The News Review:

- Last month 14 Thai software houses visited Vietnam on a road show…
- … news and business from Indonesia Philippines Thailand…
- Bangkok Post : Business news
- The Sunday Herald – Scotland’s award-winning independent newspaper
- Dedicated follower of Gruen

Last month 14 Thai software houses visited Vietnam on a road show…
Bangkok Post – Jun 11, 2008
Thai software developers are no longer embarking on trial-and-error attempts to address overseas markets and are now able to go abroad under the umbrella of the Thai Software Export Promotion Association (Tsep) which has the joint-support of the Software Industry Promotion Agency (Sipa) and the Commerce Ministry’s Department of Export Promotion. A group of Tsep members comprising 14 Thai software houses recently took part in the first official road show to Vietnam visiting both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City underscoring their ambitions with the theme: “Improve services operations using world class software solutions from Thailand’s 14 best companies. With an advertisement in Vietnamese in a local magazine the group has been successful at drawing potential customers from various industries including the financial sector insurance construction healthcare hospitality companies and some system integrators. The revenue generated by the Vietnamese market is expected to be worth 100 million baht this year. “We would like to build the Thai software brand name in Vietnam because software is something requiring continuity especially after-sales services” said Tsep president Chalermpon Punnotok who is also the CE of Computer Telephony Asia (CT Asia)… This was the first time Longkong had addressed the Vietnamese market and Pongsawat noted that it needed an on-going process because enterprise software required localisation both in terms of language and regulations. All of the 14 Thai companies have niche areas of expertise including simplified solutions for facility management and enterprise asset management solutions. KP Soft develops software for hire purchase businesses and has a dealer management system; IT Works provides security technology such as fingerprint scanning and RFID solutions; ITEUS Corp offers consulting and outsourcing for the healthcare technology; Brain Stream is an information system provider; Comanche International has a hotel management solution; Mango Interactive has a network digital signage display and a content management system; while Net-Com Professional is a web application developer. Sipa president Dr Rungruang Limchoopatipac said the agency supported the private sector to expand the export market by co-ordinating with the government sectors in potential markets. The appearance of the ICT Minister Dr Mun Pattanotai at the recent MoU signing between Thai and Vietnamese companies was an example he said. Vietnam is the first country that Thai software houses have approached together with the support of Tsep. The next destinations will be Japan Dubai China and the Philippines.

… news and business from Indonesia Philippines Thailand…
Asia Times nline – Jun 11, 2008
The court proceedings provided plenty of quotable fodder for bloggers. In reply to a question posed by an SDP lawyer on the first day of the defamation hearing prime minister Lee was quoted in the local media saying: “I do consider Dr Chee as a liar as a cheat somebody who has brought discredit to the opposition in Singapore but I do not hate him. At the same time Singaporeans have also followed closely on-line reporting of the May 19 raid of the private screening in a Singapore hotel of the anti-government documentary “ne Nation Under Lee”. Created by political activists the 45-minute video chronicles and criticizes Lee Kuan Yew’s rise to power and his sustained crackdown on political dissidents. Although government authorities stopped the film’s screening it is still available over the Internet. Coverage of recent events in the mainstream media including the English-language daily Straits Times has underscored its pro-government bias. News of Nair’s arrest focused mainly on his political background and referred to him variously as either a “former Singaporean” or “former [opposition] Workers’ Party member” rather than a trained US lawyer.

Bangkok Post : Business news
Bangkok Post – Jun 11, 2008
CE Kevin Beauvais said the acquisition completed on May 14 would support the company’s policy in expanding to target customers ranging from the luxury to mid-tier hotel markets as well as management and consultancy services for hospitality developers. InVision’s own hotel brands include SMA Hotels & Resorts Lantern Hotels & Resorts and Glow Hotels. It also holds equity and co-invests in some properties. After the acquisition the mid-tier Swiss Park with 108 rooms will be renovated by the second half of 2009. It will remain open during the renovations which will cost about 150 million baht. nce renovations are completed the hotel will be rebranded as Glow Hotel @ Sukhumvit 11… nce renovations are completed the hotel will be rebranded as Glow Hotel @ Sukhumvit 11. Condom firm grows CNSUMER PRDUCTS :Ansell a US condom maker will spend 100 million baht this year to improve production efficiency at its factory in Surat Thani. Prayuth Boonmasuwan sales and marketing manager of Ansell Thailand said it would maintain condom prices while production costs were rising due to higher oil prices. The Surat Thani plant has a capacity of one billion condoms per year and 97% of its output is exported. “We will try to improve efficiency and save costs. ur condoms are usually sold at five baht lower than the other brands. This is our selling point” Mr Prayuth said.

The Sunday Herald – Scotland’s award-winning independent newspaper
Sunday Herald – Jun 11, 2008
“If the Jersey team have a detailed picture of what they’ve been told from many sources and the excavations at the home corroborate the visual descriptions then the suspects should be worried very worried. Victims’ accounts describe how children at the home went missing how staff would describe those who disappeared as simply “runaways”. Harper’s team have contacted some of the runaways children who escaped the home left the island and made new lives for themselves in places as far away as Australia and Thailand. But what records there are can’t account for all the claimed runaways. Jersey’s shocked population hope all the answers lie away from the island but many seem worried that more nightmares are still to come. Rumours of buried bodies says Harper “can’t be ignored”. At the Moorings Hotel in Gorey harbour just a few minutes’ walk down the hill from Haut de la Garenne the scene looks like postcard perfection… Jersey’s shocked population hope all the answers lie away from the island but many seem worried that more nightmares are still to come. Rumours of buried bodies says Harper “can’t be ignored”. At the Moorings Hotel in Gorey harbour just a few minutes’ walk down the hill from Haut de la Garenne the scene looks like postcard perfection. With the mediaeval fortification of Mont rgueil behind small boats and yachts bobbing in the harbour and the Royal Jersey Golf Club just down the road conversation in the hotel bar should be about the simple relaxed life of the Bailiwick of Jersey a sort of offshore Bournemouth. Instead John says the island doesn’t like this much attention. “They the newspapers say we knew but said nothing kept quiet. ” He points towards the coast and the golf club.

Dedicated follower of Gruen
The Australian – Jun 11, 2008
Another fascinating segment in this episode of The Gruen Transfer was one which examined underwear advertising. Among several campaigns critiqued was the classic spot for Antz Pantz which ran about two decades ago. It’s the one that looks like it’s set in a sweaty moodily-lit Bangkok hotel room. Ants crawl over the panty-clothed legs and nether regions of an attractive scantily-clad Australian model until she summonses an anteater with the command "Sic ‘em Rex!" The commercial quite rightly won lots of awards and went down in advertising history. Unusually and significantly perhaps it was created by two women both of whom have now worked successfully for many years in the US. ne of the panellists correctly identified that when you stripped back the production values and the fun it was in essence nothing more than an excellent example of good branding… I was reminded of this just the other day by a curious news item in The Australian. It went thus: "BBC Journo in alleged royal conspiracy". "The BBC has rejected police allegations in Thailand that one of its correspondents insulted revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej a charge that can result in up to 15 years in jail. " So what on Earth did the correspondent do to be accused of this heinous crime? ne of the specific complaints relates to the placing of a picture of former Prime Minister Mr Thaksin Shinawatra above a picture of the King on the BBC website in contravention of a Thai convention that images of the monarch must always be at the top. Many crimes have been committed in the name of advertising and we can all name a few. But none however appalling can attract a 15-year jail sentence. Monty Arnhold is founder of A Second pinion which offers marketers unbiased creative appraisal of advertising ideas.

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.