NBTC hearing draws mixed views

The NBTC held a public hearing on the issue yesterday. The regulations define foreign dominance as direct and indirect control over a company’s policies.
Panellist Deunden Nikomborirak, research director for economic governance in the Thailand Development Research Institute’s sectoral economics programme, said she opposed the regulations as they might scare away foreign investment, especially at this time when the country needs to attract more foreign money.

While the advocates of the restrictions have claimed they are needed to protect national security, she said the now-defunct National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), which issued the regulations, did not provide clear evidence to support such a claim.
Another panellist, Sudharma Yoonaidharma, who was a member of the NTC, said the purpose of the regulations was to promote the disclosure of information by telecom operators and thus ensure transparency in the sector.
True Corp legal expert Tas Dussadeegarn said from the floor that the regulations did not discourage the foreign investment in the sector but were meant to ensure transparency. He added that if the watchdog failed to ensure transparency, it might risk facing the accusation of negligence of duty.

Total Access Communication (DTAC) chief corporate affairs officer Darmp Sukontasap said from the floor that the NBTC needed to be clear on the direction it wants Thailand to go and what it wants to signal to foreign investors with these restrictions. If the NBTC could not clarify their purpose, the regulations should be revoked.
He added that DTAC wanted the NBTC to examine the regulations again, as they were drafted and issued during the tenure of its predecessor, the NTC. DTAC shareholders had asked the company how these regulations could affect the firm’s business, he said.
NBTC commissioner Colonel Settapong Malisuwan said that in the next step the NBTC would evaluate whether the regulations should be amended. He denied speculation that the watchdog intended to hold a hearing to seek ways to revoke the restrictions, though it might hold another hearing to discuss them in general.

True is the only local telecom operator without a foreign strategic partner. DTAC and Advanced Info Service (AIS) have Norway’s Telenor and Singapore Telecom as strategic partners, respectively.
On November 25, DTAC filed a complaint with the Central Administrative Court claiming foreign dominance regulations issued by the NTC were illegal and unconstitutional. The regulations took effect in August. The NBTC has since replaced the NTC in overseeing the telecom and broadcasting industries.
DTAC views that the regulations restrict competition and do not allow a level playing field. They also contradict Thailand’s international trade commitments and do not support the Kingdom’s ambitions and long-term strategy to attract more foreign investment.The regulations have been opposed by many parties since they were in the draft stage on the grounds that they would discourage foreign investment and might contravene the country’s free-trade commitments to global organisations. Supporters of the restrictions believe they are needed to protect telecommunications spectra, which are a precious national resource, and the national interest.
The NTC has been concerned about the use of nominees to hold shares in local telecom operators on behalf of foreigners to the point where actual foreign shareholding exceeds the permissible level of 49 per cent.