Thai public, private sectors discuss preparations for AEC

BANGKOK, August 17 (TNA) - Government authorities and representatives of five major institutes in the private sector have met to discuss Thailand's preparations for the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 2015. Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Kittirat Na-Ranong chaired the meeting in Bangkok on Thursday, in which the representatives of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI), the Thai Chamber of Thailand, the Tourism Council of Thailand, the Federation of Thai Capital Market Organizations and the Thai Bankers Association participated. The participants discussed Thailand's solutions, development strategies and regulation amendments in preparations for the establishment of the Single Economic Community of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). FTI Chairman Payungsak Chartsuthipol later told reporters that the key Thai private institutes will later present their ideas at a meeting to be chaired by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in mid September 2012. According to the FTI chief, most local business operators now want the Thai government to speed up railway and waterway transportation projects, including those on supporting the development of the Dawei (ทวาย) deep seaport in Myanmar and the Ranong port in the Thai South and also ask the Thai government to convince neighboring countries to allow Thai banks to operate their branches in order to finance Thai business operators. The FTI chair revealed that local business operators also proposed that the government offer promotional privileges to Thai investors overseas, introduce paperless import and export procedures and solve tax duplication for them. Meanwhile, Rungroj Seeluangsawasdi, president of an association of hoteliers in Hua Hin and Cha-am resort areas in the Upper Thai South, suggested that Thai workers learn the Malay language for their business advantage, as 200-300 million people in Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei use it, representing the majority of the overall ASEAN population.(TNA)