• 
• 
• 

Chiang Mai - Asean secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan urged Thai and Asean businesses Saturday to take advantages more from the Asean's trade and investment privileges after finding that major investors among Asean are the third countries' multinational enterprises.

Speaking at the Thai Chamber of Commerce (TCC)'s annual meeting, Surin said that he was disappointed that only few Thai businesses have high capability to invest in other Asean countries.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has provided many special privileges for promoting investment. "Unfortunately, very few Thai firms have become the multinational companies and able to invest in other Asean countries," said Surin.

According to him, the total foreign direct investment in Asean was worth US$ 60 billion last year. Of these, $11 billion are from Asean investors, but mostly are from Singapore and Malaysia.

Surin also pointed out that although many Thai products have sold in many countries, only large firms have benefited from the trading. Thai enterprises have not done its own marketing, but only allowed large multinational companies to benefit from the larger margin.

The Nation