China is seeking to increase the number of scheduled flights to Thailand by five times next month, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT).
The number of flights between the two countries could rise to 15 per week next month, the agency reported on its website.
The CAAT said it received an email from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) last Wednesday asking about the “potential of further increasing the passenger flights between China and Thailand”.
The CAAC proposed raising the number of flights from three per week at present to 15 per week.
China’s aviation authority asked for a list of Thai airlines wishing to fly to China so it could prepare Chinese airports for increased traffic, the CAAT said.
China has restricted flights to airports including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou due to the country’s zero-Covid policy.
The CAAT on Friday called a meeting of Thai airlines to gauge interest in services to China.
“The flight plan is expected to be sent to the CAAC next week. We expect to receive a reply from the CAAC by the end of September,” the CAAT said.
It added that Thai airlines could start increasing their flights to China as early as next month.
However, the CAAT dampened any hopes that Chinese tourists would return to Thailand in force next month. Chinese visitors made up the largest contingent of foreign travellers to Thailand before the pandemic. In line with China’s continuing strict measures against Covid-19, the extra flights would only be for necessary journeys such as business trips, it said.
Enterovirus A71 (EV-A71), which causes hand, foot and mouth disease, can also cause severe neurological diseases like meningitis, a top virologist warned on Saturday.
In a Facebook post, Dr Yong Poovorawan said hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) can be caused by several types of viruses in the enterovirus family. The most common types are CA6, CA16 CB and Enterovirus A, while the most dangerous type is EV-A71, which can cause meningitis or inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain.
This virus usually affects small children and infants but is rarely seen among adolescents and adults.
“The HFMD cases found this year were mostly caused by the CA6 virus, which often manifests in the form of blisters in the palate of the mouth, hands, feet, elbows and buttocks,” he said.
“The last time Thailand experienced an outbreak of the EV-A71 virus was five years ago. Our centre [Chulalongkorn University’s Centre of Excellence in Clinical Virology] has been monitoring the outbreak of HFMD over the past 10 years and has come up with charts comparing each virus variant found for the sake of treatment and prevention.”
Yong explained that the disease usually spreads after schools reopen as children come into closer contact with one another.
“Currently, the vaccine for the prevention of HFMD is specific to the virus that causes it,” he said. “This means this year we will give children a vaccine to counter the CA6 virus, not EV-A71 because it has not been reported in Thailand yet.”
Yong added that researchers are working on coming up with a vaccine that can prevent HFMD caused by enterovirus across different strains.
A 50-year-old businessman succumbed to septicemia on Friday while being treated for third-degree burns sustained in the Mountain B pub blaze in Chonburi.
He became the 20th person to die from the fire.
The nightclub in Sattahip district caught fire at about 1am on August 5, killing 13 people on the spot and injuring scores of others. Since then, seven victims have succumbed to injuries.
The deceased, Paphon Bavornsuwan, was rushed to Sattahip Hospital on the night of the fire but was transferred to Chonburi Hospital when his condition worsened. He succumbed to his injuries 14 days later.
Doctors declared the cause of death as septicemia (bacterial infection of the blood), which developed after a blood transfusion.
Paphon’s brother Thanarat said the pub owner had provided the family with compensation of 30,000 baht.
Funeral rites for Paphon will be held at Wat Rangsee Sunthorn in Chonburi.
Udon Thani International Airport in the Northeast is still No 1 among 28 provincial airports in terms of passenger numbers before and after the Covid-19 lockdown.
The Department of Airports (DOA) reported on Friday that Udon Thani welcomed 170,472 passengers and 1,157 flights in July alone, the highest among all airports under DOA’s jurisdiction.
Khon Kaen Airport came in second with 125,332 passengers and 900 flights, followed by Nakhon Si Thammarat (120,970 passengers, 894 flights), Ubon Ratchathani (117,910 passengers, 754 flights), and Krabi (112,764 passengers, 808 flights).
Airport director Kamhaeng Saiwiphu said Udon Thani Airport’s popularity returned as soon as restrictions were lifted.
“This shows a promising trend in domestic travel, especially in the Northeast and proves that we are getting closer to pre-pandemic levels,” he said.
Kamhaeng expects the number of passengers to drop slightly in October since Thais tend to travel less during the rainy season, though businesspeople will still have to travel. He also said that the drop in Thai passengers will be compensated by visitors from Laos, who use the airport as a connection to other parts of Thailand.
“The number of passengers will bounce back again around year-end until early next year, which is the high season. By then, the maintenance of the airport’s runway overlay will be completed, allowing us to land more than 40 planes daily and extend the airport’s closing time to 10pm,” he added.
DOA manages 28 provincial airports, while the Airports of Thailand oversees six airports in metropolitan areas and big cities, namely Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang airports in Bangkok as well as those in Phuket, Chiang Mai, Hat Yai and Chiang Rai.
The “People’s Union Party” has been given permission to hold a rally in Bangkok’s Lan Khon Mueang Town Square from Sunday to Wednesday, provided protesters do not stay overnight.
The group, led by political activists Jatuporn Prompan and Nitithorn Lamlua, will hold a rally entitled “Countdown to 8 years of Prayut Administration”. The demonstration will run from 4pm to 9pm daily from Sunday to Wednesday, except on Tuesday, when it will disperse at around midnight.
Tuesday (August 23) is the day before some believe Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s term should end.
Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt, meanwhile, said on Friday that protesters are not allowed to spend the night in the town square in Phra Khanong district as it has to be cleaned every day.
Jatuporn, meanwhile, thanked the BMA for allowing the rally to be held, saying this is a positive sign in the current political atmosphere. He said the rally will focus on people’s democratic right to express their views and that the public discussion will be rational rather than emotional. The former red-shirt leader said he believes everyone shares the common goal of seeing Thailand move forward.
Whether or not Prayut should step down after completing eight years as prime minister on August 24 has become a hot issue in Thailand.
The current Constitution, which was enforced in April 2017, prohibits anyone from serving as prime minister for more than eight years. However, whether this stipulation can be applied retrospectively is still unclear as Prayut had taken office before the charter went into effect.
The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) has approved longer stays for tourists from October 1 to March 31, CCSA spokesman Dr Taweesin Visanuyothin said on Friday.
The move proposed by the Tourism and Sports Ministry aims to revitalise the tourism industry now that the Covid-19 situation is improving both in Thailand and globally.
Foreigners from 18 countries entering Thailand under the visa-on-arrival scheme will be allowed to extend their length of stay from 15 days to 30 days, while those from 50 countries who currently get a 30-day stamp under the visa exemption scheme will be able to stay for 45 days.
Taweesin said the CCSA has called on the Interior and Foreign ministries, the Immigration Bureau and other related agencies to adjust their procedure in compliance with this extension.
Earlier this month, Tourism and Sports Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn said some 1.07 million foreign tourists had entered Thailand in July, which is the first time that monthly arrivals have exceeded the 1 million mark since the arrival of the pandemic.
Phiphat expects some 1 million foreign arrivals each in August and September and believes the number will rise to 1.5 million per month from October to December. The minister is confident that the total number of foreign tourists in 2022 will exceed 10 million.
Taweesin also said that the government plans to declare Covid-19 endemic in October, once CCSA has been dissolved.
He said the decision to declare the disease endemic was based on the relatively lower number of new confirmed cases and fatalities.
Coffee shop owner Micah Ooi, 37, often does not mind when patrons occupy a table without ordering any drinks. But it soon became a habit. Customers would come in and order food from the hawker stalls, but not cough up a single sen for a drink.
Coffeeshop owners who usually only sell drinks, earn their income through rental from food stall owners and selling drinks.
Frustrated, Ooi decided to put up a sign telling those who don’t order drinks that they must pay a 50sen fee per person.
“Sometimes, up to five customers would sit at a table without ordering any drinks.
“Most of these customers were tourists and I felt they should order something at the very least,” he said.
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In the Chinese movie American Dreams in China, three young men in the 1980s opened a language school to prepare Chinese students for TOEFL. The school helped generations of Chinese students to go to study in the US. Four decades later, the dream seems to be fading in the minds of many Chinese students.
Arecent report by The Wall Street Journal said that during the first half of 2022, US student visas issued to Chinese nationals dropped more than 50 per cent compared with pre-pandemic levels.
In the first six months of 2022, the US issued 31,055 F-1 visas to Chinese nationals, down from 64,261 for the same period in 2019, according to data from the US State Department. F-1 visas allow foreigners to study in schools in the US.
The University of Miami Herbert Business School, which is ranked No 1 in Florida and No 26 globally in Business Administration based on the 2021 Academic Ranking of World Universities, has seen a 30 per cent drop in Chinese graduate students this year.
“At the peak maybe four years ago, we maybe had as many as 300 Chinese students,” John Quelch, dean of the University of Miami Herbert Business School, told China Daily. This year, the university has about 140 Chinese students, he said, adding that is a rough estimate.
“We believe that we are not as badly off here because we are well-known in China as a China-friendly business school,” said Quelch. “We’re very culturally diverse. The Coral Gables campus south of Miami is self-contained and very safe and beautiful.”
For more than a decade, China has been the largest source of US international students. They provide crucial tuition fees for colleges as many international students pay close to the full sticker price, particularly at public universities where most international students pay much higher nonresident tuition rates－as do nonresident US citizens than in-state students.
During the 2020-21 school year, 317,299 Chinese nationals enrolled in US institutions, representing about a third of all international students studying in the US, a Pew Research study in 2021 said.
In the 2019 academic year, Chinese students contributed $15.9 billion in economic value, according to a report by the Institute of International Education’s Open Doors.
The deterioration of China-US relations is one of the reasons prompting Chinese students to seek higher education elsewhere.
“The decision to go to graduate school, it’s usually at least one year and sometimes two years in the making. People do not decide on Friday and go on Monday,” said Quelch. “So, I do feel that the cumulative weight of deteriorating US-China relations has definitely caused more potential students and parents in China to question whether the US is a hospitable place.”
Biases are also affecting where Chinese students choose to study.
A 2021 report from the Carter Center found that 62 per cent of the Chinese internet-using population had a negative perception of the US. Research published in March shows that younger Chinese, those born in the 1990s and later, tend to have a more negative impression of the US than their parents do.
“We are very keen to maintain the flow of Chinese graduate students to a school. It’s just very important for people-to-people exchanges and mutual understanding,” said Quelch, who served previously as dean at both the London Business School and the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai, and as senior associate dean at Harvard Business School.
“The China-US relationship is the single most important bilateral relationship. And it’s essential that we have as many Chinese students as possible developing their understanding of American culture and the way Americans think and behave in business. And I wish that we had the same number of Americans who were willing and eager to study in China,” he said.
The language school that opened in the 1980s to help Chinese students study in the US is now the New Oriental Education Technology Group, a Chinese education company. The company’s recent study showed the interest of Chinese students in studying in the US has been in decline since 2017, even as overall Chinese interest in studying abroad has been surging.
These days, more students express interest in going to the UK than the US, while interest in Hong Kong and Singapore is climbing steadily, the report says.
One of the reasons why these regions and countries are of interest to Chinese students is because they are English-speaking places, said Quelch.
“English is the primary currency of business, the language of business worldwide. And so it makes sense from the point of view of developing your language capability,” he said.
Cambodian exports of fresh and processed fisheries products saw a marked year-on-year drop in the January-July period, barely missing the 2,000-tonne mark.
Asenior official noted that the country lags behind in technical expertise when it comes to turning raw fish and other aquatic species into higher-value items.
In the first seven months of 2022, total freshwater and marine fishery production amounted to 24,500 tonnes and 6,860 tonnes, respectively, falling by 7,410 tonnes and 100 tonnes on a yearly basis, reported the Fisheries Administration (FiA), which is under the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry.
During the same period, fresh and processed fisheries exports weighed in at 1,933 tonnes and 41 tonnes, respectively, with the former decreasing by 326 tonnes compared to the same time last year.
Ministry data shows that in 2021 fresh-capture fisheries exports were 2,916 tonnes, or 36.45 per cent, of the annual target of 8,000 tonnes. This marked a 971 tonne, or 50 per cent, increase over 2020.
Processed fisheries exports reached 150 tonnes, or 7.50 per cent, of the 2,000-tonne annual target, representing a decrease of 84 tonnes compared to 2020.
FiA deputy director Hav Viseth told The Phnom Penh Post on August 17 that fresh fisheries exports are for the most part organic, while the processed items include dried and smoked fish, along with the fermented-fish products prahok and pha’ak. These goods are shipped in yet-limited quantities to the US and other countries with a sizeable Cambodian diaspora, he said.
He underscored that processed fisheries exports have been held back due to a lack of technical experts in processing fish for the international market, calling on companies intending to ship these products overseas to train more professionals in the field to make certain that the endeavour comes to a satisfactory conclusion.
Viseth said the FiA “has been negotiating to open the gates for the private sector to be able to export products abroad, but private companies also need to actively participate in this work to ensure the success of the exports.
“Hence more human resource training is essential.”
Chav Soursdey, CEO of Cambodia Fresh Farm, whose plans to export processed tilapia to Japan were recently pushed back to later this year, said that although there is high demand for processed fish, processors have been reluctant to diversify their offerings due to steep capital requirements and market uncertainty.
He called on prospective exporters of processed fisheries products to gauge their target markets thoroughly, noting that variations in quality standards across localities are negligible compared to the differing tastes and preferences of consumers.
Soursdey said plans to ship tilapia to Japan were put on ice after an inspection by the UN Industrial Development Organisation, which required adjustments to the farm’s recently completed processing plant, which he expects to be completed “within a month”.
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