Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts

Tuesday 4 December 2018

#Indonesia second in global ranking of digital travelers


United Kingdom-based travel commerce platform Travelport released the results of its Global Digital Traveler Research 2018 recently. The online surveys analyzed different digital traveler habits, with 16,200 respondents participating from 25 countries. 

Indonesia ranks second on the list, a spot higher than last year, as reported by kompas.com.
India tops the list for the second consecutive year, while Brazil, China and Nigeria ranked in third, fourth and fifth, respectively.
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https://www.hotelscombined.com/?a_aid=145054
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Most of the respondents in the surveys said gadgets were considered vital for tourists. In fact, almost half of the respondents said they booked and paid for travel expenses using apps.
Features such as electronic payments, audio search and electronic hotel room were also considered helpful in planning the trips.

Travelport is a travel commerce platform belonging to Travelport Worldwide Ltd. It provides technology, distribution, payment and other solutions for the travel and tourism industry.
 
Source - The JakartaPost
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https://12go.asia/?z=581915
 

Monday 23 May 2016

Cross-border route to link India, Myanmar, Thailand


1,400 km highway and other transport ties are major part of 'act east'policy, Indian ambassador says; world war ll bridges being repaired.

INDIA, Thailand and Myanmar are negotiating a breakthrough 1,400-kilometre highway that will link India with Southeast Asia by land for the first time in decades.

In an interview with The Nation, Indian Ambassador Bhagwant Singh Bishnoi said 73 bridges in Myanmar built during World War II more than seven decades ago are being renovated with funding from the Indian government to allow vehicles to cross the highway safely.

When the repair work is completed in 18 months, the highway could be opened to traffic from all three countries.

The planned highway, which starts in the eastern region of India from Moreh city to Myanmar's Tamu city, has received a positive response from Myanmar's new government following the recent general election.
At this stage, negotiations are underway to conclude a tri-nation motor vehicle agreement for the use of the 1,400km road that will reach Thailand at Tak's Mae Sot district.
 This will lead to land transport connectivity between South Asia and Southeast Asia and increased trade and investment among all partner countries with cargo transportation being the first priority.

However, there are still some security challenges for a section inside Myanmar, which will have to be resolved with the authorities.

The tri-nation highway exemplifies India's "Act East" policy, under which the Asian giant aims to boost its economic and other relations neighbouring countries in the East.

Myanmar's Dawei deep-sea port and industrial estate project near the Thai border is also expected to help further integrate eastern India with Asean.

The planned port can be linked up with India's Chennai port as well as Thailand's Laem Chabang Port on the other side of the ocean.

Under the "Act East" policy, India is also preparing to negotiate a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) which includes the 10-country Asean grouping on top of the current India-Asean free-trade agreement (FTA).

Some Asean countries such as Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia have become members of the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) FTA, so Asean is upgrading its FTAs with major trading partners such as India and China to formulate RCEP agreements, which are more advanced.

India views Asean as a central component of its "Act East" policy. Myanmar shares a border with India, while Thailand is a maritime neighbour with long-standing cultural and other ties, so both nations are India's gateway to Asean.

Thai-Indian trade amounted to US$8 billion (Bt285.5 billion) last year, while 1 million Indian tourists visited Thailand last year. There were also about 300 Indian weddings held here.

Among major Thai investors in India are CP Group, Delta Electronics, Ital-Thai and Pruksa Real Estate, while the major Indian firms operating in Thailand are Tata Group, Aditya Birla and Indorama.

India continues to rack up high economic growth of 7 per cent per year amid the global slowdown, he added.

 India’s recent pact with Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal to facilitate free vehicular movement coupled with the India-Myanmar-Thailand trilateral highway could potentially increase intraregional trade by almost 60% as well as extract maximum strategic mileage.

A strategic pact signed by India to facilitate free vehicular movement with Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal; alongside a proposal to step-up work on operationalising a 3200-km road link from Moreh (India) to Mae Sot (Thailand), are two vital components of the NDA government’s reinforced ‘Act East’ policy.
India’s recent pact with Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal to facilitate free vehicular movement coupled with the India-Myanmar-Thailand trilateral highway could potentially increase intraregional trade by almost 60% as well as extract maximum strategic mileage.
A strategic pact signed by India to facilitate free vehicular movement with Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal; alongside a proposal to step-up work on operationalising a 3200-km road link from Moreh (India) to Mae Sot (Thailand), are two vital components of the NDA government’s reinforced ‘Act East’ policy.
- See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/sub-regional-road-connectivity-pacts-from-looking-east-to-linking-east/#sthash.E0idX9lr.dpuf
India’s recent pact with Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal to facilitate free vehicular movement coupled with the India-Myanmar-Thailand trilateral highway could potentially increase intraregional trade by almost 60% as well as extract maximum strategic mileage.
A strategic pact signed by India to facilitate free vehicular movement with Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal; alongside a proposal to step-up work on operationalising a 3200-km road link from Moreh (India) to Mae Sot (Thailand), are two vital components of the NDA government’s reinforced ‘Act East’ policy.
- See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/sub-regional-road-connectivity-pacts-from-looking-east-to-linking-east/#sthash.E0idX9lr.dpuf
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Monday 26 October 2015

Overstayers face stiff re-entry bans, #Thailand

Immigration police say these are just a few of the estimated 800,000 foreigners who are in Thailand on passports and papers that have expired.

The Immigration Bureau has asked Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to exercise his special powers to issue a ban on foreigners found guilty of overstaying in Thailand from re-entering the country for one to 10 years. 

The move is aimed at cutting the number of illegal migrants by 80%, down from the current crop of overstayers estimated at 800,000 people.

Pol Lt Gen Nathathorn Prousoontorn, the bureau chief, said in cases of overstaying of more than 90 days to one year, the ban from re-entry will be one year.

In cases of overstaying between more than one year and three years, the ban from re-entry will be three years, while those found guilty of overstaying between more than three years and five years will face a ban from re-entry of five years.

For those found guilty of overstaying more than five years, the ban from re-entry will be 10 years.

Most illegal migrants in Thailand came originally from Africa, India and Bangladesh and their motives for breaking the immigration law here were mainly that they wanted to use Thailand as a temporary shelter before migrating on to a third country, said Pol Lt Gen Nathathorn.

One reason for the growth of overstayers was the rather weak penalties for overstaying that comprise a fine of 500 baht-20,000 baht and deportation, he said.

Anyone who doesn't have money for the fine can opt for imprisonment in which one day is equivalent to the payment of 200 baht in fines, he said.

However, under the present law, after being deported to their countries of origin, those illegal migrants can still return to Thailand again and again, he said.

The proposal to impose a re-entry ban on illegal migrants via the prime minister's order under Section 44 of the interim charter has won approval from the Interior Ministry and is now being considered by the prime minister, he said.

In a crackdown over the past week, 9,265 foreign suspects were arrested, 97.5% of whom were accused of violating the immigration law by overstaying, said Pol Lt Gen Nathathorn.

Of this number, only 18 people were detained on other criminal charges.

A vast majority of the detained suspects were African people, he said.

Pol Gen Dechnarong Suthichanbancha, a Level 10 police adviser who specialises in security affairs, said an instruction had been issued to stamp out illegal migrants in Thailand, which led to authorities deciding on the 80% initial reduction target.

In four notable cases recently, a total of six foreigners were detained. In the first case, Kristina Monka, 23, and Grigory Lyaskov, 24, both from Russia and wanted by Russian authorities and Interpol on fraud charges, were detained in Pattaya City on Oct 21.

Ms Monka was wanted by police in Russia after she was found to have transferred about 4 million baht from customers' accounts at the bank where she worked to her own secret accounts before fleeing to Thailand.

She worked as a customer relations manager for the Russian Bank and colluded with Mr Lyaskov who himself secretly transferred about 945,000 baht from customers' accounts to his own, police said.

In the second case, Agborbelle Mkpot Etah, 32, and Chanceline Ngenwie, 28, both from Cameroon, were arrested on Saturday, Mr Etha in Bang Kapi district of Bangkok and Ms Ngenwie in Chon Buri's Phanat Nikhom district.
These suspects were wanted by Khon Kaen police on document forgery charges. Police found they hired a Cameroonian visa broker in Khon Kaen to submit on their behalf fake documents claiming they were hired as language teachers in the northeastern province.

The fake documents were intended to deceive immigration officials into renewing their visas.

In the third case, Minwoo Cho, 43, from South Korea, who was wanted under a "red notice" issued by Interpol for alleged involvement in illegal online gambling was detained in Chon Buri's Bang Lamung district on Thursday.

Immigration officials in Chon Buri had been looking for this suspect for some time before they found he operated a massage shop on Sukhumvit Road in this district.

In the fourth case, Myo Kyi, 47, from Myanmar, was arrested on Oct 19 for allegedly forging a departure immigration clearance stamp at the immigration office in Ranong province.

This suspect was found to have used the fake immigration stamp on his passport during an immigration check at Suvarnabhumi airport.

Immigration officials who inspected his passport had detected signs of irregularities in the stamp on page 11 of his passport, prompting them to compare the stamp with the record stored in the VSC6000 immigration system.

They found the stamp on his passport was fake.

The suspect was believed to have used the fake stamp to extend his stay in Thailand when he was actually overstaying, an immigration source said.

No word was to hand on when the prime minister was likely to make a decision on the call for re-entry bans.

Source: BangkokPost

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