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Published on March 5, 2008

The fact is that Surapong holds a bachelor's degree in medicine. Although he later enrolled in Chulalongkorn University's Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration, the degree he obtained was an MBA, which touched only lightly on macroeconomics.

Surapong was not particularly offended by the criticism. When he first took over his new post, he said he had also gained some experience in finance.

Yet working against this claim is his own speech to an economic conference last month. At that time, he said the export sector contributed 73 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), while the remaining 27 per cent came from investment, consumption and public spending.

Economists in general understand that consumption now generates 50-60 per cent of GDP, investment 15 per cent and public spending 15 per cent. The rest comes from net exports: the figures of export value minus import value. Generally, the net exports are known as trade surplus when exports are higher than imports. For years, Thailand has registered trade surpluses, and so the export sector contributes the remaining 10-20 per cent of GDP.

Indeed, Thailand's export value of US$152 billion (Bt4.8 trillion) accounts for 60 per cent of the country's economy of more than Bt8 trillion.

Businessmen at the forum were seen scratching their heads and exchanging puzzled looks at one another when Surapong mentioned exports' proportion of the GDP.

Now their confidence is shaken: where is the country heading when a man who does not understand the underlying facts of macroeconomics is in charge of macroeconomic policies?

Surapong may not mind this. Like he said when taking up the post, the finance minister does not need to be equipped with a knowledge of economics.

To him, the finance minister must be open-minded and ready to listen to opinions from all parties.

Then the finance minister's most important task is making decisions based on those opinions. Businessmen's confidence would probably not have been shaken had Surapong indulged in his decision-making process and left the underlying facts to those officials who are more keen with figures.

And the winner is ...

People in the Thai film industry have pressured the government for help in boosting the industry's recognition among foreign producers. After decades of failure, they recently saw some improvement when certain discouraging rules were amended to make it easier to shoot films in Thailand.

Perhaps the government would act faster if it knew US television network ABC got as much as US$1.82 million (Bt59.32 million) for a 30-second spot during the broadcast of the

80th Academy Awards ceremony, as reported by Advertising Age.

Oscars are awarded mainly to people in Hollywood, but viewers the world over remain glued to their television screens to watch stars who are familiar figures everywhere.

What if Thailand became the next prime spot for film production, after Hollywood and Bollywood?

Then our Suphannahong Awards ceremony could be as famous as the Academy Awards and the TV channel responsible for the broadcast as rich as ABC.

One problem remains, though. What would Thailand be called in the global film industry?

Bangkokwood?

The Nation