Business briefs – new airbus for Phuket; 3G; rubber trading

New Bangkok Airways Airbus to fly Phuket, Koh Samui, Chiang Mai, Bangledesh and India
Phuket Gazette
Bangkok Airways recently acquired a new Airbus 319, the airline’s 18th aircraft.

With a total of 130 economy seats, the new craft will fly domestic and international routes serving at least five destinations including Phuket, Koh Samui, Chiang Mai, Bengarulu (Bangalore, India) and Dhaka (Bangladesh).

The latest addition to the Samui-based airline has been named, “Bangkok”, and is the seventh Airbus 319 on Bangkok Air’s current fleet of 18, which also includes eight ATR 72s and three Airbus 320s.

True Move launches new 3G+ and Wi-Fi service island wide
Phuket Gazette
True Move has launched services for 3G+, its latest high speed wireless network offering, available all across Phuket, Bangkok and in every provincial seat nationwide.

Touted to be faster, stronger and more versatile than the company’s predecessor 3G service, packages under the refined network – operating at a frequency of 850 megahertz per second – are promising speeds of up to 42 megabits per second (mbps).

3G+ service is offered in combination with nationwide Wi-Fi service that touts up to 8 mbps, and is reported to be accessible via 100,000 hot spots nationwide.

Traders in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia are discussing plans to establish a physical rubber market next year, with an aim of centralizing international trade of the benchmark commodity.

Rub hub in the works
Bloomberg
According to an online report representatives from the Committee on Strategic Market Operations at the International Rubber Consortium Ltd, Indonesia Commodity & Derivatives Exchange, the Agricultural Futures Exchange of Thailand and the Malaysia Derivatives Exchange recently held a meeting in Phuket to discuss the plans to establish a central trading rubber trading facility in Southeast Asia.

Though details of the proposed rubber hub were not disclosed, the report said that the Tokyo Commodity Exchange is tracking progress of the contract plan.

Since Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia account for 70 % of the world’s natural rubber output, a regional market would contribute to increased pricing reliability and transparency, the report said.