News from Thailand – October 3, 2012

More than two weeks after she had a filling material injected into her buttocks and fell into a coma, a 33-year-old woman died.

Her body was taken to Chulalongkorn Hospital for an autopsy. Whether the bungler who gave the shot will be charged with murder depends on the results of the autopsy.

– The Koh Phangngan police have arrested a man from Myanmar, who is suspected of assaulting an Israeli tourist after the full moon party on the island. The suspect confessed. The Israeli is out on Monday Thailand left after being treated for her injuries in hospital.

– The water outflow from the reservoirs Pasak Jolasid, Bhumibol and Sirikit will be increased to prepare for the stir from Friday to Monday, caused by tropical storm Gaemi. It is currently located 750 kilometers east of Danang (Vietnam) and rages with wind speeds of 65 kilometers per hour.

The Northeast, East and Central Plains will be affected by the storm. Heavy rains are expected in Bangkok and Pathum Thani province, north of the capital. Heavy rainfall in the Central Plains raises the water level in the Pasak Jolasid Reservoir, which was already 79 percent full on Monday. The Bhumibol Reservoir is at 60 percent and Sirikit at 67 percent.

In Bangkok there is a chance that the neighborhoods along the Khlong Thawi Watthana in the west will be flooded. To improve water drainage to the east of the capital, the weir in the Khlong Saen Saep-Min Buri at the Pracha Ruamchai intersection will be opened a little further. In the district of Min Buri, 13 neighborhoods, which lie outside the flood walls of the city, may be flooded. The Royal Irrigation Department is preparing 665 water pumps.

– Farmers have expressed their massive support for the mortgage system for rice yesterday. In Bangkok, some XNUMX farmers demonstrated at the National Institute of Development Administration (Nida)

Nida has asked the Constitutional Court to rule on the system. According to the petitioners, it is against the constitution, because Article 48 prohibits the government from competing with private companies. The government does this by buying rice from farmers at prices 40 percent above market prices.

Protest leader Khwanchai Mahachuenjai says the system frees farmers from huge debts and improves their lives. The farmers will continue to demonstrate as long as Nida does not withdraw its petition to the Court.

In Suphan Buri (5.000 farmers) and Chiang Mai (200 farmers) farmers also demonstrated for the system used by the Yingluck government. And red shirts demonstrated in front of the Government House in Bangkok. They later joined the Nida protesters.

At Government House another group of farmers demonstrated against the low price of eggs.

Senator Paibul Nittawan made a completely different sound yesterday. He believes that the mortgage system should only apply to small farmers. Large landowners and businessmen engaged in rice trading should receive an amount equal to the market price. Paibul points out that large landowners are taking back the land they have leased to farmers, pocketing the large sums paid by the government. Those farmers are then allowed to work on the land as contract laborers.

– About 500 members of the Thai Network of People Living with HIV/Aids demonstrated yesterday at the Ministry of Commerce against the free trade agreement (FTA) that Thailand will conclude with the EU. According to the network, patients will find it more difficult to obtain certain medicines.

At the request of the network, the Trade Negotiations Department will compare the text with the FTAs ​​concluded with Singapore and Vietnam. The network suspects that Thailand will be bound by stricter rules.

– The Urak Lawoi sea gypsies have started a civil suit against the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation. They are seeking 4,37 million baht in damages for loss of income and damage after 2010 of them were arrested in December 17 on charges of illegal fishing. The Public Prosecution Service withdrew that accusation at the end of last year.

– Unemployment fell by 0,1 percentage point to 0,6 percent in August. At the end of August, 224.000 Thais were unemployed, 46.000 fewer on an annual basis. The number of registered employees is 39,54 million, of which 16,46 million in the agricultural sector and 23,08 million in other sectors.

– Prime Minister Yingluck does not want to chair a committee that deals with the problem of landless farmers and people who are victims of government projects. The People's Movement for a Just Society, which started a sit-in demonstration outside Government House on Monday with about a thousand people, had demanded this. The protesters left yesterday, after Yingluck's deputy secretary-general promised to hold talks with the group.

-Free transport on 73 bus lines in Bangkok and 163 train services (in third class) will remain possible until the end of January.

Economic news

– Not 405 billion baht for two harvests, but 240 billion baht as a budget for the first rice harvest, the Ministry of Commerce asks the cabinet. Whether farmers can also offer their second harvest for the mortgage system is not yet known.

The 240 billion is pre-financed by the Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC), which has to borrow the money for this on the money market. As in the previous season, farmers will receive 15.000 baht for a ton of white rice and 20.000 baht for a ton of Hom Mali, more than 40 percent above current market prices.

The new permanent secretary of the Commerce Department echoes what her predecessor said: the mortgage system is not unconstitutional, as critics claim. It helps to increase farmers' income. The ministry is determined to maintain the system despite the high cost and risk of violating WTO rules.

An investigation by the ministry showed that 140 billion baht went directly to farmers in the past season and some 57 to 60 billion indirectly to those who benefited from the sale of the rice at relatively high prices. Another study found that 15 million farmers want to maintain the system for at least 2 years so they can pay off their debts. [15 million farmers: have they all been questioned?]

– The labor shortage will increase over the next 10 years, predicts the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB). Foreign workers will increasingly return to their home country, where the economy is growing and the indigenous population is ageing.

Over the next 10 years, Thailand will need 46,52 million workers, 5,36 million of whom will come from Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and elsewhere. But economic development in those countries, fueled by foreign investment, and higher wages tempt guest workers to turn their backs on Thailand.

The NESDB advises the government to increase productivity, encourage small businesses to relocate abroad, and work more closely with neighboring countries in joint economic development.

Srawooth Paitoonpong, a researcher at the Thailand Development Research Institute, thinks that the labor shortage will not be too bad because neighboring countries still have to develop a decent infrastructure. He acknowledges that the automotive and electronics industries are already experiencing labor shortages, but if Thailand improves training and management, a serious shortage is unlikely.

Thailand has 39,01 million workers and 1,38 million registered foreign workers, but probably more than 3 million.

– The Norwegian company Aibel AS, which has an assembly yard in Rayong and Laem Chabang, will bid for the construction of an oil platform of 10.000 tons for the also Norwegian Stateoil AS. Aibel's main competitors Samsung, Daewoo and Hyundai from South Korea are also trying to win the contract.

Aibel has the advantage that labor costs are lower here and there are sufficient skilled workers. In Norway, production costs are eight times higher than in Thailand. The company expects demand for oil rigs to remain strong for the next eight years.

Yesterday, Aibel put the finishing touches to a 6.000-tonne oil platform for Stateoil. It will be sailed to Norway in 35 days where it will be placed in the North Sea.

www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post