Experts foresee five golden investment years for Thais

BANGKOK, August 21 (TNA) - Experts have foreseen "golden investment years" for Thai business operators over the next five years, in parallel with the establishment of the Single Economic Community of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with regional free trade and services in all sectors. Among the experts, Assistant President of Bangkok Bank Kobsak Putrakul has insisted that the next five years should be a new period of golden investment opportunities for the Thai business operators, thanks to the scheduled formation of the AEC by 2015 with relevant preparations and expanding businesses between the ASEAN member countries and even between the growing 10-nation bloc and adjacent southern China to jointly boost exports to Europe and other major global markets. Kobsak has pointed out that Thai businesses likely to be first beneficial from the AEC include those in the local construction, hotel and banking sectors. Another expert, Bank of Thailand (BOT) Governor Prasarn Trairatvorakul, has announced that the BOT is amending rules and regulations for local business operators in the lead-up to the AEC, particularly those on capital movements and guidelines against risk factors. The other expert, President of Thai Listed Companies Association Chanin Wongkusolkit, who is also Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Baan Pu Public Company Limited, has noted that foreign language training programs will be provided for Thai business operators, covering the Bahasa dialect used in neighbouring Indonesia and Malaysia, as well as the Chinese and English languages, as part of national preparations for the AEC. Meanwhile, a remote public school in Po Pra Tab Chang district of Pichit province in the Lower Thai North has launched a pilot educational project under which mother-tongued English and Chinese teachers from the United States and China are employed to teach the English and Chinese languages to primary and secondary-level students, grades 1-9, aimed to both reduce disparity of access to education among Thai students and to boost communication skills among Thai youths in the lead-up to the AEC. (TNA)