Political conflict could affect investor confidence
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Leading global businesspeople have high hopes that a resurgence of political conflict will not affect the growth of Thailand's economy, and that the Kingdom will continue to come out with measures to boost investors' confidence.
As 600 global leaders and businesspeople gathered in Bangkok last week for the World Economic Forum on East Asia, political chaos was sparked once again as the government tried to push through its reconciliation plan rapidly.
Pornsilp Patcharintanakul, vice chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, said political conflict was quite influential on investor confidence.
The turmoil in Parliament damaged foreign investors’ confidence and could affect their trust in the country’s image. It has shown that Thailand’s political peace is very fragile, he said.
He said the government must prove itself to be reliable, while people need to call for democracy under the rule of law.
Pornsilp called on every Thai to consider the benefit of the country as the first priority rather than focusing on the benefits of the few, or only one person.
Surin Pitsuwan, secretary-general of Asean, said Thailand’s opportunity to host the WEF summit had shown the country’s potential to host many other important events and promote confidence in the country.
Many nations still have confidence in Thailand and the progress of democracy, of which some protests may be a part. However, the government has to ensure that such activities are under the control of the law, he said.
Surin said he hoped the conflict in Parliament would not affect the economic growth of the country, as many foreign players are currently looking at investing more in Asean, including Thailand.
Prinn Panitchpakdi, country head of CLSA Securities (Thailand), said the political conflict would have a short-term impact on foreign investors, particularly in the stock market.
“As most foreign investors have understood the situation in the Kingdom clearly during the past several years, they have looked beyond the political factor when deciding to invest in Thailand,” Prinn explained.
However, political uncertainty has hurt investor confidence for several years. For instance, trading on the Stock Exchange of Thailand grew by only12 per cent last year, while the average growth in Asean markets is 20 per cent, he pointed out.
Uday Marty, director for Southeast Asia of Intel Semiconductor (US), said investors always looked for political stability.
He expects that the current situation will be controlled by the government. As well, since Thailand has shown high potential through its economic recovery after last year’s flood disaster, Marty said his company still had confidence to invest in the Kingdom.
