Thailand will propose double-taxation agreements with Cambodia and Laos at the 11th Asean finance ministers' meeting early next month in order to facilitate investment.

Finance Minister Chalongphob Sussangkarn is also expected to raise the issue of baht appreciation with his counterparts, a Finance ministry source said.

Thailand has not yet signed double-tax agreements with new Asean members Cambodia, Laos and Burma, said the source.

"Thai investors have invested a lot in Cambodia and face the problem of double taxation, so we want to lower the cost of tax for them," the source said.

The proposal will be made during the meeting from April 1 to 5 in Chiang Mai. The president of the Asian Development Bank and one deputy director of the International Monetary Fund will attend.

The Finance Ministry is also prepared to discuss current economic issues such as capital flows into the region, which have resulted in a stronger baht and appreciated other currencies, which may want to draw on the experience of the Bank of Thailand in imposing capital control.

Governors of central banks from the 10 Asean countries will meet.

Chalongphob earlier said that no country had yet found an effective way to prevent the appreciation of its currency.

The theme of the finance ministers' meeting is how to create an Asean Economic Community (AEC) by 2015.

Asean would have closer integration under an AEC scheme, and cooperation would cover economic, social and security areas. While the Asean Free-Trade Area largely aims at liberalisation of trade in goods, an AEC would accelerate liberalisation of the services sector and freer movement of labour. Financial liberalisation and integration will also be on the agenda.

Asean finance ministers will also push for a strengthening of the swap arrangement under the Chiang Mai Initiative with China, Japan and South Korea, known as Asean Plus Three. "We want this bilateral agreement within Asean+3 to become a multilateral one," said the source.

The swap agreement allows its members to pool resources to defend a currency under attack. The issue will also be raised at the Asean+3 meeting in Kyoto in early May.

Wichit Chaitrong

The Nation