Phra Khanong officials on Monday launched a probe after a row of shophouses on Sukhumvit Road at the entrance of Soi Sukhumvit 101/1 were seen to be leaning at an alarming angle.
On Sunday, photos of the shophouses tilting backwards posted by Facebook user Patai Padungtin sparked concerns that the buildings could collapse at any time.
“These buildings are many years old and are increasingly slumping backwards. Some of them are still open as shophouses, while others already have ‘for sale’ signs out front,” said Patai. “Authorities should investigate the buildings’ structure to prevent a tragedy from happening.”
Phra Khanong district deputy chief Warunluck Pholhan said she had instructed officials to check the structural integrity of the shophouses, measure the angle of tilt, and monitor for cracks or structural weakness.
District officials will also coordinate with the owners of Ture Digital Park and other neighbouring buildings to seek ways to secure the slumping shophouses.
“We expected to complete preliminary investigations today. The district will issue an order for immediate demolition if the building is found to be a danger to the public,” she added.
Two motorists sustained injuries when their vehicles fell into a massive hole on a road in Nakhon Ratchasima on Sunday night.
The drivers said there were no signs indicating there was construction ahead, so they continued speeding down the dark road before hitting plastic orange barriers and plunging into a hole.
The hole had been dug on Mitttraparp Road in Sung Noen Ma Klua Mai area to lay underground sewage pipes.
Simaporn Khadee driving a sedan and Kittichai Wangklang driving a pick-up truck were immediately rushed to the district hospital.
Eyewitness Thanakrit Apimahacharoenpaisarn told police that he was behind the pick-up truck, but they parted ways when he took the traffic bridge and the pickup drove on.
Thanakrit said he then heard a loud bang, so did a U-turn and returned to find the pick-up in the hole along with a car.
Kittichai said he was heading home and driving at 90 kilometres per hour. He said the road was very dark and there were no signs warning him of a construction site up ahead. By the time he arrived at the spot, it was too late to brake and he ended up hitting the barrier and falling in. He later found that a car was already in the hole.
Kittichai said there were no warning lights at the spot either.
Paetongtarn “Ing” Shinawatra’s 37th birthday on Sunday was marked with tuk-tuks driving around the city with “happy birthday” posters tacked to their rear.
Photos of Paetongtarn celebrating her birthday with Pheu Thai’s former secretary-general Phumtham Wechayachai and party’s deputy leader/legal adviser Choosak Sirinin were also posted on the “Ing Shinawatra” Facebook page.
Paetongtarn, former PM Thaksin Shinawatra’s youngest daughter, was recently appointed director of the “Pheu Thai Family”.
More than 700 Facebook users posted comments on the Facebook page, with many voicing support for her as Pheu Thai’s PM candidate. They believe as PM, she can lift corruption charges faced by her father and aunt, former PM Yingluck Shinawatra, and allow them to return home freely.
Paetongtarn responded to her fans by saying “thanks for all your love” under a montage clip of a fleet of tuk-tuks driving around Bangkok.
This birthday celebration added colour to Thailand’s political scene this week, as all sides are waiting to see how the Constitutional Court responds to claims that Prayut Chan-o-cha’s tenure as PM expires on Wednesday.
Article 158 of the Constitution states that a prime minister shall not hold office for more than eight years in total, whether or not consecutively. However, the start date of Prayut’s eight-year tenure is being disputed.
Many people insist the eight-year term started when Prayut first assumed premiership on August 24, 2014 – following the military coup he led in May that year.
Others say his tenure began when the current Constitution came into force on April 6, 2017. A third group believes it should be counted from when Prayut assumed the premiership on June 9, 2019, following the general election in March that year.
The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) on Sunday launched the “Clean Your Air for the Country” campaign for a second time to help reduce people’s power bills by 10 per cent.
Under the campaign, Egat will pay half of the 600-baht bill for cleaning one wall-type air-conditioner per household.
People can register for the subsidy at HomePro, Power Buy, the Mall, the Emporium, Siam Paragon and Blue Port stores before September 30.
According to the campaign:
• Only wall-type air-conditioners with a capacity of no more than 24,000 BTU will be cleaned
• Egat employees and those who have used their rights in the previous campaign are ineligible
Applicants are required to present:
• National ID card
• An electricity bill for any month in 2022.
Registrants can make an appointment for the cleaning service at the site of registration and are required to pay 300 baht up front.
Call (062) 273 9396 or (062) 273 9335 for more information.
A probe has been launched into a video clip featuring a man in a police uniform and a woman in a wedding dress posing in front of five Highway Police vehicles.
The clip posted on the Red Skull Facebook page on Sunday went viral very quickly, with netizens asking why police vehicles were being used for what looked like a pre-wedding photoshoot.
Highway Police chief Pol Maj-General Ekarat Limsangkat said on Sunday that initial investigation showed that the man in the clip was a Highway Police officer in Hat Yai.
“I have not spoken to him yet, but have asked his supervisor to check the log of the vehicles to see for what purpose they had been taken out,” he said.
Ekarat added that police regulations allow the use of police vehicles in films, provided the agency owning them approves it. However, the use of police vehicles for personal gain is prohibited and will result in disciplinary punishment.
Ekarat promised that an investigation committee will be appointed to deal with the case as soon as possible. While waiting for the investigation result, he urged people to not judge the entire police division based on the action of one person.
The Public Health Ministry reported on Monday (August 22) that over the past 24 hours, 1,531 Covid-19 patients have been admitted to hospitals.
The death toll has risen by 28, while 2,298 patients have recovered and discharged from hospitals.
The number of cumulative cases in the country since January 1, 2022, stands at 2,412,276 with 10,357 deaths.
The country’s total caseload from Covid-19 stands at 4,635,711 – 4,584,827 of whom have recovered, 18,829 are still in hospitals and 32,055 have died.
Separately, another 1,948 people were given their first Covid-19 shot in the last 24 hours, 3,477 their second shot and 19,326 a booster, bringing the total number of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered nationwide to 142,467,918.
According to Worldometer, confirmed cases globally had risen to 601.12 million on Monday, 575.55 million of whom have recovered, 19.1 million are active cases (43,934 in severe condition) and 6.47 million have died (up by 908).
Thailand ranks 29th in the global list of most cases, which is topped by the US with 95.35 million, followed by India with 44.35 million, France with 34.35 million, Brazil with 34.28 million and Germany with 31.81 million.
Every era presents new challenges to the business sector, speakers at The Nation’s “Thailand Metaverse Expo 2022” pointed out on Sunday.
The last development in the business world was disruptive technology, they said. With this “disruption”, travellers no longer require travel agencies as the best flight and hotel deals are just a click away. Similarly, newspapers and print media have given way to news websites and social media.
Speaking on “Why Businesses Need the Metaverse”, Kantana Group’s executive chair Sasikorn Chanset and J Ventures’ CTO Woraphot Tharasiriskul said the next wave that businesses will have to look out for is the metaverse.
Metaverse is a new virtual reality that users can enter via a browser or headset to get a real-time experience.
So, how can businesses keep up with this new reality? And do businesses need the metaverse to survive?
Sasikorn said her company has passed through many stages of technology over the past 71 years.
Kantana Group, which started off in 1951, graduated from producing radio dramas, films and television series, to interactive reality TV with shows like “Big Brother Thailand” where viewers voted for contestants through text messages. Then came the age of Facebook and Twitter.
But now, with metaverse at our doorstep, Sasikorn reckons that more easily understandable and accessible content is the key connector. She said each person’s understanding of the “metaverse” is different, so the challenge will be to build a community that is unique but globally friendly.
For instance, she said, Thai companies will have to find a way to showcase their “Thainess” in a way that is coherent on a global front.
To achieve this, she said, companies can start off by creating unique NFTs (non-fungible tokens), as there are no limits to creativity in the metaverse.
Woraphot, meanwhile, believes NFTs help link the current world to the future.
“We should be getting ready to step into the metaverse because it offers every type of technology in one place,” he said. “Everyone is learning and developing to get there.”
He pointed out that now people are getting a better understanding of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology through the world of NFTs. Hence, he said, it is important for businesses to be ready.
“We can’t just sit around and wait for it to happen, because then we will fall far behind,” he warned.
Also, he said, consumers usually choose businesses that are prepared and the first easy step for businesses is to cash in on NFTs – collectables that are converted from physical objects to virtual ones.
He said NFTs created by businesses will win fans, and in the future customers will start demanding these virtual objects. However, if you don’t keep up, he said, customers will simply take their business elsewhere.
The “Thailand Metaverse Expo 2022” is nurturing the next generation of tech experts as the region seeks a leading role in the virtual era.
On Saturday, the three-day expo became a learning centre for students on Huawei’s “Seeds for the Future”, Asia’s largest tech-education programme.
Thailand’s first international metaverse exhibition – co-organised by Nation Group, Blockmountain and Metaverse XR – was visited by a group of 120 outstanding students from 16 countries across the Asia-Pacific region, including 10 students from Thailand. The students got to test out technologies of the future, participating in activities offered at 30 booths and talks by over 50 local and international experts with a sizeable tech industry audience. They also took a deep dive into the metaverse courtesy of a seminar delivered on the main stage at CentralWorld in Bangkok.
During their two-hour visit, they toured all three zones of the “Thailand Metaverse Expo” – the Experience zone, Showcase zone and Workshop zone. “We are very happy to be here because this event allows us to get a wider and better understanding of the metaverse,” the students were quoted as saying.
The 120 whiz kids are on a nine-day digital boot camp in Thailand, lasting until next Saturday (August 27). The itinerary features immersion in new technologies, cross-cultural experiences, and using tech to address social problems in “Tech4Good” projects. The programme is a collaboration with the Asean Foundation and Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT). “The ‘seeds’ represent hope, passion, and the future,” said Huawei Asia Pacific chief Simon Lin. He added that the programme covers nearly 140 countries and regions, reaching over 12,000 students from 500 universities. “Digitalisation is the driving force for our future. Talent is the key to digital transformation and sustainable growth. We deeply believe that the young generation will grow as the constructors of Asia Pacific when pursuing their tech-dreams,” he said.
This year, Huawei and the Asean Foundation signed a memo to scale up the regional Seeds for the Future in 2021, marking a new chapter for developing tech talent in the region. The memo signing was attended by government officials and representatives of international organisations. Speakers highlighted the important role of multi-party collaboration in creating foundations for the region’s digital talent ecosystem. The TAT will also co-host a field trip for “Seeds for The Future” students in Thailand.
The metaverse is a gamechanger as Thailand enters the digital economy, representatives of the public and private sector told an audience in Bangkok on Sunday.
Central Retail’s chief innovation officer Kowin Kulruchakorn, Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) deputy governor for digital development Nithee Seeprae, and J Ventures’ CEO Thanawat Lertwattanarak offered their perspectives in a talk titled “Game Changer for Thai Business” on the final day of “Thailand Metaverse Expo 2022”.
All three speakers agreed that the metaverse is crucial for companies who are moving into the digital world, as many of their potential customers are already there.
Strategic Market Research reports that the global metaverse market is now worth US$47.48 billion (1.7 trillion baht). And that figure is expected to rise to $678.80 billion by 2030.
As representatives of the country’s leading retailers, Central and Jay Mart, Kowin and Thanawat admitted that the metaverse is relatively new to their companies. However, learning how to operate with this new technology was vital to expanding revenue-generating sources, they added.
Kowin noted the metaverse is still in its early stages of global adoption. So, businesses had to take a trial-and-error approach to find the best ways to use the metaverse.
“The key is to change our executives’ mindsets so that they recognise that their physical business is no longer sufficient. We need the real and virtual worlds to merge in order to provide new pleasurable experiences and engagement with our customers,” Kowin said.
Thanawat described the metaverse as an advanced version of e-commerce where people can enjoy more features while online.
“What businesses must do now is to find the right balance between metaverse technology and user behaviour. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Each company must develop its own strategy for utilising the metaverse. Be agile. Continue to fall and learn.”
Meanwhile, Nithee said that for TAT, Thailand’s state agency responsible for the country’s tourism image and promotion, the metaverse provides another marketing tool in the age of digital transformation.
It would enable TAT to reach out to more potential visitors around the world with a better understanding of their specific needs and general interests.
But he said rules were also necessary for promoting Thai tourism via the metaverse.
“Applying metaverse technology should have clear regulations so that all parties are moving towards the same goals. Also, collaboration is very important in order to increase value in the metaverse.”
The three speakers concluded by urging both the public and private sectors to learn more about the metaverse. Although virtual technology has a long way to go, those who ignored it would eventually perish, they warned.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA Myanmar) announced that there have been more than 1.2 million internally displaced persons ( IDPs ) in Myanmar since February 1, 2021, including more than 900,000 people who fled their homes.
Fighting continues in several states and regions across Myanmar, resulting in civilian casualties and displacement. The OCHA Myanmar stated that the fighting that has intensified since the end of July, especially in Hpakant Township of Kachin State, is worrying.
At least 300 houses were burnt down and about 500 households were affected by the attacks in Se Zin Village, Hpakant Township. So far, more than 2,000 people from Se Zin village have fled their homes, seeking refuge in six displacement sites in Tar Ma Hkan and Haung Pa villages in Hpakant Township. However, this number is expected to increase as many others could not leave and were trapped inside the village, the statement said.
The OCHA has been engaging with the relevant stakeholders to ensure humanitarian access and delivery of assistance to the newly displaced people in Hpakant Township with some support already reaching those in need through local partners, it said.
Nationwide, 1,249,600 people are now displaced nationwide according to UN figures as of 8 August, including 903,000 who remain displaced as a result of conflict and insecurity since the February 2021 military takeover, it said.
Thanakrit said he then heard a loud bang, so did a U-turn and returned to find the pick-up in the hole along with a car.
