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His official presence came at the right time for Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, who badly needs an economic guru to shore up the government's popularity after more than five months in office.

However, the outlook seems to be unfavourable for Virabongsa, who already faces strong criticism from the opposition Democrat Party and People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD).

The Democrats have cautioned that there could be a potential con¬flict of interest since Virabongsa will be allowed to sit on every Cabinet meeting, as requested by the premier, while retaining his directorship and chairmanship of several private companies.

The PAD, meanwhile, has called on Virabongsa to tender his resig¬nation from various posts in the private sector prior to taking up the government post.

That's reasonable advice since it's better for the veteran econo¬mist to do it right from the outset.

If Virabongsa had his way, we could expect to see the chief eco¬nomic adviser push for more progrowth and probusiness policies.

His analogy is that the Thai economy is like a patient suffering from haemorrhoids who needs a suppository to cure the illness, but instead is given eye drops.

"I'm opposed to the central bank's plan to raise the policy interest rate 0.250.5 per cent. Such a move will not help ease any market expectations [on inflation] but will lead to higher monetary demand," he told a seminar held by the ExportImport Bank of Thailand.

"Businesses will suffer due to higher costs and may resort to shortening their credit terms from the current three months to one or two months, or reducing their inventories."

As a result, the Bank of Thailand's current economic poli¬cy, which tends to be more prosta¬bility and antiinflation, may take a hit if Virabongsa exerts his influ¬ence at Government House.

Virabongsa, who earned wide public recognition for sound eco¬nomic policies back in the 1980s when serving as adviser to former premier Prem Tinsulanonda, has been against an interestrate hike.

However, the Monetary Policy Committee raised the key rate by 25 basis points last month in a bid to manage expectation on inflation amid rising oil and food prices.

For Virabongsa, a rate hike would not solve the problem since higher inflation is mainly resulting from higher oil prices beyond a coun¬try's control.

In his opinion, the best approach is to ensure that inflation in Thailand isn't rising faster than that of other regional economies.

Then, he wants to stimulate growth and will likely support corporate and personal income tax cuts as well as other fiscal measures to boost economic expansion.

His strategy fits well with the goal of politicians in power as a stronger economy will bode well for all voters who are increasingly fed up with the lack of clearcut government solutions to political and other issues.