KTC pins its Q4 hopes on tourism subsidiesJanejit Ladpli, KTC's vice-president for travel and leisure marketing. SET-listed Krungthai Card (KTC) hopes tourism subsidy campaigns will spur domestic trips and drive travel spending via its cards in the fourth quarter. Tourism-related expenditure via KTC cards in 2019 was 18 billion baht, before plunging to 9.3 billion last year. The slowdown of 2020-21 saw tourism spending fall out of the top 10 for KTC cards. Ms Janejit believes tourism confidence will return in 2022 along with tourism spending.

A banner of Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo, fourth left, and teammates is displayed at Old Trafford. (Reuters photo)London: Cristiano Ronaldo will make an eagerly anticipated second debut for Manchester United today while Arsenal aim to get themselves off the foot of the Premier League table. After winning the Golden Boot at Euro 2020 and in Serie A for Juventus last season, Ronaldo set another personal record by becoming the top goalscorer in the history of international football last week. Since Ferguson's retirement in 2013, the Red Devils have failed to seriously challenge for the Premier League title. Mikel Arteta's position as manager is under increasing threat, with the Spaniard reportedly given four more Premier League games to save his job.

Curfews to stay until end of September, says CCSAThe curfew imposed from 9pm–4am to curb coronavirus infections in some provinces, will remain in place until the end of this month at least, the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) has announced. He also said the CCSA discussed the kingdom's upcoming vaccination drive on Sept 27–Oct 31, which will see the distribution of 24 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to five target groups. Of the total jabs, 10 million doses are from AstraZeneca, 8 million from Pfizer and 6 million from Sinovac. The vaccine doses that will be used for this group account for 70%, or 16.8 million, of the total 24 million doses. Students aged 12-17 will receive two Pfizer doses, accounting for 20%, or 4.8 million, of the 24 million total vaccine doses.

Social media criticism erupted this week after the railway company on Monday announced its plan to hire a company to ship the donated trains from Japan to Thailand. Some Facebook users with high followings began asking why Thailand must pay the 42.5 million baht for the used trains. In a prior statement, the SRT said it received donated trains from Japan. It noted that it had earlier received a number of donated railway carriages from JR-West. Ekkarat Si-arayanphong, director of the SRT's public relations centre, said a recent inspection of the 17 donated train carriages found they were in very good condition.

Lockdown sees gyms sweatOperators of fitness centres and personal trainers have submitted a petition to a House committee on sports, urging further easing of Covid-19 restrictions to allow them to reopen. Thanpawat Thetphuwadolvithit, a representative of a gym and fitness operator group, said the industry is drafting a Covid-19 prevention plan for the sector so that they can safely resume operations. Mr Thanpawat also asked the government to assist trainers made unemployed following the preventative shutdown order. We are likely to earn only 50% of pre-pandemic income while shouldering full expenses," he said. Boonlue Prasertsopha, chairman of the House committee on sports, said the panel will see what it can do to help the group in the red zones when it meets next Wednesday.

Tackling Covid wasteThe Ministry of Public Health will start delivering 8.5 million Covid antigen test kits (ATKs) to the public on Wednesday. The discarding of used ATKs will only add to an ever-growing mountain of Covid-infectious waste which is currently mainly face masks. During normal times, such waste is typically limited to hospitals and medical facilities and is managed by a professionally licensed waste disposal company, which is costly. There had been a suggestion to allow industrial incinerators and furnaces to burn infectious waste but it did not gain much attention from the authorities. Let's hope something comes from it, as without a proper disposal system, infectious waste from Covid measures will become a new problem for our "new normal" Covid lifestyle.

PM U-turns on tackling 'Ferrari' cultureA parade marks National Police Day on Oct 13 each year. Despite a moderate police salary, Pol Col Thitisan, aka "Joe Ferrari" to those in the area, was found to have property worth an estimated 600 million baht. Let's face facts -- Joe Ferrari is just the tip of an RTP iceberg of graft and dodgy dealings. It should therefore come as no surprise that Joe Ferrari had been tipped as a rising star at the RTP. In many ways, the Joe Ferrari case is similar to the infamous Boss saga.

Big C Supercenter Plc plans to increase investment to expand its retail business in Cambodia over the next five years. Recently Big C opened its first Mini Big C store at Depo Market located on Jawaharlal Nehru Boulevard in Phnom Penh. Roughly 80% of products at Mini Big C Phnom Penh are imported from Thailand, with 20% local products. Big C plans to open two hypermarkets in Thailand in the fourth quarter this year and 150 Mini Big Cs this year. Of the total, 152 stores are Big C hypermarkets, 61 Big C Markets, 1,259 Mini Big Cs and 144 are Pure drug stores.

Sept 11 didn't change the world forever'Changed the world forever' is the most hackneyed phrase in journalism, and if you can get through this week (the 20th anniversary of the Sept 11 attacks) without hearing it half a dozen times you'll be very lucky. With the benefit of hindsight, how much has the world changed as a result of Sept 11? So there were really no big changes in the Arab world as a result of Sept 11, and that goes for the rest of the Middle East too. But most of those deaths were "collateral damage", and the US military-industrial-academic complex would almost certainly have found other excuses for that scale of spending if Sept 11 hadn't happened. Did the world change forever?

Capt Thamanat has been accused of being behind a move to topple Gen Prayut in last week's censure debate. It's reported that Gen Prayut did not offer much of an explanation to Gen Prawit except that he had his reasons and he would take care of things. Gen Prayut and Capt Thamanat were believed to have cleared the air in a meeting hosted by Gen Prawit ahead of the censure vote last Saturday. In hindsight, Gen Prayut did show signs that things would not end well for Capt Thamanat. The move also sends a message to PPRP MPs and coalition partners that Gen Prayut can be tough when needed.

Medvedev advances to US Open final as Djokovic eyes SlamRussia's Daniil Medvedev advanced to the US Open final on Friday by defeating Canada's Felix Auger-Aliassime. Medvedev, the 2019 US Open runner-up, reached his third Grand Slam final by eliminating 12th seed Auger-Aliassime 6-4, 7-5, 6-2. "I don't think I played my best today but I'm really happy to be in the final," Medvedev said. Medvedev, who lost to Djokovic in this year's Australian Open final, trails Zverev 5-4 in their all-time rivalry and trails Djokovic 5-3. By beating Zverev to reach the brink of the Slam, Djokovic would match Federer's all-time record of 31 men's Slam final appearances.

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi is gearing up to increase its market share in the high-end handset segment and roll out new Internet of Things (IoT) products, including electric vehicles (EVs). Xiaomi climbed to the top spot for the first time in the Thai market with a market share of 21% in the second quarter, based on a report by global analyst Canalys. It reached No.2 in global smartphone shipments for the first time with a market share of 16.7%. In the first half this year, the Thai smartphone market grew 16%, a similar rate as in the global market, he said. To maintain its leading position, Xiaomi plans to increase the number of MI stores from 38 in September to 100 by year-end.

You are invited to join Thai-German Business Forum webinarpublished : 10 Sep 2021 at 14:02 SPONSORED CONTENT1Thailand Board of Investment (BOI) Frankfurt Office, together with Royal Thai Consulate-General Frankfurt Am Main, The Eastern Economic Corridor Office of Thailand, and Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IHK) Frankfurt Am Main, cordially invite you to join the "Thai-German Business Forum: Strategic Partnership on BCG Economy in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) of Thailand" webinar. Date: 16 September 2021 (Thursday) Time: 15.00 – 16.45 hrs. (Thailand Time) Language: English Registration: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcqdOmqqj0pHtXuEO8wWQaB_8cmibrtTfLc Free of charge10KeywordsBOI2021Do you like the content of this article?

Toyota cuts production further on virus issues, chip woesToyota said the move did not affect its full-year operating income forecast. TOKYO: Toyota, the world's top-selling automaker, said on Friday it would further slash production in Japan and abroad because of ongoing virus disruptions and a chronic global chip shortage. It comes after the automaker had already last month announced a 40% cut to September production, equivalent to 360,000 units. The outlook for November and beyond remained "unclear", though it said demand was strong and "the production plan for November and beyond assumes that the previous plan will be maintained". Toyota's rivals have also been forced to slow or temporarily halt production because of the chip shortage.

New 'Life is Strange' debuts as LGBTQ video games take off"Life is Strange: True Colors" allows players to pursue same-sex relationships as they journey through a supernaturally-tinged version of small-town AmericaBRUSSELS: With a bisexual protagonist who wields a mysterious superpower, the new instalment of "Life is Strange" is the latest in a growing array of video games that place LGBTQ characters in the spotlight. Like previous games in the popular series, "Life is Strange: True Colors" allows players to pursue same-sex relationships as they journey through a supernaturally-tinged version of small-town America. For years, gay, bisexual and transgender characters featured mainly in video games made by small independent companies. Before it developed "True Colors", Deck Nine Games worked on "Before The Storm", a 2017 "Life is Strange" prequel which similarly depicts a range of LGBTQ characters. Video game giant Ubisoft had stumbled with its own attempt at introducing LGBTQ characters in its cult "Assassin's Creed" series.