One event they sure won't miss
It was a pity that Chartsiri Sophonpanich of Bangkok Bank and Tos Chirathivat of the Central Retail Group missed the Asean Business Club's Thailand inauguration last year in Kuala Lumpur because of the flood crisis.
The two businessmen aren’t only the Thai members of the ABC board, but they helped co-found the club with CIMB Bank chief Nazir Razak. The ABC was inaugurated at a gala black-tie dinner with guest speakers including Asean secretary-general Surin Pisuwan and former British prime minister Tony Blair.
Next month, though, Chartsiri and Tos will absolutely be in attendance at a forum on which ABC Thailand is now putting the final touches. Participants are expected to include Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, Deputy Prime Minister Kittiratt Na Ranong and former Singaporean foreign minister George Yeo.
The Bangkok event will be billed as a high-power forum with ministerial participation from the work-in-progress Asean Economic Community.
George Yeo, of course, is well known for his regional vision. Having lost in an election, he has been taking an academic sabbatical in China, but he was recently appointed vice chairman of the Kerry Group, a major logistics operation owned by Malaysian tycoon Robert Kuok.
Easy with SCB
Customers of Siam Commercial Bank must be pleased with recent improvements in its services.
One of the most noticeable undertakings did away with the cumbersome filling out of forms for basic services like deposits and withdrawals at branches in the malls. You can now go and show your passbook at the front counter and tell the staff what you want without filling in a form first.
You just sign to confirm the transaction after they’re done. Simple as pie! We’d love to see other banks be copycats on this one.
Pressure’s off
PTT Exploration and Production is expanding into Myanmar with additional oil and gas exploration concessions.
Its current operations there with Chevron and Total, producing gas for Thailand, already make it Myanmar’s biggest investor and source of foreign-exchange earnings.
PTTEP chief executive Tavin Vongvanich must consider the projects next door a cushion to the hot potato involving the planned takeover of UK-based Cove Energy and its interests in Mozambique. That controversial investment has already caused a huge drop in PTTEP’s share price because it’s forced to raise capital to finance the deal.
The Myanmar operation is seen more as a safe haven. Even if PTTEP is contemplating an investment in a new office there to accommodate its expanded operation, the shareholders won’t mind too much.
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