As the current flood crisis continues unabated, one of Thailands leading telecom operators is pitching in to help people hit hard by the ravaging deluge. Adhiruth Thothaveesansuk, managing director of Thailands telecom conglomerate True Corporation said the company has resolved to relax rules for its mobile phone service subscribers in flood hit areas. He said prepaid subscribers will automatically get 30 extra days for their unused calls, while postpaid clients will get an extended bill payment date until the end of this month. Adhiruth added that, so far, most of the company’s assets in flooded areas remained intact, except for the mobile phone networks.

Read the original here:
Telecom Operator Eases Rules for Flood-hit Clients

The output of other sectors was also affected during the recent crisis, although less markedly because they had been growing slower than the sectors linked to external demand.
While the Thai government is aware of the need for these reforms, political uncertainties have made it more challenging to pursue them

With economic pundits forecasting that Asian economies will lead global growth over the next few years, led by emerging giants China and India, it seems logical that investors will shift their funds to Thai and Asian equity markets in search of higher yields.
Thai valuations still trail the region considerably. Price-to-earnings multiples for the Thai market were 18.9 times for 2009, compared to, say, 25 to 30 times for the Australian, Japanese and Shanghai markets and valuations could be higher, if not for the political instability in Thailand over the past several years.

Despite the failure of the BSE, the concept of an orderly, officially supported securities market in Thailand had by then attracted considerable attention. In this regard, the Second National Economic and Social Development Plan (1967-1971) proposed, for the first time,
a plan for the establishment of such a market, with appropriate facilities and procedures for securities trading.

In 1969, as recommended by the World Bank, the government acquired the services of Professor Sidney M. Robbins from Columbia University to study the development channels of the Thai capital market. Professor Robbins had previously served as Chief Economist at the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The same year proved an eventful one for the Thai capital market, as the Bank of Thailand also formed a Working Group on Capital Market Development, which was assigned the task of establishing the stock market. A year later, in 1970, Professor Robbins produced a comprehensive report entitled “A Capital Market in Thailand”. This report became the master plan for the future development of the Thai capital market.