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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This month, I want to invite you to wander through art spaces, misty hills, and garden paths, where the only thing on the itinerary is to linger. Let’s take a slower route, one for the dreamers, the journal keepers, and...
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Phuket Business: Local petrol tax under scrutiny
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Administrative Organization (PPAO) last week refuted claims that they had introduced a “new” tax to be collected on the sale of all fuels in Phuket, including diesel, marine diesel, benzine and gasohol. The “maintenance tax”, levied as a 10% surcharge on the sale of all engine fuels, is the same tax previously collected by the Excise…
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Phuket Business: AirAsia shift to reap Chinese pie
PHUKET: As part of its latest strategic marketing shift, Low Cost Carrier (LCC) AirAsia recently canceled its Phuket flights to Ubon Ratchathani and Bali, topped off with the cancellation last week of its Thailand-Sri Lanka route. Meanwhile, the leading LCC has reinstated its Phuket-Udon Thani route, while revealing additional plans to shift and expand regional focus to the high-volume, high-growth,…
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Phuket Business: Challenges ahead of ASEAN’s young union
PHUKET: Eliminating tariffs that financially penalize members of ASEAN, is one of the stated long-term goals of the AEC (ASEAN Economic Community).When economic unions were proposed in the United States and Europe, tariffs became a defining factor that would later determine the outcome of those unions.Now that ASEAN has decided to form an economic union – the AEC – in…
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Phuket Business: Calculating the Sharpe ratio
PHUKET: One statistic you will often see when looking at a fund’s performance is the “Sharpe ratio”. This is an attempt to quantify the excess return for a given level of risk. For example, two funds may both return 12%. If one returns a steady 1% every month while the other swings up and down, common sense and our blood…
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Phuket Business: Signs of the island’s time
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Government recently published its economic summary report for the first six months of the year (F6M12). The in-depth report highlights year-on-year (y-o-y) figures and trends in trade, consumerism, and in the island’s tourism, property, investment and agricultural sectors. Here, the Phuket Gazette outlines some of these.TourismThe total number of tourist arrivals in F6M12 remained steady with…
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Phuket Investor: Excuse me, what is QE3?
PHUKET: Being a regular on the sun soaked shores of Phuket, watching the many boats sail by on a frequent basis, one may start thinking that QE3 is a new luxury cruise liner replacing the old QE2 that was recently decommissioned. Not the case. In the never ending roller-coaster ride that is the world of finance, this is the latest…
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Phuket Business: Let’s go back and review the basics
PHUKET: Every once in a while I think it’s good to go back and review the basics. This is especially important in a world where the rate of change keeps increasing. Ever since the financial crisis began we have heard a lot of saber rattling with regards to offshore financial centers, banking secrecy, tax information exchange agreements and so forth.…
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Phuket Business: New trade surplus milestone achieved
PHUKET: A new milestone was set for Phuket’s international trade last month with the the island’s annual surplus of exports over imports peaking at 11 billion baht – more than 700 million baht clear of last year’s full-year, record figure.According to Phuket Customs’ receipts for the 2012 fiscal year (October 2011 to September 2012), accounting through to the end of…
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Phuket Business: 200 years of market crises
PHUKET: With the US stock market sitting near its 52-week high, and already having made a 100% move upwards from its low at the peak of the sell-off that occurred during the financial crisis, I have dug a bit deeper into history to get a feel for the frequency of crashes. I have a good grip on the longer bull/bear…
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Phuket Business: Smile – you’re on THAI
PHUKET: Last week Prasert Tanhansa, manager of the THAI Airlines (TA) district sales office in Phuket, announced new Phuket routes to be serviced, starting next month, by the national carrier’s new airline, THAI Smile (TS). Here, the Phuket Gazette’s Chaiyot Yongcharoenchai speaks exclusively with Mr Prasert about market positioning, strategies and more. PHUKET GAZETTE: TS has been called by some…
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Phuket Business: PIMEX 2013 International Boat Show dates announced
PHUKET: THE 10th edition of the Phuket International Boat Show (PIMEX) will be held at the Royal Phuket Marina from March 21-24 next year, the event’s organizers have announced. As one of the region’s largest and most significant marine, boating and yachting exhibitions, the four-day event will showcase leading marine and lifestyle businesses, products and services with a large in-water…
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Phuket Business: Taking care of your parents
PHUKET: No, the title of this article isn’t a joke. Obviously, there is a big difference in cultural attitudes toward what responsibilities people have when it comes to family. There is no need to discuss this at length. Generally speaking, most Westerners are not under the same pressure to look after their aging family members as most Thais are. But…
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Phuket Business: Interfering with the navigation systems
PHUKET: Your aircraft has just landed at Phuket International Airport and out comes the ubiquitous mobile phone, despite the flight crew asking you to keep it switched off until the plane arrives at the gate, because of concerns it may interfere with the aircraft’s avionics, thus endangering all on board. A familiar scene to everyone arriving on Phuket and particularly…
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Phuket Business: The tree that bears fruit
PHUKET: At the helm of Anuphas Vividhkarn Co Ltd’s CSR program is Montavee “Tommy” Hongsyok. The 35-year-old Assistant Managing Director of Phuket’s exclusive Honda dealership follows in the footsteps of his father, Montri Hongsyok, an accomplished executive and respected community figure in Phuket. Following is a Q&A session that the Phuket Gazette recently had with Tommy about the Honda dealer’s…
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Phuket Business: Pineapples please
PHUKET: A pineapple trading center was opened in Phuket recently in a move aimed at centralizing provincial supply of the fruit, and thus increasing its market penetration potential across Southeast Asia. Vinai Kwankaew of the Phuket Agriculture Office said that pineapples have become the province’s most significant revenue-generating fruit. Phuket pineapples are known for their sweet flavor, tasty and yellow…
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Phuket Business: Beware of the hammer and nail approach
PHUKET: There is a very famous quote that often comes to mind when speaking with many of my colleagues in the wealth management industry: “When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail”. Unfortunately many advisers fall into this trap, and despite the fact that everyone’s situation is different, they will recommend the same solution…
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Phuket Business: AMCHAM affirms commitment to saving the environment
PHUKET: The American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) Greater Phuket Chapter assembled at Holiday Inn Patong for its third meeting of the year recently. Organized in conjunction with environmental organization, SEEK, the evening’s discussions focused on ways that hospitality and tourism stakeholders can implement “Green Tourism” practices while reducing operational overheads and thus increasing profit margins. The meeting followed an all-day,…
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Local TAT chief bullish on Phuket tourism industry
PHUKET: The new director the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) office in Phuket Town has proclaimed the “low season” a thing of the past with so many tourists arriving year-round. Speaking at the “Governor Meets the Press” gathering at Provincial Hall today, TAT Southern Region 4 Office director Chanchai Doungjit expressed confidence in the performance of the Phuket tourism industry,…
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Phuket Business: Midyear tax filing deadline tomorrow
PHUKET: Tomorrow, August 31, is the midyear tax return filing deadline for both companies and individuals who have generated income in Thailand during the first six months of 2012 – regardless of where or how payments were made. The Revenue Department website states: “A company [or individual] is obliged to estimate its annual net profit [or net income] as well…
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Phuket Business: Capitalizing on world illiquidity
PHUKET: There have been several investment strategies, with great results, that I have been relying on recently. They are filling the gap left behind as banks are forced to shore up their capital bases and thus forgo many of their traditionally lucrative and profitable businesses. One of these strategies – legal financing – I have written about several times. Another…
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Phuket Business: The ultimate island view
PHUKET: What do you get when you cross a remote controlled helicopter with a camera? A helicam of course. Helicam is also the name of the Phuket-based company that has been hovering over the island for the past eight years. And what do you get when you have eight years of aerial shots of Phuket? An opportunity to create a…
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Phuket Business: German economist warns about ASEAN+3
PHUKET: Mechanisms need to be in place for crisis prevention and resolution before the next economic crash, and this means the Southeast Asian regional financial structure needs to be reformed, warns Ulrich Volz, a senior economist at the German Development Institute.Giving a public lecture at Chulalongkorn University on lessons learned from the current European crisis, Volz said there were five…
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Phuket Business: Mid-year tax filing deadline approaches
PHUKET: Companies and individuals who generated income in Thailand during the first six months of 2012 – regardless of where or how payments were made – have until August 31 to file their midyear tax return. In this first article, we will go over the basics of regulations and procedures for filing and paying income tax in Thailand. Next week,…
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Phuket tourism roadshow in Japan “well received’
PHUKET: Recently returned from a week-long tourism fact-finding tour in Japan, Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha has told the media that the “Amazing Thailand in Japan” roadshow impressed the Japanese tour operators in the three cities they visited. Organized by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and coordinated by the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization (PPAO) and the Phuket Tourist Association (PTA),…
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Phuket Business: Football Club sales steady
PHUKET: Business was steady for Phuket FC during the first half of the 2012 season, with the club’s accounts revealing nearly a million baht in revenue. Accounts for the 18-team Thai Yamaha One soccer league (Division 1), recently released by league’s mother company, Sponsor Thai Premiere League, show that Phuket FC generated a gross revenue of 976,830 baht from March…
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Phuket Business: India, Vietnam rice exports to surpass Thailand in 2012
PHUKET: A Thai trade researcher has concurred with a recent prediction by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) that India and Vietnam will export more rice than Thailand this year. Thanawan Phonwichai, the Director of the Business and Economics Forecasting Center at the Thai Chamber of Commerce University said that Thailand is expected to lose its crown as the…
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Boonthaworn Phuket showroom to open by October 1
PHUKET: After years of delay, Bangkok-based construction materials retailer Boonthavorn is moving forward with its plans to enter the Phuket market with the opening of a “mini-showroom”.The new facility will be located between Songkhla and Yaowarat roads, near the Tesco-Lotus junction in Rassada.Speaking to the Gazette at the project site, Boonthavorn architect Jiravut Kararun said the company is currently renovating…
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Phuket Business: New trade surplus high; FDI jumps 66%; Foreign shares to be scrutinized
PHUKET: Three-quarters of the way into the government’s current fiscal year, international trade in Phuket is thriving, with this year’s trade surplus already surpassing last year’s record high. Phuket Customs House’ records through June 30 show that the value of exports in the 2012 government fiscal year (October 1, 2011 to September 30, 2012) is now at 12.06 billion baht…
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Phuket hotel investments surge in 2012
PHUKET: Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels is predicting that Phuket will be one of Asia Pacific’s hotel investment hot spots in 2012, following record sales in the first half of the year. Investment in the hotel property sector in Phuket is expected to exceed 10 billion baht (US$315m) for the full year for first time ever in 2012. Mike Batchelor, Managing…
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Phuket Investor: The alternative gold rush
PHUKET: With all the economic strife the world has seen over the past 12 months, I feel as if I’ve turned into a portrayer of doom. So, I’m taking the doom gloves off and jumping on the feel good train, which seems to have hit the European markets this last couple of weeks. I’m not saying that the problems have…
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