A total of a million people have registered to join the government’s Chim-Shop-Chai (Taste-Shop-Spend) program, under which each of them will receive a 1,000 baht giveaway to be spent between September 27^th and November 30^th, on the first day.

The Chim-Shop-Chai program is aimed at promoting domestic tourism.

The third day of registration for allowances in the Chim Shop Chai campaign today, began at midnight on www.ชิมช้อปใช้.com, after which all 1 million of the daily quota were taken by 6:18 this morning.

10 million persons will be able to register themselves to receive a 1,000 baht allowance each in the government’s electronic money mobile application. The allowance can be used for eligible purchases from 26th September following an application update.

The registration quota is limited to a million persons daily. Once registered, an SMS is sent to applicants who are required to confirm their identity within three days.

An eligible person in this campaign must be a Thai citizen holding a valid ID card, be 18 years old or more, and have an eligible smartphone able to install the app. The registration period will end on 15th November 2019, or when the 10 million total quota is reached.

The registration yesterday, which was the second day of the registration period, had its 1 million persons daily quota reached at 8:11 a.m.

The government has set a target of ten million registered people as part of the economic stimulus package expected to drive the economic growth rate to 3.6% this year.

Once a person has registered via the website of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, he or she will get a text message within three days. The 1,000 baht handout will be wired into their bank accounts one hour after they spend at shops registered to join the program via the “Pao Tung” application.

The 1,000 baht must be spent within two weeks of registration confirmation by SMS text message.

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Source link : One million people register on first day of Chim-Shop-Chai program by Headline Editor

Decades of astonishing economic growth have given China new tools for extending its influence abroad and achieving its political goals. Some of these tools are inducements, including Belt and Road Initiative projects and new development financial institutions.

But China has demonstrated that it will use its new economic leverage in pursuit of political goals unrelated to economic exchange, swiftly shifting inducements to punishments. One example lies in the field of tourism.

Two factors make regulating tourist flows tempting for Chinese policymakers: the size of its international tourism industry and the control China can still exercise over outward tourism. But whether tourism has been an effective political tool is debated.

The largest international tourist sender in the world

China has quickly become the largest international tourist sender country in the world. Over the last two decades, the number of Chinese overseas travellers rose by over 25 times from 5.3 million in 1997 to 130 million in 2017. In the latter year, Chinese tourists contributed an estimated US$250 billion to overseas economies, double the figure for US tourists and triple that of Germany.

The Chinese government has a degree of leverage over its tourists that other governments do not enjoy. Many Chinese tourists are new to international tourism and have limited international language abilities. There is still a strong desire for comfort-zone or group tourism — approximately 38 per cent of outbound Chinese tourists are on group tours. China also has licensing and other forms of formal and informal leverage over tour group operators.

The most rudimentary Chinese lever for rewarding other governments with increased Chinese tourist numbers is to grant countries ‘Approved Destination Status’. This allows group tourism to that country and can increase the number of Chinese tourists by an average of 50 per cent.

Since the Chinese government has stronger regulatory power over tour agencies than most governments, it can also seek to influence foreign behaviour by curtailing such tours.

China’s three largest licensed tourist agencies by revenue are all state-owned and only 8 per cent of its 25,000 licensed travel agencies are authorised to offer international travel. Foreign agencies are not permitted to provide outward bound travel services for Chinese nationals.

Foreign countries struggle to retaliate

There are often far more Chinese tourists going to their country than the other way around, a significant change in recent years. Many of the countries that China has used…

Source link : How China is using tourists to realise its geopolitical goals by East Asia Forum

The sales rate for new condos launched in Bangkok in the second quarter fell to 15.7 %, an all-time low, beating the lowest previous quarter (35%) in 2010 when the “red shirt” political crisis brought Bangkok to a standstill.

Risinee Sarikaputra, director of research, said to the Bangkok Post that “The normal quarterly sales rate for new condo launches is around 40-50%,” 

According to Knight Frank’s market research, Bangkok hit a decade-long record for new condos entering the market, with 65,000 new units launched throughout 2018, up 11% from 2017, the highest since 2009.

In the first and second quarter this year, new condo supply launched in Bangkok totalled 12,882 units and 14,988 units, respectively.

Knight Frank reported Bangkok had cumulative condo supply from 2010 to the first half of 2019 of 594,453 units with a sales rate of 84%, unchanged from 2017.

525,889 Empty homes in Bangkok

But according Dr.Sopon Pornchokchai, President of research and property valuation center in Thailand, Agency for Real Estate Affairs , there are 525,889 empty homes in Bangkok Metropolitan Region (BMR) which are mostly sold but does not have any residents.

Empty homes (Every type of residential units) are residential units which use less electricity than 15 units per month which indicates that there is almost no use.

These 525,889 empty houses make 10.3% of the 5,097,815 total housing units in BMR, which means that there is 1 empty house in every 10 houses. This ratio was lower than the situation during the Tom Yam Goong crisis, 20 years ago.

In 1995, Dr.Sopon Pornchochai founded 14.5% of empty houses from the total residential units in the market. Then in 1998, the ratio of empty houses reduced to 12.0% of the total residential units in the market.

9.2% of the total low-rise residential units are empty (there is 1 empty unit in every 11 low-rise residential units). While 13.9% of the total condominiums are empty (there is 1 empty unit in every 7 condominium units).

As condominiums are mostly used for an investment purpose while low-rise residential units are mostly used for residential purpose. Investors should invest in condominium carefully during this situation.
 

The post Record low sales rate hits Bangkok condo market appeared first on Thailand Business News.

Source link : Record low sales rate hits Bangkok condo market by Olivier Languepin

The Global Destination Cities Index—which ranks 200 cities based on proprietary analysis of publicly available visitor volume and spend data—reveals that Bangkok remains the No. 1 destination, with more than 22 million international overnight visitors.

Paris and London, in flipped positions this year, hold the No. 2 and 3 spots, respectively both hovering over 19 million. All top ten cities saw more international overnight visitors in 2018 than the prior year, with the exception of London, which decreased nearly 4 percent.

The forecast for 2019 indicates across-the-board growth, with Tokyo expecting the largest uptick in visitors.

Big spenders prefer Dubai

When looking at the cities by dollar spent, Dubai tops the list with travelers spending USD $553 on average a day.

Makkah, new to the top 10 last year, remains at No. 2 for the second consecutive year, with Bangkok rounding out the top three.

Notably this year, the Global Destination Cities Index offers a decade of insights to consider, with three key trends standing out.

• Consistent & Steady Growth: Over the past decade, the one constant has been continual change. Each year, more people are traveling internationally and spending more in the cities. Between all of the destinations within the Index, arrivals have grown on average 6.5 percent year-over-year since 2009, with expenditure growing on average 7.4 percent.

• The Sustained Dominance of Major Cities: While there has been significant movement in visitors to smaller cities, the top 10 has remained largely consistent. London, Paris and Bangkok have been the top 3 since 2010, with Bangkok as No. 1 six of the past seven years. New York is another top 10 stalwart, with 13.6 million overnight visitors this year.

• The Rise of Asia-Pacific International Travelers: Cities in the Asia-Pacific region have seen the largest increase in international travelers since 2009, growing 9.4 percent. In comparison, Europe, which saw the second highest growth, was up 5.5 percent. This is spurred on by the growth in mainland Chinese travelers. Since 2009, mainland China has jumped up six places to be the No. 2 origin country for travelers to the 200 included destinations—behind only the U.S.

The Global Top 10 Destination Cities in 2018

Source link : Bangkok Tops Mastercard’s Cities Index For The Fourth Consecutive Year by Boris Sullivan

The Thai baht has been the best performing currency in emerging Asia since 2018. On a year-on-year basis, it has roared more than 8 per cent against the US dollar and this year reached a six-year high.

But according to news headlines and commentary, the strong currency has lowered the country’s competitiveness and worsened both goods exports and tourism, two major drivers of Thailand’s economy.

Currency appreciation is not unique to Thailand

Bank of Thailand (BOT) officials and currency analysts explain the strength of the baht by domestic factors. Thailand’s solid economic fundamentals — a current account surplus and substantial foreign reserves together with a hawkish central bank — lure capital inflows.

Many consider the baht a safe haven currency among other emerging market currencies due to its stability.

As a result, the baht is likely to retain or increase in value, attracting speculative capital inflows and placing upward pressure on the currency.

In early 2019, the BOT did not seem concerned about the Thai baht’s appreciation, as a strong currency can actually benefit Thai importers and those who have foreign currency debts. It can also help improve the country’s terms of trade.

But the baht’s persistent strength and its potential negative impacts on the export-driven Thai economy have since prompted concern.

Exports contracted for a fourth straight month in June and the BOT revised its GDP growth forecast for 2019 downward, from 3.8 per cent to 3.3 per cent.

Measures have been taken to reduce baht appreciation

In July 2019, the BOT lowered the cap on the outstanding balance of non-resident accounts by a third and cut its supply of three- and six-month bonds at auctions in July and August. In addition, the BOT has signaled plans to further relax restrictions on outward portfolio investment by Thai investors, which can also help stem currency appreciation.

In August 2019, the BOT cut the policy rate by 25 basis points from 1.75 per cent to 1.5, a shift in the BOT policy stance since a raise by 25 basis points in December 2018. Still, many believe that these measures are inadequate.

There are three main further measures being discussed: foreign exchange intervention aimed directly at the baht’s value, a policy rate cut and imposing capital controls to curb speculative inflows. The BOT regularly intervenes in the foreign exchange market, but with strong market expectations this can be costly and counter-effective.

By purchasing foreign reserves in exchange for Thai baht, the central bank in practice helps keep the baht cheap and less volatile. Increasing foreign reserves and the stability of the baht could further…

Source link : Thailand’s soaring baht reaches six-year high by East Asia Forum

You only have to look at the highly politicized troubles around the introduction of the act known as Obamacare in the US to see how fraught overhauling a healthcare system can be.

The country’s Affordable Care Act looks to tackle the issue of high insurance premiums, which have left many Americans at risk of having no coverage should they get sick. But it has split America along political lines.

As a basic premise, the desire to ensure illness and injury do not drive people further into poverty might seem straightforward. But balancing that against the costs of providing a universal healthcare system giving cradle-to-grave care can become complex.

This problem is even more acute in developing countries, where the financial burden of universal healthcare systems alone can be an insurmountable hurdle.

Although it is not among the world’s richest economies, Thailand succeeded in introducing an affordable system that has had a dramatic impact on the health of its people.

Sweeping reforms in which healthcare is funded through taxation have turned the country into a poster child for universal healthcare systems in emerging markets.

Child mortality rates have been cut, while treatments such as antiretroviral therapies and renal replacement therapy have saved adult lives. Meanwhile, there has been a significant drop in “catastrophic health spending”, out-of-pocket payments (payments to healthcare providers at the time of use), and medical impoverishment.

Image: Statista

Caring for a nation

Before the introduction of Thailand’s Universal Coverage Scheme in 2001, the insurance programmes in place had provided patchy and often unaffordable coverage. As a result, around a quarter of people in the country were uninsured.

The UCS provides coverage to three quarters of the population (approximately 47 million people) and accounts for 17% of the country’s healthcare expenditure. Funded through taxes, it places the biggest cost burden on those that are most able to afford it. Consequently, the biggest beneficiaries of the scheme have been those with the lowest income, in particular women of child-bearing age.

In the decade since the UCS was introduced, the correlation between poverty and infant mortality disappeared. Alongside this, there was a more or less immediate improvement in the number of people that were prevented from going to work through illness, particularly at the older end of the workforce. By 2011, 98% of the population had access to healthcare.

The Thai government has learned from other health systems internationally, and is able to use the sheer scale of the UCS as leverage to gain purchasing power and secure medicines at lower cost. And, of…

Source link : How Thailand gave healthcare to its entire population by The World Economic Forum

As the intensifying US-China trade war plunges the world into an economic slowdown, Thailand urgently needs to review trade policies to save its export-dependent economy.

One thing is clear: Trade conflicts between the world’s two biggest economies will drag on for a long time.

The result is an economic slowdown across the globe and severe impacts on supply chains. The sooner we act to minimise the fallout and seek new trade opportunities, the better.

Since our economy is heavily dependent on China, we will inevitably be affected by the slowdown.

But there are a number of things we can and must do to lessen the impacts of this protracted trade war.

These include the need to reduce economic risks from our current over-dependence on China’s economy while also expanding trade in Asean, which is now Thailand’s biggest export market. Thailand must also expand access to other markets through active trade negotiations.

At the same time, it must help the private sector prepare for change. Additionally, the country must ensure fair distribution of costs and benefits of trade by addressing legitimate public concerns that include the rising costs of healthcare and farming.

UNDERSTANDING TRADE WARS

The US-China trade war is only the tip of the iceberg of larger structural conflicts in world politics. That’s why the tensions will not end soon. One year after the tit-for-tat trade battle began, US exports to China have declined by 38% while China’s exports have fallen by 13% in the face of higher US tariffs. Both economies are suffering from the trade war.

So are the countries and businesses which operate in their supply chains.This kind of rivalry is nothing new. Conflicts have occurred throughout history, whenever a hegemonic power is challenged by a rising rival. This is sometimes referred to as the Thucydides Trap, after the ancient Greek conflict between Sparta and upstart Athens.

Over the past five centuries, such geopolitical rivalries have produced 12 wars, including two world wars, according to Graham Allison of Harvard University. Now, the world is reeling with anxiety over how the latest political and ideological confrontation will unfold.

The US trade deficit with China is often pinpointed as the reason why Washington is slapping higher tariffs on Chinese goods. In reality, the move was spurred by China’s rapid economic growth, technological prowess, and increasing global influence that challenges America’s status as sole superpower.

Surveys from leading institutions indicate that China’s influence in Asia has already exceeded that of the US on all fronts except for American “soft power” in the cultural and education sectors.

The…

Source link : What are Thailand’s options as trade war escalates? by Thailand Development Research Institute

The digital economy is breaking down barriers to employment by empowering tech-savvy professionals to work remotely

The gig economy is showing no sign of slowing down.

Solutions like Fiverr and Upwork make it easier than ever to find the right person to swoop in and fill your company’s digital skills gap.

The digital revolution means that, for many online or software-based jobs it’s no longer necessary for a candidate to be within a commutable radius. In fact, they don’t even have to be on the same continent.

More and more, companies in the US, Australia and the UK are outsourcing digital work to freelancers in developing countries.

And, it’s creating fresh career opportunities that previously didn’t exist. Tech-savvy remote workers in developing nations are taking up freelance work in areas like engine optimisation, digital design, software development and computer programming.

These jobs bring a new source of income for international workers with specialised skills. And they don’t require lengthy, traffic-filled commutes. Instead, these roles let those who are trained for them work more flexibly, which makes employment possible for more people than ever before.

Freelance tech work is also a solution for tackling the fast-growing rate of educated unemployment in developing countries. By supplementing their education with IT training, graduates can take on digital freelance work that’s been outsourced from overseas, allowing them to enter the job market.

Digital outsourcing also empowers women in developing countries

For those who’ve adopted domestic roles within their family, freelance tech roles let them work from home if they wish, so they can have control over the hours they work, rather than turning away from employment opportunities.

Bangladesh is a great example of how digital outsourcing is a catalyst for thriving gig economies in developing countries. Thanks to a series of non-governmental initiatives promoting freelancing, and boosted connectivity across urban areas, the country is now the second-largest supplier of online labour in the world. Bangladesh accounts for 16% of all global freelance workers, who generate $100 million annually. It’s beaten only by India, which accounts for 24% of the world’s freelance workforce.

The digitalisation of developing countries is positive news for the global economy. It means businesses can call upon a wider pool of talented tech freelancers than ever before when they need a job done. And it’s quickly transforming the economic landscape of entire nations, and the prospects of their citizens.

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Source link : How tech freelancers are breaking down barriers in developing economies by Daniel Lorenzzo