In a move to streamline the retail sector, Thailand’s National Legislative Assembly (NLA) approved by 97 votes for and six against in principle to the Retail Business Act to deal with retail and wholesale businesses nationwide
After the vote, the NLA set up a 24-member extraordinary committee to scrutinise the bill which calls for the Commerce Ministry to form a committee to set policies and measures to promote as well as regulate retail and wholesale trade in fuel, jewellery and newspapers, among others, so that the businesses will be carried out in a fair, equal and competitive fashion, media reports said.
Commerce Minister Kirkkrai Jirapaet said the bill will by no means obstruct any large-scale enterprises which may deal in retail and wholesale businesses, though an estimated 100,000 local retail stores nationwide had already gone out of business in the face of the giant stores over the past four years.
Neither was the legislation designed to thwart the running of local retail and wholesale businesses in fair competition with the giant stores — against which local traders and the public in some 40 provinces had already strongly protested, according to the commerce minister.
NLA member Ammar Siamwalla described the legislation as ill-defined and suggested retail and wholesale businesses nationwide should be supervised by local administrative bodies instead of the Commerce Ministry
