Bank of Thailand to Take Further Steps to Reign in Thai Baht

Thailand’s central bank has reported that is ready to take additional steps to rein in the skyrocketing Thai baht.

The Bank of Thailand and the government remain concerned about the baht’s appreciation and continue to discuss the issue, Deputy Governor Mathee Supapongse said told reporters in Bangkok Tuesday.

The bank’s foreign-exchange intervention has helped to boost reserves and curb the baht, Bloomberg reports.

The Bank of Thailand has taken several steps in recent months to limit gains in the baht. Especially after it surged almost 9% against the dollar in 2019, the best performer among Asian currencies. The strong currency has hurt the nation’s exports, prompting calls for further action from the government.

Mathee said it’s not the central bank’s job alone to manage the baht
“The central bank is like the last door to defend the baht,” he said. “The first door is the private sector and the second door is the government. We all need to help out.”

If the central bank is left to solve the baht problem on its own, “they will need to use strong medicine to handle it,” said Mathee. “And it may not benefit much. If all parties help, they can use milder measures which will benefit all parties.”

He added the central bank will take action if it sees currency speculation. Separately, the bank published a foreign-exchange code of conduct on its website, outlining ethical and governance practices for market participants.

BOT Governor Veerathai Says Thailand To Ease Capital Outflow Rules Again
Governor Veerathai Santiprabhob said last week the central bank will relax restrictions on capital outflows again, in an effort to ease upward pressure on the baht. Those steps includes boosting the amount of proceeds exporters can hold overseas to $1 million.

Finance Minister Uttama Savanayana said Monday any steps authorities take to curb gains in the currency won’t disrupt the “market mechanism” of the baht.

Some of the steps already taken by the central bank include:

Interest rates cut twice last year to match a record-low 1.25%
In July, measures were imposed to counter short-term inflows
In November, rules on capital outflows relaxed

The government also plans to issue measures to boost imports on capital goods and machinery for investment to help reduce pressure on the baht.

Source - Chiang Rai Times

Seed giant East-West opens #Cambodia branch.

East-West Seed Group, one of the world’s largest vegetable seed companies, has stepped up its presence in Cambodia by officially launching a local branch and taking over distribution operations in the Kingdom to better address local market conditions, a company representative said yesterday.

Heng Rithea, country representative of East-West Seed (EWS) for Cambodia, said the company’s business model was focused on serving the needs of smallholder farmers, the vast majority of whom produce vegetables on plots smaller than a hectare. 

“Smallholder farmers can increase the yield and quality of their crops with improved seed varieties,” he said. 

EWS began providing seeds to Cambodia in 2005 through a local distributor. In 2009 the Thai-based company expanded to knowledge-transfer activities in cooperation with the government and German development agency GIZ, training farmers in Siem Riep on improved techniques that result in higher productivity. This was followed by other partnerships with the government and development organisations in other parts of the country.

Rithea said a stronger local presence would help improve the company’s understanding of the local market and allow it to develop new seed varieties under local farming conditions to ensure suitability and adaptability for Cambodian farmers.

“We breed for what the market wants,” he said. “We understand the local needs and see what is happening in the market and [in people’s] diets.”

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He said innovation was crucial to raising the standards of the agricultural industry, adding that EWS invests around 15 percent of its turnover into research and development.

“This allows us to develop tropical vegetable seeds that help farmers grow better crops,” he said.

Rithea explained that Cambodia’s agricultural industry faces numerous challenges, including a hot, humid climate subject to heavy rains and extreme weather conditions.

“This kind of environment results in high pest and disease pressure,” he said. “Farmers also lack access to technology, basic infrastructure like farm-to-market roads, irrigation and post-harvest facilities and lack of access to credit and finance.”

He said another challenge here was the amount of unregistered seeds that flow into the country from different channels and which, while sold at very competitive prices, are of dubious quality.

“Some farmers who used those seeds without any information or warranty wasted lots of time, money and labour as the seeds did not germinate or provided low yields,” he said. 

Cambodian farmers are increasingly turning to specialised companies to provide high-quality seeds for their crops, according to Khan Samban, director of the Industrial Crops Department at the Ministry of Agriculture, who said 21 registered seed companies now supply the local market.

“All the registered seed companies are growing currently on the potential to increase the productivity of farmers,” he said.

Author: Cheng Sokhorng - PhnomPenhPost 

Smartphone maker HTC explores strategic options

HTC Corp., the beleaguered manufacturer that once ranked among the world’s top smartphone makers, is exploring options that could range from separating its virtual-reality business to a full sale of the company, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Taiwanese firm is working with an adviser as it considers bringing in a strategic investor, selling its Vive virtual reality headset business or spinning off the unit, the people said. HTC has held talks with companies including Alphabet Inc.’s Google, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.

A full sale of HTC, which has businesses ranging from VR to handset manufacturing, is less likely because it isn’t an obvious fit for a single acquirer, one of the people said. 

Shares of HTC rose 4.7 percent in Taipei on Friday to the highest close in more that two weeks, giving the company a $1.9 billion market value. The company has shed about 75 percent of its value over the past five years as its smartphone market share dipped below 2 percent.

No final decisions have been made, and HTC may choose not to proceed with any strategic changes, the people said. Representatives for HTC and Google declined to comment.

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The Taoyuan City-based firm has been attempting to refocus its growth prospects on the high-end VR business, with shipments of the Vive headset totaling more than 190,000 units in the first quarter, according to research firm IDC.

HTC cut the price of the Vive by $200 earlier this week, in an effort to expand product sales and its user base, which is more important now than earnings, according to Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst David Dai.

The company is also trying to revive its smartphone unit with its latest flagship U11 model and a contract manufacturing deal to assemble Google’s Pixel handset.

“It’s a cutthroat Android smartphone market out there,” Ramon Llamas, IDC’s research manager for wearables and mobile phones, said in an interview, referring to the mobile operating system developed by Google.

“Apple and Samsung have made it hard for HTC to stay at the top of the market, and Chinese phone makers have made it hard for HTC to dominate the middle and low end of the market,” Llamas said.

A transaction with a Silicon Valley firm like Google would mark a face-saving moment for Cher Wang, HTC’s co-founder and largest shareholder, who took over as chief executive officer of the the manufacturer in 2015. Wang has been unable to stem the losses in market share since returning to the company in a full-time capacity. The daughter of a petrochemical billionaire, Wang was Taiwan’s richest woman until HTC’s stock tanked.

HTC, founded in 1997, began as a contract manufacturer. In 2002, it won a deal with Microsoft Corp. to make Windows-based phones and quickly became one of the top producers globally. It also made the first Android phone in 2008.

Vive is a “different beast” from Facebook Inc.’s Oculus VR and Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC’s PlayStation VR, Llamas said. “I am not seeing other companies really making that play, competing in that same area,” he said.

 Read also: HTC revenues plunge to an eleven-year low

Source - TheJakartaPost

#Cambodia - Sihanoukville port rides wave of increasing container traffic.

Sihanoukville Autonomous Port (PAS), which operates the Kingdom’s only deepsea port, reported a modest increase in container traffic during the first six months of the year, compared to a year earlier, a trend its director said should result in higher profits for the listed company.

Data obtained from PAS yesterday showed a total of 211,719 20-foot equivalent units, or TEU, passed through the seaport between January and June of this year, an 8 percent increase compared to the same period in 2016. The higher throughput follows a slowdown in growth last year in which container traffic increased by just 2 percent.

Lou Kim Chhun, director general of PAS, said yesterday that the rebound in container traffic growth was the result of Cambodia’s vibrant import and export market, which should be expected for a country that is enjoying 7 percent GDP growth. PAS also recently added new rubber-tyred gantry cranes, which expanded its handling capacity and helped to build more confidence in the port’s operations, he noted.

“Based on the good performance in the first half, we expect double-digit growth of container traffic this year,” he said. “The increased growth of cargo traffic will enlarge our profit margin, which in turn will enable us to distribute high dividends to our stock investors.”

The increase in port container traffic was distributed evenly between imports and exports. 

According to PAS data, imports increased by 8.4 percent year-on-year to 107,181 TEU during the first half, while exports increased by 7.7 percent year-on-year to 104,538.

PAS debuted on Cambodia’s stock exchange in June after an initial public offering that raised $27 million. It was the fifth company to list on the Cambodian Securities Exchange. 

Source - PhnomPenhPost