Dynamic Thailand

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has surveyed 213 Japanese companies in Thailand on their interests in additional investments in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) project. The result showed that 122 companies expressed their interests to further invest in EEC, with the following goals 1) To expand their production base 2) To create new economies 3) To develop new products and 4) To invest in new technologies.

The Miss World Organisation has recently announced that the final round of the 69th Miss World beauty pageant, the highly anticipated final, will be hosted in Thailand for first time in history of Miss World.  The 130 beauties from around the globe are scheduled to arrive in Thailand in November, where the final round is set to be held later in December.

The Bank of Thailand (BOT) will speed up the development of two payment systems it is introducing to boost the confidence of buyers and sellers when making social commerce and e-commerce transactions. The first of the two systems under development is known as Pay Alert and the other will facilitate escrow transactions. Both systems are expected to get off the ground before the end of this year.

The Gem and Jewelry Institute of Thailand (GIT) will be offering gem and jewelry inspection services to interested participants at the 63rd Bangkok Gems and Jewelries Fair, set to be held from 20-24 February 2019, in order to showcase GIT’s world-class gem inspection laboratory. Each inspected piece will also receive a certificate of inspection. Furthermore, GIT will be launching its partnership with the Singaporean digital platform, “Zilingo”, under the initiative to develop Chanthaburi Province into a “City of Gem”.

The Department of International Trade Promotion (DITP) has planned to expand the sales of innovative products created under the Institute of Agricultural Product Innovation (APi) into the Chinese market through e-commerce. Online stores will be created to provide shopping convenience and easy payment via a QR-code system. Shoppers could also shop for products at counters of affiliated shops, where every product from within the network would be linked through an online warehouse, making product distributions faster and more effective.

The Bank of Thailand (BOT) will work with private payment service institutions and the government sector to make online payment systems more secure and affordable as a part of the recently-developed Strategic Plan for Payment System No. 4. Improving online payment systems will satisfy the needs of consumers in the age of electronic and social commerce, as well as benefit SMEs and large businesses. In a larger picture, the move can also lower dependence on cash and checks, which increases Thailand’s economic competitiveness and access to potential customers for Thai businesses.

The Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (DE) has aimed to expand Thailand Post’s services to cover 5,000 villages this year, in order to provide rural areas with better access to post services, while helping to encourage them to join the online market and e-commerce platforms.

The National Bureau of Agricultural Commodity and Food Standards (ACFS) has recently attended “The 2nd Meeting of The Japan-Thailand High–Level Cooperation Dialogue on Agricultural and Food Industries (HLCD).” During the meeting, ACFS has proposed that Japan

On 13 February 2019, a total of 20 couples had participated in the 3rd Annual Traditional Cart Wedding Ceremony in Phetchaburi Province ahead of this year’s Valentine’s celebrations. Cart wedding is an ancient marriage custom of the people in Thambon Na Phan Sam Sub-District in Phetchaburi Province, where the bride and groom are placed on an ox cart and paraded through the village in a grand wedding procession.