World News
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Thailand’s high-speed railway will carry first passengers in 2023
The first section of the 873 kilometre high-speed railway running between Thailand and China should be operating by 2023. Thailand will now pay for the total cost of the 179 billion baht first section of the high speed rail line, but China is providing the design and will provide the train and carriages. The first 252 kilometre leg, from Bangkok to…
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Thailand industrial property a winner as US-China trade war drags on
Amongst all the bad economic news, Thailand’s industrial property sector is profiting from the protracted US-China trade war, as mainland Chinese manufacturers shift production to ASEAN countries in an attempt to avoid escalating tariffs. Chinese foreign direct investment into the south east Asia sector rose last year by 31.7% to USD 233 million, after declining by 15.7% in 2016-17, according…
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AirAsia X orders 42 new long-haul Airbus jets
PHOTO: AirAsia’s new generation A330neo will be based at Bangkok’s Don Mueang International Airport – Bernama AirAsia X, the long-haul part of the AirAsia Group, has now finalised a major order with Airbus for 12 more A330-900 and 30 A321XLR aircraft. The contract was signed today by Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz, chairman of AirAsia X, along with Guillaume Faury, CEO…
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The Thai charm-offensive on the South Korean President
Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha is inviting South Korean investors to increase their investment and trade with Thailand. The PM says Cabinet will consider offering incentives for South Korean businesses to invest in the country. South Korean President Moon Jae-in capped off an official two day visit to the Kingdom yesterday. The Thailand-Korea Business Forum was held yesterday in Bangkok with…
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South Korean President in Thailand to sign trade agreements
PHOTOS: The Nation PM Prayut Chan-o-cha and his wife Naraporn Chan-ocha, have welcomed South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his wife Kim Jung-sook to Government House in Bangkok this morning in the midst of an official state visit that continues tomorrow. A government spokesperson says that this was President Moon’s first official visit to Thailand since assuming his post in May…
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World economy wakes up to a day when the US has imposed new tariffs on China
The US has rolled out new tariffs on Chinese products yesterday but some economists say the latest gamble is likely to backfire and hurt the US economy. Meanwhile they predict the ramping up of the tariff ti-for-tat will not tarnish China’s resilience or dampen development in the long run. Yesterday the US administration imposed 15% additional tariffs on about half…
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Roadblocks disrupt traffic to Hong Kong airport in a weekend of violence
Protests have continued in Hong Kong over the weekend. Transport to and from Hong Kong International Airport was also disrupted yesterday as protesters barricaded roads, leaving traffic gridlocked and stranding hundreds of tourists at the airport terminal. It was the 13th consecutive weekend of protests in Hong Kong, concluding days of escalation in which a number of activist leaders and…
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Scenes of chaos in Hong Kong as protests continue
PHOTO: Sam Tsang/South China Morning Post Thai PBS World reports scenes of chaos and devastation in Hong Kong, following more violent protests in the territory. Police used tear gas and water cannon in Hong Kong’s financial district last night, as protesters defied a ban and ignored threats from China. This is the 13th weekend of such protests. The protests began…
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Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong arrested ahead of planned rally
PHOTO: South China Morning Post Activist Joshua Wong from the Demosisto party has been arrested in Hong Kong, along with fellow campaigners. The arrests come ahead of a rally planned for this weekend. A statement on Demosisto’s Twitter account confirmed the arrests, adding that Wong was pushed into a minivan while on his way to an underground train station. “Our…
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Podul plods towards Vietnam’s coast and will bring rain to northern Thailand over weekend
Tropical storm Podul is still moving towards Việt Nam with the eye of the storm sitting to the south-west under China’s Hainan island, in the north of the South China Sea this afternoon. It is slowly moving westward towards Vietnam’s northern central coast. Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister says the storm will cross the coast tomorrow and cross the country into…
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Google moves manufacture of Pixel phone from China to Vietnam
Google is shifting the manufacturer of their Pixel smartphone from China to Vietnam. The move is said to happen before the end of this year, as reported by Nikkei. Google cited increasing Chinese labour costs and added pressure from tariffs in the ongoing China-US trade spat. The US-based internet giant is reported to be moving both the manufacturer of its…
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Grab creates finance and payments revolution in Southeast Asia
PHOTO: Grab.com While Southeast Asia’s economy shows huge potential for growth, around 73% of the population still doesn’t have a bank account, severely limiting the upward mobility of both individuals and organisations. Enter Grab, the ride-hailing app, which is introducing a range of financial services in Singapore, including micro-insurance for small to medium sized companies, and post-paid products. Instead of…
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US-China tit-for-tat rattles Asian markets after Trump’s ‘tariff tantrum’
US President Trump has caused widespread panic in Asian financial markets today after Fridays “tariff tantrum” where he used Twitter to announce new levels of tariffs on Chinese imports after China announced their response to his previous ramping up of the ongoing trade war between Washington and Beijing. Asian shares have headed southward today after the President escalated tariffs in…
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Thailand plans to become electricity-hub for region
“Thailand’s push for regional energy trading could be a step to increasing security of supply and system resiliency, particularly as falling costs and higher government targets increase the volume of variable renewable energy generation in the ASEAN region.” – Caroline Chua, Bloomberg Finance analyst covering Southeast Asian power markets. Thailand aims to be the power-trading hub as it jump-starts plans to create…
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Jay Chou fans queue up for four days in KL to grab concert tickets
Jay Chou fans have been queuing up for four days before tickets went on sale for the ‘Mandopop’ king’s concert in Malaysia to ensure they get to see their idol. The All New Jay Chou Concert World Tour will be held in Hong Kong Disneyland in December, Singapore on January 10 and 11 and at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium…
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Southern insurgency suspect dies after 35 days in coma
PHOTO: Adbulloh Benjakat Abdulloh Esor Musor, left in a coma after being interrogated at a notorious southern Thai detention centre in Pattani, died yesterday, as pressure mounts on the Thai army to release further findings of a probe into the case. The man, a suspected insurgent allegedly tortured during his brief military custody being questioned after his arrest on July 20,…
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The road to Vietnam
OPINION Expat blog ‘Dan about Thailand‘ by ThaiVisa’s Dan Cheeseman, has an article about the Thai expats who are looking to regions beyond to plant their flag as the murmurings become a symphony of complaints about their current life in the Land of Smiles. “Living in Thailand for many of us Expats is what dreams are made of. With a…
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US and China ramp up the rhetoric and the tariffs in a day of tit-for-tat
Beijing has unveiled a new round of retaliatory tariffs on the US valued around US$75 billion. China will now place additional tariffs of 5%-10% on US imports starting next week. The tit-for-tat trade war between the world’s two largest economies is causing widespread disruption to supply chains and long-held trade conventions. China’s Finance Ministry says they will also resume tariffs on…
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More than four million guests stayed in an Airbnb on August 10, 2019
“Airbnb has created an opportunity to meet people from all around the world.” – Pim, an Airbnb Host in Thailand Exactly 11 years since Airbnb was founded, the home-sharing hospitality company and ‘accommodation disrupters’ celebrated its biggest night ever, with more than 4 million people spending the night in an Airbnb listing on August 10, 2019. To date, there has…
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Thailand and South Korea partner on development of electric buses
Original story by Shin Ji-hye An all-electric bus sits on the campus at King Mongkut’s University of Technology in Thonburi, Bangkok. The electric bus is a joint project between Korea and Thailand, led mainly by Korean automaker Edison Motors, which currently provides public transport services with eco-friendly buses at Namsan in Seoul and on Jeju Island. The project involves 11 organisations from both…
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Minister orders investigation into head-on collision in Sa Kaew killing 11
PHOTO: Thai PBS World Following a collision between an articulated truck and a passenger van killing 11 people and injured 4 yesterday morning, the Transport Minister is calling for an investigation. The accident happened in Sa Kaew province, about 200 kilometres east of Bangkok. Thai PBS reports that the van driver was among those killed, crushed to death behind the…
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11 die in early morning passenger van collision in Sa Kaew
PHOTOS: The Nation Eleven people have been killed and four others seriously injured after a chartered van carrying Lao workers collided with an 18 wheel truck in Sa Kaew province, east of Bangkok on the Cambodian border, early today (map below). The Nation reports that they were travelling to the Chanthaburi immigration checkpoint to renew their visas. Police suspect the Thai…
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Which flight route makes the most money in the world?
The world of aviation now has its first billion dollar route. That’s a flight route that makes more money for an airline than any other. And for the first time that route has breached the one billion dollar ceiling – British Airways’ service between London Heathrow and New York’s JFK. OAG has come up with a list of the routes…
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Asian stock markets follow Wall Street’s lead downward this morning
Asian stock markets have followed Wall Street’s lead this morning falling sharply as investors made their concerns apparent about economic recessions in some of the larger economies. They also reacted to more threats of instability from the trade war between the US and China. The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Index dropped 1.6% during this morning’s trading. US markets led…
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Lion Air wants their 737 MAX jets, once they’re cleared by regulators
Indonesia’s Lion Air, the victim of one of the two fatal crashes of a Boeing 737 MAX jets last year, “urgently requires” more of the jets to maintain its growth strategy. The airline’s co-founder, Rusdi Kiranaonce, says they eagerly await the regulators approving the grounded Boeing 737 MAX model planes return to service. The Indonesian-based low-cost airline, which earlier said…
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Don’t mention the ‘R’ word – world’s biggest economies at risk of recession
CARTOON: Financial Times Five big economies are at risk of recession – Germany, Italy, Mexico, Brazil and the UK. A recession is usually defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction in an economy. Locally Singapore and Hong Kong are teetering on technical recessions, both vital regional business hubs. The UK economy shrunk in the second quarter, and growth has flat…
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Police seeking arrest warrants for planners of August 2 Bangkok bombs
ORIGINAL PHOTO: Reuters Police now believe that three suspects in the August 2 Bangkok bombings plotted much the attacks in a neighbouring country. Deputy PM Prawit Wongsuwon reported the latest in the investigations to the media today. Gen Prawit reported that the three suspects were actively involved and have fled back to their country. Without mentioning the country (presumably Malaysia), Prawit said…
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Flights departing Hong Kong airport today, mostly on schedule
ORIGNAL PHOTO: Manan Vatsyayana Flights are now departing Hong Kong airport mostly on schedule this morning after two days of pro-democracy protester chaos and a disruptive sit-in that paralysed the movement of passengers and aircraft. Protesters blocked travellers from getting to their flights yesterday afternoon, before battling with riot police outside the terminals. The airport is being cleaned up and graffiti…
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Air Asia celebrates ASEAN Day with a special Airbus A320
AirAsia introduced a ‘Sustainable ASEAN’ colour-scheme on a new Airbus A320 to mark ASEAN Day celebrations last week. Thailand is the Chair for ASEAN, the ten country south east asian trading bloc, for 2019. Alongside the ASEAN Chairmanship logo, the livery features the best of ASEAN tourism icons, helping to advance and support AirAsia’s sustainability partnership with ASEAN nations and…
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Myanmar’s death toll from landslides and floods reaches 59
Vast regions of south and sout-eastern Myanmar are inundated with floodwaters that have already forced more than 80,000 to flee their homes. The death toll from a massive landslide has now hit 59. Rescue and recovery teams have worked right through the weekend, with additional downpours and deep mud hindering progress as the stench of decaying bodies worsened. There are…
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