One way to end the dispute with DTAC is to set up a joint venture to manage the towers, which would see DTAC paying around Bt10 billion to hold shares in the JV and for compensation to CAT over this and other disputes under the concession.

There are 8,000 telecom towers under DTAC’s concession.

CAT will end the dispute with True over 7,000 towers by selling the towers under the concession to True’s Digital Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund. CAT expects to gain around Bt8 billion from this transaction.

The CAT board will meet on January 25 to consider the plan to set up a joint venture with DTAC. However, such a plan would amount to an amendment to the concession agreement. Therefore, CAT would have submit the plan for Cabinet approval.

Meanwhile, the State Enterprise Policy Commission has urged CAT to revise its business-turnaround plan. The original plan indicated that CAT would show a profit of only Bt86 million this year out of total revenue of Bt52.8 billion.

The low profit is a consequence of True group’s plan to lease only 6 per cent of CAT’s 850-megahertz network capacity this year to offer third-generation service, down from 18 per cent capacity the group leased last year. Therefore the revenue from this lease will fall by one-third from Bt2.8 billion last year. This will affect CAT’s revenue, most of which is from wireless broadband.

Under the new turnaround plan, CAT will post a profit of Bt480 million, as it is seeking new revenue sources from other existing services such as data communication.

CAT posted revenue of Bt53.5 billion and profit of Bt3.4 billion last year. The main wireless-broadband business contributed revenue of Bt27 billion and Bt3.8 billion in profit.

Mizuho Bank’s Bangkok branch will be able to issue e-certificates for enterprises in March.

The department had only joined six local partners in issuing e-certificates to enterprises at 4,245 branches nationwide. The six local banks are Bangkok Bank, Krungthai Bank, Government Savings Bank, Kasikornbank, Siam Commercial Bank and Thanachart Bank.

Pongpun Gearaviriyapun, director-general of the department, said yesterday that the cooperation with Mizuho Bank was the next step of the department’s services in facilitating enterprises, especially for Japanese firms doing business in Thailand.

The department is trying to make it easier for entrepreneurs to establish businesses nationwide by reducing red tape, while promoting Thailand as an easy place to do business.

Documents issued by banks and modern traders will have 100-per-cent legal authority.

Kentaro Maruki, joint general manager of Mizuho Bank’s Bangkok branch, said the cooperation with the department would facilitate Japanese operations in Thailand.

With full Asean integration, more Japanese and other foreign firms would become interested in doing business in Thailand, which is showing strong economic growth.

The e-certification should help make businesses operate in Thailand easier.

Mizuho Bank is Japan’s third-largest. It now has 544 branches in 35 countries.

To assist enterprises in the near future, the department is negotiating with Tesco Lotus to issue e-certificates.

By expanding its service to banks and modern-trade branches, it can save businessmen time and travel costs, Pongpun said.

The department reported that new company registrations increased 1 per cent to 60,147 last year.

Most of the new companies were involved in construction, development, restaurants, consulting and construction-material trading.

The department expects 60,000-65,000 new firms will register in Thailand this year, on expected stronger economic growth, the government’s measure to help small and medium-sized enterprises and stronger growth of the tourism industry.

Worrisome factors continue to be the slowdown of China’s economy and weak export growth.

Last year recorded 22,576 firms shutting down, an increase of 19 per cent from the previous year. Many |of the closures were due to the department’s strict regulation of |registered businesses. Most of the failed firms were lottery or inactive companies.

“We’ve already received some complaints from GMM Z subscribers because they couldn’t contact the company at its call centre for further details on the changes,” Supinya Klangnarong, chairwoman of the National Broadcasting and Telecommuni-cations Commis-sion’s committee on consumer rights protection, said yesterday.

The panel has called for responsibility from the pay-TV operator.

The pull-out of Z Pay TV, which is now available on GMM Z boxes plugged into KU- and C-band satellite TV dishes, could have a severe impact on at least a million viewers, she said.

This figure was based on 4 million GMM Z satellite TV receivers out in the market.

Supinya requested that the parties, including GMM B and GMM Z, take responsibility by preparing necessary information about the change and a remedy for their customers.

Z Pay TV is operated by GMM Z, while GMM B is the distributor of GMM Z satellite TV boxes. Both GMM B and GMM Z were acquired last year from GMM Grammy by CTH – the leading subscription-based TV operator.

Supinya said her panel would propose to the weekly meeting of the NBTC’s broadcasting committee that it issue an order or take action against both companies as remedial measures in support of their customers.

“For those affected by this change, I suggest that they lodge complaints via the NBTC’s 1200 call-centre number.

“I am happy to help by coordinating with the Foundation for Consumers for further support. The foundation can help them if they want to sue the company for justice,” she said.

To achieve the goal, the company has set aside an investment budget of more than Bt2 billion for quality programme content, information-technology enhancement and marketing communication for the channel throughout the year.

Of the total investment, Bt1 billion is going towards 30 new TV dramas, which RS expects will attract more viewers in both urban and rural areas. The company has also partnered with TV production house Dee Wan Dee Kuen, which is owned by celebrity stars May Feungarom and Kanchai Kamnerdploy, and Kiatrapee – another TV production firm, owned by Isariya Saisanan.

Channel 8’s big new dramas for this year include “La Dub Tawan”, “Chaloey Suek” and “Rabam Fai”.

Apart from dramas, which comprise the channel’s strongest content, the company has earmarked Bt800 million for the production of variety shows, sports programmes and news.

Meanwhile, the remaining Bt200 million will be allocated for upgrading IT systems and public relations to create awareness of Channel 8 at 27 in the channel-numbering system through various media outlets, ranging from billboards at public transit points to digital screens at department stores.

“With our well-equipped content strategies, we expect that our rating will reach 700,000 to 800,000 viewers per minute by the end of this year, a significant increase from the current rate of 350,000 viewers per minute,” RS chief executive officer Surachai Chetchotisak said yesterday. Channel 8 has already booked 60 per cent of this year’s revenue target from the digital-TV station, he said.

Although the economy in the first half of the year does not yet seem to be in recovery mode, conditions are expected to improve following the government’s policies and measures to stimulate the economy and spending, encouraging a better cash flow in the country, the CEO added.

“So, I am confident that advertisers will spend more on advertising this year, especially the communication industry, which will see an increase in advertising budget to promote 4G services, particularly in the second half,” he explained.

RS this year aims to generate income of more than Bt4.5 billion, with 10 per cent in net profit, Surachai said. About 65 per cent of the revenue will come from its media business – including terrestrial-based digital-TV Channel 8, satellite-TV Channel 2 and Sabaidee TV, and Cool 93 radio station.

The plant, Yingli’s first outside China, has an annual capacity of 300 megawatts of multicrystalline photovoltaic (PV) panels, which will be sold by Yingli under the Yingli Solar brand name.

The facility is expected to begin operating in the second half of this year.

The JV involves its subsidiary Hainan Yingli New Energy Resource and Demeter Power, a Thailand-based developer, EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) provider and operator of renewable-energy projects.

The 40:60 JV will fully implement the project with capital investment of about Bt689 million.

Thailand’s favourable business climate, coupled with its generous tax-incentive scheme, world-class infrastructure and continued government support for the expanding solar-power industry make it a perfect place for the joint investment, Apichet Bhusry, chief executive officer of Demeter Corp, said recently.

Liansheng Miao, chairman and CEO of Yingli Green Energy, said: “We are proud to establish our first overseas manufacturing operations in partnership with Demeter Corp, and we hope to expand the new factory’s production capacity across the PV value chain in the future.

“Manufacturing PV panels in Thailand will enable the company to operate more competitively in overseas markets as well as in the emerging markets of Southeast Asia.”

Yingli Solar is one of the world’s largest solar-panel manufacturers, having produced more than 60 million of them with combined capacity to generate 14 gigawatts of power.

Its products have been marketed in many countries including the United States and Japan.

The investment marked the Chinese company’s effort to venture overseas. In September, the company suspended all downstream projects in China, citing a nationwide delay in subsidy allocation.

It has instead developed a downstream project development business with a portfolio footprint in Europe, Africa and other markets outside China. As of last month, it was involved in the installation of solar panels with total capacity of more than 200MW.

“We will work with our business partner Playwork for the launch of the service on 2.6GHz soon and will submit the plan to the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission for consideration,” he said.

MCOT has signed a contract with Playwork to have the latter operate the planned pay-TV service for 15 years on a revenue-sharing basis.

Sivaporn said Playwork was talking with all mobile operators on possible cooperation on a 4G network for the service. One of them is reportedly Advanced Info Service. MCOT itself does not have a 4G network.

“This service will boost MCOT revenue,” he said.

MCOT will talk with Playwork on the amount of bandwidth on the 2.6GHz spectrum needed to operate the pay-TV service, and the rest will be handed over to the NBTC. MCOT might need only 35-50MHz to provide the service.

Yesterday the NBTC held talks with Deputy Prime Minister Prajin Juntong and MCOT on the plan to reallocate part of MCOT’s 2.6GHz for auction, which is expected to take place early next year.

Prajin said MCOT held 144MHz of the 2.6GHz spectrum and wanted to hand over part of it for auction to provide 4G service. However, the NBTC will have to pay compensation to MCOT.

He added that the MCOT plan to hand over the spectrum needed to wait for the new NBTC law, which will allow state agencies to hand over their spectra for auction in return for compensation. The government is drafting the legislation and is expected to take around six months to complete the process.

“Currently Thailand has only 250MHz of bandwidth assigned for telecommunication purposes, while technically the total should be 690MHz,” Prajin said.

NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasith said the commission and MCOT would coordinate on the plan to hand part of the 2.6GHz spectrum over.

There is a total of 168MHz of bandwidth on the 2.6GHz spectrum, of which MCOT holds 144MHz and the Public Relations Department holds the rest.

Yutthachai Soonthronrat-|tanavate, president of the Association of Domestic Travel and vice president of the Tourism Council of Thailand, said one travel company in China began promoting packages to Thailand at very low prices a few weeks ago.

Its “buy one, get two free” promotion was scheduled to bring tourists to Thailand from yesterday through next weekend for 1,980 yuan, or about Bt11,000, which means about Bt3,600 per person.

The package includes accommodation, transport and meals, but not air fares.

“If operators continue offering such cheap packages, it will be dangerous for Thai tourism,” Yutthachai said.

He said many Thai travel companies focused on the China market believed that cheap “zero-fare” packages were returning to the market.

“Chinese and Thais are working together. They are illegal operators, so they can offer that extra-low-price packages. Without support from locals, zero-fare packages cannot stay,” he said.

Tourism associations are urging the government to make more efforts to get rid of illegal tour companies and bring in bigger spenders.

According to the Association of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA), the number of international arrivals to Bangkok’s two international airports using its members last year was 5.2 million, up from 3.2 million in 2014, or a 60-per-cent increase.

The top five markets for ATTA last year were China, Russia, India, Vietnam and South Korea. China contributed more than 5 million arrivals. More than 3.2 million used travel agents that were members of ATTA. Up to 8 million visitors from mainland China are expected to travel into Thailand this year.

Yuthasak Supasorn, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, last week said TAT would concentrate on the China market in order to increase the number of high-spending tourists.

TAT will also boost niche markets such as golfing, honeymoons, wedding parties and long-haul travellers.