Expo to boost thailand image as film, tv venue

The Commerce Ministry will this year hold the first Thailand Entertainment Expo to promote awareness among international producers of what the Kingdom has to offer.

A ministry source said last week that the public and private sectors would join in hosting the event at the Siam Paragon shopping mall from September 24-28.

The co-organisers are the Tourism and Sports Ministry, the Tourism Authority of Thailand, the Federation of National Film Associations, the Thai Enter-

tainment Industry Association, theFilm Industry Association of Thailand and the Thailand Cable TV Association.

The target participants are businessmen, buyers, investors, public and private agencies, columnists and other journalists and actors.

The ministry expects 150-200 companies in the film, music, game show, TV soap opera, production, animated film and cable TV businesses to book 200-250 exhibition booths.

Planned activities include a Thai animated film festival, a Thai film and music festival, a display of computer graphics in films, seminars - and an information technology and computer graphics competition among academic institutions nationwide.

The Department of Export Promotion encourages international crews to shoot here. Recent films such as "Alexander", "American Gangster" and "Rambo" contain local footage.

Rachane Potjanasuntorn, director-general of the department,

said the ministry expects the expo

to generate a lot of business in

TV programmes, soap operas, films and game shows. It is also hoped to bring together firms to produce entertainment works for the Asean market.

On Sunday, Thailand will host the International Indian Film Academy Awards, a move that is expected to win a slice of Bollywood's US$200 million (Bt6.4 billion) annual spending on foreign shoots.

About 30 Indian movies and 100 TV serials have been filmed here, contributing about $30 million to the country's coffers.

When the awards ceremony

was held in Malaysia's Genting Highlands in 2002, Indian tourists increased by 190 per cent to that region.

When it took place in Singapore in 2004, tourists increased there by 31 per cent and tourism receipts by 17 million Singaporean dollars (Bt400 million). The global TV value of the event was measured at S$8.8 million.