In my own view, large complicated government units are probably not possible in Thailand unless we get some fantastic new government which is very sophisticated and lasts a very long time, say, 10 or 20 years, a prospect, which presently one should not plan on. In this case, one should then design government units to be small independent units, independently managed, and the governments that come in execute their mandate through budget allocation and legislative changes where necessary. Interestingly, all over the world for a very long time, the concept has been that civil servants have a lot of authority and are not profit-oriented. One should make sure that they have tenure and are well compensated with pensions after they leave, otherwise they might try to stock up some assets for their later life. The philosophy is going in the opposite direction everywhere now. Civil servants are powerful and important and therefore they should not have tenure. For that reason one must make sure that civil servants perform by giving them only limited term contracts, and they will have to perform responsibly and efficiently to get a new contract. I am inclined more towards the latter as one can never make sure of hiring or promoting the right person, and therefore one should plan on an easy change of personnel to get the best results. Let me make a controversial statement on the platforms of the various political parties in terms of spending more and taxing less.
But in financing, it is quite obvious that the SMEs with NPL have to get some more money or some guarantees, and one or the other must come from the government. This happens to be the one area where, for various reasons, there is the least progress. The new government must take a look at this immediately and bite the bullet and adopt what might well be necessarily a fairly costly solution. Another important or strategic sector of the economy is probably tourism with Thailand well-situated in the air routes of the world. But people don’t want to spend 50 weeks in a year or half of their life, whichever the case, and then spend time in an inhospitable location. We have to clean up, especially the visual environment of Bangkok, and the major historical sites of Ayuthaya, Sri Satchanalai and Chiengmai. Putting the electric power line for these cities underground, for instance, would be a most expensive investment, but worthwhile, and the new government must immediately begin to adopt long-term solutions like these. The last area of the private sector which I would like to talk about today is the Stock Exchange of Thailand. The Stock Exchange of Thailand lacks sophistication. It has only just begun to allow short selling, which is essential to allow liquidity in a controlled manner.