Thailand
Thailand: Korn puts Shinawatra government on watch
BANGKOK: What a difference a year makes in Thailand. This time last year, Bangkok’s downtown Ratchaprasong crossroads at the Thai capital’s commercial core was a mess. The iconic Central Department Store was in ruins, trashed after the scorched-earth tactics of the crippling protests earlier in the year. Much of Bangkok’s … read more >>
Hot money threatens to scorch Asia again
JUST 13 years after the Asian Contagion, Eric Ellis questions whether the region’s reforms would prevent another crisis A few weeks before the Rabbit replaces the Tiger on Asian lunar calendars, the region’s investors must wish the zodiacal bunny’s more rational attributes – sagacity, shrewdness and tranquillity – will mark … read more >>
Thailand’s perfect solution
BIG problems require big ideas to fix them and, in Asia, few problems are bigger than the red-yellow divide that bedevils Thailand. Now four years old and no closer to resolution, the discord has been a huge problem in Bangkok: six governments in four years, hundreds dead as the military … read more >>
Thailand’s finance minister Korn faces the ultimate stress test
Thailand’s finance minister Korn faces the ultimate stress test Finance minister Korn Chatikavanij has steered the Thai economy successfully through huge political and social upheaval. But his long-term aim is to connect with Thailand’s people, and not just its financial and business elite, to bring prosperity to the majority. Eric … read more >>
The slow-motion revolution
Thailand has been spared its Tiananmen moment, says Eric Ellis in Bangkok, but Thais now know what civil war looks like Murderous though May and the months before it were in Bangkok, this was not 1989 as it spontaneously rose in Beijing. Casualties were measured in Thai tens not Chinese … read more >>
Thailand’s royal ill-health threatens to infect ASEAN
BARELY affected by the Atlantic financial crisis, ASEAN’s regional economies are vaulting ahead and presenting sexy business opportunities. Though still plagued by corruption, Indonesia, the biggest economy in the Association for South-East Asian Nations, is politically stable, buoyant and knocking hopefully at the door of the BRIC club – Brazil, … read more >>
Thais in a bind
Thailand has found much-needed stability under the Abhisit Government but maintaining it is a problem IT IS – apparently more than most new years – the season to note anniversaries; 240 years since Cook’s Endeavour arrived on our shores, 200 years of Peugeot, 75 years of Elvis and 20 years … read more >>