Business registrations up 30% over last year

PHUKET TOWN: New businesses registered in the first quarter of this year show an increase of 30 percent over the same period in 1998, indicating a surge of confidence in the island’s economy. Khun Virachai Tantiwattanawanlop, Head Administrator of the Phuket Commercial Registration Department, told the Gazette that in the first three months of 1999, 163 new firms registered with the department. These comprised 112 limited liability companies and 51 partnerships. This compares with 82 limited liability companies and 43 partnerships – a total of 125 businesses — registered in the same period last year. The amount of money people are putting into new businesses is also up sharply, from 215.5 million baht in the first quarter of last year, to 321.8 million in 1999, an increase of nearly 50 percent. According to these figures the average business registered this year has capital of just under 2 million baht, compared with 1.7 million last year. Khun Virachai also noted that fewer businesses closed in the same period — 22 compared with 29 in the first quarter of 1998. All but 5 percent of the new companies, he added, are related to tourism.