Every year more than a million people flock to the Bitec convention centre in Bang Na, where the annual Bangkok International Motor Show takes place.

The show is the largest automotive exhibition in Southeast Asia and the second largest in Asia after Japan, with more than 300 companies, including 28 automobile and four motorcycle manufacturers, taking part this year.

Dr Prachin Eamlumnow is the man behind the Bangkok International Motor Show (BIMS). He was the first person in Thailand to come up with the idea of staging such a show back in 1979.

The first motor show was held at Lumpini Park and was a one-day event featuring the 1979 car-of-the-year awards. The following year it was moved to Suan Amphorn, where it remained until 1996, when the Thai automobile market peaked at 589,000 units.

In order to gain international status, the show was then moved in 1997 to Bitec, where the world-class facility provided visitors with an international atmosphere like those at the Frankfurt or Tokyo Motor Shows.

Being the man at the helm of the motor show, as well as the Thai automotive media industry, Prachin, who is also chairman of Grand Prix Group, which publishes several automobile-related magazines, is often hailed as the "Automobile Mafioso" or the "Godfather of Automobiles", but that is something he denies.

"I am just a businessman who, as a good Thai citizen also wants to help develop Thailand's automobile industry to the global level," he said.

"There are a large number of automobile companies and suppliers in Thailand. As a member of the Thai media, my duty is to bridge the gap between the producers and the consumers.

"The Thai government has a target for the automobile industry to produce 1.5 million vehicles in 2010, when we will fully become the 'Detroit of Asia'," Prachin said.

Organising the motor show is one way to support the local auto industry, he says.

"A lot of auto companies rely on the show to boost sales in the second quarter, and it has become a tradition for auto-buyers to wait until the show before making any decision, since all the latest models are there along with attractive promotions," he said.

Although sales activities are not held in other world-class events like Tokyo and Frankfurt, in Thailand there is a different tradition.

"According to the OICA [Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d'Automobiles], which is the governing body for motor shows, sales activities are not allowed, so that you can't buy cars at the Tokyo or Frankfurt shows," he said. "However, we asked the OICA to have sales because it's the tradition in Thailand, and they have allowed us to. When people come to see the cars they like, they want to buy them. This is something that tells Western and Japanese companies about the different customs in this part of the world," he said.

Prachin also says auto companies use the data obtained from the show to determine the taste of Asian consumers and develop new models for the market.

"But other conditions are strictly followed, whether it is the concept vehicles, the new models or the number of visitors. We must also make sure that the show does not appear like a sales event. This year we negotiated with auto companies to ease up the sales activities or lower the amount of sales staff at the booths. In the past certain booths looked like a sales army, and we don't want that," he said.

Prachin says that the theme of the show is reflective of HM the King's efforts in introducing alternative fuels for use in Thailand.

"We want to support HM the King's idea of sufficiency economy as well as alternative energy. We need to lower the spending on imported fuel, which costs us Bt500 billion to Bt600 billion a year.

"Although the Thai automobile industry has progressed to a high level, we must not forget that Thailand has grown up from being an agriculture-based country and today the agricultural sector still plays an important role in the well-being of the country, especially with the emergence of the energy crisis.

"HM the King has great vision, and many of his projects, such as biodiesel, were implemented long before oil prices started to fluctuate. So at this year's Bangkok International Motor Show we are also exhibiting agricultural innovations as well as alternative fuels derived from nature."

The theme of this year's show is "Drive through Nature" and stresses lowering oil dependence by using alternative fuels.

Kingsley Wijayasinha

The Nation