Thailand 20260529
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Vaccine Critic Thanathorn Beats the Charge
Bangkok's Criminal Court acquitted Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit on Thursday of lese-majeste charges that had been hanging over him for half a decade, ruling that his January 2021 Facebook livestream, titled "Royal Vaccine, Who Benefits and Who Doesn't?", targeted the Prayut government's handling of the COVID-19 rollout rather than the monarchy. The case bas based on his criticism of Siam Bioscience, a pharmaceutical firm that won the right to produce AstraZeneca doses in Thailand under a technology-transfer agreement and was running behind on deliveries to Thailand and neighboring countries. Acquittals under Article 112 are rare enough to be news on their own. The law carries up to 15 years per count, and Thai Lawyers for Human Rights says there have been more than 290 people charged under it since 2020. The attorney general's office said it is considering an appeal (appeals are typical in results such as this one). Outside the courthouse, Thanathorn spoke about those still imprisoned. "They are in jail because they think and they speak."
Read more: AP News (political backstory), Bangkok Post (Computer Crime Act)
Bangkok Bets 200 Billion on the Plug
Thailand is committing 200 billion baht from its 400-billion emergency loan package toward an energy transition, but the ministries that are most likely to manage the cash still haven’t figured out the details. The Interior Ministry says it wants solar panels on as many government buildings as possible within a year to reduce state power bills. The Transport Ministry is looking into incentives to turn public buses, trucks, taxis, and motorcycles electric. The Excise Department is getting ready with a program to increase EV adoption. Finance permanent secretary Lavaron Sangsnit says getting to a 50% renewables energy mix would generate "enormous economic value" by reducing fuel and electricity import costs. The demand side is changing too. Mercedes-Benz Thailand booked 2,111 vehicles at the famous Bangkok International Motor Show, which is more than double what they did last year and the first time the number’s breached 2,000 since 2019. CEO Christian Schell says this will be a record year for BEV sales.
Read more: Bangkok Post (disbursement deadline), Bangkok Post (Q1 registrations)
Exports Up and Most Everything Else Down
April's trade numbers came in a little weaker than hoped for. Exports were up nearly a quarter over the same period last year, but imports ran so far ahead that the trade deficit reached a record $10 billion for the month. Factory output fell 0.36% against forecasts of a 0.2% gain, and the Ministry of Industry has cut its full-year manufacturing forecast to 1.0-2.0% from up to 2.5%. Tourist arrivals were down 7%, pulling down hospitality-adjacent industries that factories also supply. First-quarter output was reported to have grown just a hair under 1%.
Read more: Bangkok Post (May outlook), Thai Enquirer (tourism & inflation), Thai Enquirer (crude oil imports)
Fraud Finder Can’t Find the Brakes
Jarong Kroamoh, director of the NACC's Office of Investigation and Special Affairs, was put in hot water on a Nonthaburi bridge late Wednesday after his Mitsubishi Triton cut into the left lane and slammed into a hapless delivery rider, killing him. The director’s blood alcohol was reported to be 189mg per 100ml (that’s blowing .19, for the North Americans), which is almost four times the 50mg limit. A blown tire brought his attempt to escape to an end, and witnesses say they blocked a bid to swap him out for another man in a black shirt before police showed up. At the scene, Jarong reportedly told onlookers he was a senior official who knew Nonthaburi police. The NACC says it has not removed him from his post, though a fact-finding committee is being formed.
Read more: Bangkok Post
A $10 Ticket to the AI Big Leagues
Thailand's AI diffusion rate (apparently that’s “the depth and extent of usage” - first time we’ve come across the term) is reportedly 10.7%, well behind Vietnam's 23.5% and far, far behind Singapore at 60.9%. The poor showing is part of the government's argument for the TH-AI Passport, a 1.6-billion-baht plan to give 5 million Thais a year of access to 12 AI platforms for the low, low price of 324 baht (about $10) a head. Opposition People's Party MP Rukchanok Srinork, who sits as chair of the House budget scrutiny committee, questioned the project's transparency, value for money and data privacy details; Digital Economy Minister Chaichanok Chidchob pushed back. Google, Microsoft and OpenAI are all involved. User prompts and account data, the minister said, will remain on cloud infrastructure inside Thailand and will be accessible only in anonymous form. Providers will apparently be barred from using any of it to train future models.
Read more: Bangkok Post
Pick a Number, Any Number
Clicx Bank, a joint venture of Krungthai, AIS and PTT OR, will go live on June 19 with a pitch to roughly two-thirds of Thais that the central bank considers to be underserved by traditional finance. The licence was issued on May 14, and the partners bring a combined customer base of more than 50 million people to the table. The opening gimmick is a customizable seven-digit account number (oh la la). Accounts can be opened with no minimum deposit, and the bank says it will especially work to court the gig workers and online merchants whose irregular incomes get them shown the door at traditional lenders. Interest rates for deposits and loans has yet to be set.
Read more: Bangkok Post
Café Amazon Counts the Cost of Cambodia
The cost of OR's Cambodia retreat is coming into the light. The Thai oil-and-retail group had around 200 fuel stations and 150 Café Amazon outlets in Cambodia before the border flare-ups; by end of March, only 91 stations and 136 cafés were still flying the flag - the balance of stations switched to competing brands. Sales fell more than half year-on-year. Cambodia makes up only a sliver (2-3%) of OR's total profit, so the Q1 damage was contained, but overseas oil volume also dropped 12.5% to 519 million liters, mostly on the same Cambodia closures. Total net profit was down 44% to 2.41 billion baht, with hedging costs on jet fuel doing the biggest part of the damage.
Read more: Bangkok Post
Half a Century of Friendship, $24 Billion in Fresh Receipts
Thailand and Vietnam upgraded their official ties to that of a “complete strategic partnership” on Thursday, as PM Anutin hosted To Lam in Bangkok to celebrate half a century of diplomatic relations. The number everyone keeps bandying about is a $24 billion bilateral trade target, a modest stretch when compared to last year’s ~$22.1 billion. As Anutin said, the goal is "well within reach." Four MoUs were penned, the most notable of which puts the Eastern Economic Corridor Office together with VietJet to work on a feasibility study for an aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul center at U-Tapao airport.
Read more: Bangkok Post
TAT Plots an Exit from the China Habit
South Korea was able to bring in almost 4 million Chinese visitors in the first four months of this year (+22% yoy), and the Tourism Authority of Thailand is watching. The agency is working on its master plan for FY2027, expecting more biz from short-haul markets and leaning on event-driven bookings, including Belgium’s Tomorrowland (in Pattaya, December), to give visitors a reason to come back. Short-haul arrivals currently make up about 60% of volume. The full plan should launch come October.
Read more: Bangkok Post (South Korea comparison), Travel and Tour World (weekly arrivals)
Forty-Three Billion Baht Picks Its Friends
Thailand's "Thai Chuay Thai Plus" co-payment scheme will open June 1 through September 30, for the 43.2 million eligible recipients who will be given 43 billion baht to spend. Tris Rating says the deal is more of a spending redirect than a spending boost, and expects the thing to result in a GDP lift of less than half a percent. The winners will be traditional retailers, small merchants, and Thong Fah stores, where the subsidized baht will get spent. Hypermarkets are expected to take the hardest short-term hit as price-sensitive grocery shoppers follow the subsidy away from modern trade.
Read more: Bangkok Post
Pirate Stream Hits a Buffer
Thai and Malaysian police have charged three people over the popular-with-foreigners MyIPTV4K, a gray-market streaming service that’s been peddling pirated movies and premium sports throughout Southeast Asia. The Thai miscreant was charged after a February raid on his Chiang Mai home turned up computers, phones and receipts for server time. A Malaysian couple running a Selangor electronics and web-design firm were picked up at the same time as part of a sweep that brought together Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, the US and Interpol. The service, which used a MyIPTV Android Box or app to run, was sold openly by third-party sellers on Lazada Malaysia and Lazada Singapore. All three suspects have denied the charges.
Read more: Bangkok Post
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