Recovery, flood-control, reconcilation dominate business leaders' 2012 wish-list

In the coming year, Thailand must put its development and rehabilitation plans into action. The Kingdom’s leading businesswomen and businessmen have put together a wish list of tasks the government should complete to reinvent Thailand with stronger business growth and greater political stability.

 

Chartsiri Sophonpanich, president of Bangkok Bank and chairman of the Thai Bankers’ Association, wishes to see the government increase Thailand’s competitiveness to prepare for the upcoming Asean Economic Community (AEC), in which Thailand should be a leader. The government should focus on how to create happiness in Thai society.

Banthoon Lamsam, CEO and president of Kasikornbank (KBank), said risk management is the main challenge for the country, and urged the government not to neglect this issue in favour of political affairs. Besides water management, which is an urgent priority, the government should think about how to handle risks from the global economic instability in order to help sustain the growth of all sectors of the Thai economy, Banthoon said.

Kannikar Chalitaporn, president of Siam Commercial Bank, said she wishes the government would run the country as they promised they would, especially regarding reconciliation.

"I agree with many things that the government is doing; the government is moving in the right direction, particularly on reconciliation with neighbouring countries.

Payungsak Chartsuthipol, the Federation of Thai Industries chairman, wants the government to promote political stability to the utmost as a key strategy to boost confidence for the business sector, pointing out that political instability is the major drag on economic growth. As a result, a clearer administrative plan should be drawn up, particularly measures to prevent floods in the future, Payungsak said.

Phongsak Assakul, chairman of the Board of Trade of Thailand, wants to see master plans for rehabilitating the Kingdom’s growth in the wake of huge losses caused by the flooding crisis this year.

Worsening floods is a major negative factor undermining confidence on Thailand. Nobody can prevent natural disasters, but we can design protective measures for these unprecedented natural phenomena, the chairman said, adding that small and medium-sized enterprises are the top priority group when it comes to receiving recovery assistance.

Toshiba CEO Kobkarn Wattanavarangkul said the country is waiting for the government to start implementation of two things: First, a Country Water Management Action Plan involving short-, medium- and long-term plans. The short-term plan should help to restore confidence among investors in Thailand after the flood crisis.

"Water is precious. We want to see neither floods nor droughts that wreak such large-scale destruction on our nation any longer," said Kobkarn, adding that education promotion is another vital task facing the government. This would ensure competitiveness when the region becomes a borderless trade area in 2015; in particular, teaching English is a fundamental task which cannot be ignored.

Thiraphong Chansiri, president of Thai Union Frozen Products Plc, said the government must take all the policies they launched and put them into action, as the people are waiting. It is time the government got serious and took action, Thiraphong said.

"Previously, the government administration lacked integration, which is something they should plan for after the floods," said Thiraphong, pointing out that the government should concentrate most of its efforts on a plan to restore confidence in doing business in Thailand.

After the floods, the most important task of the government is to strengthen the country’s competitiveness in the world market, the TUF chief said.

Chanin Vongkusolkit, chief executive officer of Banpu, wants the government putting its main focus on reconciliation to bring back the Kingdom’s unity by allowing more flexibility to work with various parties. Then he wishes to see the government working for single objective; that is the development for Thailand and Thai people as a whole.

The government in 2012 should start implementing the flood-prevention master plan. The government should facilitate and empower the private sector to develop in their field, thus benefiting the country as a whole.

"The government should be clear from self interest. The country has long been in need of the leader who can be a role model," he said.

Kan Trakulhoon, president and CEO of Siam Cement Group (SCG), said the most important task for the government next year was to restore the confidence. The two committees - the Strategic Committee for Reconstruction and Future Development (SCRF) and the Strategic Committee for Water Resources Management (SCWRM) - are main mechanics to do this job. The concrete plans from both committees should be released within a few months, so the foreign investors that are uncertain about their investment plans in Thailand can be assured that their operations will not be affected by floods. He believes that Thailand is the potential sites for the foreign investment, and foreign investors do not want to relocate from the country.

The government’s any budget allocation should also away from corruption.

Pailin Chuchottaworn, president and CEO of PTT, said as far as he's concerned, the only way that he wished the government to do to restore the investors' confidence and boost the economic growth is to released the concrete water-management plan as quick as it is possible.

"We know that the government is working on the water-management master plan, but we don't know what the plan will be look like or whether the plan will be effective enough to prevent floods not to hit the industrial zone and business area," he said, adding that with concrete plan, investors would be confidence to further invest here.

 

Pissawan Achanapornkul, country chairperson of the Shell Company of Thailand, said she would like to see the government to clearly promoting and bringing the country's long-term energy policies into reality such as the country's biofuel policy. Besides, the government should also promote truely free market, especially the energy sector with less or no more subsidies and at the same time push for a true level playing field so that the country can compete and be more attractive in the global or regional arena. This can attract future investments and even more better cooperation among nations.

"We should not use the Oil Fund or other subsidies to manipulate the market, which doesn't support the promotion for improving energy efficiency in the country," she said.

Saha Group’s chairman Boonsithi Chockwatana, wishes to see from the government its the urgent plan and procedure set for economic rehabilitation and preventive measure against flooding.

"This flooding is a great lessen to the government in seeking measures and methods to prevent problem in the future. Flood experts or central bodies should be more involved to work and have real power for any decision making," said Boonsithi.

The government needs to efficiently manage water as valuable resource rather than releasing it into seas. They should follow His Majesty the King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s new theory on water management. They should think actually how to make the country better than before and make people to ensure that such natural disaster will not happen again. The government should also promote harmonisation and unity of people to be happened in the country as well.

Charumporn Chotikasathein, president of the Stock Exchange of Thailand, said competitiveness and corruption are the two most crucial matters that the government needs to address seriously in 2012. Despite the fact that Thailand is well endowed and strategically located, we at present do not have a clear growth agenda as exciting as other countries in the region.

Private sector has worked very hard to stay competitive at the firm level, but the country’s competitiveness rankings have been stagnant or deteriorating. We need clear reform agendas to ensure sustainable economic growth and private sector’s competitiveness in the long term. Among others, we need logistic reform, educational reform, tax reform, bureaucratic reform, and reform to improve productivity in the agricultural sector. It was very unfortunate that we had to concentrate our efforts to solve the flood problem in 2011. In 2012, we seriously need to focus on our reform agendas and put them into action immediately.

Corruption situation in Thailand has not improved as reflected by various global corruption rankings. Corruption has increased and will increase cost of doing business, and always leads to unfair competition. If we allow corruption to persist or expand further, it will damage Thailand’s competitiveness as well as our social norm.

 

After the flood disaster, Thailand is expected to see a "V" shape recovery in 2012 with increased domestic demand from government reconstruction measures, private spending on durable goods and reconstruction, and private investment in machinery replacement, said Standard Chartered Bank (Thai)'s chief executive officer Lyn Kok.

"Thailand has strong economic fundamentals which will be able to support higher public debt and also higher corporate debt. Externally, the global risk environment and the worsening economic outlook in Europe and US will be challenges that Thailand will need to manage given a good portion of our exports are destined to these countries. That said, the fact that many more exports from Thailand going intra Asia (particularly China), this should help buffer any significant impact from the West," Kok said.