"The new government will implement stringent restrictions to control the business expansion by multinational retail giants. The overthrow is of a capitalistic management that has taken the side of foreign investors," Panthep Suleesatira, a coordinator of the Opposition to Multinational Business Union, said yesterday.

His statement contradicts the fact that it was the now-deposed government that was the one mulling new laws to control the retail giants.

He said small retailers had high hopes that the new government would accelerate the imposition of a retail business law to control the expansion of all foreign retailers.

Previously, more than 2,000 small retailers from around the country had planned to rally at the Commerce Ministry yesterday to call for the government to control the expansion of multinational retailers. However, the coup on Tuesday night put a halt to their plans.

The union has ordered all protesters nationwide not to enter Bangkok. Panthep said that all retailers had already returned to their hometowns.

Panthep said traditional retail enterprises would suspend their campaign until the situation is under the control of a new appointed government. But the small retailers will not stop their call for government control of multinational retailers. In a letter to the new government, the union will propose the continual control of giant companies' expansion, he said.

The Commerce Ministry had called for a meeting today with four giant retailers - Carrefour, Big C, Makro and Tesco Lotus - to seek agreement for a suspension of their expansions for 30 days. However, Tesco has yet to cooperate with the ministry. Panthep said large retailers should understand the problems that their growth causes small retailers, but some foreign enterprises continue building new stores.

At least four Tesco Lotus outlets are under construction in the provinces: two hypermarkets in Ban Klang in Lamphun and Mae Taeng in Chiang Mai, and two Tesco Markets at Ban Phaeo in Samut Sakhon and Sam Phran in Nakhon Pathom.

Tesco's expansion comes in a variety forms: hypermarkets with more than 10,000sqm of floor space, supermarkets with 5,000 to 7,000sqm, Tesco Markets with 1,000sqm, and Tesco Express stores, which can be set up in one or two shops of a building. The Express outlets are about the same size as 7-Eleven shops, which are even more abundant and run by a local franchisee - the giant Charoen Pokphand Group.

Panthep added that small retailers only demanded that giant retailers stop their expansion into small communities.

Boonchai Chokwatana, chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce's committee on wholesale and retail business, called on concerned government agencies, particularly the Commerce Ministry, to seriously look at measures to control multinational business expansion.

Petchanet Pratruangkrai

 The Nation