BANGKOK (AP) — Thousands of Russian tourists are stranded in Thai resorts because of the war in Ukraine, many unable to pay their bills or return home due to sanctions and canceled flights.

The crisis in Europe has also put a damper on plans to revive the Southeast Asian nation’s tourism industry, which has welcomed more visitors from Russia than any of its neighbors before the pandemic hit. hit.

There are about 6,500 Russian tourists stuck in Phuket, Surat Thani, Krabi and Pattaya, four provinces that are popular beach destinations, in addition to 1,000 Ukrainians, Yuthasak Supasorn, governor of the state, told The Associated Press on Friday. Tourism Authority of Thailand.

Some 17,599 Russians made up the largest block of arrivals in February, accounting for 8.6% of a total of 203,970, according to the Public Health Ministry. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, their numbers drastically decreased.

Yuthasak said Russians face two main problems: cancellations of their return flights by airlines that have stopped flying to Russia and the suspension of financial services, especially by credit card companies that have adhered to the sanctions against Moscow. There are also those who prefer to delay their return.

“Some airlines still serve Russia, but travelers have to transit through another country. We are trying to coordinate and find flights for them,” Yuthasak said.

While almost all direct flights from Russia have been suspended, connections are still available via major carriers based in the Middle East.

He added that efforts were also being made to find alternative payment methods for Russian tourists.

Siwaporn Boonruang, a volunteer translator for Russians stranded in Krabi, said some could not pay their bills because they could no longer use Visa or Mastercard credit cards.

Many have cash and those with UnionPay credit cards, which are issued by a Chinese financial services company, can still use them, but cryptocurrency payment is not allowed, he said. she declared.

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Many hotels have helped by offering discounted rates, she added.

The Thai government has offered 30-day visa extensions without payment and is trying to find low-cost alternative accommodation for those forced to stay for an extended period.

War-related problems in Ukraine have dampened hopes for Thailand’s economic recovery. Officials hope to see the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic diminish by July, even as daily cases are currently at record highs, driven by the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Later this year, Thai authorities plan to drop most quarantine and testing regulations that were put in place to combat the spread of the virus, which would make it easier for foreign travelers to enter.

Thailand may have to lower its tourist arrivals and revenue targets this year due to the ripple effects of higher oil prices and inflation on global travel, Yuthasak told the Bangkok Post newspaper.

“Tourism remains a key driver in reviving our economy, although revenues have been hampered by negative factors,” he said.

According to the report, Thailand had expected to earn a total of 1.28 trillion baht ($38.4 billion) in revenue this year from foreign and domestic tourists.

Small businesses are the backbone of Southeast Asia’s economy, but many struggle to get working capital loans because they don’t have a traditional credit history or collateral , say the founders of Finance companies. The fintech, which claims to be the region’s largest SME digital finance platform, uses alternative forms of credit scoring and has disbursed over $2 billion in financing to MSMEs since its launch in 2015. Today, the finance companies announced that they have raised $144 million in an oversubscribed Series C+ funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, with participation from new investors like VNG Corporation, Rapyd Ventures, EDBI, Indies Capital, K3 Ventures and Ascend Vietnam.

It has also received $150 million in lines of credit from institutional investors, some of which have been drawn down since last year.

TechCrunch first covered funding companies when it raised its Series A in 2016. The company’s previous round was a $45 million Series C raised between 2020 and 2021. Part of its new funding, or $16 million, will be distributed to former and existing employees through its stock option plan in the form of share buybacks.

The company was founded in 2015 by Kelvin Teo and Reynold Wijaya after they met at Harvard Business School. It is now licensed and registered in Singapore, Indonesia (where it is known as Modalku), Malaysia and Thailand. He recently started operating in Vietnam and will use part of his C+ series to enter the Philippines.

The platform provides online loans ranging from $500 to $1.5 million. Since its launch, it has disbursed over $2 billion in business finance to MSMEs through over 4.9 million loan transactions. Funding company customers range in size, from corner stores and e-commerce vendors to mid-sized companies, such as fast-growing startups and established corporations that want to access revenue-based funding faster than bank loans, which usually take about two to three months. to shell out, Teo tells TechCrunch.

A recent impact study calculated using Asian Development Bank methodology showed that MSMEs supported by finance companies contributed $3.6 billion to GDP and 350,000 jobs.

Covering a wide range of businesses, Teo claims finance companies have better customer acquisition costs and better loan-to-value ratios. It also accumulates data faster to train its data scoring models, which draw on traditional and alternative data sources. Traditional sources include bank statements and credit bureau information, where available, while alternatives may include transaction information, online reviews, and supply chain data feed.

One of the advantages of finance companies is that some of their data sources are proprietary, while they have exclusive rights to others through partnerships. This gives the startup an edge over new players, Teo says, as well as the amount of loan repayment data finance companies have collected since its launch. He added that the default rate of finance companies is between 1% and 2% even during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is why she was able to receive lines of credit from so many institutions.

Interest rates from finance companies are usually higher than banks, but less than or equal to credit cards – in fact, it offers a credit card with a debit line to replace corporate cards . It also partners with companies including e-commerce platforms like Shopee and Bukalapak, accounting app BukuWarung, fintech Alterra and agritech platform Tanihub that provide access to working capital loans to their SME clients. .

Teo and Wijaya argue that the main competitors of finance companies are not banks. Instead, Teo says many of his clients relied on loans from friends or family, savings and personal credit cards to fund their businesses. “The opportunity is huge because it’s a quality financing gap of US$300 billion,” he says.

In a prepared statement, SoftBank Investment Advisers Managing Partner Greg Moon said, “SMEs in Southeast Asia have historically struggled to access institutional funding and instead have been forced to rely primarily on personal financing to support growth. Finance companies are building a bridge for these companies to access more sustainable and cheaper finance by creating unique datasets of their performance and using AI-based technology to assess their creditworthiness more efficiently than traditional models.

• Funding will help tackle youth unemployment, support communities in deprived areas and give people in need access to finance
• New government bill could unlock an extra £880m for good causes

Communities and good causes across England have received an additional £44million through the Dormant Assets Scheme.

The funding will be used to tackle youth unemployment, expand access to investment for charities and social enterprises, and help improve the availability of fair and affordable loans for people in vulnerable situations.

The Dormant Assets Scheme releases funds from dormant bank and building society accounts, which are accounts that have been open for 15 years, but during that time no transactions have taken place.

The £44 million funding will be distributed by the National Lottery Community Fund, as follows:

• £20m will enable the Youth Futures Foundation to test and demonstrate the best approaches to breaking down barriers and improving access to employment for disadvantaged young people
• £20m will go to Access – The Foundation for Social Investment, to provide urgently needed funding to up to 1,000 charities and social enterprises, particularly in the most deprived areas
• £4m will enable Fair4All Finance to accelerate its work on affordable consolidation loans for people in financial vulnerability

Already more than £800m has been released through the Dormant Assets Scheme over the past decade, including £150m that supported the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Nigel Huddleston, Minister for Sport, Tourism, Civil Society and Youth, said:

This latest £44million allocation from the Dormant Assets Scheme will make a real difference to people’s lives in communities across England. As well as helping young people find jobs, it will also provide financial support to those who need it most.

And we won’t stop there. We are currently pushing through legislation to expand the Dormant Assets Scheme even further, so that it can free up even more money to help improve communities across the country.

This follows the government’s release of its Leveling Up white paper last week, which set out a plan to transform the UK by extending opportunity and prosperity to all parts of the country.

Following a public consultation process, a new bill is currently before Parliament, which should deliver on the government’s commitment to extend the Dormant Assets Scheme.

This could potentially unlock an additional £880million across the UK over the next few years by allowing a wider range of dormant assets to be transferred into the scheme from the insurance and pensions sectors , investment and wealth management and securities.

There are 30 companies participating in the Dormant Assets Scheme, which will continue to have consumer protection at its heart, with participants’ top priority continuing to connect people with their assets.

Where this is not possible, more companies will soon be able to voluntarily transfer dormant assets into the scheme, unlocking funding for social and environmental causes across the UK which is on top of central or devolved government funding.

The scheme has already helped people like Chris Coyle, who grew up in a deprived area of ​​Coventry and was introduced to cycling through a city center council initiative, and later set up Ebikebrum, a community bike cafe and shop . With a combined grant and loan of £83,000 from the Key Fund as part of the Growth Fund, a partnership between the National Lottery Community Fund and Big Society Capital provided by Access through a range of social investors, Chris was able to provide services from information on health lifestyle choices to a full program of cycling activities, specializing in electric bikes.

Fair4All Finance has previously used the Dormant Assets Scheme to provide Moneyline with long-term funding, enabling them to provide more affordable credit to people in vulnerable situations. A beneficiary, who asked to remain anonymous, had been divorced from an abusive relationship and was struggling financially before contacting Moneyline, who provided the support she needed.

Another organization that has benefited from the scheme is the West of England charity, 1625 Independent People (1625ip), which receives grants from the Youth Futures Foundation in partnership with the West of England Combined Authority. This funding helps youth leaving care prepare and find good jobs through its Reboot West program. The charity works in partnership with the leaving care and employment and skills teams of four local authorities in Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset. It offers tailor-made coaching, training and career support.

David Knott, chief executive of the National Lottery Community Fund, said:

The money released through the Dormant Assets Scheme will be widely welcomed and comes at a difficult time for communities. We are delighted to distribute this £44million on behalf of DCMS, to support charities and social enterprises working to help people in some of the most deprived areas of England. This vital funding will impact people’s lives and support them towards a more prosperous and thriving future.

Seb Elsworth, Managing Director of Access – the Foundation for Social Investment, said:

Communities need the support that charities and social enterprises can provide, creating vital jobs and tackling rooted social issues. But too often, they can struggle to get the financing they need to innovate or grow. The additional £20m from dormant assets will help us and our partners provide the small-scale loans most charities and social enterprises need and focus investments more in places and communities that were previously neglected.

Matthew Poole, Director of Grants and Investments at the Youth Futures Foundation said:

When disadvantaged youth told us what they wanted from employment assistance, they talked about system-wide changes. That’s why we’ve launched our £6.1m Connected Futures Fund to reduce the fragmentation of youth employment and skills supply in the places that need it most. Our goal is to unite services at the local level so that young people who are furthest from the labor market benefit from quality, consistent support that understands their complex needs. We will intensify our learning of what works so that more places are able to offer an effective offer. The additional £20m from dormant assets will help us build on this momentum.

Sacha Romanovitch, Managing Director of Fair4All Finance, said:

11million people have racked up some £25billion in debt during the pandemic. Much of this burden falls on low-income people in the poorest parts of the country. Problematic debt, often well over £10,000 across multiple suppliers, quickly becomes unmanageable. It has a significant impact on mental health and general well-being. This limits opportunities and prevents people from participating in communities.

We are delighted that the government is supporting affordable debt consolidation with £4m of dormant asset funding. We would also like to see the broader credit industry play a role in working with us to service and consolidate debt through affordable credit providers where customers have reached their tipping point.

ENDS

Notes to Editors

• The definition of a dormant bank or building society account is contained in the Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Act 2008: an account is “dormant” at any time if it has been opened for the period of 15 years ending at that time, but during this period no transactions have been carried out in relation to the account by or on the instructions of the account holder.

• To address systemic inequalities and ensure access to opportunity, funding is particularly directed to some of the most left behind regions of the country.

• Where dormant asset funding has been distributed to date:

• In England, the Scheme released £100 million to tackle financial exclusion and debt problems; £110m to remove barriers to young people working; and £485m of investment in charities and social enterprises across the country. In 2020, £150million from the scheme has been released for organizations in England to support their coronavirus response and recovery efforts.

• In Wales, £37.7m of dormant asset funding supported a variety of projects, including investing £16.3m in young people, learning, education and employment; and £4.9 million for climate change action. Sustainable Steps Wales will invest a further £16,950,000 over the next 18 months.

• In Scotland, £67.2 million of dormant asset funding has been allocated under the Young Start scheme. Young Start has awarded over 950 grants of up to £100,000 to voluntary and community organizations for projects led by young people, which help them to become more confident and realize their own potential.

• In Northern Ireland, Dormant Asset Funding is used to provide flexible multi-year funding to increase the capacity, resilience and sustainability of the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector through a 22.4 million pounds.

• Funds under the program are held by Reclaim Fund Ltd (RFL). RFL is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and must hold sufficient money to cover customer claims. It donates the surplus to the National Lottery Community Fund to distribute to social or environmental initiatives across the UK. The DCMS Secretary of State can issue policy guidance on the English portion of the funding.

Energy, technology and manufacturing companies led the wave of M&A activity last year. And M&A experts say they expect the same for 2022.

DORSET Charities say it could take more than a year for their funds to recover from the Covid pandemic – with demand for their services hitting an all time high.

Charities across the county spoke about the challenges they faced during the pandemic and the impact it had on their services.

And as we begin to emerge from the latest restrictions, with lives tentatively on the path to normality, groups and good causes are seeing an increasing number of calls for their services.

Sarah Lloyd, Managing Director of Age UK Bournemouth, Poole & East Dorset, said: “Like many businesses, our much-loved community services have had to stop. We very quickly shifted our focus to creating a telephone hub and at the height of the pandemic, we were receiving over 400 calls a day.

The charity is now in the recovery phase and has reopened most of its community services with the reopening of its day centre, activities and food clubs in February.

Sarah said: ‘As a charity we will be fully operational by March 2022 but this has had a detrimental effect on our income over the past two years and we have had to rely on the use of our reserves, we expect it will take another year to fully recover.”

Nathalie Sherring, chief executive of the Dorset Race Equality Council, said: “We have had many more requests for support, many more people who have had problems accessing services.

“Discrimination has a hugely negative impact on people’s mental health, so now we’re seeing a lot of clients who have very serious issues and I think that’s going to continue unfortunately.

“We are working from home and it has become absolutely relentless, like any charity we juggle with funding and demand, which far exceeds the capacity of our charity.”

Alistair Doxat-Purser, chief executive of Faithworks Wessex, said: “The impact of Covid is far from over in terms of the economic challenges so many people are currently facing – the work continues to help people strengthen their personal, food and relational resilience: here at Faithworks, we want to continue to play our part in this area.”

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As a smaller charity providing support to families struggling with chronic, life-limiting and terminal illnesses, Amelia’s Rainbow has been forced to review its services and reassess what it offers and how it delivers it. provides. Like many charities, its revenue has been significantly affected.

The charity is 50% down on budget and that has put increased pressure on the team who are still very determined to help the 150 families they currently have on the books.

Farah Batchelor, Director of Amelia’s Rainbow, said: “We have had to cancel so many opportunities and the uncertainty has both financial and mental consequences.

“2022 is our 10th anniversary and we hope it’s a chance for the community to celebrate with us but also to grow and recover as we learn from the pandemic.”

A spokesperson for Access Dorset, a charity for people with disabilities, older people and carers, said: ‘From the start we established how important it was for us to stay connected with our communities, who were already isolated even before the pandemic and were likely to be strongly impacted by the restrictions.

“A lot of people were self-isolating, so we started doing our online activities again through zoom.”

The charity is now looking forward to resuming in-person activities at the community centre, hopefully towards the end of this month.

The Ottoman Kebab House opened on Monday evening January 17 on Lynch Lane Trading Estate to the delight of those who favor the flavor of authentic Turkish cuisine.

DORSET Echo’s call for Christmas toys this year received a record amount for underprivileged young people.

Over 700 young people will receive a Christmas present this year thanks to the “overwhelming” generosity of benevolent readers and businesses.

Bournemouth, on the south coast of England, is the most requested seaside hot spot for homebuyers in 2021.

Remote working has seen more and more people leave cities, which means searches for coastal property have increased dramatically.

At the same time, city buyers looking for their dream beachfront property are driving up house prices, sometimes even excluding locals from the market.

Searching for Properties Rightmove analyzed the searches on its website to identify the most popular areas.

He defined the most demanded coastal areas as those that received the highest number of buyer requests in 2021.

The most popular area was Bournemouth, where prices rose to an average of £ 317,449. The second most sought after was Southampton, followed by Brighton, Blackpool and Poole.

The study also tracked which coastal regions experienced the largest percentage increases in searches.

These promising areas are rising rapidly in the rankings as more and more people consider moving there.

Searches in Lancashire have increased by 32%, making them the first coastal rising star. Next, Blackpool, where searches increased by 21%.

Three locations tied for third, each recording a 15% increase in searches: Great Yarmouth, Swansea and Saltburn-By-The-Sea which is in Cleveland.

Unsurprisingly, all the additional demand is pushing up coastal prices, which is good news for anyone looking to sell in these areas.

Padstow in Cornwall saw the biggest increase in house prices, with averages rising 20% ​​to £ 658,588.

Asking prices in Whitby jumped 17% to £ 254,218, while costs in St Ives rose 15% to £ 473,161.

The fourth highest increases in house prices were recorded in Porthcawl, in south Glamorgan, where averages reached £ 307,051.

Rightmove tracked activity on its website between January 1 and November 24, 2021 and compared it to the same time period in 2020.

But the sharp rise in price as demand for coastal properties explodes could make access to the housing ladder more difficult for some people.

Tim Bannister, Director of Real Estate Data at Rightmove, said: “In terms of average asking price growth, owners in Cornwall and Devon are the real winners this year, with properties in some areas beating the national average, although this means that it is more and more difficult for some inhabitants to climb the ladder.

“Overall this is the year when, either through changed lifestyle priorities or the ability to work remotely, living in coastal areas became possible for more buyers. , which is reflected in the data we see in this study. “

How To Cut Costs When Buying Your Dream Home

Here are some of our top tips for cutting costs if you want to get closer to the sea.

Make low offers

Do not set your sights on a single property, instead make low offers on several in the same area. Make sure you have your principle mortgage, as it could help convince sellers.

Shop for a mortgage

Make sure you use a mortgage broker in the entire market, rather than just going to your bank.

Taking the tour can save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars in fees.

Check all fees and charges

Low interest rates are important when choosing a mortgage, but they’re not the only factor to consider. Make sure you factor in all costs, including set-up fees, prepayment charges, and interest once your transaction is complete.

Get carried away

Paying someone to pack your bags certainly reduces the stress of moving, but it can get expensive. If you pack your bags yourself, you can save hundreds.

Save on lawyer fees

Some lawyers will charge you less if you are referred by your broker. Others charge less for loyal customers.

Check the reviews because you want to make sure your lawyer is fast and reliable, but shop around to get a good deal.

The best place to live in Britain has been revealed, and it’s not what you think – but is your city on the list?

A British couple say they avoided the Covid pandemic by moving to a small island without electricity or running water.

A small dilapidated shed by Devon beach is on sale for £ 45,000 as demand for a location is a priority for buyers.