The Mass Rapid Transit Authority is asking the cabinet to accept arbitration in disputes involving its Purple Line electric railway project, to help secure financing.
The creditor, Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica), wants recourse to arbitration in the event of a dispute.
But in a July 28 decision, the cabinet decided to exclude the arbitration option.
MRTA chairman Supoj Saplorm met Transport Minister Sohpon Zarum yesterday to discuss the cabinet's decision to exclude the option of an arbitration committee to resolve any dispute involving the Purple Line which will link Bang Sue and Bang Yai.
Mr Supoj asked the minister to try to convince the cabinet next Tuesday to restore the arbitration condition in the 50 billion baht electric railway project,because without the condition Jica would not finance the work.
An arbitration committee would consist of a representative of the government,a representative of its contractor and a third member acceptable to the government and the contractor.
Mr Sohpon said arbitration was an internationally recognised mechanism to speed up the process of dispute resolution which otherwise could become bogged down in court.
However, the cabinet decided to exclude arbitration from governmentprivate projects because the mechanism had failed in the past to benefit the state.
"Arbitration is an international principle," the minister said.
"It is applied overseas without a problem but it always causes problems in our country and the government is at a disadvantage.
"I know well what is going on but cannot elaborate. The problems rest with the people who implement it. As there are problems, the government resolved to exclude it and ordered compliance with Thai law in the event of a dispute."
MRTA deputy governor Chukiat Photayanuwat said Jica believed the contracts for the Purple Line project were international agreements and should include the arbitration option.
MRTA chairman Supoj said with the arbitration issue unsettled, work on the Purple Line could not start even though the MRTA had signed one of three contracts for the project.
Friday, September 25, 2009
CHINA PUTS FEASIBILITY TALKS ON HOLD
China has decided to put on hold talks regarding the rail line that would link the main-land to Thailand. According to the Transport Ministry, the 300-kilometre double-track line will link Den Chai to Chiang Khong, before it links up with a line to Kunming, in China's Yunnan province.
Chula Sukmanop, deputy director-general of the Office of Transport, Traffic Policy and Planning, confirmed yesterday that the Chinese government had postponed discussions about the project's feasibility with its Thai counterparts.
The idea of getting China to invest in the railway line was brought up during Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's visit to Beijing from June 24 to 27.
"The Chinese government has postponed the ministerial-level discussion and has not yet informed us when it will be ready to open talks. However, Thailand has been ready for negotiations since July," Chula said, adding that due to this delay, the project could not be concluded on a government-to-government policy level in terms of setting an investment model.
He said the route proposed by the Transport Ministry would link Den Chai in Phrae province to Chiang Khong district in Chiang Rai. Since there are no such links at present, it would be easy to garner investment in forms of both public-private partnership and concessions.
"According to initial evaluations, the 300-kilometre route should cost around Bt30 billion," Chula said.
The route will come under the supervision of the State Railway of Thailand, especially in terms of land expropriation and concession. A source at the Transport Ministry added that this route would be of added interest to China because not only would it link up to Thailand's nationwide railway system, it would also allow easy access to the soon to be set up Pak Bara port in Satun province.
"The rail route will allow goods to be easily moved from China via Thailand before they are loaded onto ships at the port on the Andaman coast," the source said, adding that this transportation route would be much quicker than the one currently used via Melaka in Malaysia.
The route will also boost trade between Asean countries, including China and India.
A source said Bt85 million had been earmarked for the design of the double-track Den Chai-Chiang Khong rail line, which should be completed in a year.
The source added that the negotiations had probably been delayed because China wanted to wait for its leader to announce the country's planned financial aid for Asean countries during the grouping's summit in Cha-am next month. China is expected to set up two funds: the US10-billion (Bt336 billion) China Asean Fund to be used for infrastructure and logistics-related development-especially in terms of the China-Singapore rail-way project-as well as the $15-billion China Asean Loan.
Chula Sukmanop, deputy director-general of the Office of Transport, Traffic Policy and Planning, confirmed yesterday that the Chinese government had postponed discussions about the project's feasibility with its Thai counterparts.
The idea of getting China to invest in the railway line was brought up during Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's visit to Beijing from June 24 to 27.
"The Chinese government has postponed the ministerial-level discussion and has not yet informed us when it will be ready to open talks. However, Thailand has been ready for negotiations since July," Chula said, adding that due to this delay, the project could not be concluded on a government-to-government policy level in terms of setting an investment model.
He said the route proposed by the Transport Ministry would link Den Chai in Phrae province to Chiang Khong district in Chiang Rai. Since there are no such links at present, it would be easy to garner investment in forms of both public-private partnership and concessions.
"According to initial evaluations, the 300-kilometre route should cost around Bt30 billion," Chula said.
The route will come under the supervision of the State Railway of Thailand, especially in terms of land expropriation and concession. A source at the Transport Ministry added that this route would be of added interest to China because not only would it link up to Thailand's nationwide railway system, it would also allow easy access to the soon to be set up Pak Bara port in Satun province.
"The rail route will allow goods to be easily moved from China via Thailand before they are loaded onto ships at the port on the Andaman coast," the source said, adding that this transportation route would be much quicker than the one currently used via Melaka in Malaysia.
The route will also boost trade between Asean countries, including China and India.
A source said Bt85 million had been earmarked for the design of the double-track Den Chai-Chiang Khong rail line, which should be completed in a year.
The source added that the negotiations had probably been delayed because China wanted to wait for its leader to announce the country's planned financial aid for Asean countries during the grouping's summit in Cha-am next month. China is expected to set up two funds: the US10-billion (Bt336 billion) China Asean Fund to be used for infrastructure and logistics-related development-especially in terms of the China-Singapore rail-way project-as well as the $15-billion China Asean Loan.
RAIL-LINK LAUNCH NOT DELAYED BY PHEU THAI COMPLAINTS, SAYS SRT
The State Railway of Thailand (SRT) is insisting the launch of the airport-link service will not be delayed by the opposition Pheu Thai Party's complaints about the premier and the interior minister allowing conflicts of interest in the project.
Suphoth Sublom, an SRT board director, said yesterday the project had made a lot of progress and the civil construction work was complete. The SRT is expected to officially start testing the system on December 5, which will run for three months. The service will be officially launched in April.
On Monday, a Pheu Thai MP filed a complaint with the National Anti-Corruption Commission saying that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and Interior Minister Chaovarat Chanweerakul had allowed conflicts of interest in the project because Chaovarat's family members held shares in a construction company.
Pheu Thai's Lamphun MP Sanguan Pongmanee and the party's spokesman Prompong Nopparit claimed that Chaovarat's wife and children held shares in Sino-Thai Engineering and Construction, which won the Bt408-million project contract for adding more trimmings to the rail link. The Cabinet had approved the budget on March 10.
Chaovarat, also leader of Bhum Jai Thai Party, argued he had already declared his assets and has had nothing to do with the company for a long time now.
Moreover, he said, since Sino-Thai was a public company, anybody could buy its shares and as his children were all adults, they could do what they wanted with their money.
On March 10, the Cabinet approved the Transport Ministry's request for an additional Bt115 million to hire a consultant to supervise the construction of elevated paths linking the Phya Thai Skytrain station and the Petchaburi subway station to the airport-rail link at Makkasan. This is part of the connection between airport-rail link and the SRT transportation system in the city.
It also approved Bt11 million and Bt87 million for the construction of the paths from Phya Thai station and Petchaburi subway station respectively.
The government will cover the cost of the construction, which should be completed in 15 months.
The Cabinet also approved the expenditure of Bt195 million for the services of an independent safety and system certification engineer for three years. The government will be responsible for this cost as well.
The Cabinet has acknowledged the relocation of public facilities near the airport-rail link, which would cost Bt140 million. The Metropolitan Water Works Authority and the Metropolitan Electricity Authority each will be responsible for relocation costs of Bt83 million and Bt57 million, respectively.
Suphoth Sublom, an SRT board director, said yesterday the project had made a lot of progress and the civil construction work was complete. The SRT is expected to officially start testing the system on December 5, which will run for three months. The service will be officially launched in April.
On Monday, a Pheu Thai MP filed a complaint with the National Anti-Corruption Commission saying that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and Interior Minister Chaovarat Chanweerakul had allowed conflicts of interest in the project because Chaovarat's family members held shares in a construction company.
Pheu Thai's Lamphun MP Sanguan Pongmanee and the party's spokesman Prompong Nopparit claimed that Chaovarat's wife and children held shares in Sino-Thai Engineering and Construction, which won the Bt408-million project contract for adding more trimmings to the rail link. The Cabinet had approved the budget on March 10.
Chaovarat, also leader of Bhum Jai Thai Party, argued he had already declared his assets and has had nothing to do with the company for a long time now.
Moreover, he said, since Sino-Thai was a public company, anybody could buy its shares and as his children were all adults, they could do what they wanted with their money.
On March 10, the Cabinet approved the Transport Ministry's request for an additional Bt115 million to hire a consultant to supervise the construction of elevated paths linking the Phya Thai Skytrain station and the Petchaburi subway station to the airport-rail link at Makkasan. This is part of the connection between airport-rail link and the SRT transportation system in the city.
It also approved Bt11 million and Bt87 million for the construction of the paths from Phya Thai station and Petchaburi subway station respectively.
The government will cover the cost of the construction, which should be completed in 15 months.
The Cabinet also approved the expenditure of Bt195 million for the services of an independent safety and system certification engineer for three years. The government will be responsible for this cost as well.
The Cabinet has acknowledged the relocation of public facilities near the airport-rail link, which would cost Bt140 million. The Metropolitan Water Works Authority and the Metropolitan Electricity Authority each will be responsible for relocation costs of Bt83 million and Bt57 million, respectively.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Magnificent seven
In the most important, most revered event since the invention of the brontosaurus trap,Microsoft shipped the most incredibly fabulous operating system ever made; the release of Windows 7 also spurred a new generation of personal computers of all sizes at prices well below last month's offers.The top reason Windows 7 does not suck: There is no registered website called Windows7Sucks.com
Kindle e-book reader maker Amazon.com and new Nook e-book reader vendor Barnes and Noble got it on; B&N got great reviews for the "Kindle killer"Nook, with dual screens and touch controls so you can "turn" pages, plays MP3s and allows many non-B&N book formats, although not the Kindle one;Amazon then killed the US version of its Kindle in favour of the international one, reduced its price to $260(8,700 baht), same as the Nook; it's not yet clear what you can get in Thailand with a Nook, but you sure can't (yet) get much, relatively speaking, with a Kindle;but here's the biggest difference so far,which Amazon.com has ignored: the Nook lets you lend e-books to any other Nook owner, just as if they were paper books; the borrowed books expire on the borrower's Nook in two weeks.
Phone maker Nokia of Finland announced it is suing iPhone maker Apple of America for being a copycat; lawyers said they figure Nokia can get at least one, probably two per cent (retail) for every iPhone sold by Steve "President for Life" Jobs and crew via the lawsuit,which sure beats working for it -$6 (200 baht) to $12(400 baht) on 30 million phones sold so far, works out to $400 million or 25 percent of the whole Apple empire profits during the last quarter;there were 10 patent thefts, the Finnish executives said, on everything from moving data to security and encryption.
Nokia of Finland announced that it is one month behind on shipping its new flagship N900 phone, the first to run on Linux software; delay of the $750(25,000 baht) phone had absolutely no part in making Nokia so short that it had to sue Apple, slap yourself for such a thought.
Tim Berners-Lee, who created the World Wide Web, said he had one regret:the double slash that follows the "http:"in standard web addresses; he estimated that 14.2 gazillion users have wasted 48.72 bazillion hours typing those two keystrokes, and he's sorry; of course there's no reason to ever type that, since your browser does it for you when you type "www.bangkokpost.com" but Tim needs to admit he made one error in his lifetime.
The International Telecommunication Union of the United Nations, which doesn't sell any phones or services, announced that there should be a mobile phone charger that will work with any phone; now who would ever have thought of that, without a UN body to wind up a major study on the subject?;the GSM Association estimates that 51,000 tonnes of chargers are made each year in order to keep companies able to have their own unique ones.
The Well, Doh Award of the Week was presented at arm's length to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development; the group's deputy secretary-general Petko Draganov said that developing countries will miss some of the stuff available on the Internet if they don't install more broadband infrastructure; a report that used your tax baht to compile said that quite a few people use mobile phones but companies are more likely to invest in countries with excellent broadband connections; no one ever had thought of this before, right?
Sun Microsystems , as a result of the Oracle takeover, said it will allow 3,000 current workers never to bother coming to work again; Sun referred to the losses as "jobs," not people; now the fourth largest server maker in the world, Sun said it lost $2.2 billion in its last fiscal year; European regulators are holding up approval of the Oracle purchase in the hope of getting some money in exchange for not involving Oracle in court cases.
The multi-gazillionaire and very annoying investor Carl Icahn resigned from the board at Yahoo ; he spun it as a vote of confidence, saying current directors are taking the formerly threatened company seriously; Yahoo reported increased profits but smaller revenues in the third quarter.
The US House of Representatives voted to censure Vietnam for jailing bloggers; the non-binding resolution sponsored by southern California congresswoman Loretta Sanchez said the Internet is "a crucial tool for the citizens of Vietnam to be able to exercise their freedom of expression and association;"Hanoi has recently jailed at least nine activists for up to six years apiece for holding pro-democracy banners. Iran jailed blogger Hossein "Hoder" Derakshan for 10 months - in solitary confinement.
Kindle e-book reader maker Amazon.com and new Nook e-book reader vendor Barnes and Noble got it on; B&N got great reviews for the "Kindle killer"Nook, with dual screens and touch controls so you can "turn" pages, plays MP3s and allows many non-B&N book formats, although not the Kindle one;Amazon then killed the US version of its Kindle in favour of the international one, reduced its price to $260(8,700 baht), same as the Nook; it's not yet clear what you can get in Thailand with a Nook, but you sure can't (yet) get much, relatively speaking, with a Kindle;but here's the biggest difference so far,which Amazon.com has ignored: the Nook lets you lend e-books to any other Nook owner, just as if they were paper books; the borrowed books expire on the borrower's Nook in two weeks.
Phone maker Nokia of Finland announced it is suing iPhone maker Apple of America for being a copycat; lawyers said they figure Nokia can get at least one, probably two per cent (retail) for every iPhone sold by Steve "President for Life" Jobs and crew via the lawsuit,which sure beats working for it -$6 (200 baht) to $12(400 baht) on 30 million phones sold so far, works out to $400 million or 25 percent of the whole Apple empire profits during the last quarter;there were 10 patent thefts, the Finnish executives said, on everything from moving data to security and encryption.
Nokia of Finland announced that it is one month behind on shipping its new flagship N900 phone, the first to run on Linux software; delay of the $750(25,000 baht) phone had absolutely no part in making Nokia so short that it had to sue Apple, slap yourself for such a thought.
Tim Berners-Lee, who created the World Wide Web, said he had one regret:the double slash that follows the "http:"in standard web addresses; he estimated that 14.2 gazillion users have wasted 48.72 bazillion hours typing those two keystrokes, and he's sorry; of course there's no reason to ever type that, since your browser does it for you when you type "www.bangkokpost.com" but Tim needs to admit he made one error in his lifetime.
The International Telecommunication Union of the United Nations, which doesn't sell any phones or services, announced that there should be a mobile phone charger that will work with any phone; now who would ever have thought of that, without a UN body to wind up a major study on the subject?;the GSM Association estimates that 51,000 tonnes of chargers are made each year in order to keep companies able to have their own unique ones.
The Well, Doh Award of the Week was presented at arm's length to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development; the group's deputy secretary-general Petko Draganov said that developing countries will miss some of the stuff available on the Internet if they don't install more broadband infrastructure; a report that used your tax baht to compile said that quite a few people use mobile phones but companies are more likely to invest in countries with excellent broadband connections; no one ever had thought of this before, right?
Sun Microsystems , as a result of the Oracle takeover, said it will allow 3,000 current workers never to bother coming to work again; Sun referred to the losses as "jobs," not people; now the fourth largest server maker in the world, Sun said it lost $2.2 billion in its last fiscal year; European regulators are holding up approval of the Oracle purchase in the hope of getting some money in exchange for not involving Oracle in court cases.
The multi-gazillionaire and very annoying investor Carl Icahn resigned from the board at Yahoo ; he spun it as a vote of confidence, saying current directors are taking the formerly threatened company seriously; Yahoo reported increased profits but smaller revenues in the third quarter.
The US House of Representatives voted to censure Vietnam for jailing bloggers; the non-binding resolution sponsored by southern California congresswoman Loretta Sanchez said the Internet is "a crucial tool for the citizens of Vietnam to be able to exercise their freedom of expression and association;"Hanoi has recently jailed at least nine activists for up to six years apiece for holding pro-democracy banners. Iran jailed blogger Hossein "Hoder" Derakshan for 10 months - in solitary confinement.
Skytrain link tests delayed
Testing on the BTS Sukhumvit line extension will probably be pushed back until late 2011 due to delays in the procurement of signalling and electrical systems, says deputy Bangkok governor Teerachon Manomaipibul.
Procurement should have taken place nine months ago if the original December 2010 deadline for the test run was to be met. But purchasing of the operating systems for the 5km extension from Onnuj to Soi Baring, or Sukhumvit Soi 107, has not been approved yet, said Mr Teerachon, who is responsible for mass transit projects.
The senior City Hall official responsible for making the purchase has apparently stalled the scheme over fears of being investigated if something went wrong with the purchase, he said.
The official in question is due to retire and does not want to take risks despite being told the scheme is strictly in line with regulations, said Mr Teerachon.
Former city clerk Khunying Nathanon Thavisin was accused of irregularities over the purchase of fire trucks and boats by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration.
City Hall retroactively fired her from the post this week.
Mr Teerachon said he cannot be sure the test run can take place by mid-2011 as the consulting and bidding process normally takes about seven months.
Construction of the superstructure and stations by contractor Italian-Thai Development Plc is about 95% complete.
Procurement should have taken place nine months ago if the original December 2010 deadline for the test run was to be met. But purchasing of the operating systems for the 5km extension from Onnuj to Soi Baring, or Sukhumvit Soi 107, has not been approved yet, said Mr Teerachon, who is responsible for mass transit projects.
The senior City Hall official responsible for making the purchase has apparently stalled the scheme over fears of being investigated if something went wrong with the purchase, he said.
The official in question is due to retire and does not want to take risks despite being told the scheme is strictly in line with regulations, said Mr Teerachon.
Former city clerk Khunying Nathanon Thavisin was accused of irregularities over the purchase of fire trucks and boats by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration.
City Hall retroactively fired her from the post this week.
Mr Teerachon said he cannot be sure the test run can take place by mid-2011 as the consulting and bidding process normally takes about seven months.
Construction of the superstructure and stations by contractor Italian-Thai Development Plc is about 95% complete.
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