Cross-border trade misses target, up 6%. Thailand fetched 1.4 trillion baht in 2018 from all crossborder trade, including transit trade, up 6% from the year before, but the figure fell short of the target. The figure fell short of the 1.5-trillion-baht target set by the Commerce Ministry. (Bangkok Post, 26/01/19)
EEC gets 400,000 rai for development. As much as 400,000 rai will be designated for industrial areas within the government’s flagship Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC). (Bangkok Post, 28/01/19)
Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has offered to purchase solar electricity from the public sector of up to 100MW in 2Q19. It has also offered to purchase electricity in next 1-2 months from SPP waste power plants which burn community garbage as fuel. (Thun Hoon, 30/1/19)
Thailand aims to export 9.5mn tons of rice in 2019. Thailand aims to export 9.5mn tons of rice this year, the Thai Rice Exporters Association said on Wednesday, a 14% decline from 2018. (Reuters, 30/01/19)
New business tax regime now in force. A new tax measure for the international business centre (IBC) has now come into force. In 2017, Thailand joined the OECD’s Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project. The BEPS project was designed to revise the international tax rules to align them to developments in the world economy and ensure that profits are taxed where economic activities are carried out and value is created. (The Nation, 31/01/19)
Price tags en route to private hospitals : The Commerce Ministry is set to issue an official announcement requiring private hospitals to show the price tags for medicine, medical supplies and medical service charges so that consumers can be aware of prices before deciding to use services. Bangkok Post <
U.S. Accuses Huawei of Trade-Secret Theft, Defrauding Banks. U.S. prosecutors filed criminal charges against Huawei Technologies Co., China’s largest technology company, alleging it stole trade secrets from an American rival and committed bank fraud by violating sanctions against doing business with Iran. (Bloomberg, 29/01/19)
U.K. Parliament rips up Theresa May’s Brexit Deal. Theresa May promised to go back to Brussels to re-negotiate Brexit after Parliament ripped up the deal she’s spent the past year and a half stitching together. On a rare good night for the U.K. prime minister, she won the backing of members of Parliament for her Plan B — to scrap the most difficult part of the divorce package and re-open talks with the European Union. (Bloomberg, 30/01/19
Fed adopts ‘patient’ rate stance with balance-sheet flexibility. The Federal Reserve signaled it’s done raising interest rates for at least a while and will be flexible in reducing its bond holdings, a sweeping pivot from its bias toward tighter monetary policy just last month. (Bloomberg, 31/01/19)
EU negotiator, Council chief tell May: No renegotiation. The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator told Britain on Wednesday that time was too short to find an alternative to the Irish border arrangement agreed in their divorce deal, as London wants, and that this deal was not open for renegotiation. (Reuters, 30/01/19)
