Thaksin Asks For Assistance To Modernise Kingdom

PM asks for assistance to modernise Kingdom

Tells investors that Thailand needs its neighbours to share their skills.

BANGKOK: -- Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has invited Asia-Pacific investors to take part in the government’s infrastructure mega-projects and its “e-government” project to accelerate the Kingdom’s modernisation.

“Thailand needs the knowledge bases from countries that have expertise in these fields.

“We have to admit that our development gap with the developed nations is still high,” he told a gathering of Pacific Rim business leaders on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (Apec) yesterday.

He also invited foreign investors to take part in the government’s new e-auction system. Thaksin said he would hold meetings with Thai ambassadors from around the world to inform them of the government’s projects and the introduction of the e-auction system for bids for the mega-projects.

In a speech called “Globalisation: Issues and Challenges”, Thaksin said countries had to be adequately prepared for globalisation, which involved the movement of goods and services, the free flow of money and capital, the free flow of technology and the free flow of persons.

He said Apec members should work to attract foreign capital to the region and the setting up of Asia Bonds should help realise that goal.

Twatchai Yongkittikul, former secretary-general of the Thai Bankers’ Association, said the gathering of Pacific Rim business leaders had discussed how to cope with the excessively speculative nature of some international hedge funds. He said representatives from US businesses had said they would urge the agency overseeing US stock exchanges to set up regulations requiring managers of hedge funds to register and provide information on such things as the destinations of their investments.

“Participants extensively debated whether there should be capital-control measures,” Twatchai said. “A US panellist argued that the controls might bring about negative effects, but I retorted by asking why, if that was the case, Malaysia continued to be an attractive investment destination.”

On Apec’s plan to open up the regional market by 2020, Twatchai said that so far the members had discussed only tariff cuts without touching on other trade barriers, such as anti-dumping. “Apec members should be more sincere in solving these non-trade-barrier issues,” he said.

--The Nation 2005-11-19