Korn poised to take finance portfolio

Democrat secretary-general Suthep Thaugsuban said: "Korn is definitely at the top of the list as the person to be in charge of economic matters."

So far, Korn has refrained from admit-ting or denying he would get the Finance portfolio, pending royal endorsement for the premiership of Abhisit Vejjajiva.

But over the next 48 hours, Abhisit's Cabinet line-up will become more clear, with Abhisit also serving as head of the economic team and Korn as Finance minister.

The combination of Abhisit and Korn would prove an interesting match, as they are both youthful (44 years old) and attended Oxford University together, graduating from the same Department of Philosophy, Political Science and Economics.

The difference is that Abhisit was more bookish in college, while Korn loved to play sports more than spend all of his time in the classroom.

Abhisit has had little management experience in the corporate world, enter-ing politics at the age of 27, but Korn enjoys a strong track record in invest-ment banking from before joining the Democrat Party. Korn has served as shadow finance minister on Abhisit's team since February 8. Korn also played a key role in probing

Thaksin Shinawatra's asset concealment and other tricky transactions. He is a man of action and very result-oriented.

A financial whiz kid, Korn's career has always been on a fast track. He became CEO and co-founder of JF Thanakom Securities at the age of 24 before establishing him-self as one of Thailand's leading investment bankers. He headed JF Thanakom from 1988-99 before selling off his family's holdings in the firm and moving on to head JP Morgan

Securities (Thailand). After the merger between JP Morgan and Chase Manhattan Bank, Korn served as chairman of  the Thai unit.

In February 2005, he left the corpo-rate world to enter politics. It was his upbringing that led to him to enter pub-lic service.

"Once you've made it in life or your career, you must give something back to society" is what Korn learned from the Chatikavanijs, one of Bangkok's more prominent families. Korn is now a Bangkok MP in Constituency 7 and has a net worth of more than Bt800 million.

Yesterday, Korn said he had discussed economic matters with outgoing Finance Minister Suchart Thadathamrongvech and would meet with him again after the transition.

"The public can rest assured we will do what benefits all. We won't be dis-criminatory," he said. The Democrat-led government plans to stimulate economic growth and pro-mote national reconciliation, in order to lure back foreign investors after six months of violent street protests and air-port seizures.

"There's really no chance of recover-ing confidence through economic policy alone without a move towards ensuring that the political situation has sta-bilised," Korn said. "We're very aware of that."