The Ministry of Commerce has released data from the Trade Policy and Strategy Office (TPSO) showing that the top five Thai export products worldwide are condoms, canned tuna, durian, cassava and canned pineapple.
“Condoms and canned tuna are excellent products as their market shares continue to grow compared to the same period last year. However, it is necessary to keep an eye on durian, cassava, and canned pineapple as competitors are starting to take market share from Thailand. Thai entrepreneurs need to adjust their strategy and look for new markets so that we can maintain our lead,” said Mr. Poonpong Naiyanapakorn, director of TPSO.
A worker arranges durians at a durian processing factory in Chanthaburi province, Thailand, May 5, 2022. (Xinhua/Wang Teng)
In 2022, Thailand exported durian with a total value of USD 3.219 billion. The main markets were China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Thailand has the largest market for durian export with 93.3 per cent. However, this was a decrease of 3.9 per cent from the previous year. The second and third largest durian exporters are Vietnam and Malaysia with 6 and 7 per cent respectively.
Canned tuna exports were valued at US$ 2,284.21 million. The main markets were the US, Japan and Australia, respectively, with Thailand being the No. 1 share with 24.8% of total global import value, an increase of 0.2% from the previous year, followed by Ecuador 15.2% and Spain 9.5% respectively.
Thai Union Manufacturing, Plant 1 and 2 in Human Food in Tuna production line in Samut Sakhon, Thailand.
The total value of cassava exports was USD 1.523 billion. China was the most important market for Thailand, accounting for 98.6 per cent of Thai exports. In terms of imports, Thailand accounted for 46.5 per cent of total global imports, a decrease of 5.6 per cent from the previous year. Cambodia and Laos ranked second and third with 34.1 and 9.1 per cent respectively.
For canned pineapple, the exports worth US$ 469.69 million. The main markets are the United States, Russia and Germany, respectively. Thailand ranks No. 1 in the global market with 36.4% of total global import value, followed by Indonesia 25.7% and the Philippines 18.0%
thai-german cooperation
Thailand exported condoms with a total value of USD 272 million to China, the United States and Vietnam as main markets. Thai exports accounted for 44 per cent of total global imports, up 0.3 per cent from the previous year. China and Malaysia were second and third with 12.8 and 10.8 per cent respectively.
Smoke is seen in Khartoum, Sudan, Saturday, April 22, 2023. Photo: Marwan Ali / AP
BANGKOK — The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday said the first group of Thai nationals has been evacuated from the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, where ongoing violence has left hundreds of people dead.
Ministry spokeswoman Kanchana Patarachoke said a convoy carrying 212 Thai citizens completed a 850-kilometer road trip from the capital to Port Sudan on the country’s Red Sea coast this morning. From there, they will board a Saudi ship to Jeddah, where the Royal Thai Air Force’s A340 and C-130 transport aircrafts are on standby for airlifts to Bangkok.
“We believe the most difficult time has now passed,” Kanchana said. “We are doing our best under this challenging circumstance.”
The Royal Thai Embassy in Cairo, which is responsible for Sudan, is also coordinating for the extraction of another group of five Thais who are residing outside Khartoum, Kanchana said.
Foreign governments raced to extract their diplomats and citizens from Sudan as the army and the powerful Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group battled for control for more than a week.
The World Health Organization said the fighting has killed more than 400 people and injured thousands, though the death toll is believed to be much higher.
Foreign minister Don Pramudwinai said the government does not have a specific count of how many Thais are in Sudan since some of them are not registered with the embassy.
Thousands of people arrive for the Ramnavi festival in Ayodhya, India, Thursday, March 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
NEW DELHI (AP) — India will be the world’s most populous country by the end of this month, eclipsing an aging China, the United Nations said Monday. The milestone raises questions about whether India can repeat the economic success that has made China central to the world’s economy and a leading global power.
The news comes at a moment when India is promoting itself as a rising international player as the host of this year’s G20 Summit. It’s also becoming a more attractive destination for multinational companies seeking to reduce their reliance on China.
A general view of Churchgate Station during peak hours in Mumbai, India, Thursday, March 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade, File)
By the end of April, India’s population is expected to reach 1.425 billion, which means it will match and then surpass mainland China’s, the U.N.’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs said in a news release. The forecast is based on their latest estimates of global population.
It’s not clear exactly when India’s population will pass China’s. It may have already have done so. Demographers say the limits of population data make it impossible to calculate a date.
Another U.N. report last week projected that India would have 2.9 million people more than China by mid-year, but that was based on snapshots of the populations at the beginning of the year and the middle of the year. Monday’s announcement is based on an analysis that tried to estimate when the population crossover will take place.
Families watch from a bridge as thousands of people enter the holy River Saryu in Ayodhya, India, Thursday, March 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
The Indian government, which hasn’t done a census since 2011, has not officially commented on the estimates. The timing of when India surpasses China in population will likely be revised once India conducts its next census, John Wilmoth, director of the United Nations’ population division, said at a news conference at U.N. headquarters in New York.
“The precise timing of this crossover isn’t known, and it will never be known,” Wilmoth said. “There is uncertainty in the data.”
India and China are neighbors and have a complicated relationship, including robust trade ties and a long-running border dispute. The United States and its allies increasingly see India, the world’s largest democracy, as a counterweight to China.
But their interests don’t always align. India, unlike much of the West, has refrained from condemning its Cold War ally Russia over its war in Ukraine, instead adopting a neutral stance even as India’s purchases of Russian crude have soared.
Observers say India’s sheer size, and its young population, give it the potential to replicate China’s economic trajectory.
Young workers who flooded into China’s cities to take factory jobs starting in the 1990s were an essential ingredient in the boom that saw China become the world’s second-largest economy.
But China’s population peaked in 2022 and has since started to fall. By the close of the century, its population could drop below 1 billion, the U.N. said. The country’s elderly population is swelling while its birth rate is still plunging, from 1.7 babies per woman in 2017 to 1.2 in 2022, according to U.N. data.
By contrast, India has the world’s largest young population, a higher fertility rate, and has seen a consistent decrease in infant mortality. Experts caution against alarm about overpopulation, however, as the country’s fertility rate has been steadily falling, from over five births per woman in the 1960s, to two in 2022. India’s population is expected to stop growing and stabilize around 2064.
“The main driver is the levels of fertility in these two countries,” Wilmoth said.
People throng a market place in Mumbai, India, Monday, April 24, 2023. The United Nations says India will be the world’s most populous country by the end of this month, eclipsing an aging China. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)
Historic reforms in the 1990s spurred spectacular growth and India’s $3 trillion economy is the fifth-largest in the world today as its high-skilled sectors have soared.
But India’s economy is still far behind China’s. In 1970, the two countries had nearly equal per capita incomes, but today China’s gross domestic product is $12,556 per person, compared to India’s $2,256, according to 2021 World Bank data.
Economists warn that even as India’s GDP has surged, so has joblessness. About 80% of Indian workers still toil in informal jobs, which are often precarious, low paid, and offer little to no benefits. Still, India stands to benefit from what is referred to as a “demographic dividend,” when the swelling of the working-age population spurs rapid economic growth, provided there’s strong participation in the labor force, Wilmoth said.
India’s vast population also means that many challenges play out on a huge scale, whether it’s grappling with the growing threat of climate change, disparities between its urban and rural populations, a shrinking number of women in the workforce or a widening religious divide.
“For this century to belong to India, it must make the most of its demographic advantage,” said Brahma Chellaney, a professor of strategic affairs at the Centre for Policy Research. “China’s demographic crisis is timely for India’s growth — but only if it can find enough good quality employment for its teeming youth.”
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KRUTIKA PATHI reported from New Delhi and JOE McDONALD reported from Beijing. AP writer Mike Schneider in Orlando, Florida, contributed to this report.
Mr. Napatsara or Miss Lookpad Aomsin, 30, a transgender woman, was arrested at a room in Bangkok’s Charansanitwong district by the Huai Khwang police station.
Mr.S, 30, a Sri Lankan tourist, claimed to the officer at the Huai Khwang police station that he went to drink alcohol at a liquor store in the Asok Montri area around 4 a.m. on April 9. He met Ms. Aomsin and later invited her to a room in the Huai Khwang district.
Until 8 a.m. in the morning, he became conscious and found that his cash of 5,500 U.S.dollars or 189,310 baht, had disappeared with this girl.
As a result, he decided to go to the police station. Ms. Aomsin was arrested when the police acquired evidence. Miss Omsin disputed the allegations even after she was arrested.
Initially, the officers charged her with an allegation of burglary at night and took him to the Huai Khwang Police Station investigator for further legal action.
This photo released on April 24, 2023 shows the Robinson projection of Mars. (CNSA/Handout via Xinhua)
HEFEI, (Xinhua) — The China National Space Administration (CNSA) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences on Monday jointly released a series of global images of Mars obtained during China’s first Mars exploration mission.
The series of colored images were released at the launch event of the Space Day of China held in Hefei, capital city of east China’s Anhui Province.
Processed in accordance with mapping standards with a spatial resolution of 76 meters, the images include the orthographic projection of the eastern and western hemispheres of Mars, the Robinson projection of Mars, and the Mercator projection plus an azimuthal projection of the planet.
This photo released on April 24, 2023 shows the orthographic projection of the eastern and western hemispheres of Mars. (CNSA/Handout via Xinhua)
According to the CNSA, these images are based on 14,757 image data acquired by a remote-sensing camera on the Tianwen-1 orbiter over eight months from November 2021 to July 2022.
China’s Tianwen-1 mission, consisting of an orbiter, a lander and a rover, was launched on July 23, 2020 and entered the orbit of Mars after 202 days of flight.
The lander, carrying the rover Zhurong, touched down on May 15, 2021 in the southern part of Utopia Planitia, a vast plain in the northern hemisphere of Mars. Zhurong drove down from its landing platform to the Martian surface on May 22, starting its exploration of the red planet.
“The global images of Mars will provide a better quality base map for Mars exploration and scientific research,” said Zhang Rongqiao, the chief designer of China’s first Mars exploration mission.
“It is an important contribution that Tianwen-1 has made to human deep space exploration,” he added.
This photo released on April 24, 2023 shows the Mercator projection plus an azimuthal projection of Mars. (CNSA/Handout via Xinhua)
Zhang noted that starting from May 1 this year, the scientific data of Tianwen-1 will be open to the world.
The research team has also identified a large number of geographical entities near the landing site from high-resolution images of Mars. The International Astronomical Union has named, according to relevant rules, 22 of the geographical entities after the historical and cultural villages and towns in China with a population of less than 100,000.
“The scientific exploration data obtained by the Tianwen-1 mission will make a contribution to human’s in-depth knowledge of Mars,” the CNSA said.
According to the CNSA, the Tianwen-1 orbiter had achieved global remote sensing detection on Mars by June 29, 2022. So far, it has been operating for more than 1,000 days in good condition and continuing to accumulate remote sensing raw data. The rover Zhurong, currently in dormancy, traveled 1,921 meters on the red planet.
The Election Commission secretary general Sawaeng Boonme said on Monday, April 24 that only the Thai Embassy in London mistakenly published the wrong voting number of a Pheu Thai constituency-based MP candidate and no other Thai Embassy had the same problem.
The remark came after the Pheu Thai Party said earlier today it will petition the Election Commission to investigate why the Thai Embassy in London posted pre-election details of each constituency-based MP candidate but assigned the wrong number for the party’s candidate. It also wants the EC to check on other Thai embassies too.
Mr. Itthiporn Boonprakong, chairman of the Election Commission, said that this won’t affect election day outside the Kingdom, that will begin on April 25 because the EC has already fixed the mistake.
“As soon as we knew there was a mistake with the photos of MP candidates in Bangkok, District 11, it was fixed on April 18 and the embassy, especially the Thai embassy in London, England, was asked to send new valid photos to all registered voters in London,” said the president of the EC.
Mr. Athiphon said that he told the Office of the EC to ask the foreign ministry if there were any other cases like the ones in London. which doesn’t exist right now.
This photo courtesy of Shawna Bell shows a fire during the “Fantasmic" show in the Tom Sawyer Island section of Disneyland resort in Anaheim, Calif., on Saturday, April 22, 2023. (Courtesy Shawna Bell via AP)
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Spectators at Disneyland’s popular “Fantasmic” show got a shock this weekend when the feature’s fire-breathing animatronic dragon suddenly burst into flames.
No injuries were reported following the blaze Saturday night at the Southern California theme park, the Anaheim Fire Department said.
This photo courtesy of Shawna Bell shows a fire during the “Fantasmic” show in the Tom Sawyer Island section of Disneyland resort in Anaheim, Calif., on Saturday, April 22, 2023. (Courtesy Shawna Bell via AP)
Ryan Laux, a frequent Disneyland visitor, said fire has always been a part of the “Fantasmic” presentation. But he said he knew something was awry when when flames didn’t come from where they usually do.
“The head started going on fire instead of the fire projecting out,” said Laux, who lives in Los Angeles and captured the blaze on video.
The show was stopped almost immediately “and then right after that, the dragon started catching fire and the whole body was up in flames,” he said Sunday.
The show takes place twice nightly near the park’s famous Tom Sawyer Island. The climax features Mickey Mouse battling a giant dragon named Maleficent.
Laux said Mickey vanished from the stage as soon as the dragon’s head became engulfed in flames.
The extent of the damage wasn’t immediately known.
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On Monday morning, the Wichit Police Station in Phuket Province got a report that a minibus had gone off the road on the PSU Phuket – Mueang Chao Fah road in Wichit Subdistrict, Mueang District, Phuket Province. The traffic police and the Phuket Rescue Foundation went to check it out.
On the side of the road, they found a blue and white minibus that was registered in Bangkok. Six tourists were injured and taken to Bangkok Debuk Hospital, but one refused treatment.
Four Indians and one Pakistani were among the tourists who were hurt. Most of them had cuts and scrapes, but the Pakistani who was hurt has to wait for the X-ray results to see if his discs are compressed. Everyone with a travel company has protection for medical care in case of an accident, and tour companies have staff to take care of them.
Mr. Anon Khamnarong, 30, who drives a minibus, said he took foreign tourists from their hotels in Patong Subdistrict, Kathu District, to Rasada Pier in Ratsada Subdistrict. He didn’t know the way, so he used the GPS on his phone. When he looked up to see where he was going, he lost control of the car and it went off the corner.
The results of Mr. Anon’s blood alcohol test were not found, but the officer took him in for further questioning.
Local elementary school students invited to preview a new Harry Potter theme park in Tokyo's Nerima Ward walk around a Hogwarts Castle experience on April 24, 2023, ahead of its official opening in June. (Kyodo)
A Harry Potter theme park was unveiled in Tokyo at a media preview ahead of its scheduled opening on June 16, park operator Warner Bros. Studios Japan LLC. said Monday.
The Warner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo – The Making of Harry Potter will be the company’s second attraction themed on its popular films, based on the famous novels by British author J.K. Rowling, following the success of a similar theme park in London.
The media and about 30 local elementary school students were invited to see a replica of Hogwarts Castle’s Great Hall, an iconic building that served as the stage for many of the adventures embarked upon by Harry and his friends.
The students got to see various features of the hall, such as animal-shaped candle holders, its flagstone floor and life-sized statues of the characters.
“I was impressed that everything was replicated in minute detail. I can’t wait for the opening,” said Setsuna Goto, an 11-year-old elementary school student.
The park, located in Tokyo’s Nerima Ward, is being built on what was the 30,000-square meter site of Toshimaen park, formerly one of the largest amusement parks in the capital, which was closed in August 2020 after nearly 100 years.
