Cabinet greenlights Thailand’s participation in establishing AIIB



BANGKOK, 11 May 2015, (NNT) - The Cabinet has approved a 5-year investment plan worth 9.5 billion baht for the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), says Deputy Prime Minister M.R. Priditathorn Devakula.

M.R. Pridiyathorn said Thailand would pay 1.9 billion baht over the next 5 years for her share in the AIIB’s establishment, adding that the investment plan would be reviewed every 5-10 years in case of emergency.

According to him, Thailand must invest at least 47.24 billion baht to maintain its AIIB investor status. The 9.5 billion baht payment plan is the initial capital of the investment. The amount is equivalent to 0.495 percent of Thailand’s 8-year investment budget of 1.92 trillion baht.

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank was first initiated by the Chinese Finance Ministry, with a registered capital of 100 billion dollars, 75 percent of which would be contributed by Asian nations and the remaining 25 percent would be invested by non-Asian nations.

The registered capital is divided into 2 portions: the first portion accounts for 20 percent of the total registered capital and the other is the emergency capital, which would only be collected in case of emergency; however, records have shown that international financial institutes such as the AIIB hardly face such difficulties.

The initial capital is allotted into 5 installments over the course of 5 years.


-- NNT 2015-05-11

This investment by Thailand makes no sense at this time.

Thailand's economy is collapsing, One of the most critical actions the government needs to take is massive economic stimulus in the nation's infrastrucure to kick-start GDP growth. Yet to date, the government has stalled such INTERNAL INVESTMENTS and now Finance Minister Sommai has decided such stimulus would actually be counter productive.

So instead of capitalizing its own business sectors to revitalize its own economy, the government will capitalize AIIB to the benefit of other nation economies. The government needs to first get the Thailand's economy stablized and growing before it diverts its dwindling wealth into AIIB. Otherwise, what is likely to occur is that Thailand will become what Greece is to the EU - a broken trading partner.