Phuket receives new Honorary Consul for Italy

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Phuket receives new Honorary Consul for Italy
Phuket Gazette


From left: Italian Honorary Consul for Phuket Dr Francesco Pensato joins Phuket Governor Maitri Inthusut and Italy’s Ambassador to Thailand Michelangelo Pipan. Photo: Courtesy of Beppe Bonazzoli

PHUKET: -- Dr Francesco Pensato has been proclaimed the Honorary Consul of Italy for Phuket and the rest of South Thailand.

Dr Pensato, a lifelong patron of the arts and himself a composer of music, is also a director of the Thai-Italian Chamber of Commerce (TICC, website here) and chairman of TICC’s Phuket and Southern Region of Thailand Committee.

Nominated for the position of honorary consul in February 2012, Dr Pensato’s credentials were formally accepted by the Royal Thai Government in May this year.

Italian Ambassador to Thailand Michelangelo Pipan introduced Dr Pensato as the new Italian Honorary Consul for Phuket to Phuket Governor Maitri Inthusut and fellow ambassadors of European countries who attended the conference in Phuket on June 14 this year (story here).

At that conference, the European ambassadors called on Phuket authorities to ramp up measures against scams operating in Phuket; taxi and tuk-tuk drivers overcharging tourists; unscrupulous motorbike and jet-ski rental agents; and sea pollution, as well as improve beach and water safety and traffic congestion on the island.

More than 200,000 tourists from Italy visited Thailand during 2012, according to the Ministry of Tourism and Sports.

“More than half of those visited Phuket,” Dr Pensato said.

Dr Pensato can be contacted through the Honorary Consulate of Italy at:

Honorary Consulate of Italy
Phuket and South Thailand
Hon. Cons. Dr Francesco Pensato
68/303 Moo 1 T. Chalong A. Muang 83130, Phuket
Tel: 076-263923 Fax: 076-367153
Mobile: 088-7612637 (emergency)
Email: [email protected]

Source: http://www.phuketgazette.net/phuket_news/2013/Phuket-receives-new-Honorary-Consul-for-Italy-21545.html


-- Phuket Gazette 2013-07-05

[Emdog]

I wonder if he took the local taxi mafia ride into town to get his feel for the place and how things work (or rather, don't work)?

[Bagwan]

Italy is on it's knees politically and financially but they can afford to provide an Honarary Consul in Phuket. Meanwhile the UK closes the Consul's office in Pattaya. Italy 10 UK 0.

Yesterday I went to the UK Consulate in BKK and was dealt with by a very nice young Thai lady who provided the service I sought relatively quickly and efficiently, well relative to Thailand anyway. We shared a few humourous quips and when I thanked her for her service, I offered that she did it all for little money. She nodded vigourously as she laughed.

I paid 2070 baht for one sheet of A4 paper to be typed up and the return fares cost an additional 300 baht, plus 9 hours of my time. At my age a bus trip lasting 2 hours being jolted around, and if you watch the antics of the driver almost heart stopping, and then climbing up steep steps to Skytrain level is no picnic, an experience to be repeated on the return journey.

You might care to think that after removing myself from the practically lawless UK so saving the Government a fortune in NHS expenditure, and freezing my State Pension, they might make a gesture to ease my last days by providing a service to make sure that I never returned to a once proud nation.