Thai tycoons loosen purse strings to help mitigate impact of Covid-19

By The Nation

 

 

Nine of the country's richest business magnates have pledged projects worth billions of baht in response to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha's plea to them for contributions to rebuild the economy following the Covid-19 crisis.

 

Dhanin Chearavanont, founder of CP Group, has donated Bt700 million to the government while Chalerm Yoovidhya of Red Bull has donated Bt300 million to the organisation established to help the public.

 

Prasert Prasarttong-Osoth, the CEO of Bangkok Airways, has offered Bt100 million to the Public Health Ministry.

 

Others have chosen different approaches to help the government. For example, Prayudh Mahagitsiri chairman of the PM Group, will purchase agricultural products from Lamphun province for six months, and Petch Osathanugrah, the CEO of Osotspa, will provide Bt100 million to launch a project helping people affected by Covid-19.

 

Chuchat Petaumpai, the chairman of Muangthai Capital Pcl, is in discussions on providing assistance, Keeree Kanjanapas, the chairman of BTS Group Holdings Pcl, is preparing an aid project, and Chatchai Kaewbootta, CEO at Srisawad Corp Pcl, will help solve loan shark problems.

 

Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, the CEO and chairman of King Power, is planning to launch a project with a budget of Bt1.5 billion to support medical, social, juvenile and tourism areas.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30387200

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-05-04

 

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How much has this <deleted> personally donated, ?

Or is he one of the anonymous donors, to save face, and not embarrass himself ?

Edited May 3, 20206 yr by Thaiwrath

That article is misleading, CP has not donated 700m to the government.

 

175m was spent to set up a company to make facemasks.

200m was spent to supply food to medical staff under quarantine.

77m to 77 hospitals.

30m for equipment and WuFlu tests.

176m to project that provide to people affected by the WuFlu

 

ETC ETC ETC...

 

all done before the begging bowl went out and no doubt attract some healthy tax writes offs to boot !!!

 

Waving of big sticks effective?

Lets hope it goes where it's needed. A weapons arsenal to keep Covid at bay perhaps.

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Chalerm Yoovidhya of Red Bull has donated Bt300 million

To find his  son?

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Nine of the country's richest business magnates have pledged projects worth billions of baht

The operative word here is "Pledged" let us wait and see if this pledge will translate into actual deeds as how much and soon really....

It appears most if not all these pledges do not actually give food, water & medical supplies to the poor family in the village, as these pledges are given in

" PM Group, will purchase agricultural products from Lamphun province for six months, and Petch Osathanugrah, the CEO of Osotspa, will provide Bt100 million to launch a project helping people affected by Covid-19. "

 

The problem being as I see it, the purchasing of agricultural product for six months is useless in feeding a family for six months or getting the kids uniforms for school or paying their electric bill, and how can " launching a project "  go to putting food on the table of the poor ? 

 

Rich people don't like parting with their cash as that's how they got where they are, by not giving money away. I would be very reluctant to call all of these philanthropists, maybe one or two max .... 

If you read the pledges it makes one think that some initiatives because of their complexity and process required to implement, will have little help for the poor and virus affect thereby actually resulting in a pledge costing little. 

Will these pledged projects worth billions of baht actually help the needy? Those who stand in food lines every day?

Those who applied for 5,000 baht handout and got denied?

 

Wouldn't it just be much (better) easier to approve the 28 million applicants the 5,000 baht?

 

1 hour ago, ezzra said:

The operative word here is "Pledged" let us wait and see if this pledge will translate into actual deeds as how much and soon really....

Exactly mate, Prayut pledged to help the needy, and look what happened about that.

Easy to pledge to do something, but actions speak louder than words.

A troll post with corruption allegations has been removed. 

4 hours ago, Don Mega said:

That article is misleading, CP has not donated 700m to the government.

 

175m was spent to set up a company to make facemasks.

200m was spent to supply food to medical staff under quarantine.

77m to 77 hospitals.

30m for equipment and WuFlu tests.

176m to project that provide to people affected by the WuFlu

 

ETC ETC ETC...

 

all done before the begging bowl went out and no doubt attract some healthy tax writes offs to boot !!!

 

Quite right. Most of these “donations” are either in fact investments or tax deductible donations from their businesses that were already done before the begging letter went out. Many of the businesses are listed companies. So other shareholders are also participating in these “donations”.

Put my money on it that’s why we had a big u turn on the alcohol ban  

As I am aware a majority of thais in Pattaya have had to survive the lockdown with no financial support or food distribution from official sources since March 23rd.

The flip side of this that is not being reported are the negotiations going between the billionaires and the government, particularly the 5 families thag bankrolled Palang Pracharat in the election, as to how the govt stimulus will get divvied up amongst their businesses and what commissions will be applicable.

We can see that Bangkok Airways’ share price has been soaring on the prospect of a huge government bailout, while its major shareholder is listed as many a donation that is a fraction of what his monopolistic airline needs to be refloated. Meanwhile, the Thai Airways bailout, although not directly connected with the billionaires,  is already a done deal. B70 billion of taxpayers’ money, or 0.6% of GDP, will be lavished on this zombie airline that was already technically insolvent before the pandemic, having been systematically mismanaged and plundered for decades. There is no requirement to change the board that lead it to the brink of bankruptcy. The board includes internationally renowned aviation experts, such as the National Police chief.

 

Far better to distribute stimulus direct to the poor, rather than to the wealthy and corrupt. The poor will not salt if away in Swiss bank accounts. They will spend it immediately on daily necessities which will make the money circulate efficiently in the economy, reviving velocity of money to  revive the economy.

 

Edited May 4, 20206 yr by Dogmatix

2 hours ago, bodga said:

To find his  son?

Err. Not to!!????????????????????????????????

A post using an animated trolling meme has been removed. 

Tax relief donations.....impossible to believe these rich "gave" money.....there would have been a sweetener from the government and likely in the form of tax waivers

The negativity in this group is just amazing. How do the people who post day in day out in this group go through life with this attitude. 

 

Not a single comment saying well done for any of the donations. 

4 minutes ago, GlassWayOverHalfFull said:

The negativity in this group is just amazing. How do the people who post day in day out in this group go through life with this attitude. 

 

Not a single comment saying well done for any of the donations. 

That's because, you see, those posting don't believe that they are "no strings attached", no "quid pro quo" donations. Inexplicably, and quite remarkably given the countries recent political, social and economic history, no one seems to believe as you do.

This is just a proposed recycling of some funds originating from the government (aka Thai taxpayers) paid to mega-corporations who won huge government contracts to build, ie., infrastructure projects. 

Basically a quid pro quo is not a donation.

In other news , alcohol can now be purchased !! Such good timing ????????

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Nine of the country's richest business magnates have pledged projects worth billions of baht in response to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha's plea to them for contributions to rebuild the economy following the Covid-19 crisis

But questions still have to be asked of the government... where were all the trillions when it was needed.

You kept boasting about being the best performing nation in Asia, having the best economy, highest monetary reserves etc etc.

Where was it when the nation needed it?

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Thai tycoons loosen purse strings to help mitigate impact of Covid-19

Well in a country with one of the largest wealth disparities in the world, where the wealthy have more money than they can ever spend in 100000 lifetimes, you would hope they could find some change under the sofa to throw to the starving masses.

  All looks vague and very skimpy; and, as several have said, none of it looks like it will go to those needing immediate help.  Rather a embarrassing and pathetic response from the super-rich.  

28 minutes ago, GlassWayOverHalfFull said:

The negativity in this group is just amazing. How do the people who post day in day out in this group go through life with this attitude. 

 

Not a single comment saying well done for any of the donations. 

if you care to read my earlier post you may get a clearer picture ......  I believe the pledges are good news, however not really going to help the hungry family with no money .... are they ?

I note that the brewery magnates don't get  mention!

17 minutes ago, Jimbo2014 said:

Well in a country with one of the largest wealth disparities in the world, where the wealthy have more money than they can ever spend in 100000 lifetimes, you would hope they could find some change under the sofa to throw to the starving masses.

A bit like the crumbs the government sweeps off the fine dining table to give to the surfs?

6 hours ago, Thaiwrath said:

How much has this <deleted> personally donated, ?

Or is he one of the anonymous donors, to save face, and not embarrass himself ?

He’ll be donating plenty to Akara Resources Pcl sometime in the very near future ????

  Really they could donate  billions but  how  much actually gets to the people who need  it, i bet more than half is LOST  on the way.

1 hour ago, GlassWayOverHalfFull said:

The negativity in this group is just amazing. How do the people who post day in day out in this group go through life with this attitude. 

 

Not a single comment saying well done for any of the donations. 

   Why would I say 'well done' when it wasn't.  Basically, they are donating what amounts to loose change found under their sofa cushions and none of it will do much good to the very needy who are standing in long lines to get a bit of food or a 100 baht donation.  If the response had been 'well done' I would have been the first to applaud it.  It wasn't.  Let's also remember that it's all 'pledges' so who knows if any of it will even materialize.  By the way, I'm pledging here and now not to be so mean to these poor super-rich dudes.