Acting Information and Communications Technology Vice Minister Mahidol Chantarangkul said yesterday that while opening up the market would lead to further industry development, Thailand had adopted a cautious stance on the issue out of concern that it may lose an advantage.

Mahidol is in charge of free-trade talks relating the telecom sector on behalf of the ICT Ministry.

"We've negotiated many rounds on the FTA deal with this major country, and have yet to make any conclusion," he told a seminar entitled "Telecom Sector Liberalisation and the Country's Development", hosted by the Telecom Association of Thailand.

Mahidol declined to name the "major country", but the Kingdom is negotiating free-trade deals with several countries, and notably with the United States.

Originally, the Telecommun-ications Business Act 2001 limited foreign shareholding in a telecom company to 25 per cent. However, it was amended to lift the ceiling to the present 49 per cent.

"Such a request to own more than 50 per cent, or even 100 per cent, of a Thai telecom operator is understandable as the companies of this major country plan to spend a great deal in Thailand. Therefore, they want to own everything in the local companies [in which they invest]," he said.

Moreover, the "major country" wants Thailand to allow its investors to conduct telecom businesses in Thailand without setting up a local unit. It also wants Thailand to permit its operators to communicate with their overseas headquarters on satellite channels that bypass the satellite gateways of TOT Plc and CAT Telecom Plc.

The National Telecommu-nications Commission has been reforming the telecom market by issuing new regulations and licences, but it has yet to finish regulations on satellite market liberalisation.

Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation