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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  • Phuket Business: A Swiss sip of homely bliss

    Phuket Business: A Swiss sip of homely bliss

    PHUKET: Operators of hotels, restaurants, cafes and especially Swiss expats wanting a taste of home, can now purchase Caffe’ Chicco d’Oro and many other imported food products from Switzerland in Phuket. Patty Bamert together with Samai and Fredy Reutlinger, have recently opened their ‘Caffe’ Chicco d’Oro’ coffee and bistro shop in Kathu, serving the popular Swiss coffee brand of the…

  • Phuket Business Feature: Hydroponics – a happy medium

    Phuket Business Feature: Hydroponics – a happy medium

    PHUKET: Located about a kilometer west of Chao Fah West road, en route to the Big Buddha, the DN hydroponic farm is not the bustling business operation it might at first seem. “I can supply large orders, but this is really just a hobby,” insists Pakdee “Doo” Khruthanang. Ms Pakdee’s primary hat is running her business, West Coast Divers, which…

  • Jaguar, Land Rover get new dealership in Phuket

    Jaguar, Land Rover get new dealership in Phuket

    PHUKET: Luxury car importer GB Automobile Co Ltd was recently appointed to be the sole, official authorized dealer for Land Rover and Jaguar cars in Phuket and the rest of Southern Thailand. The official grand opening of the new showroom is set for next month. Meanwhile, GB Auto is undergoing an extensive renovation of their showroom, which is adjacent to…

  • AP Superyachts berths new office in Patong

    AP Superyachts berths new office in Patong

    PHUKET: Luxury boating firm Asia Pacific Superyachts (APS) Phuket is growing, reports General Manager Gordon Fernandes. “We’re pleased to announce our headquarters have moved to a brand-new, purpose-built office in preparation for the exciting times ahead as more yachts discover the amazing cruising available in Southeast Asia,” he says. While the new offices offer increased facilities and staff to service…

  • Phuket Property Watch: Big bang of luxury

    Phuket Property Watch: Big bang of luxury

    PHUKET: Welcome to rainy season in Phuket. It’s Friday morning as I ponder the sound of rain pelting down on the roof and it feels almost as if I’m in Syria taking incoming fire. My life is that of a minimalist. Give me a black t-shirt, shorts and a well worn pair of Sanuks. No watch, no jewelry, just an…

  • Phuket still on the map at TTM+ 2013

    Phuket still on the map at TTM+ 2013

    PHUKET: The island is still a top tourist hub in Southeast Asia, with a wide variety of hotels, resorts and hospitality-related businesses representing Phuket at 13th annual Thailand Travel Mart Plus 2013 (TTM+ 2013), held at the IMPACT Exhibition Hall in Bangkok recently. More than 800 delegates arrived from around the region to network with the 420 hospitality related organizations…

  • PIMEX 2014 organizer hyped about January date

    PIMEX 2014 organizer hyped about January date

    PHUKET: The next Phuket International Boat Show (PIMEX) is open for business, having been taking bookings since early last month, May 2013. PIMEX 2014 is confirmed to take place between January 9 and 12 at Royal Phuket Marina and remains a permanent fixture in the island’s event calendar as it approaches its 11th year. “After careful analysis of the last…

  • PHUKET FINANCE: Don’t let a ‘wall of worry’ cut you off from a bull market

    PHUKET FINANCE: Don’t let a ‘wall of worry’ cut you off from a bull market

    PHUKET: Although the economic numbers coming out of the United States are not exactly impressive, the S&P 500 has been hitting all time highs and at the end of April, was up some 14.5% since the start of the year, while gold, the ultimate investment of market contrarians, plunged the most in 33 years. In other words, the US stock…

  • SPECIAL REPORT: Recycling 101 – reducing a piling burden

    SPECIAL REPORT: Recycling 101 – reducing a piling burden

    PHUKET: By some estimates, as much as 20 per cent of the island’s rubbish gets recycled. But this number could be higher if more consumers were made aware of a few things.The island is home to dozens of small and medium scale scrap yard operations and recycling depots that make a living, if not a decent business, by buying back…

  • Expose your biz through FC sponsorship

    Expose your biz through FC sponsorship

    PHUKET: Sponsorship experts Paul Poole (South East Asia) Co Ltd will represent the island’s pro soccer team, Phuket FC, in the club’s drive to find new sponsors for the second half of the 2013 season and beyond. The team is offering three tiers of sponsorship packages as follows: The first tier comprises a Main Shirt Sponsor, which will give the…

  • Phuket Finance: Educational arbitrage

    Phuket Finance: Educational arbitrage

    PHUKET: I think everyone would agree that a big part of long term financial planning is saving for their children’s university fees, which continue to reach more and more astronomical heights. However, very few people realize there are many ways to greatly reduce these costs without reducing your child’s value on the job market. Arbitrage usually refers to buying a…

  • COMMON CENTS: AEC will bring opportunities, threats to Thai, ASEAN citizens

    COMMON CENTS: AEC will bring opportunities, threats to Thai, ASEAN citizens

    PHUKET: THE ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) to be established in 2015 creates a huge potential for the streamlined flow of labor, goods and services, and investment capital. However, along with this opportunity there are also potential threats which Thailand has to be aware of and address. It is my concern that Thailand is not doing enough to prepare and confront…

  • Navy shore-leave to inject 1 million dollars into economy

    Navy shore-leave to inject 1 million dollars into economy

    PHUKET: The island’s economy – especially at the party town of Patong – will be getting an early low-season boost thanks to this week’s visit by the American Navy supercarrier, USS Nimitz along with its armed missile-cruiser escort, the USS Princeton, which both moored off Phuket early this morning. Topping off a week-long journey through the South China Sea, and…

  • Phuket Business: Cashing in on Russian relations – Part II

    Phuket Business: Cashing in on Russian relations – Part II

    PHUKET: Mr Phisak Nivataphand, the president of the Thai-Russian Chamber of Commerce and advisor for the Russian Studies Center of Chulalongkorn University, was in Phuket recently to give a speech as part of a seminar aimed at promoting Thai-Russian business relations . Organized by Thai-Russian media firm, Expert Media Co Ltd, the seminar was held at the Royal Phuket Marina.…

  • Bangkok Hospital Phuket to invest B600mn in facility

    Bangkok Hospital Phuket to invest B600mn in facility

    PHUKET: Bangkok Hospital Phuket (BHP) has announced that it will invest 600 million baht to open a new hospital on the island by early next year. The site of the as yet unnamed hospital will be on Chao Fah West Road, just opposite the Chao Fa Villa Phuket housing development in Mueang district. Director of Bangkok Hospital Phuket Dr Narongrit…

  • Phuket Finance: Currency crisis warning signs

    Phuket Finance: Currency crisis warning signs

    PHUKET: THE strength of the Thai Baht is a major topic of conversation these days, especially since so many Phuket residents are living on a fixed income, denominated and paid in a foreign currency from abroad. We have all been feeling the same pain as the combination of the strong baht and domestic inflation has led to our hard-earned money…

  • Phuket Finance: Gold plunges to 33 year low

    Phuket Finance: Gold plunges to 33 year low

    PHUKET: The past month has not been kind to anyone who has bought gold recently. With a nearly 9% loss since its January peak, and nearly 14% from last September’s, the precious metal has been anything but. Last week it had its largest one-day percentage decline since February 28, 1983. For the past 20 months, the price of gold has…

  • A perfect place for shore leave

    A perfect place for shore leave

    PHUKET: Sailing smoothly through its second year of operations, the Krabi River Marina (KRM) recently added a second restaurant to its portfolio – a small yet significant indicator of the continuous growth in Phang Nga Bay’s marine leisure industry. One of the main selling points of the newly opened Terrace pub and restaurant, KRM’s second eatery after the Marina Villa,…

  • Phuket firm to co-develop superyacht facility in Bangkok

    Phuket firm to co-develop superyacht facility in Bangkok

    PHUKET: Island based, Yacht Solutions (YS) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Bangkok’s Italthai Marine (ITM), agreeing to create Thailand’s first dedicated superyacht facility just south of Bangkok. This joint venture brings together Thailand’s largest and most established shipbuilding company, ITM, with one of Thailand’s most reputable and experienced superyacht refit companies, YS. Dubbed ‘Yacht Solutions at Italthai Marine’,…

  • Phuket Finance: Dumping your UK domicile

    Phuket Finance: Dumping your UK domicile

    PHUKET: Many British expats are unaware that as long as they remain UK domiciled, their estates will be subject to inheritance tax. Even if you have been living outside of the country for 40 years, it doesn’t mean you automatically have lost your UK domicile. In fact it is a little tricky to shed and this means your estate could…

  • A glass of wheatgrass if you please

    A glass of wheatgrass if you please

    PHUKET: Vitality, curative, nutrient-rich, detoxifying, energy – these are some of the most common connotations associated with the plant, Triticum aestivum, more commonly known as ‘wheatgrass’. Another increasingly common association is cancer prevention. “That’s what I like about it. Maybe it’s to do with my age,” says 68 year-old Frank Gunn, an American expat who has lived in Phuket for…

  • B26mn bid for lucky plates

    B26mn bid for lucky plates

    PHUKET: A little more than 26 million baht (26,013,000) was earned at the 8th annual “Lucky License Plate Action” held recently at the Phuket Merlin Hotel in Phuket Town. This was five million baht short of the initial expectation of 31 million baht, and four million baht less than last year’s auction which raised 30 million baht. This year, a…

  • Phuket Italian restaurants make the grade

    Phuket Italian restaurants make the grade

    PHUKET: The Thai-Italian chamber of commerce brought their Ospitalita Italiana project to Phuket recently, awarding five Italian restaurants the ‘Q’ certificate of authenticity. The ‘Q’ for ‘quality’ award judges the restaurants genuinely Italian if they meet 10 criteria concerning the training of their chefs and their use of genuine recipes and Italian products, such as wine and olive oil. Not…

  • Phuket to adopt new “4 Ms’ plan to boost tourism

    Phuket to adopt new “4 Ms’ plan to boost tourism

    PHUKET: The Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) has revived its efforts and moved its attention once again to help promote Phuket as a regional hub for corporate and organizational tourism. A new four-year destination promotion strategy was presented to local, regional and national officials at a seminar on April 26 at the Metropole Hotel in Phuket Town. Entitled “Developing…

  • Phuket Investor: The last time the markets were here

    Phuket Investor: The last time the markets were here

    PHUKET: I recently read a report that had a comparative list of statistics from the last time the stock markets were up at these levels, which was just before the crash at the start of the financial crisis. Early this march, the DOW reached a previous high level of 14164.5 and then surpassed that level. I thought it might be…

  • Phuket Business: Replicating your life savings

    Phuket Business: Replicating your life savings

    PHUKET: The new hot sector for technology investors is in the rapidly growing 3D printer business. 3D printing is the process of making a three-dimensional solid object of virtually any shape from a digital model. 3D printers use a 3D CAD (Computer Aided Design) file to create objects using a sequential layering process. This technology is used in jewelry; footwear;…

  • Phuket Business: Head of airport expects arrivals to exceed 10.5mn

    Phuket Business: Head of airport expects arrivals to exceed 10.5mn

    PHUKET: The director of Phuket International Airport (HKT) expects passenger arrivals to exceed 10.5 million by the end of this year, with related profits expected to be no less than two billion baht. HKT director Prathuang Sorn-kham said that the airport is fully prepared to provide increased conveniences for passengers ahead of the its 5 billion baht expansion project, due…

  • Phuket Business: US tax regime – Comply or else…

    Phuket Business: US tax regime – Comply or else…

    PHUKET: At a US tax seminar held last month at the Holiday Inn, Patong, by the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) Phuket Chapter, American income earners and business operators were given a comprehensive update about the US tax regime’s reporting requirements and regulations. Two previous articles about the seminar – published in the Business section of the Phuket Gazette on…

  • Phuket’s Autoexpress remains in driving seat

    Phuket’s Autoexpress remains in driving seat

    PHUKET: Demand on the island for imported luxury cars does not look like it will subside any time soon. Saksri Kerdphol, GM of Autoexpress, Phuket’s premier foreign automobile dealership and service provider, gives a brief update about local market trends. This is followed by some customer testimonials. Phuket Gazette: What is the current state of the auto luxury import market…

  • Singaporean investor sniffs out tuna ops in Phuket

    Singaporean investor sniffs out tuna ops in Phuket

    PHUKET: An investor from Singapore has expressed interest in expanding Phuket’s Tuna industry through the establishment of a new commercial longline fishing partnership with local operators. Phuket Governor Maitri Inthusut, along with Vice Governor Somkiet Sangkaosut-tirak, last week welcomed the Singapore-based businessman, Yong Juang, who came to the island to discuss investment guidelines, regulations and laws. Mr Yong Juang is…