Blog Talk with Khun Tarisa

Blog Talk with Khun Tarisa

Posted by Tawan , Reader : 449 , 12:47:14 Print

May I say thank you Khun Suthichai's Blog Talk with BOT Governor Khun Tarisa Wattanaket for the opportunity to listen. I am in America right now and it is wonderful to listen to important interviews in Thailand.

May I say, I do not understand the current criticism of BOT Governor Khun Tarisa. May I ask, since when is the BOT responsible for monetary policy of the U.S. Federal Reserve that could care less about the weak dollar especially when the weak dollar helps U.S. exports. The G7 has been saying that the USD is in for a slow managed decline for a long time who in Thailand has not heard this and has had plenty of time to prepare? Is the BOT responsible for the decline of the USD? The only thing that effects Thailand is the unregulated hedge funds which the U.S. and Britain are against regulation because the U.S. and Britain invented them and make a fortune with hedge funds which the rest of the G7 wants the hedge funds regulated to stablize the markets.

The IMF has said that the current BOT has been transparent in their policies. The current BOT is not the same as the secretive BOT of 1997 that bankrupted Thailand. As I understand the current criticism, is the BOT responsible for the strong baht against the USD. I believe the BOT has warned investors of the current market trends and has asked investors to prepare.
Thailand can compete globally if we listen to the market trends instead of blaming and fighting the trends. Most of the blame is coming from low skill labor intensive industries that wants the baht back to 37 or more. It does not matter if the baht is at 25 to one or 50 to one. What matters as an investor is to be on the right side at the right time of the business cycle that is what diversification and portfolios are for to spread the risk of market changes. The Japanese investors in Thailand has done this with their exports moving up the value added knowledge based scale as their exports are still strong. Even China is trying to move out of low skill labor intensive products that gives the image of Made in China as low quality and dangerous food exports. No country wants this image if you want to keep this kind of industry in Thailand why not make the baht pie 360 to one as was given to Japan 50 years ago at 360 baht to one dollar of course Thailand could even be competitive with China but as you know that is a fantasy world. Even Japan went through the low quality image in the 1960's and moved on to make the world's best quality value added products. Japan continues to move up the scale of advanced knowledge based economy when most of the world just wants to enter the knowledge based economy. Is it not Thailand's goal to move up the scale of a knowledge base economy or would you rather Thailand move back down the scale to cheap low skill economy.

The current criticism of BOT Governor Khun Tarisa seems like children blaming each other. I have listen to her policies and I agree with the IMF that they are clear and transparent. We should look toward the future of joining the Global economy where natural resources rich countries like the Middle East are no longer important when nano factories can snatch atoms out of the air and produce any product even oil to do this Thailand must move up the scale of a knowledge based economy.

Thank you

Tawan