Chairman named

IN Brief

Chairman named

CAPITAL MARKETS :The Federation of Thai Capital Market Organisations (Fetco), an umbrella group representing local brokers, fund managers, analysts and listed companies, has named Prasert Bunsumpun as chairman, effective Aug 30.

Mr Prasert, currently the chief executive of PTT Plc, succeeds Kongkiat Opaswongkarn as Fetco chairman. The appointment runs until August 2010.

-

Innovation hub built

COMPETITIVENESS :The cabinet has approved 316 million baht to establish an innovation park to support and promote innovative efforts in the business sector.

Apart from promoting innovation, the centre will help companies add value to their products through innovation and co-ordinate with related agencies. It will also help them with production, research and development, and financial issues.

Supachai Lorlowhakarn, the National Innovation Agency director, said the park would occupy 10,000-square-metre space inside the Science and Technology Ministry. It is expected to be completed in 2010.

"This prime location will allow operators easy access to knowledge and financial resources such as Mahidol University and SME Development bank," Dr Supachai said.

In addition, he added that some related agencies such as the Market for Alternative Investment (MAI) and the Board of Investment (BoI) are considering opening mini offices in the park to help promote it as a business centre as well.

-

New items on list

AGRIBUSINESS :The cabinet yesterday approved the inclusion of garlic and natural gas for vehicles (NGV or CNG) in the price-control list, bringing the total number of protected products to 37.

Following the approval, traders transporting more than 400 kilogrammes of garlic will have to inform Land Transport Department authorities. Those keeping more than two tonnes will also have to inform the Commerce Ministry of the sizes and locations of their stocks.

For NGV, traders need to put price tags on the products and inform the Commerce Ministry of the changes in the prices.

-

Exhibition due

FOOD :The Bangkok Exhibition Service (BES) has teamed up with Overseas Exhibition Services and International Expo Management Pte to organise the 16th Food & Hotel Thailand 2008, which will generate about two billion baht in revenue.

The exhibition will be held during Sept 17-20 at the Paragon Hall at Siam Paragon in Bangkok, which covers 12,000 square metres.

The event is supported by many organisations such as the Thai Hotels Association, the Thai Restaurant Association, and the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

David Aitken, general manager of BES, expects total participants to be more than 750 companies from 42 countries and at least 24,000 visitors from more than 55 countries.

The fair will be a centre of information exchange, trading and new technologies between sellers and buyers. Also, it will help sellers directly promote their products to both local and global customers.

"We will use this event to showcase the quality of Thai foods and Thai hotels in the international stage," he said.

According to THA president Prakit Chinamourphong, the exhibition would also help inspire food sellers or operators to upgrade their products and services to meet international standards.

-

Builders meet target

PROPERTY :The Home Builder Association has achieved its sales target of 1.5 billion baht from its five-day fair last week.

The best-selling units, representing 32.32% of total sales, were those in the price range of 2.5 to five million baht.

Panthep Thanchitikul, the association's president, said the second most popular price range was those between 5-10 million baht, accounting for 28.47% of total sales.

The association expected more follow-up sales after the event and it is confident that all of its members would be able to reach 8.5 billion baht in sales for the whole year. 14-day yield 3.73% DEBT MARKET :The Bank of Thailand yesterday sold 70 billion baht worth of 14-day bills for a weighted average accepted yield of 3.72861%. Accepted bid yields ranged from 3.7% to 3.74%, with the bid coverage ratio 1.93 times.