LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Foreign Business Act highlights Thailand's failure to live up to its WTO promises
On January 11, Vietnam became the 150th member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), an event that passed almost unnoticed in the Thai press.
As part of its commitment to the WTO, Vietnam has already opened access to most of its service sectors to foreign companies. Of the service industries that still have restrictions on foreign ownership, most will be open to 100 per cent foreign participation within two to five years. Beyond that time frame Vietnam will restrict foreign ownership to 49 per cent in only a handful of service industries, mainly highly specialised activities within the telecom industry. As a founding member of the WTO in 1995, Thailand has refused to make similar commitments to liberalise its services sector, arguing that the 49 per cent foreign ownership restrictions in certain service industries already represents open access. The only commitments in this area that Thailand did make were not to make its foreign business laws more restrictive than they already were, to liberalise the telecom sector by 2006, and to withdraw the most-favoured nation status it had accorded to the US. Today, Thailand has sadly failed to honour any of these commitments. Defining companies as foreign based on their voting capital and their number of directors will clearly make the foreign business law more restrictive than it was in 1995. The telecom sector has yet to be fully liberalised. Americans are still the only WTO members permitted to operate businesses freely in the service sector. Due to Thailand's extension of the American treaty beyond 2005 without it conferring similar benefits to other WTO members, both the US and Thailand are now in breach of the WTO's articles. As a result, all other members of the WTO are entitled to demand the same treatment for their nationals in Thailand as Americans receive. The move to revise the Foreign Business Act was an obvious opportunity to resolve this problem by extending the same rights to all WTO members. It is hard to point out any damage done to the Thai economy by American service sector firms over the last few decades and this indicated that other nationalities are also unlikely to inflict economic harm. It is a shame that an opportunity to honour WTO obligations has been passed up in favour of protecting the owners of large monopolistic local businesses. Now that Thailand's intentions regarding its WTO obligations have been clearly signalled in the form of the amendments to the Foreign Business Act, I wonder whether other WTO members will continue to politely hold back from claiming their rights to open access to the Thai services sector. Markus Jansen Hong Kong --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ex-PM has long exploited Singapore for his own benefit
Re: "Sometimes 'Enough is enough' isn't quite enough", Opinion, January 17. Former prime minister Thaksin chose Singapore as a launching pad to attack the Thai government because he felt completely at home in the city state. It was last January that he went to close the deal with Temasek, Singapore's investment arm, unloading Shin shares in the largest stock transaction in the history of the Stock Exchange of Thailand. During his administration, Thaksin allowed economic expansion into Thailand in key areas including aviation and banking. The military airport lease to Singapore is unprecedented. Thaksin's interests and those of Singapore have been intertwined to say the least. Thaksin and Temasek still have a lot at stake. Temasek acquired 96 per cent of Shin Corp substantially through nominees. It stands to lose billions if forced to reduce shareholdings to 49 per cent as the Thai government struggles with the restructuring of its Foreign Business Act. Thaksin's timing as regards his interviews with CNN and The Wall Street Journal was exquisite. He also hit raw nerves in Bangkok - it is not far from the truth that the Thai government "undermined confidence in Thai economy" with or without reference to its poorly conceived capital control measures. Apparently Thaksin exploded because the Surayud government went ahead and revoked Thaksin's diplomatic passport. This is a calculated counter-punch from the old police colonel. Perhaps this is what he really meant when he said, "Enough is enough". The reaction from the government is understandable, even though Singapore probably was not aware of Thaksin's public relations offensive. There was a great deal that Temasek did not know when they bought the goods from Thaksin. In the end Thaksin will hurt both countries. He has bitten both hands that fed him. Tunyatape Suwanjindar Bangkok --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thaksin-era human-rights abuses could swing opinion
Re: "Sometimes 'Enough is enough' isn't quite enough", Opinion, January 17. Tulsathit Taptim is only too right in saying that Thaksin has hit a sweet spot internationally with his interviews by portraying himself, not only as an ousted democratic leader like Aung San Suu Kyi, but also as one who strongly supports unrestricted capital markets, foreign investment and free trade. The Council for National Security (CNS) does not need to sit back and concede defeat on the international public relations front. Now is the time for them to energetically pursue the allegations of human-rights abuses against Thaksin and thoroughly investigate his alleged role in the extrajudicial killings of 2,500 or more drug suspects. Corruption charges against politicians are standard fare in Western democracies too and do not alone make a solid case for the coup in the eyes of most foreigners. However, Western countries cannot stomach human-rights abuses and a solid case here would rapidly swing Thaksin's PR pendulum away from an image of Aung San Suu Kyi and closer to that of Saddam Hussein. At the same time the government and the CNS would be viewed as defenders of human-rights and the relatives of the murder victims could obtain justice. Political Analyst Bangkok --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Short-sighted diplomacy closing doors for Kingdom
Surayud Chulanont and his Cabinet members may be good and earnest guys, but to steer a nation you need a strong political visionary, which Surayud is not. That report of him "fuming" over Thaksin's visit to Singapore, and his order for retaliatory diplomatic actions on Singapore shows his poor leadership qualities. His government's diplomatic actions may be helpful in salving some domestic soreness, but what real benefit does it bring to Thailand? It is poor statesmanship. A great leader will instinctively create more opportunities, more options, and more ways to bring benefits to his country in matters of diplomacy. He will not close diplomatic doors, seed ill-will with friendly governments, and bring more international disapproval to his nation on the world stage. The leaders sometimes seem intent on unnecessarily turning a neutral development into a negative one, as in this case with Singapore. I can only hope that the present government somehow gets through its term without Thailand suffering further setbacks. Lat Bangkok --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Don Muang plans will make mid-trip transfers difficult
Re: "Opposition to Don Muang plan mounts", Business, January 17. Moving domestic flights back to Don Muang seems like a strange idea. For many travellers this will pose a problem. Coming into Bangkok late in the morning, for example, you will miss the pre-noon flight to Surat Thani and have to wait until late in the evening. The same situation will occur with other destinations. I am surprised by this change in planning by those in charge. Why wasn't this taken into consideration before airlines moved out of Don Muang? It would be a better alternative to move all charter flights to Don Muang. Don't forget that Thailand is not the only tourist destination in Southeast Asia. After a few problematic transfers between the new airport and Don Muang, tourists will certainly not choose Thailand for their next holiday. Oddvar Johansen Norway --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Split domestic and int'l flights between capital's two airports
Re: "THAI going back to the future", Business, January 13. The only feasible way to operate two airports is to split both international and domestic flights between them. This will split the load and allow passenger to choose which airport they wish to use. There are plenty of cities that have two or more airports and they operate both domestic and international flights. To imagine that Suvarnabhumi could function as an international hub in it's current state is unrealistic. Don't make a big mistake even bigger by yet another series of immature decisions. Jack Doe Bangkok --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bush gearing up for a 'high noon showdown' with Iran
Re: "Mother of all resistance was engineered by Iran", Letters, January 16. The writer seems to be having us on a bit regarding a possible high-noon showdown that he sees emerging between "The Great Satan" and "The Axis of Evil". In a recent statement issued by the US military, the Iranian consular episode in Erbil was said to be nothing more than an intelligence operation. In the meantime, may I remind everyone that steps have already been taken towards "The Axis of Evil" in the likelihood of a showdown. Besides the carrier and nuclear submarine already in the region, an additional carrier strike group was also deployed in the region. Expanded intelligence sharing and Patriot air-defence systems were also deployed. Let it be known that George W Bush by his own admission sees this as a struggle of good versus evil and that he will not hesitate to send even more young Americans on one final mission, no matter where, in order to meet it. Almost everybody, save for George W Bush, knows that, like good and bad experience - "good" and "evil" go hand-in-hand - you can't have one without the other. There is no winner, ever. Mr Bill Bangkok Send us your views in an instant E-mail your opinion, with 'Letters to the Editor' in the subject box, to: letters@nationgroup.com
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