Business News
Thailand business news, market trends, foreign investment, and economic updates—stay informed on stock market movements, entrepreneurship, and key developments shaping the economy. Get the latest from The Thaiger, your trusted source for business news in Thailand.
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Starting a new life abroad is exciting—new culture, new lifestyle, and new chances to grow. But living far from home also means taking steps to protect your health in unfamiliar surroundings. Without the right coverage, even small health issues can...
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Phuket Business: New car owners due B1.2bn
PHUKET: More than 14,300 new car owners in Phuket took advantage of the government’s first-car rebate scheme, with the combined value of due rebates amounting to more than 1.2 billion baht. According to figures from the Phuket Excise Department (PED), a total of 14,327 eligible applications were filed in the province from September 16, 2011 to December 31, 2012. These…
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Banking for Phuket Expats carries special charges, risks
PHUKET: For expats in Phuket and across Thailand who intend to stay permanently or for most of the year in the country, opening a Thai bank account makes financial sense. After all, except for a few ATMs owned by AEON (a large Japanese conglomerate) and Citibank, Thai ATMs will charge a 150 baht fee per foreign transaction and there are…
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Phuket Business: Laguna Dusit Thani ready for influx of MICE
PHUKET: THE Dusit Thani Laguna Phuket has re-launched its renovated and revitalized meeting space in response to an increase in demand for 2013. The renovation cost 10 million baht and took two months to complete. The 2,408 square-foot Dusit Laguna Hall can now accommodate up to 300 people in a theater-style setting and is able to host 150 people for…
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Phuket Business: FDI shifting from China to ASEAN
PHUKET: Rising costs from higher wages and currency appreciation in China over the last two decades are prompting multinationals to look at expanding elsewhere, with ASEAN countries – particularly Vietnam – poised to benefit most. A recent report published by HSBC Global Research, titled “The great migration – how FDI [Foreign Direct Investment] is moving to ASEAN and India”, outlined…
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Phuket Finance: UK bill reassures QROPS retirees
PHUKET: With the recent release of the draft finance bill for 2013, the UK government has eased worries of the QROPS (Qualified Recognized Overseas Pension Schemes) industry that new legislation might close down the market. Last year, offshore pension providers were quite shocked when HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) removed overnight the ability of expat retirees to transfer their…
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Phuket Business: Coping with labor costs
PHUKET: As labor-intensive industries adjust their operations in order to cope with the nationwide 300 baht minimum daily wage, efforts include trimming logistics costs, improving production efficiency and hiring only skilled workers.Tawee Piyapattana, president of Pacific Fish Processing Co, which specializes in the production of frozen seafood, says the company, which employs 3,000 people, will not lay off personnel but…
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Phuket Finance: Investing in “frontier markets’
PHUKET: I have recently come across an investment concept that’s caught my interest, and for those of you with a speculative bit of capital to allocate – you might find it interesting also. Fund Management Group has recently launched an equity-based fund, spread across what they call new frontier countries. According to them, frontier markets represent 40% of the world’s…
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Phuket Business: The sweet taste of success at Vanich Sweetcorn Farm
PHUKET: Mr Apirag Vanich is the owner of the Vanich Sweetcorn Farm, which produces corn-based foodstuffs and drinks including; corn milk; boiled corn, fresh sweet corn and baby corn.They also produce three healthy drinks which are; butterfly pea flower tea, corn silk tea and mulberry juice. Vanich Sweetcorn Farm, spread out over an area of about 67 rai, uses modern…
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Phuket Business: Reusable future
“We live in a world where every 12 seconds, a child dies because of dirty water and insanitation. CO2 continues to build up and forests are depleting. We live in a resource-constrained world. There are limits.” – Peter Bakker.PHUKET: These chilling words from Peter Bakker at a recent Bangkok symposium held by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)…
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Phuket Business: Say it in Chinese
An exclusive interview with the Kopi Chinese Language Training Center reveals some of Phuket’s past and looks towards the future of foreign language learning. PHUKET: The business of education in Phuket continues on an upward trend, with one local Chinese language center preparing for the integration of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) in 2015. The Phuket Gazette’s student intern Wisuwat…
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Phuket Finance: Understanding your fund’s “duration’
PHUKET: As I have written extensively about the dangers of bond funds in the current environment, it is worth mentioning a standard measurement used to determine approximately how sensitive a bond portfolio or fund is to interest rate increases. Don’t let the word duration fool you; what the measurement actually means is, the approximate decrease in value for a 1%…
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Phuket Business: British Airways – 79 years of service to the Kingdom
PHUKET: After 79 years of service to Thailand, British Airways (BA) says it still sees the Kingdom as an important market because more executives, especially from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), will fly out to ink business deals.The airline will use its strong network to connect local businessmen not only to its home base in London, but also to other…
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Phuket Business: Staying the course
PHUKET: The island’s first and only authentic miniature golf course, “Phuket Adventure Mini Golf”, recently celebrated the completion of its first year of operation. Swedish owners, Thomas and Pia Anderson, Phuket expats for nearly a decade, spoke to the Phuket Gazette about the past, present and future of their leisure attraction, the first of its kind in the Kingdom, located…
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Phuket Business: There’s cash in that trash
PHUKET: Sustainability is perhaps the most overused buzz word at present. Increasingly over the past several years, stake holders in the tourism and hospitality sectors have added momentum to the dialogue about saving the environment through the implementation of ‘green practices’. When it comes down to actually taking action and making all of the necessary investments, however, few have delivered.…
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Explaining UK pension transfers
PHUKET: For the many people who leave the UK each year to live, work and retire in Thailand, or many popular countries across the world, a decision needs to be made as to whether they will keep their private or occupational pension funds in the UK or transfer them overseas. Since April 6, 2006, an individual looking to transfer their…
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Phuket Business: B300 minimum wage hike to worsen labor shortage
PHUKET: With the nationwide minimum wage set to rise to 300 baht, a labor shortage tops the list of business risks for property and construction firms in 2013. To consumers, this could mean longer construction periods while they wait to take possession of their new homes.Thailand’s construction, infrastructure and manufacturing sectors are now facing a shortfall of about 200,000 workers.…
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Phuket Business: We want to help – IRS
PHUKET: The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) insists that it wants to assist US citizens residing overseas, including dual citizens, in catching up with tax filing obligations and provide assistance for people with foreign retirement plan issues.“We want to help US citizens abroad get current with their tax obligations and resolve pension issues,” said IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman.Shulman said that as…
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Phuket Business: AMCHAM’s warnings
PHUKET: “Caution” was a common theme echoed at the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) Greater Phuket Chapter’s final meeting of the year, held recently at the Royal Phuket Marina. The evening featured three informative presentations, courtesy of AMCHAM Thailand’s legal council, which provided a wealth of valuable advice to expat business operators – as well as those considering conducting business…
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Phuket Finance: Bonding with your portfolio
PHUKET: People usually think of bonds as safe investments, although I have written before about the dangers that are not so obvious to investors. The reason they can be dangerous in a low interest rate environment, such as we are in now, is because as interest rates rise, the market value of a bond or portfolio of bonds drops, and…
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Phuket Business: HotelTravel – here to stay
PHUKET: After 13 years building his company from the ground up, Phuket expat Blair Speers set a local business benchmark last month when he sold HotelTravel.com (HT) to the Indian based travel and e-commerce group that operates MakeMyTrip.com. Shortly after the US$25 million (760mn baht) acquisition was finalized, executives from the MakeMyTrip Ltd Group (MMT) met with employees at the…
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Phuket Finance: Using exchange traded funds
PHUKET: In today’s uncertain economy, investors are increasingly seeking diversification, safety and a secure income. Interest rates continue to hover at or near all time lows in many countries, and the continued uncertainty about the strength of the global economic recovery has made many investors extra cautious. Nevertheless, there is one investment option available that can offer risk-adverse investors both…
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Phuket Business: Island’s inflation skyrockets
PHUKET: Not only does Phuket continue its reign as the most expensive (consumer) province in Thailand, but the island province’s rate of inflation doubles that of the national average, recent economic data shows. The Phuket Commerce Office, in collaboration with the Phuket provincial government and the Commerce Ministry’s Information Office and Bureau of Trade and Economic Indices, recently published the…
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Phuket Finance: No fund is risk free… but
PHUKET: I recently began using a very interesting fund with retirees who need a steady income called Lavaux Capital, which is run out of the very well-regulated jurisdiction of Switzerland. The managers have all been involved in trade finance for many years and basically specialize in bridge financing backed by insurance contracts. The fund pays 8% simple interest in quarterly…
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Phuket Business: Tourism growth projected at 15% by Seacon head
PHUKET: Piya Sosothikul, executive director of Seacon Group, and owner of the Renaissance Phuket Resort and Spa, recently gave his outlook for Phuket tourism. Mr Piya said he expects tourist arrivals to increase by 15% this year, despite a decline in arrivals from the island’s traditional tourist source markets in Western Europe, due to the economic and financial crises affecting…
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Phuket Business: Coca-Cola pouring B200mn into Thai cola battle; New player enters market
PHUKET: Coca-Cola (Coke) is spending 200 million baht on marketing in the final quarter of this year in hopes of surpassing Pepsi to become the undisputed leader of Thailand’s 38.5 billion baht carbonated-drink market.Colas represent about 75% of Thailand’s carbonated drink market. This is followed by flavored drinks (20%) and lemon-lime beverages (5%). The cola segment is also the most…
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Phuket Business: Get your head in the clouds
PHUKET: Information technology (IT) has dramatically changed the way people communicate and do business. Changes in information technology are rapidly taking place and investors who are able to spot the newest trends can profit from those trends greatly. One continually evolving trend is “cloud computing”. Investors focused on IT growth stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have several options when it…
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Phuket Business: ASEAN set to ink deals with China
PHUKET: ASEAN and Chinese leaders are set to ink two Free Trade Agreements (FTA) facilitating commerce at a bilateral summit later this month. Representatives will meet on November 18 in Cambodia, at a summit between ASEAN leaders and six partner countries.One agreement would eliminate some trade barriers related to sanitary and phytosanitary (animal and plant health) standards; the other would…
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Doing Business in Thailand: AMCHAM Legal Forum
PHUKET: AMCHAM will hold a forum titled ‘Doing Business in Thailand – 3 Things You Should Know’, on Thursday, November 29, at Royal Phuket Marina. Three top international lawyers will be on hand to talk about how to do business without Thai nominees, enforcing contracts through arbitration, and the increasing focus on criminal corrupt practices and anti-corruption laws. The event…
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Phuket Business: Andaman tourism campaign aims for 20 million
PHUKET: Woravat Auapinyakul, Minister to the Prime Minister’s Office, has told the Phuket Gazette that he expects the “Andaman – The World Experience” tourism initiative to attract more than 20 million tourists to the region. At a meeting at Phuket Provincial Hall held recently to chart the progress of the tourism initiative, Mr Woravat said that intense competition within the…
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Phuket Business: Makro – now bigger and better
PHUKET: The newly renovated Makro Phuket has reopened its doors, announcing that it is better equipped to meet the cooking and catering needs of local hotels, restaurants and cafés (HoReCa).With an emphasis on enhancing the capabilities of businesses to maintain international standards, the membership-based wholesaler has increased the quantity and diversity of its consumer products, which include both fresh and…
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