Thailand leads South Asian countries in Olympics 2008

29th Olympiad which ended this Sunday again saw Thailand as the leading winner among all its South Asian rivals with four medals—two golds and two silvers. Indonesia, with one gold, one silver and three bronzes, has the most number of medals with five. Malaysia, Singapore and even Vietnam have a silver each.

Thailand’s two golds came with the victory of veteran boxer Jongjohor Somnit and woman weightlifter P. Jaroenrattanatarakoon. With this, Jongjohor became the third Thai to win a boxing gold medal in the Olympics. Jaroenrattanatarakoon topped the women’s 53-kg division in weightlifting two days after the Aug. 8 opening ceremonies to become the first Southeast Asian gold medalist in Beijing.

The veteran Boonjumnong had won the light welterweight boxing title in Athens four years ago. However, this time he lost badly to Felix Diaz of the Dominican Republic, 12-4, in the gold medal match and had to be satisfied with a silver. Thailand’s other silver was won by Buttree Puedpong, who lost to China’s Wu Jingyu in the gold medal match of taekwondo’s women’s under-49kg category.

With its two golds in Beijing, Thailand overtook Indonesia in the number of golds won with seven. With four silvers and 10 bronzes and a total of 21, Thailand still trails Indonesia in the all-time medal count. The Philippines is third with nine medals consisting of two silvers and seven bronzes.

Japan to help Thailand develop its Nuclear Power Plants

By Shigeru Sato and Yuji Okada

Aug. 22 (Bloomberg) — Thailand has asked Japan to help build its first nuclear power plants as Southeast Asia’s second- biggest economy seeks to reduce reliance on gas, oil and coal.

Energy Minister of Thailand, Poonpirom Liptapanlop, has asked Japan’s Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Toshihiro Nikai for reactor-operation expertise and advice on nuclear legislation and developing workers for the industry.

Thailand wants to build its first nuclear power plant so as to reduce its dependence on gas, oil and coal which serves more than 70 percent of its power needs. The country plans to complete a 2,000 megawatt-nuclear power station in 2020 and a further plant with the same capacity the following year. The two planned nuclear plants may generate 10 percent of the country’s electricity and for this they may require an investment of about $6 billion, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand had said earlier.

On the other hand, Japan wants markets for its nuclear reactors and plant parts. Hitachi Ltd., the nation’s third-biggest builder of nuclear plants, and partner General Electric Co. have started informal talks with Thailand, Vietnam and other Southeast Asian nations to sell newly developed mid-sized reactors.