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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Hashtag urges netizens to boycott media company’s sponsors
There’s a new hashtag trending on Twitter today: #แบนสปอนเซอร์เนชั่น (ban Nation’s sponsors), as netizens vow to boycott all of the local digital news outlet Nation Thailand’s sponsors for alleged “frequent errors and pro-government editorials”. The social trend was partly brought about by the revelation that a Nation Thailand and Nation TV reporter allegedly lied to protesters last Sunday, claiming to…
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Company drafts THAI’s rehab plan, faces criticism
The rehabilitation plan for Thai Airways International, or THAI, isn’t looking great. It was presented to the Central Bankruptcy Court yesterday and creditors questioned the expertise of the company chosen to draft the plan. EY Corporate and Advisory Services, appointed by THAI, faced criticism regarding their technical experience when it comes to drafting a plan to restructure a company, especially…
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Thousands of job applicants line up Bangkok hotel before sunrise
Not hundreds, but thousands of job applicants showed up to a Bangkok hotel before the sun came up early yesterday morning. Some slept outside to be first in line to file an application at the Miracle Grand Convention Hotel in the Lak Si district. By 4am, 5,000 people were waiting outside the hotel. The hotel advertised 300 vacant positions and…
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Thai Air Asia posts huge Q2 loss as their fleet struggles back into the skies
Despite many of Thailand’s discount airlines taking to the skies again, all airlines are still in the financial doldrums as they battle travel restrictions, a risk-averse flying public and closed international borders. Now Asia Aviation, major shareholder of Thai AirAsia, has announced revenue of 2,221 million baht and a net losses of 1,210.6 million baht for Q2 2020. The net…
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Pattaya spending millions on “facelift”
The world famous resort town of Pattaya is spending 160 million baht to improve the city’s beaches in a bid to attract domestic tourists. Pattaya’s mayor says the landscape redevelopment, on a 4 kilometre stretch of Pattaya Beach, will begin in October and is expected to be finished by the end of the year. “The City of Pattaya needs to…
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Phuket proposes to welcome tourists by November
PHOTO: Willy Thuan Phuket business owners are pressing forward with a proposal to turn around province’s tourism industry by allowing long-stay tourists to resume visits to the southern resort island as early as November. Under the “4T” model put forward at a meeting of the provincial disease control committee, long-stay visitors have been identified as having the best potential to…
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UPDATE: SET suspends trading of Thai Airways shares
UPDATE: Trading in Thai Airways shares was suspended by the Stock Exchange of Thailand this afternoon after auditors declined to sign off on its financial statements for the six months to June 30. Auditor Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Jaiyos said it couldn’t reach a conclusion on the statements due to issues including a lack of liquidity and debt defaults, which created…
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Thai Airways loses 28 billion baht in the first half of the year
Embattled, bankrupt Thai Airways suffered about 28 billion baht in losses for the first 6 months of this year, mainly attributable to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has seriously impacted its operations and crushed global travel, grounding fleets and shuttering many airlines altogether. The airline’s acting president said today that the pandemic has led to many countries, including Thailand, closing their…
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Study finds 82% of Thais “confident” in reopening tourism sector
As Thailand gradually reopens its borders, new findings from a global study suggests that 82% of Thais are confident that Thailand is well prepared to reopen its tourism and leisure activities, the highest globally. The study also found that tourists from Hong Kong, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, and India are all targeting Thailand as their first destination when their countries’ borders…
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US dollar denominated gold trade to be allowed
Ending decades of regulations limiting gold trade in Thailand to the baht, the US dollar will now be allowed as well. 2 weeks ago, in a bid to slow the rapidly rising baht and avoid landing on the US list of “currency manipulators”, the Bank of Thailand announced a policy to allow trading gold products in US dollars. Market players…
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CCSA to allow sports gatherings, exempt Chinese fruit traders from travel ban
The Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration announced on Monday that will allow fans to attend sports events, and allow Chinese traders to enter Thailand for fruit export. The CCSA said that as Thailand approaches 80 days without a local Covid-19 transmission, it’s believed to be safe for spectators to attend large sports gatherings, although measures will be tighter for events…
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Leading Thai epidemiologist warns against opening borders
A leading epidemiologist on the faculty of medicine at Chulalongkorn University is calling for the government to suspend any plan to allow foreign tourists for 6-18 months. Dr Thira Woratanarat, who makes daily updates on his Facebook in the Thai language and is well followed in the Thai media, has been delivering regular warnings about the risk of Covid-19 to…
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Nok Air blames some of its losses on MPs who don’t show up for flights
Part of Nok Air’s current losses are being blamed on privileged MPs, who receive free flights on the budget carrier but don’t turn up for their flights. Somboon Uthaiwiankul, secretary for the government’s House Speaker, says the issue was brought up by executives of the airline during a meeting with the House Speaker, Chuan Leekpai. The executives told him last…
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Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand family ranked 21 on world’s rich list
Bloomberg has released its list of the world’s wealthiest, and the family behind Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand Group sits at number 21. The CP conglomerate is one of the world’s largest, operating across multiple sectors, including food manufacture, agriculture, retail, and telecommunications. It has stakes in CP Foods, the world’s largest producer of shrimp and among the top 3 producers of…
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Price of gold rises but investment not without risks
A leading investment research firm says the price of gold is on the rise, with predictions bullion could reach US$2,000 an ounce. Chayanee Juengmanon from Morningstar Research Thailand says one exchange-traded fund favoured by most domestic gold mutual funds, recorded net inflows of over $20 billion within the last year, a 30% increase in the value of its assets. gold…
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Swiss clothing firm denies layoffs
Contradicting earlier reports, Triumph International (Thailand) has denied any link with a garment company that laid off 800 employees on Friday. A statement from the Swiss Triumph Holding AG on yesterday said the company sold its production facilities in Thailand to Body Fashion (Thailand) 4 years ago. Accoding to the company’s head of corporate communications: “In fact, Triumph has handed…
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Thai Airways to operate repatriation flights to Denmark, Taiwan
Thai Airways has arranged 2 repatriation flights to Taipei and 2 to Copenhagen this month, to bring back foreign nationals who were stranded by the Covid-19 pandemic. The airline’s acting president says the Taiwan flights will fly on August 5 and 14, leaving Suvarnabhumi Airport at 8:25am and arriving in Taipei at 1:05pm local time; Chansin Treenuchagron said the flights…
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Survey: China travel may take a year to recover
Data from the latest travel report by ITB China Travel Trends show that it’s possible – even likely – that the Chinese outbound travel market will take up to a year to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. The survey of 200 Chinese outbound travel agents examined the anticipated travel behaviour of outbound Chinese tourists once the beginnings of recovery are…
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Trump threatens US TikTok ban
Donald Trump said yesterday that he plans to sign an executive order – perhaps as soon as today – banning the Chinese-owned short-video app TikTok from the US. Such a ban would mark the culmination of national security concerns over the safety of personal data handled by TikTok’s parent company, Beijing-based ByteDance, which became 1 of only a handful of…
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Thai delivery app merger gets 3.5 billion baht boost
Homegrown Thai delivery app Line Man is merging with its longtime partner, online restaurant review platform Wongnai Media. Line Man has secured fresh capital investment worth US$110 million (3.5 billion baht) from BRV Capital Management to bolster the new entity. The merger marks the first time any member of the Japan-based Line Group has secured a financial investment of this…
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Hotel bookings bounce back for long weekend holiday
The long holiday weekend is reportedly seeing heavy bookings at hotels and resorts, reigniting hopes of a revival of domestic tourism, which has been battered for months by the Covid-19 outbreak. Accommodations in the southern provinces in particular have been receiving a good rate of bookings with holidaymakers for the 4 day extended weekend. The tourism authoritiy of Thailand says…
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Global aviation recovery could take 3 years – Survey
“Widespread recovery of the global airline industry could be up to three years away.” That’s the consensus out of n industry poll conducted as part of FlightPlan: Charting a Course into the Future. 500 professionals around the world were asked questions about the likely recovery of the global aviation industry. Apart from the dire predictions of a slow recovery over the next…
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Tourism sector facing massive closures
Thailand’s tourism sector, long seen as a lifeline for the nation’s battered economy, is in a meltdown; more than 30% of tourism-related businesses have left the market with many more expected to follow, according to the Tourism Council of Thailand. The president of the TCT says the tourism industry predicts further deterioration after 6 months of the Covid-19 crisis, as…
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Emergency Decree, Phase 6 to be discussed in coming weeks: CCSA
Dr. Taweesin Visanuyothin, spokesperson of the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration, said in a press conference this morning that discussions on the Emergency Decree and a “Phase 6” of lifting Covid-19 restrictions and reopening the country are expected in the upcoming weeks. A meeting is expected of the committees, including the CCSA and the National Security Council, responsible for easing…
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Suvarnabhhumi Airport sees huge jump in traffic
Despite a continued and near-total ban on international arrivals, Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport is seeing a spike in traffic after the government eased lockdown measures and allowed domestic travel. The airport’s general manager says that from July 1-15, Suvarnabhumi saw 3,205 flights (1,604 incoming and 1,601 outgoing) or an average of 214 per day. “The total number of passengers using…
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The future is now: 5G taking off in Thailand
5G… we’ve all heard aboutit, but what is it, really? 5G literally means fifth-generation wireless technology. As the successor to 4G, the biggest changes include higher speeds, almost zero latency (the delay in transfer of data once an instruction has been given), and the ability to connect more devices at once. However, the benefits of 5G aren’t limited to its…
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Thai Airways unlikely to resume flights in August
Anyone expecting the beleaguered Thai Airways to resume its flight schedule in August should not hold their breath. That’s the word from reliable sources in the industry, who predict the national carrier will not take to the skies again until September at the earliest. A report in TTR Weekly says the airline, currently undergoing a rehabilitation process, has extended its…
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Poll shows most Thais still oppose foreign arrivals
A recent survey carried out by the National Institute of Development Administration, or Nida Poll, shows that a majority of Thais still oppose opening the country to foreigners, even if they’re not infected with Covid-19, saying the global coronavirus situation is still very serious. The poll was conducted on July 6-8 on 1,251 people aged 18 and over, of various…
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Thai Airasia ponders second Bangkok hub
Despite reports that Air Asia’s future is in doubt, Thai AirAsia says it’s considering making Suvarnabhumi airport its new hub, alongside its already established hub in Don Mueang Airport, to increase revenue and broaden its traveller appeal. The executive chairman of Asia Aviation, the largest shareholder of TAA, says the airline is conducting a feasibility study on the move to…
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AOT considering joint venture with Thai Airways to keep services running
The company that runs 6 of Thailand’s airports says it wants to work with Thai Airways to ensure airport services can continue while the national carrier goes through a “rehabilitation” process and struggles with the loss of business caused by the Covid-19 crisis. Airports of Thailand president Nitinai Sirismatthakarn says the AOT board is in talks about a joint venture…
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