On privatization | 7.03.05
Mr Thaksin has not initiated nearly enough of the deregulation, privatisation or opening to foreign competition that Thailand needs to assure its longer-term future. True, the record in most of the rest of South-East Asia is no better. But the whole point of putting a businessman in charge of the economy ought to have been to make Thailand’s economy more competitive.
The (big-D) Democrats (opposition party to the Thaksin government):
6. Will not sell state-owned enterprises [whose businesses are] in the country’s basic infrastructure.
The Finance Minister (of the Thaksin government):
Phuket State enterprise privatisation, led by the listings of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand and TOT Corp, will be one of the key drivers for market growth in 2005.
Finance Minister Somkid Jatusripitak said privatisation was a key step in the country’s transformation into a high-performance economy.
“Privatisation is one form of development that has been accepted worldwide. It is absolutely not selling off our country as some people have assumed,” he said during opening remarks at the three-day Top Executives Networking Forum yesterday.
Don’t hold your breath for a correction.
update See “EGAT Privatization”.
10:51 ▪ politics
« First post on Thaivisa.com | Main | With friends like these »