The Bangkok Fashion City project's board has reviewed three sub-projects that have not gone according to plan, says chairman Chakramon Phasukavanich.

The first sub-project to be reassessed was the Fashion Trend Centre, an initiative that closed on September 30.

The Fashion Trend Centre included a magazine that was managed by Pim Plus PR. The Bangkok Fashion City board found that in the second and final edition of the magazine, Pim Plus PR had used content that had not been agreed on. Yesterday, the board began fining the company Bt40,000 per day.

Pim Plus PR claimed there were unavoidable reasons for the unplanned content. However, since it was unable to specify what those reasons were, the board will impose the daily fine until Pim Plus issues a revised second edition.

The second project reviewed was the Jewellery Advanced Research and Development project, managed by Srinakharinwirot University. This project promised to generate Bt14 million in revenues from book and VCD sales but to date has made only Bt200,000. Its management has asked to have its revenue target reviewed, a request the board has turned down.

Finally, the Thai Footwear and Leather Competitiveness Enhancement project, managed by King Mongkut's Institute of Technology North Bangkok and King Mongkut's University of Technology Thon Buri, had requested the submission dates for its third and fourth progress reports be extended.

The board approved the request, saying the final reports would be useful for local entrepreneurs.

Chakramon said that once the Bangkok Fashion City project was complete, the performance of each sub-project would be reviewed by Chulalongkorn University and the Finance Ministry. The ministry will then consider which sub-projects should be continued and request a fiscal-2008 budget for each one that is.

He added that the Bangkok Fashion City offices would be closed once the entire project was finished.

To date, the government has spent Bt888.6 million on Bangkok Fashion City. The total budget for the project is Bt1.37 billion.

Chalida  Ekvitthayavechnukul

The Nation