Director-general Siripol Yodmuangcharoen yesterday said the traders were fined a total of Bt42,300. Ten of them were upcountry and the rest in Bangkok. They were mainly found not to have shown the price of goods or had quoted prices that were too high.

Illegal trading activities that hurt consumers will be subject to serious punishment, he said. Consumers who want to file complaints against illegal trading practices can call the department direct at 1569. - The Nation.

Rubber expansion

Increasing world demand and improved prices have prompted Vietnam to expand its rubber production, with a target of 1 million hectares of rubber plantations by 2015.

To serve that goal, Vietnam Rubber Corp became the Vietnam Rubber Industry Group at a ceremony on Sunday in Ho Chi Minh City.

Because rubber currently contributes more than US$1 billion (Bt34.84 billion) to the national export turnover, it is extremely important to step up development of the industry, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said at the ceremony.

Vietnam News Agency said rubber was now grown on 220,000 hectares. Of that, 180,000 hectares yielded an average of 1.8 tonnes per hectare, the highest in the world. The sector employs 83,000 workers, 10,000 of whom are ethnic minorities. It earned 4.1 trillion dong (Bt8.9 billion) last year. - The Nation.