TOT takes CAT to court over access charges

Bangkok Post (17 Nov 2007)

TOT Plc officially filed lawsuits yesterday against CAT Telecom and its two cellular concessionaires, DTAC and True Move, demanding unpaid access charges and interest amounting to 15 billion baht. Col Natee Sukolrat, the TOT board spokesman, said the Civil Court accepted two separate cases for further hearings.

In the first case, TOT named CAT Telecom as the first defendant and DTAC as the second, demanding unpaid access charges plus 1.25% interest totalling 11 billion baht. The second case, against CAT Telecom and True Move, seeks four billion baht in access charges and interest.

DTAC and True Move stopped paying access charges to TOT in November last year. The state enterprise earned 14 billion baht from access charges last year.

The mobile operators maintain that the interconnection charges (IC) approved by the National Telecommunications Commission take precedence, and have been billing each other for interconnection charges ever since.

CAT is being sued because it is responsible for collecting the charges from the two mobile operators for the use of the TOT network and passing them on to its sister agency.

Digital Phone, an affiliate of Advanced Info Service, which operates under a TOT concession, also stopped paying access charges to TOT in June. However, Col Natee said that the company had since relented and paid TOT 72 million baht yesterday.

Thailand again Japanese investors' favourite

Bangkok Post (17 Nov 2007)

Tokyo - Thailand again was the favoured investment destination in Asean for Japanese business in the first half of this year, according to data from Japan's Finance Ministry and the Bank of Japan.

The figures showed Japanese investors invested most in Thailand, to the tune of US$1.19 billion, followed by Singapore with $879 million and the Philippines with $578 million.

The figures were reported by a Thai News Agency (TNA) reporter accompanying a delegation of Thai business leaders travelling to Japan, led by Deputy Prime Minister and Industry Minister Kosit Panpiemras.

Last year, Japan invested most in Malaysia with $2.94 billion, following by Thailand with $1.98 billion.

Although Thailand resumed the top rank in attracting Japanese investments, figures released by the Board of Investment stated that applications for investment promotions by Japanese investors in the first 10 months of this year totaled 262 projects valued at Bt88.81 billion, down from 299 projects totaling Bt92.74 billion in the same period last year.

Mr Kosit said his delegation had informed the Japanese investment community that Thailand's industry had already shifted from its previous labour intensive-base into a knowledge and technology-based one.

So, the country needed investment in industries that relied upon high technology.

At the same time, he said, BoI's investment promotion policy had given importance to investment activities to boost the quality of society as well as community development.

The current government had encouraged state, private and community sectors to cooperate in the development of Thailand's investment and industrial sectors.

He believed the move would benefit the country in the long run.