BANGKOK, 29 April 2019 (NNT) -The government has long placed importance on the issue of intellectual property infringement, and has worked tirelessly to put an end to it.

The United States has recently praised Thailand’s ongoing protection of intellectual property which has yielded concrete results.

Deputy Commerce Minister, Chutima Bunyaprapasara disclosed today that the United States Trade Representative had announced the status of protection of intellectual property of major trading partners under US trade law 2019.

This year, Thailand has maintained its place on the watch list after the United States upgraded Thailand from the Priority Watch List to the Watch List in 2017.

The United States has expressed admiration for the policies and advances in Thailand’s protection efforts and its suppression of intellectual property infringement.

The Thai government’s senior leader has placed importance on the protection of intellectual property, suppression of intellectual property infringement, closely supervised and followed up on progress in the operation related to this issue, and actively cooperated with the relevant agencies to suppress intellectual property infringement.

This has led to concrete results such as increased efficiency in intellectual property registration, an international trademark registration system under the Madrid Protocol, proposed amendments to the patents’ law and suppression of infringements in both the market and on the Internet.

Ms. Chutima thanked the relevant agencies in both the government and private sectors for their industrious collaboration. She urged them to strive to maintain the intellectual property system, especially the suppression of infringements and legal improvements.

Not only does it enhance confidence in trade and investment of US investors, but also encourages Thai people to recognize the importance of intellectual property, and use it for commercial purposes more, as it is a factor in driving competition and economic development of the country creating stability, prosperity and sustainability.

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Amid a global slowdown and elevated trade tensions, the Thai economy is projected to grow by 3.8 percent in 2019 and 3.9 in 2020, according to the World Bank’s Thailand Economic Monitor released today.

Investing in human capital and pursuing economic reforms is critically important for Thailand to become a high-income nation with equal opportunities for all citizens.  

In 2018, despite external shocks to trade and tourism, growth of the Thai economy is estimated to have accelerated to 4.1 percent, the report says. 

The Thai economy proved to be resilient in the face of strong global headwinds due to strengthening domestic demand stemming from an upswing in private consumption and private investment.

In line with trends in the global economy, a slight economic slowdown is expected in 2019. Public infrastructure spending in expected to accelerate in 2019 and pick up in 2020 as the Eastern Economic Corridor projects are being implemented.

Weaker global growth to impact Thailand’s economy

“Weaker global growth will likely impact the export performance of Thailand and restrain manufacturing activities in export-oriented industries,” said Kiatipong Ariyapruchya, World Bank Senior Economist for Thailand.

“In this context, continued implementation of public infrastructure projects and economic reforms can help catalyze domestic demand in 2019 and support medium-term growth.”

Kiatipong Ariyapruchya, World Bank Senior Economist for Thailand.

Last October, The World Bank launched the Human Capital Index, which measures the productivity level for the next generation of workers relative to their full potential if all education and health outcomes were maximized.

While Thailand scores in the upper half of the various indicators compared to ASEAN countries and other upper-middle income country peers, there remains room for improvement.

In Thailand, a child born today will reach only 60 percent of potential, in terms of productivity and lifetime income.

Unequal education challenge

Unequal education quality in Thailand is one of the biggest challenges, with poorer areas being underserved. Due to under-resourced small schools, with inadequate infrastructure and education materials, the 12.4 years of basic schooling expected for a child born today in Thailand are equivalent to just 8.6 years – a learning gap of 3.8 years.

The high burden of non-communicable diseases and road traffic injuries has negatively affected the country’s adult survival rates, which is lower than half of the average global rate.

“Sustaining the pace and quality of…

Source link : Thailand’s Human Capital Key to Long-Term Growth by World Bank

Even though in aggregate, trade leads to economic gains, it almost always creates winners and losers.

To design appropriate social protection policies, it is important to know the identities of these winners and losers.

These policies need to be in place for equity reasons as well as to build and sustain support for free trade.

Winners and losers

To determine the identity of potential winners and losers, we can divide the population in several different ways. For example, for every good produced, we have two main groups, namely producers and consumers.

In this context, what researchers have found for the various Asian countries they have studied is that trade liberalization improves productivity through greater competition from imported products as well as through cheaper and a greater variety of inputs.

They also find the input channel to be the stronger of the two. At the same time, trade liberalization affects price-cost markups.

While greater competition through trade lowers the monopoly power of domestic firms and reduces these markups, cheaper inputs give firms or producers the scope for greater profit margins and markups.

The net effect of these two channels results in lower prices faced by consumers and improvement in their welfare.

At the same time, due to the dominance of the input-related channel, firm profitability could also go up.

Moving to poverty and inequality

Moving to poverty and inequality, there have been huge reductions in poverty all over Asia arising from opening to trade.

The two largest Asian countries, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and India, have experienced large reductions in poverty, brought about by their impressive growth since liberalizing their trade regimes.

The PRC has had a better performance than India in both growth and poverty reduction. However, while both have witnessed an increase in inequality, the PRC’s rise in inequality has been much sharper. While the World Bank’s $1.90-a-day poverty rate for India in the 1980s was about 55%, it is about 20% now.

The PRC, within the same period, has brought down its poverty rate drastically from almost 70% to 1% now. The Gini inequality index for India has increased from 32 to 34, while for the PRC it has gone up from 28 to 42. While the ratio of the top 10% to the bottom 10% within the last 3 decades increased from roughly 7 to 8 in India, it has increased from 6 to 18 in the PRC.

The impact of trade opening on developing Asia: Evidence and policy implications | Asia Pathways

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Source link : The impact of trade opening on developing Asia by Asian Development Bank

The SCB’s Economic Intelligence Center (EIC) has reduced its growth projection for the Thai economy this year to 3.6% from a previous expectation of 3.8%.

Trade war puts brakes on exports

According to first executive vice-president Yunyong Thaicharoen, this is mainly due to the decreasing trends of the export sector affected by global economic conditions, a trade dispute between the United States and China, and the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) latest global economic growth projection reduced to 3.3%.

Yunyong said he believes the superpower trade dispute will not come to a conclusion at a foreseeable date, making it a long-term problem for the Thai economy, which is integrated into the supply chain of goods affected by the tariffs each country has imposed on the other.

Investments by the private sector show signs of recession

Companies are waiting for clarity on the formation of a new government, which should benefit the Q3-4 economy as soon as the new administration can take office, by raising confidence among private firms and international investors.

According to the EIC, current Thai economic growth remains good because of the strong economic foundation, complimented by government investment in infrastructure projects, and the expectation of an additional 760 billion baht in investments this year.

Tourism shows recovery

The tourism sector has shown signs of recovery with a further increase in the number of Chinese tourists.

It is expected Thailand will welcome 40.7 million international visitors this year. General income in other sectors except farming has also shown growth, which helps with consumer confidence.

As for Thailand, Yunyong predicts that the Bank of Thailand (BOT) will maintain its policy rate at 1.75 per cent throughout the year, given the internal and external risk factors facing the economy.

“Furthermore, the inflation level in the first two months has been at a low 0.7 per cent. We predict that the inflation level in 2019 will be 0.9 per cent on average. This low inflation level is another incentive for the BOT to maintain their policy rate,” he said to The Nation

Strong baht to remain

As for the strengthening of the baht, the EIC expects the currency to remain strong throughout 2019, forecasting it will close the year at between Bt31 and Bt32 to the US dollar. 

Given the baht’s strength, Titinan urges exporters to not only depend on price for competitiveness but focus more on the quality of their products to compete with Thailand’s rivals in the Asean region.

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CHIANG RAI, Thailand (Reuters) – The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and major financiers on Thursday launched a facility to spur more than $1 billion in green infrastructure investments across Southeast Asia.

The facility offers loans and technical assistance for sovereign projects in areas such as sustainable transport and clean energy, the ADB said during the meetings of ASEAN’s finance ministers and central bank governors.

“Through the ASEAN Catalytic Green Finance Facility, ADB will support ASEAN governments in developing green and climate-friendly infrastructure projects,” ADB President Takehiko Nakao said in a statement.

It will mobilise a total of $1 billion, including $75 million from the ASEAN Infrastructure Fund (AIF), $300 million from the ADB, $336 million from KfW, 150 million euros from the European Investment Bank, and 1 million euros from Agence Francaise de Development.

It is part of a new “Green and Inclusive Infrastructure Window” under the AlF, a regional financing initiative established by ASEAN governments and the ADB in 2011.

Since then, the AlF has committed $520 million for regional energy, transport, water and urban infrastructure projects.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

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Many young people are willing to move abroad in order to pursue personal and career opportunities. In fact, the World Economic Forum found that four out of five millennials would be willing to relocate internationally for work.

This made us wonder which cities in Asia might be great fits for millennials. To obtain some answers, ValueChampion conducted a wide ranging data analysis for 20 of the region’s most notable cities (see table) in order to help narrow down the best options for young people.

Among the study highlights: Despite ranking second for employment prospects, Bangkok placed 11th overall as its scores for cost of living and quality of life were poor.

Singapore’s robust economy makes it a great place for young people to find jobs with startups and other employers.

After adjusting for per capita GDP, the cost of living is the lowest in Seoul and Guangzhou where entertainment and rent are relatively inexpensive. Singapore and Melbourne topped the list for high quality of life due to low pollution, strong health indicators and high levels of safety.

Categories Used for Ranking Cities

Our analysis incorporated a wide variety of data in order to best characterise each city’s appeal for young people. We categorised this data into three groups: employment prospects, cost of living and quality of life. We then ranked cities based on these factors.

Asia’s top millennial-friendly cities | Bangkok Post: business

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As of 10.28pm, with 92 per cent of the votes counted, the pro-junta Phalang Pracharat appeared to have beaten Shinawatra-backed Pheu Thai with a total of 28.7% of votes and 139 seats

Pheu Thai came in a close second with 27% of votes with 140 seats – beating Phalang Pracharat in terms of constituency seats.

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The Thai government has continued to promote investment in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), especially its electric vehicle and railway sectors.

Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha chaired a meeting of the Board of Investment (BOI). The meeting resolved to support investment in the EECi, or Eastern Economic Corridor of Innovation.

This would involve the establishment of a science park in the corridor to foster research and development.

Firms looking for investment incentives must apply for the privileges by December 30th, 2019 and establish a base of operations in the EECi by December 30th, 2022.

Furthermore, the BOI resolved to support investment in the Orange Line electric railway from Bang Khun Non – Minburi, as well as in Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles, which are currently being developed by Mitsubishi Motors (Thailand) Co., Ltd.

EECO to push for educational upgrades, develop human resources

The Eastern Economic Corridor Office of Thailand (EECO) has continued to push for educational upgrades and develop human resources to meet the needs of the labor market for the EEC project.

The EECO has cooperated with the government to hold a meeting to summarize the study on the demand for manpower in the target industries.

The opening session was presided over by EECO Secretary General Khanit Saengsuphan.

The EECO has planned on upgrading education quality according to the needs of modern industrial development and organize educational curricula and learning to meet requirements of jobs to allow personnel to earn high incomes.

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