, Krungsri Securities expected Friday’s index to rise to 1,600 points after the oil price climbed above US$75 per barrel following Opec+’s hint it would gradually increase oil output.
Krungsri said the index also gained positive sentiment from falling US jobless claims.
However, investors should beware of volatility in foreign fund flows and uncertainty over higher Covid-19 cases in Thailand, it added. Thailand logged a record 61 fatalities and 6,087 new cases on Friday.
It also advised investors to follow results from this week’s Opec+ meeting, with oil output expected to rise by 400,000 barrels per day from August to December.
The 10 stocks with the highest trade value today were BANPU, KBANK, PTT, GUNKUL, PTTGC, COTTO, BBL, SCB, CPALL and GPSC.
Other Asian indices were on the fall except for Japan:
Japan’s Nikkei Index closed at 28,783.28, up 76.24 points or 0.27 per cent.
China’s Shanghai SE Composite Index closed at 3,518.76, down 70.02 points or 1.95 per cent, while the Shenzhen SE Component Index closed at 14,670.71, down 368.17 points or 2.45 per cent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed at 28,310.42, down 517.53 points or 1.80 per cent.
South Korea’s KOSPI closed at 3,281.78, down 0.28 points or 0.0085 per cent.
Taiwan’s TAIEX closed at 17,710.15, down 3.79 points or 0.021 per cent.
Baht on a weakening trend as foreign investors react to Thai Covid situation
The baht opened at 32.09 to the US dollar on Friday, weakening from Thursday’s closing rate of 32.05.
The Thai currency is likely to move between 32 and 32.15 during the day, Krungthai Bank market strategist Poon Panichpibool said.
He predicted that the baht would tend to weaken, and would fluctuate in line with the dollar.
He explained that the market was waiting for the US nonfarm payrolls report this week, as it could strengthen the dollar if the results exceeded observers’ expectations.
However, in Thailand, the biggest factor determining the baht’s movement was the Covid-19 situation. This had led to foreign investors offloading more of their Thai assets, especially stocks, inevitably pressuring the baht to weaken.
AM Best Company, a global credit rating agency, has revised the outlook of Dhipaya Insurance Public Company Limited (TIP)
Thai Vietjet unveils the second half of the year’s plan
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