The economic Cabinet’s meeting has endorsed a five-year 200 million-baht development plan for the State Railway of Thailand. Prime Minister’s Office Vice Minister Puttipong Punnakan revealed today that the economic Cabinet has endorsed an organizational and infrastructural development plan for the State Railway of Thailand, or SRT.

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Economic Cabinet Approves Bt200-million Rail Development Plan

Sectors linked to external demand (namely, manufacturing, hotels and transport) have been the main contributors to growth since the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, and have also determined the dynamics of the economy in 2008-09. These sectors have accounted for almost all of the annual changes in real GDP.
While the Thai government is aware of the need for these reforms, political uncertainties have made it more challenging to pursue them

Alexander Wood, a founding partner of AWR Lloyd, believes the global crisis has acted as a catalyst for a fundamental, structural change in the global capital markets. The real new players in the markets are the sovereign wealth funds.
So small free floats and poor disclosure tend to create a vicious cycle,’’ Mr Wood said.

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.