Jetro, Maybank Kim Eng note Thai role in AEC development
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THE JAPAN External Trade Organisation (Jetro) wants to see one-stop service centres for trade and other business activities within this region as the next step in the development of the Asean Economic Community (AEC), which will be launched at the end of
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Stock Exchange of Thailand and the chief executive officer of Maybank Kim Eng Securities Thailand believe that the Thai economy and the environment of the capital market will be more active in the second half of 2015.
“I [would] like the government of Thailand to take the lead to make the AEC meaningful in terms of arrangement and coordination among the Asean member states,” said Masayasu Hosumi, president of Jetro’s Bangkok office and its chief representative for Asean and South Asia.
He made the remarks at the “Invest Asean Thailand 2015” conference hosted by Maybank Kim Eng in Bangkok yesterday. There were around 400 participants and 30 domestic and foreign companies with total assets under management of about US$4 trillion at the seminar.
“Some kind of bilateral arrangement is needed [for further development of AEC] especially for an issue that is deeply related to business activity, namely the single-stop inspection, harmonisation of regulations and, eventually, we [would] love to see 24-hour operations for procedures at the border areas,” Hosumi said.
The second issue that should be spearheaded by the Thai government is an agreement on cross-border transport among member states to facilitate the free flow of commercial vehicles, as there is already some development in hard infrastructure but the development of soft infrastructure is still lacking.
“We really want to see some progress in the soft infrastructure,” Hosumi concluded.
John Chong, CEO of the Maybank Kim Eng Group, confirmed that foreign companies looking to gain a foothold in Asean would find Thailand a natural starting point because the country can also serve as a springboard into the Grater Mekong Subregion (GMS).
“Located literally in the centre of Southeast Asia, with a higher stage of economic development than many of its neighbours and strong links to the global economy, Thailand plays a crucial role as an intra-regional trade hub and key production base in Asean,” he said.
“As a gateway to both Asean and the GMS, Thailand serves as a valuable connector that no company with interests in this region can afford to overlook.”
The CEO of Maybank Kim Eng Securities Thailand, Montree Sornpaisarn, said that on the upside, the SET Index had the chance to reach 1,650 points by the end of the year, and the house was not afraid of the capital market sliding.
“Economic recovery after a crisis takes time, and some people may have too much expectation for it, but there are many signs that things are coming into place,” he said.
He forecast that tourism would continue to drive the economy and said exports were expected to recover, so the economic picture was looking better. Meanwhile this period of low interest rates meant that investment in stocks would eventually become more attractive.
“Jetro and Japan still see Thailand as an important investment destination, and Malaysian investors have commented to me before that Indonesia is still 10 years behind Thailand, so there is no need to fear that investors are going there instead,” he said.
“Thailand’s attractiveness is still there and as soon as the global economy improves, the Thai economy will follow suit.”
Sathit Limpongpan, chairman of the SET, said the funds currently flowing into North Asia markets such as Taiwan and South Korea were about to come back to Thailand, as listed companies’ first-quarter 3-per-cent earnings growth from the last quarter of 2014 was better than the flat growth that had been widely expected.
The performance of the communications, consumer and healthcare sectors was particularly strong, he said.
