Agricultural Land Reform Office secretary-general Anant Phusitthikul yesterday said the applicants were farmers in the office's land reform area. They all want to set up their own businesses similar to a government pilot project promoting community enterprises. The office has set up soft loans amounting to Bt900 million to finance the project. The interest rate is only one per cent.

Of the proposed borrowing, Bt400 million will be used for feeding cows and the rest will be spent on brand building for other agricultural crops such as rice, orchids and bananas.

International arrivals up

International visitor arrivals at Suvarnabhumi Airport in the four months of the year totalled 3,413,197, an increase of 2.61 per cent year on year.

This includes only those who arrived in Bangkok as a first point of entry and not those who flew directly to other points in Thailand or who entered at border checkpoints. About 70 per cent of visitors usually make Bangkok their first point of entry.

Arrivals at Suvarnabhumi Airport from major markets in the period included East Asia (1,525,989), Europe (1,114,770), the Americas (267,965), Oceania (161,097) and South Asia (187,526).

Catching more MICE

Thailand's Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) sector is performing well.

The Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau said the country should receive a total of 814,000 MICE delegates this year, generating about Bt56 billion in foreign exchange revenue.

In the first six months of the year, the number of visitor arrivals for conventions grew 70.54 per cent. There was also a 27.95-per-cent increase in business travellers. The highest number of convention delegates is coming from within Asean, led by Malaysia and followed by Singapore and Indonesia. Delegates from Japan are up 112.44 per cent and from South Korea up 358.5 per cent.

In promoting the MICE sector, the bureau has profiled all local trade and industry associations, especially the medical fraternity, which holds the biggest annual conventions. In the field of exhibitions, particular attention is being paid to the jewellery, automotive, agriculture and fashion industries.