Thai Industry News

Nissan has marked Thailand and Indonesia as its strategic growth drivers in Asean under its six-year business plan announced yesterday.

Charoen Pokphand Group, the country's largest agro-business conglomerate, said yesterday that it stood ready to increase minimum wages to Bt300 and new graduates' salaries to Bt15,000 in line with the incoming government's policy pledges, in order to drive the country's growth and domestic consumption.

The real estate market in Thailand is looking up, with markets in Bangkok and resort areas expected to see the biggest boom, according to recent research from real estate developer Knight Frank.

The new 3G service provider, Real Move, has targeted about 1 million subscribers this year, said Supachai Chearavanont, chief executive officer of parent company True Corp.

Two food chains under Minor Food Group _ Dairy Queen and Burger King _ aim to expand their businesses faster in the second half of this year to respond to the public's greater spending power.

The Revenue Department is ready to cut the corporate income tax rate, though it is also proposing a rise in the value-added tax (VAT) rate, says Satit Rungkasiri, director-general of the department.

Thai Union Frozen Products Public Company Limited ("TUF"), Thailand's leading processor and exporter of canned and frozen seafood products, successfully placed a series of bonds to a group of institutional and high net worth investors.

The governor of the Bank of Thailand has expressed confidence that there were no signs of bubbles in the banking sector, which witnessed average loan growth of more than 10 per cent in the first half of this year.

The Thai automotive industry is likely to miss its export target of 1 million units this year because of a shortage of car parts over the past two months resulting from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the Automotive Industry Club under the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) says.

Central Food Retail Co (CFR), the operator of the Tops supermarket chain, will speed up expansion of Tops Daily stores and renovate its Tops Supermarket outlets.