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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Sponsored Thinking of retiring in Thailand long-term? Here’s your health checklist before the move
Thinking of retiring in Thailand long-term? Thailand is a popular choice for retirees because of its beautiful landscapes, warm climate, and affordable living. Cities like Chiang Mai and coastal areas offer a relaxed lifestyle with friendly communities. The country also...
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Local vendors cash in on Pokemon trend
PHUKET: Local vendors at popular Pokemon catching spots in Phuket have experienced a boost in income since the launch of Pokemon GO in Thailand. However, some vendors expect this spike to be short lived. For those who are wondering what Pokemon GO is, it is Nintendo Company’s mobile phone game which marries a classic 20-year-old franchise with augmented reality, and…
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Prime Minister to visit Phuket this month
PHUKET: Prime Minister Gen Prayuth Chan-o-cha is to visit Phuket on September 16 for the regional launch of a new nationwide initiative aimed at helping budding local businesses get off the ground and into the international arena of digital commerce. The Startup Thailand 2016 campaign was launched by the prime minister in Bangkok in April as a joint government and…
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New e-payment service aims to ease fund transfers
PHUKET: A new payment method designed to ease bank transfers, backed by the central bank of Thailand, was announced at a press conference held in Phuket last week. Saowapa Limsila, chief of the Phuket Office of the Comptroller General, and Jongrak Angtanya, vice president of the ‘Phuket Bankers Club’, jointly chaired the meeting held at Phuket Provincial Hall. The new…
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Biz Chat: The significance of ‘price’ in marketing
PHUKET: The second element of the ‘4 Ps’ of marketing is price. Price is what your customer pays you in exchange for goods and services received by them. There are many aspects to this deceptively simple element. In setting your price, you must first decide what is the value of the product or service to the buyer. If you set…
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Business: Local store wars intensify
PHUKET: Phuket Grocery Ltd Partnership opened its flagship store in Phuket Town on August 9 with the aim of penetrating the low-cost retail market currently dominated by the Phuket-based Super Cheap franchise. Chairman of the new retail outlet, Pornchai Chanchuwanichkul, said he hoped reasonable prices, air-conditioned comfort and a range of customer services in a convenient location would also attract…
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Finance: Cash is always king
PHUKET: Many of my clients have been moving money out of British sterling into different currencies or into deposit accounts in different countries. While I am not pushing anyone to do this, I am very often asked which countries are safe to hold deposits. It’s an interesting question and many are often mistaken about what guarantees actually mean.The most common…
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Business Buzz: Market it right and they will follow
PHUKET: As an avid fan of marketing, I’m always interested to see the next big global trend emerge and to watch it evolve into a successful operation on a macro and micro scale. Right now, here in Phuket, we are witnessing one of those global phenomena. Have you recently seen mature adults chasing invisible objects, using strange terminology and just…
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Finance: Hold on to stocks, more rallies are coming
PHUKET: The past one and a half years have been anything but a smooth ride for investors, given that the market’s seen two rapid 10 to 15 per cent pullbacks, and we’ve seen entire sectors (such as biotech, oil, industrials) and so on take some hard knocks. For investors exposed to unlucky sectors, it’s been difficult to keep pace with…
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Businesses look to exploit halal potential
PHUKET: Phuket-based businesses are being encouraged to join a drive to promote the plethora of halal products made in the province to benefit from the billion-baht Islamic product export industry. Speaking at the Phuket Andaman Halal Tourism 2016 seminar at the Phuket Graceland Resort on July 21, Komol Dumlak, Chairman of the Phuket Islamic Council, said the province has huge…
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Finance: Five emerging leadership stocks
PHUKET: From a technical standpoint, the stock market is starting to look more and more like a strong bull market rather than another counter-trend rally, but we can’t be absolutely certain the worst is over – especially with earnings season underway, the ever present possibility of another black swan event, like the Paris and Brussels terrorist attacks, and some scheduled…
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Business Buzz: Keeping up with tech trends
PHUKET: If you’ve been following this column regularly, then you will be aware of the statistics on the soaring increases in use of the Internet and Social Media in recent years. Coupled with this is the substantial increase in the use of smart phones. Many platforms such as YouTube and Facebook have now specifically set up self-filling forms to assist…
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Finance: A formula for prosperity
PHUKET: There is a fantastic equation that can be used in almost any decision you make in life. I learned this from the supplement company that I work with but it also applies to financial planning, life planning, and many other areas in life. The equation is simply X=Y. In the equation we can substitute any action for X so…
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Analyzing the luxury car industry in Phuket
PHUKET: Behind the closed doors of the glitz and glamor of the luxury car business in Phuket, are a host of complicated market forces at play. Let’s take a closer look at the factors that come together in the day-to-day running of this business. Millennium Auto, located on the Bypass Road, sells some of the most renowned luxury brands in…
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Finance: Investment potential of the Philippines
PHUKET: I recently spent a week in the Philippines – a country long labeled with the dubious distinction as ‘the sick man of Asia’ and a country investors might want to take a closer look at. The Philippines’ presidential and vice presidential election on May 9 saw the rise of Rodrigo Duterte, after incumbent President Benigno Aquino III (who took…
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Implications of Phuket’s aging population
PHUKET: Financial constraints and dramatic changes in employment numbers are expected to hit Phuket over the next 15 years, as an increasing percentage of the province’s population grows old. The Phuket Statistical Office estimates about 34,000 out of the 379,000 registered residents across the province are aged 60 years or older. That’s 9.2 per cent of the island’s population, and…
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Finance: Anyone can play the market
PHUKET: You don’t need a brokerage account or a financial adviser to get involved in the market. Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are index funds that can be accessed through a low-cost online platform and give an almost identical return as those of the underlying market they represent. However, you can still lose a fortune very quickly if you don’t know…
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Finance: Keep calm and let’s talk Brexit
PHUKET: The results of the Brexit vote have shocked markets almost as much as it has shocked the global and Brussels’ elites, with plenty of talk of impending doom and gloom for the UK and the markets. For example, the Morgan Stanley strategy team was quick to proclaim they expect European stocks to fall 15 to 20 per cent from…
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Lanna hopes to foster Phuket-Chiang Mai trade
PHUKET: Tourism officials from northern provinces are hoping that a scheme to circulate tourists within the country will lead to better trade connections between Chiang Mai and Phuket. Samroeng Chaisen, head of the ‘Office of Strategy Management Upper Northern Provincial Cluster 1’, Supawan Teerarat of the Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau, and other relevant officers met on June 16 to…
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A closer look at the luxury car market
PHUKET: The exponential increase in the number of cars – particularly high-end ones – in Phuket in the last decade alone, warrants a closer look at some of the factors that make this multi-billion-baht business tick. Millennium Auto, one of the newest luxury car outlets to open on the island, gave an exclusive account of the ins and outs of…
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Finance: Defining a financial adviser
PHUKET: If you haven’t yet seen it, there’s a great episode of John Oliver’s ‘Last Week Tonight’ that covers the financial services industry in America. While it is a different beast in Southeast Asia, there were many points he brought up that are very relevant to expats in the region. Go onto YouTube and search for it if you haven’t…
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Business Buzz: The power of groups and forums
PHUKET: One of the biggest business benefits of social media is creating a database of your perfect customers. Just imagine it: people asking to join your customer list, at no cost to you. While most people know all about Facebook fan pages, the ‘groups’ option remains a lesser-known factor. People have also probably heard of forums, but again they are…
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Finance: Runts rally amid mixed earnings season
PHUKET: As of the beginning of May, earnings season was in full swing, with the markets sending mixed messages to investors. So far, some big names like Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB) and Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AM- ZN), with the latter sometimes being a difficult stock to own given its ups and downs, have put in good earnings reports and have pretty…
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Future of Brexit and British pensions
PHUKET: The possibility of the UK leaving the European Union is a subject of hot debate among the British. Most of the debate revolves around the implications for the future within the UK itself but not much is said of what kind of implications this could have on expats. For the most part, things will change very little either way…
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Key sectors to watch out for in the stock market
PHUKET: May to October is often a season of choppy sideways action. The old adage, ‘Sell in May and go away,’ already appears to be holding true as over the last three weeks, US markets and global markets have pulled back from overhead resistance levels on their technical charts. The Nasdaq index in particular is looking bad as tech, semiconductor…
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The financial and legal steps involved in starting a small business
PHUKET: To pick up from where I left off last time, let’s discuss the financial and legal steps involved in starting a small business. Plan your financials: Whether you are putting in a couple of months’ salary, or your entire life savings, finances need to be properly laid out. Many of us make the mistake of putting in too much…
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Centara plans for MICE hub
PHUKET: The Centara Grand West Sands Resort & Villas Phuket revealed an expansion plan on May 16, which revolves around the construction of a new convention center. The resort is located on the west coast of Phuket near the Sarasin Bridge on Mai Khao Beach and already has 558 hotel rooms and a water park with swimming pools, lazy river…
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Finance: Service your clients the right way
PHUKET: I often run across clients of other firms who complain that they receive absolutely no service on their policies. I understand how they feel, but having been in the industry a long time, I also understand why. It is simply a misalignment of interests and is inherent in the way many of the insurance companies allow the introducing and…
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Finance: Where are the markets now?
PHUKET: On April 11, Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA) started the first quarter earnings season by reporting a lower quarterly profit (US$16 million or zero cents per share versus US$195 million or 14 cents per share a year earlier) on lower revenue (down 15 per cent) as results were hurt by low commodity prices, the strong US dollar and plant closures. Alcoa’s…
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Biz Chat: Tips for establishing a start-up
PHUKET: The island is filled with business people who invest millions on large business prospects, but no one ever talks about the little guy. What if you have 100,000 baht and want to play around with it? Here’s a guide to investing in a small business, just to see if it works. Let’s take it step by step – the…
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Zurich Bread: Engineering the perfect loaf
An engineer by trade, Singhathep Thepkanjana only spent six months working full-time in the field he studied for seven years, leaving university with a bachelor’s from Chulalongkorn University and a master’s degree in engineering management in Washington DC. Since then, this Bangkokian has pursued the perfect loaf – an endeavour that has taken him across continents. “I can count on…
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