Leading bankers agree to PM´s reconciliation roadmap

BANGKOK, 7 May 2010 (NNT) – Four financial leaders of Thailand have voiced a full support to the roadmap for national reconciliation proposed by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, believing that it can help drive the domestic economy.

Bank of Thailand (BoT) Governor, Dr Tarisa Watanagase, opined that the PM’s roadmap would help bring peace and order back to the nation and also raise the investors’ and consumers’ confidence after being depressed due to the prolonged protest. In all, the roadmap would ease the adverse economic impacts mainly caused by the political problems. However, she said it might take time to see how obvious it would benefit the pace of GDP growth.

Dr Tarisa continued to say that the ratio of Non-Performing Loans (NPL) as of March 2010 had decreased by 4.8% to stand only at 2.5% which was deemed optimal despite the ongoing political rifts. However, the financial impact rooted by the protest movement was still unpredictable so the BoT needed to take closer look to the latest financial evaluation report of April, she said.

Mr Chaiwat Utaiwan, Executive Director of Siam City Bank, said that the PM’s roadmap was deemed the best way out of the political crisis and would allow the domestic economic situation to consistently grow if all sides had rendered cooperation.

Mr Khan Prachuabmoh, President of the Government Housing Bank (G H Bank) expressed his opinion that the roadmap would reconcile the national bonds while asking all sides to have one step back in order to move the country forward.

Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij disclosed that if the government decided to dissolve the house as planned during late September, the drafting of the 2011 budget expenditure bill would have to be expedited otherwise it would cause a delay to the economic stimulus projects.