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Thomas James White, AIA Thailand's executive vice president and general manager, said the government was willing to list AIA group, affirming that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij are supporting the idea.

"No matter what country, it's possible. The Thai government wants to know whether AIA Group has any relaxation in order to push AIA Thailand to list on the Thai stock market. The premier and finance minister are ready to support. The current condition of the US Federal Reserve [which is AIA Group's major shareholder] is that new investors must hold 49 per cent of shares in AIA Group which is a vast amount of value," White said.

He added that it is still unknown what is the exact value of AIA. However, if there is any investor in Thailand, such as Thai Beverage, interested in AIA or even the government's suggestion to list on the SET, he would submit these offers to AIA Group's board of directors, which currently has eight members and also the Fed.

He said he would also use his own personal relationship with the Thai Chamber of Commerce to invite Thais to invest in AIA shares.

White said the AIA Group could possibly list in one of the Asian stock markets, including Thailand. Listing in the stock market is part of the AIA group's plan, which will be finalised within the next 12 months. In February, it was separated from its parent company and the group failed to sell its insurance units to new investors via auction. The AIA Group had earlier been on sale, but no investor had enough money to buy the giant. The Fed would like to sell the AIA Group via the stock mar¬ket, which would indirectly get the AIA back to its original Asian market, said White.

However, he insisted that for the best results from listing on the equity market, AIA Thailand would be attached with the other 13 insurers in Asia under the AIA group rather than separately listing in different markets.

White added that if AIA Group is to be listed on the stock market, a new board of directors would be appointed. He believes this will not affect AIA Thailand's operating structure.

"What the AIA in each country needs to do is to prepare figures and the direction of business plan, also marketing opportunity analysis in order to submit as a single report together with AIA Hong Kong," White said.

Integrating AIA Thailand with other countries would have some advantages as there would be experts in several areas in Asia to support and assist in case of future economic problems.

There are also a variety of businesses that would attract investors to buy its shares.

He affirmed that the current volatile global equity market is not an obstacle for AIA Group to list on the stock market. The investment strategy of AIA in all countries is lowrisk, mostly in the bond market, while most of them have good performance particularly in Thailand.

"I couldn't stand what happened in the US. It is an opportunity that we can separate from the AIG crisis," White said.

The general manager said AIA Thailand had not been offered any bonus by its parent firm. But if there is any offer, AIA Thailand's executives will not accept it. From early this year, AIA Thailand's executives have agreed not to accept bonus or any wage raise. But staffs have been paid bonuses.

Insurer AIG, which was saved from collapse by a US$173billion (Bt6.2 trillion) taxpayer bailout, has come under criticism for awarding $165 million in retention pay to employees in the unit that sold creditdefault swaps, transactions that triggered the global credit crisis.

As at the end of last year, AIA Thailand's total premium was Bt84.72 billion. It had the highest market share of 37.93 per cent with net profit of Bt9.66 billion, lower than the previous year by 22.25 per cent. The company's capital is Bt70 billion, total assets were at Bt40 billion, while assets for investment were Bt30 billion.

AIA Thailand recorded Bt2 billion of remittances last year, the same level as in 2007.