News from Thailand – February 7, 2013

It starts to look like an exciting detective: the investigation into the (never finished) construction of 396 police stations and 163 police service flats. Main protagonists: An influential politician in Chiang Mai, a star witness, former Prime Minister Abhisit and former Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban, with the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) as the 'detective'.

The construction was awarded in 2011 to PCC Development and Construction Co, a company which the DSI suspects is owned by that 'influential politician', but which is not registered as a shareholder. However, PCC did not carry out the work, but outsourced it to at least ten subcontractors, which was contrary to the bidding conditions. Those subcontractors never received a penny, although PCC did collect two installments of 877 million baht and 600 million baht.

Suthep comes into play because he intervened in the tender procedure. He changed the Terms of Reference so that the work was not tendered per region, but for the entire country at once. There are also question marks about the price for which PCC acquired the work. At the time, some competitors complained to Abhisit about the tender procedure, but Abhisit ignored their complaints.

The DSI will hear three police officers next week. Number 1 says he was already retired when the project was approved; number 2 says he was not then chief of the national police and number 3 makes no comment. Suthep and Abhisit are also summoned by the DSI to make a statement. [Inset photo: DSI head Tarit Pengdith.]

– The police raided the infamous Tao Pun casino in Bang Sue (Bangkok) yesterday. She arrested 2006 gamblers and seized millions of baht in cash. The casino, which received three police visits in XNUMX, is formally registered to a food vendor, presumably a cat catcher for someone else.

The Anti-Money Laundering Office (Amlo) has seized the land on which the casino stands worth 90 million baht for 10,8 days. Amlo is also in the process of seizing a number of other casinos in Bangkok and some provinces, which would have a turnover of 10 million baht and serve more than XNUMX gamblers.

Amlo also seized 14 rai owned by the Yihad Witthaya school in Ban Tha Dan (Pattani). It appears that the school was used by insurgents for weapons training.

– Norkhun Sitthipong, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Energy, has abruptly resigned from his position as chairman of the board of energy giant PTT Plc. He is presumably succeeded by Vichet Kasemthongsri, who – note! – Minister of Transport was in the cabinet Thaksin and was appointed 'independent' director of PTT last month.

Statement according to an insider? The Ministry of Energy was formed in 2002 under the Thaksin cabinet, allowing key party figures to control the energy sector, worth trillions of baht. But that came to an end in 2006 with the military coup. With this move , ruling party Pheu Thai regains control .

At the end of last year, Pongsak Raktapongpaisarn took over the Ministry of Energy and that man is 'close' with Thaksin. He has already announced that the business operations of the companies that fall under the ministry must be reviewed. This applies, for example, to the national electricity company Egat. The chairman of the board retired last year. Pongsak believes that Egat should generate more revenue for the government.

– Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung and the police are pondering the imposition of a limited curfew in the South. They are responding to the assassinations of farmers in Yaring (Pattani) and four fruit traders in Krong Pinang (Yala). But the idea has already been brushed aside by Minister Sukumpol Suwanatat (Defense), who does not think it is necessary. Nevertheless, the idea will be discussed at a meeting of security services on February 15.

In Yaring on February 1, two farmers from Sing Buri were shot dead and ten others wounded. They trained local farmers to use their rice fields again. On Tuesday night in Krong Pinang, four fruit traders were murdered in cold blood in the shack where they spent the night. The army says the insurgents are now targeting soft targets.

– During a raid on a roti shop in Sungai Kolok (Narathiwat), police and soldiers arrested a Rohingya and six of its workers, Rohingya and people from Myanmar. They are suspected of smuggling Rohingya from Myanmar. Several compartments were found in the store, but no one was staying there.

Since the beginning of last month, some 1.700 illegal Rohingya have been arrested, 270 of them in the northeastern provinces of Ubon Ratchatani, Mukdahan and Nong Khai and the rest in the South.

– Thailand's finances are healthy enough to borrow 2,2 trillion baht, say top finance ministry officials. Yesterday, a parliamentary committee considered the government's intention to borrow that amount for major infrastructural works.

According to Suwit Rojanavanich, deputy director general of the Public Debt Management Office, the national debt now stands at 4 trillion baht, or 40 percent of gross domestic product. The Bank of Thailand holds more than 5 trillion baht in foreign currency. In short: Thailand's wealth is worth more than its debts. "The country is rich and can afford to pay back its debts."

– A tanker with 30.000 liters of fuel oil overturned on Phahon Yothin Road (Bangkok) yesterday, paralyzing traffic for hours. According to the driver, he was cut by a pickup truck, causing him to lose control. The tanker turned upside down and oil spilled onto the road surface.

– Thai women have been warned by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee not to accept offers of work in Switzerland, because that work amounts to prostitution. In 2011, 193 women became victims of this, according to research by Thai and Swiss authorities and NGOs.

According to a report by the Zurich Advocacy and Support for Migrant Women and Victims of Trafficking (FIZ) (FIZ), the women are forced to work seven days a week, they are not allowed to refuse clients, the clients often do not use condoms and they have to pay between 980.000 and 1,96 million baht to pay off their debt to the gang that smuggled them into the country.

The women often enter on a Schengen visa issued by non-Swiss embassies. They don't dare to open their mouths for fear that their work will become known to the authorities and the people of their village.

– A 40-year-old taxi driver in Samut Prakan has been arrested on suspicion of assault or rape of two toddlers. He was able to do that because his wife had opened a daycare center in their home. The mothers of the two toddlers sought help from the Pavena Foundation for Women and Children, who accompanied them to the police to report the incident. According to reports, the man also abused other children, but the parents of those children were bought off with 6.000 baht.

– Thailand must open up about its role after the attack on the Twin Towers in New York when the CIA housed suspected terrorists in other countries. On Tuesday, the Open Society Justice Initiative published a report naming Thailand as one of XNUMX countries in Asia that held prisoners for the CIA.

According to the Cross Cultural Foundation, there are indications that torture has also taken place in Thailand. The suspects are said to have been detained in two places in Thailand. They were closed in 2003 and 2004. National Security Council Secretary General Pardorn Pattanatabutr calls the report "groundless." "The CIA is quite capable of conducting its own operations without asking for Thailand's help."

– Five passengers were killed and 38 injured in an accident involving a bus en route from Bangkok to Chumphon on Tuesday night. The fatalities had been flung from the bus; one of them is a foreign woman. The bus veered off the road, hit a tree and overturned.

Political news

– The mudslinging during the election campaign in Bangkok, which I described yesterday, continues in full force. Now ruling party Pheu Thai is threatening to go to the Electoral Council with a request to have Democrat Watchara Phetthong prosecuted. Watchara has asked for an investigation into a contract signed by the Pheu Thai candidate for the governor's post when he was deputy chief of police. According to Pheu Thai spokesman Pompong Nopparit, Watchara is getting old cows out of the ditch.

Pheu Thai MP Weng Tojirakarn has targeted a Democratic MP and the party spokesperson. He goes to the local Electoral Council and asks for an investigation into the photos that both gentlemen have posted on their Facebook page. They would be manipulated and harmful to Pheu Thai. The photos show Yingluck, the Pheu Thai candidate and a red shirt leader with burning buildings in the background. [A reference to the May 2010 arson attack by red shirts.] But the Democrat says the photos are "an art form."

Economic news

– After private business had called on the Bank of Thailand to lower interest rates (see Wednesday's Economic News), Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong (Finance) is now making the same call. When interest rates fall, the pressure from foreign capital inflows decreases, as does the pressure on the baht, he believes.

In a letter to the bank's board, the minister points to an additional advantage for the bank: the bank's interest burden on bonds, which are issued to eliminate excess liquidity, decreases, which reduces the bank's operating costs. According to the minister, this is not unimportant because the bank is only allowed to invest in liquid assets with a low risk, such as government bonds or US Treasury bills that yield almost nothing. The bank has no other ways to generate more income.

On February 20, the central bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will meet to discuss overnight interest rates for bank deposits. It currently stands at 2,75 percent. Economists differ on whether interest rate cuts will lead to the desired result. According to an economist from the BoT, a reduction will not help. The MPC consists of three employees of the bank and four external experts chaired by the governor of the bank.

Benjarong Suwankiri, an economist at TMB Bank (Thai Military Bank), thinks a rate cut will have only a minor effect on foreign capital inflows as investors look to other interest-bearing assets in the domestic market, such as equities and real estate.

MPC chairman Ampon Kittiampon said the minister's letter is considered an "academic point of view" and the MPC will base its decision on the stability of the economy. [Earlier in the message it says that the governor is chairman; now suddenly it's someone else.] 'The MPC members vote independently and transparently. After nine years as chairman, I can say that the letter has no influence on our decision here. We regard it as an opinion of the minister, based on his experience.'

– Young entrepreneurs who hope to make high profit margins start companies that focus on a niche market. Edible products are the most popular, followed by beauty items and clothing. The food sector generates the highest profits with margins of 40 to 50 percent: Western restaurants, bakeries, non-alcoholic beverages, health foods and processed fruits and vegetables.

According to Bunchua Wonggasem, director of the Bureau of Entrepreneurship Development, small food companies have an average monthly turnover of 100.000 baht. “They can make a profit of 50.000 baht a month, much more than the minimum wage of 15.000 baht. Plus, they have a lot more free time to spend with their families,” she says.

But she does raise a warning: setting up a business involves marketing and sales channel risks. “Most of them have good products, but they don't know how to distribute them. They don't know how many sales channels they can open and how they can expand.'

Starters can participate in the New Entrepreneur Creation program. They receive advice on business management, finance and planning; they go on field trips and learn how to penetrate into other areas. Last year, 3.500 starters took part, 1.160 of whom set up a company. Most starters are between 20 and 30 years old. Parents with children usually refrain from it because of the risks.

www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post