Govt urged to also help big companies go abroad
SUCHEERA PINIJPARAKAR
THE NATION

BANGKOK: -- THE GOVERNMENT should change its mindset about offering help only to small and medium-size firms expanding overseas and extend it to larger companies, said Thiraphong Chansiri, president and chief executive of Thai Union Group.

Thiraphong added that a new challenge for companies branching out internationally was working out how to produce products that suited the new generation of consumers.

He was speaking at the International Capital Markets Conference 2015, which looked at the challenges for Thai firms growing international roots.

Thiraphong said the government believed large companies could take care of themselves overseas but they wanted to get assistance - whether it is financial support or tax incentives in the countries they operated in.

He said Thai financial institutions should strongly support Thai firms internationally because they were nobodies to foreign banks. Thai Union had to create creditability in the foreign markets it operated in to raise funds.

He said that raising funds was a challenge for the company when it first invested in the United States and Europe.

It needed to create creditability in the eyes of foreign banks and investors because it required a huge amount of money to support mergers and acquisitions.

After 20 years, he said the challenge for Thai Union was shifting from raising funds to management because as a global company building the same culture for its Thai, US and EU interests was very tough.

Thapana Sirivadhanabhakdi, president and chief executive officer of Thai Beverage, told the conference a challenge facing the company was building strong brands to compete with global players in the Greater Mekong Subregion.

He said the emerging market was experiencing a boom in consumer spending power due to rapid development and they increasingly expected quality products. ThaiBev, armed with a business vision extending to 2020, has to understand the thinking of consumers in each GMS countries.

"Our products are produced in Thailand and Malaysia. And in case we have to export our products to consumers in Myanmar, the products should come from Thailand because Myanmar consumers flavour products from Thailand," he said.

He said the GMS was providing a lot of opportunities for Thai firms to tap.

However, Thiraphong said now was not the right time for Thai Union to enter the GMS because the consumer spending power there was still quite low compared to developed countries.

Chartsiri Sophonpanich, president of Bangkok Bank, recommended Thai firms look to enter CLMV countries - Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam - as they had bright prospects due to requiring a lot of infrastructure investment.

The energy and food sectors were particularly appealing, Chartsiri said.

Shinya Miyazaki, chief representative for international cooperation at Japan Bank in Bangkok, said Thailand had good potential to scale up the economy via infrastructure project investments. Shinya said his bank was ready to support Japanese firms that wanted to cash in on this opportunity.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Govt-urged-to-also-help-big-companies-go-abroad-30274046.html


-- The Nation 2015-12-01

Large companies should and do have their own funds for expansion , governments should not subsidize this.

I seem to remember a govt official telling Thais to get into European companies etc as they needed the money but forget allowing any reciprocal arrangements.

He said Thai financial institutions should strongly support Thai firms internationally because they were nobodies to foreign banks. Thai Union had to create creditability in the foreign markets it operated in to raise funds.

Thai Union has other credibility issues that foreign banks and markets are aware of. They might want to address these if they want to expand.

How can a man who grew up under mommy's skirts be mature enough to go out into the world?

"Myanmar consumers 'flavour' products from Thailand"!

Probably not what was actually said, but it actually reflects what Thai importers do with foreign products, only here it is called blending (with local ingredients).

HOW are they going to compete abroad? Big Thai companies are big in Thailand because they have a cosy relationship with the government, monopolies and VERY favourable legislation that shuts out competitors. The truth is VERY few can compete overseas, even if they had government help. The only way to strengthen these companies is to FORCE them to raise their standards through competition at home, and that means allowing foreign competitors to enter the Thai market. I dobut this will happen, because no Thai government has done ANYTHING to raise the standards of businesses and commerce in Thailand. Its same same.....while the other ASEAN countries are moving ahead. The roof of the economy will come crashing down one day, but then its too late.

Ooooooh. It's scary out there.

What a load of nonsense. It's amazing these companies managed to ever do any business at home let alone overseas.

Thailand. The tiger that speaks.

Ooooooh. It's scary out there.

What a load of nonsense. It's amazing these companies managed to ever do any business at home let alone overseas.

Thailand. The tiger that speaks.

Let them sink or swim on their own. Keep taxpayers money out no corporate welfare. They will find that there is no Thainess abroad and that the water is full of hungry corporate sharks who have honed their skills way above and beyond the skills of the pampered "big" corporations here. They will be shredded.

Big companies don't need government support to go abroad if financial assistance is intended.

Thai membership in TPP would have provided Big Companies with significant trade advantages with little economic cost to the Thai government. However, Prayut declined membership apparently in part because it would dilute the government's power over reciprocating foreign businesses.

The only logic behind the current government helping big companies expanding abroad would be the return of political support for Prayut's management of the domestic economy, draft charter and pro-autocratic political parties. This approach may reflect the end of Prayut's domestic political support from big businesses. And he needs to "sweeten the pot" if he wants continued support. Albeit, at a cost to the Thai taxpayer.