Chaos disrupting business plans

Political protests have disrupted a number of business itineraries, including several appearances at ITU Telecom Asia 2008 and celebrations for Italian-Thai Development's anniversary.

Rupal Shah, Asia-Pacific marketing director for Intel Technology Asia, a subsidiary of Intel Corp, cancelled an interview on digital marketing strategies scheduled for yesterday with The Nation, citing a lack of confidence in the situation in Thailand as the reason.

Ital-Thai also cancelled celebrations scheduled for today marking the 50th anniversary of Thailand's largest construction firm.

Several speakers at ITU Telecom Asia 2008 being held this week at Impact Muang Thong Thani have cancelled their appearances, because their companies, particularly in the US, are concerned about safety. These include executives of Cisco Systems.

Pornsak Srilamul, an adviser to the Information and Communications Technology Ministry, said Thailand would likely gain only Bt6 billion from an originally estimated Bt7 billion from spending by foreign participants, due to the effects of the escalating political unrest.

He said that about 20,000 foreign delegates and exhibitors did join the event as expected.

ITU Telecom Asia 2008 ends tomorrow.

Many companies, including Central Pattana, the Bangkok Medical Complex, Rose Media and Panasonic, yesterday cancelled a press conference scheduled for today to announce their plans.