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Unsurprisingly, Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij has topped the class, posting the highest average score among the government's economic ministers in a Nation survey asking key business people to rate the ministers overseeing their industries on a scale of zero to 10.

With a score of seven, Korn drew much praise for his economic stimulus schemes, which include the Thai Khemkhaeng (TKK) package and the decision to subsidise five extended measures to ease the cost of living.

Sources from the capital market said they were impressed with Korn's determination and effort, and his ability to draw on his extensive experience in the financial market. One person expressed admiration for Korn's openness to the opinions of others, while another cited his efforts to bring his official powers to bear on taming the corruption scandals associated with the TKK scheme.

"I give him seven out of 10 points. But from now, he should strengthen his control over the overall operations to prevent corruption," the source said.

Energy Minister Wannarat Charnnukul performed satisfactorily as well, credited for acting quickly when Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand released water from the Srinakarin Dam, flooding villages in Kanchanaburi. Egat paid compensation to affected villagers.

The ministry was also the first non-business organisation to come up with a complete response to the impacts of the Supreme Administrative Court's suspension order for the Map Ta Phut industrial projects. Officials were told to propose solutions to ease the impacts, which were complete even before economic ministers launched their order last week.

 

"Thailand has been on the right track in energy policies, particularly those for alternative energy. I gave him seven points," said an executive from an energy company.

PROMPT ACTION AT ENERGY

The Energy Ministry's prompt action on Map Ta Phut was in stark contrast to the Industry Ministry, under Charnchai Chairungrueng. An activist said the Central Administrative Court was asked to suspend the 76 industrial projects because the Industry Ministry had shortened the list of activities deemed to have serious environmental impacts from 19 to eight. Earlier, the lawsuit was directed only at the eight government agencies involved in approving the 76 projects.

A source from the industry sector who asked not to be named complained that while Charnchai boasted that investment would remain high, he did nothing to ease investment rules, but rather spent much time on PR trips.

Despite some negative criticism, Commerce Minister Porntiva Nakasai's average score was also relatively high, at 6.5.

Chookiat Ophaswongse, president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, gave Porntiva eight points thanks to her readiness to listen to the private sector's comments.

Chookiat said Porntiva was mired in conflicts between coalition parties, which led to a bumpy decision-making process. He said unity would be important next year to speed up the decision-making process.

Sombat Chalermwutinan, president of Asia Golden Rice, rated Porntiva a seven for her good intentions, and said she should win support to prove her management skills.

"She is a new minister but possesses strong intentions. We should give her more time," he said.

Porntiva's lowest score, six, came from Vallop Vitanakorn, chairman of Hi-Tech Group. Despite her good intentions, he said, she had run up against political interference.

Surprisingly, Porntiva's deputy, Alongkorn Pollabutr, won nine points from Chumpol Saichuer, secretary of the Thai Transportation and Logistics Association, thanks to his hard work in support of the private sector. Though some projects were largely PR efforts, Chumpol said, Alongkorn has not slowed down his efforts to initiate new projects.

Transport Minister Sophon Saram won a highest score of six from sources in the state enterprises under the ministry. Unlike some predecessors, he rarely intervened in the state enterprises' operations.

Yet, another source gave him only three, while Assoc Prof Ruth Banomyong of Thammasat Business School gave him four points, chiefly because Sophon failed to solve problems at the State Railway of Thailand, where a days-long protest affected many people and tarnished the country's image.

Chumpol and Paiboon Ponsuwanna, chairman of the Thai National Shippers Council, gave a passing rate, five, to Sophon. To Chumpol, Sophon at least was able to maintain the momentum of some infrastructure projects, chiefly the Purple Line. Still, he lacked creativity, Chumpol said.

"We're quite satisfied with his effort to keep many projects on schedule," he said.

Paiboon added that the ministry still lacks a comprehensive development plan, which had retarded progress in achieving the goal of becoming a regional hub.

Information and Communi-cations Technology Minister Ranongruk Suwanchawee was praised for her recent efforts involving the 3G business.

One telecom executive, who declined to be named, gave her a six for displaying guts in telling the Cabinet that concession amendments in the past year did not affect the state's revenue, but on the contrary increased the value of state assets. Without such a remark, she would have been entitled to only three points, the executive said.

Another executive based her scoring entirely on her success in rolling out the nationwide 3G network. Success would land her 10 points, failure zero, the executive said.

Giving her a six, Somkiat Ungaree, president of the Association of Thai Software Industry, said the minister had failed to develop the industry in terms of nurturing top information officers or knowledge management.

"Also, she is yet to roll out a road map to support e-society, e-government, e-education, e-commerce and e-industry to facilitate collaboration by government organisations on information and transactions, to boost competitiveness and improve the social enterprise architecture of the country," Somkiat said.

Giving a score of six, Pornthep Watchara-Amnouy, managing director of ASUSTek Computer (Thailand), said he expected Rarongrak in the second year to launch a project to support the hardware and software industries to increase Thailand's competitiveness.

TOURISM FAILURES

Falling to the bottom slot was Tourism and Sports Minister Chumpol Silapa-archa.

Maiyarat Pheerayakoses, president of the Association of Domestic Travel, said the minister totally failed to revive the tourism sector, offering little financial assistance to operators who had suffered badly from the airport shutdown late last year, as well as the political mess at home and the global economic slump. As a result, despite Chumpol's insistence, tourist arrivals this year would never hit the 14 million target, she said.

Chanin Donavanik, chief executive officer of Dusit International, gave a "C-" (four) score to Chumpol for a lack of creative plans. Meanwhile, key organisations like Thai Airways International and the Tourism Authority of Thailand also lacked leadership, Chanin said.

"Though tourism employs more than 800,000 direct jobs, the government has neglected it," he said.

It is not surprising that Chumpol failed to win much praise from operators in the tourism industry, with an average score of two.

Few businessmen bothered to give scores to Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Theera Wongsamut. Of the economic ministers, he had been the most low profile and many of the government policies were endorsed at Cabinet level and handled by ministry officials.

Theera was not seen to be involved in the government's decision to replace the pledging scheme with a price-guarantee scheme.