News from Thailand – September 27, 2012

Bring on the passengers, we are ready, say King Power and The Mall Group, which operate the duty-free shops and restaurants on Don Mueang.

On Monday, Bangkok's old airport will start a new life with the arrival of AirAsia, which will move from Suvarnabhumi with 3 airlines.

Five low-cost airlines will then have Don Mueang as their home base: AirAsia (including Thai AirAsia), Nok Air and Thai Orient Airlines, which moved earlier. On Friday, Don Mueang held with Airports staff of Thailand and civil servants a dress rehearsal. According to AoT president Anirut Thanomkulbutra, it has been successful.

King Power has seven duty-free shops with a total retail floor space of 1.112 square meters, The Mall Group 2.700 square meters with catering.

2200 taxis have registered to pick up passengers on Don Mueang. Unregistered taxis are banned by Airports of Thailand, the airport manager. The owners are reported and that also applies to illegal tour guides. Passengers using the airport taxi service will pay an additional 50 baht. A shuttle bus runs between Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang between 5:22 and XNUMX:XNUMX.

Flood news

• Police are on standby to provide assistance as Bangkok floods in 21 places in the coming days. Heavy rain showers are expected through the end of the weekend. Residents in the lower-lying neighborhoods in particular can expect wet feet.
• Motorists have been advised to avoid Pracha Rat Bamphen Road and part of Ratchadaphisek Road in Huai Khwang due to inadequate sewerage. Police in Huai Khwang have been ordered to unclog clogged drains and prepare pumps. At 14 p.m. on Tuesday, thirty roads in Bangkok were flooded as a result of the heavy stir. By 17.30:138 p.m., work crews had managed to make the roads passable again. 60 mm of water fell in one hour that afternoon, considerably more than the 17 mm that most sewers can handle. On top of that, the high tide came in at XNUMX p.m., delaying the runoff through the Chao Praya.
• Heavy rains caused flooding on the tourist island of Phuket on Tuesday night. On some roads in the city of Patong, the water reached a height of 50 cm to 1 meter. In the city of Nakhon Phuket, the water level in the Bang Yai channel rose. Residents and shopkeepers on Thaland Road dragged sandbags for fear that the canal would flood at high tide.
• In Chiang Mai, a bridge in Ban Pian Kong was destroyed by a flood of water from Doi Fa Phahom Pok National Park on Tuesday night. The residents hurriedly sought a safe haven. They returned yesterday.
• In Phitsanulok, a landslide blocked part of the Nakhon Thai-Dan Sai Road. It took two hours to make the road passable again. Because this happens regularly on this road, the authorities have asked the government for measures. The road leads to Phu Rua National Park in Loei province, which is a major tourist attraction.

Other news

Volkskrant correspondent Michel Maas says he did not see any 'men in black' during the skirmishes between security forces and red shirts on 19 May 2010 on Ratchadamri Road. He stated this yesterday at the Department of Special Investigation. The so-called men in black, who were heavily armed, operated from the red shirt camp. They would be responsible for the deaths of nine soldiers.

Maas was hit in the shoulder by army fire on 19 May. The DSI wants to examine the bullet, which the doctors removed from his shoulder. Maas promised to hand over the bullet, which he keeps in his house in Djakarta.

– The fire on August 17 in the Tiger Disco in Phuket was caused by a short circuit in the ceiling. As a result, foam and other combustible materials catch fire. The fire then spread rapidly through the room. The fire claimed two lives and two others were seriously injured.

– From his own party, the pressure on Yongyuth Wichaidit, Minister of the Interior and party leader of ruling party Pheu Thai, is increasing to resign. Both Pheu Thai and red shirts in Surin have asked the Electoral Council to make a statement about his status. Opposition party Democrats wants to take the case to the Constitutional Court.

Yongyuth is dangling because of a ruling by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) that he was guilty of a misdemeanor in 2002. As deputy secretary of the Ministry of the Interior, he authorized the sale of temple land to Alpine Real Estate and Alpine Golf and Sports Club despite a ruling by the State Council that temple land could not be sold. The land later came into the hands of former Prime Minister Thaksin. The Civil Service Committee decided to retroactively fire Yongyuth this month.

There is a difference of opinion between the NACC and the Council of State on whether Yongyuth is eligible for the Exoneration Act of 2007. He is said to have the support of Prime Minister Yingluck. Party members, however, put pressure on him to keep the honor to himself, because he could drag the party down in a procedure before the Constitutional Court.

Significant was Yongyuth's absence from Tuesday's weekly cabinet meeting. He should have chaired it because Yingluck is in New York for a UN General Assembly. However, Yongyuth visited Prachin Buri that day to survey the floods.

– The military is going to make another attempt to get the controversial airship Aeros 40D Sky Dragon, which was bought two years ago, into the air. Aria International Inc makes the zeppelin ready to fly for 50 million baht. The manufacturer thinks that the Aeros can take to the air in November.

Since the purchase for an amount of 350 million baht, there have been problems with the airship. First it leaked and after repair it crashed last August.

Monthly it must be filled with helium to maintain its shape and prevent leaks. That costs 200.000 to 300.000 baht each time. The airship was purchased to be used in the South, but it is hardly usable because of the eight-month rainy season.

– Vipas Srithong won the SEA Write Award 2012 with her novel Kon Krae (The Dwarf). The jury praised the book for 'raising the problem of human relations and revealing the desolation of a group of people who represent modern society'.

Vipas previously published a collection of short stories and a collection of poems in English. Four years ago, literary critics noticed a striking resemblance between one of her short stories and the short story Peeling by Booker Prize winner Peter Carey. Seven writers were nominated for the award.

– For 21 years, Thailand has been talking to Saudi Arabia again. Yesterday, Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul (Foreign Affairs) met the Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister in New York. Surapong and Prime Minister Yingluck are in New York for the UN General Assembly.

Relations between the two countries soured after the theft of jewelery from the royal family by a Thai employee in 1989, the murder in 1989 and 1990 of four Saudi diplomats in Bangkok and the disappearance in 1990 of a Saudi businessman.

Saudi Arabia accuses Thailand of letting things run their course. Surapong was recently appointed chairman of a committee to investigate them. The jewelry theft is already statute-barred, unless Saudi Arabia has new ones information can cough up.

– They are clever, the operators of energy companies, who use biomass to generate electricity. They are reducing their maximum capacity to 9,9 MW, so that they do not have to carry out an environmental impact assessment, which is only mandatory from 10 MW.

The Northeastern Thailand Development Foundation has alerted the government and is asking for stricter controls. According to the foundation, residents living near the power stations suffer from breathing difficulties. The companies use wood chips, sugar cane, rice husks, agricultural waste and even pig excrement as fuel. There are a total of 84 of these types of companies with a combined capacity of 1.397 MW.

– From December 5, the overground metro to the two new stations Pho Nimit and Talat Phlu on the Silom line will be free. But because only one of the two tracks is ready, passengers will have to transfer. The other job will also be ready in May and then payment must be made. At the end of 2013, two more stations will be added: Wutthakat and Bang Wa.

– For the third month in a row, export volume has decreased due to lower demand from Europe, the US and Japan, and even the other Asean countries and China, which are high-potential markets. In August, exports fell by 6,95 percent on an annual basis, in July by 4,46 percent and in June by 2,31 percent.

That was the bad news, but there were also bright spots as the industrial sector posted a modest gain of 1,1 percent last month, mainly due to the export of cars, car parts, construction materials, precious stones and jewelry.

In the first 8 months of this year, exports amounted to $152 billion (down 1,31 pc on an annual basis) and imports amounted to $165 billion (plus 7,6 pc on an annual basis), resulting in a trade deficit of $13 billion.

www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post