We have taken the option though that central banks should be trying to put up a good system for people to operate in rather than having another prime function of catching thieves and criminals, and in this legislation therefore a new independent government office has been put up dedicated solely to the pursuit of the articles of the legislation. We sit on the committee under the legislation as I have just said, and cooperate wherever we can to make sure its execution is effected and effective. This is another occasion where central banks contribute directly to peace in that criminal activities which by nature are not peaceful is kept to a minimum. Speaking of criminal activities, vote buying in an election is also a criminal activity and although legislation makes it difficult for us to tackle this problem, we cooperate with the Neutral National Election Commission in tracking down movement of funds and we have assigned an assistant governor to directly coordinate with this Commission. The banking laws in Thailand at present though is that banking activity is secret and this inhibits us from doing as much as we could to help in curbing this criminal activity.
By trading in foreign exchange, in local currencies, by credit extension, by rule making, and by setting interest rates, the general level of economic activity can normally be influenced by the central bank. In so doing, central banks used to try to contribute to peace and prosperity by making sure that the less advantaged or the more useful activities or social class and such like have better access to funds in general or to the funds of the central bank, and in the extreme case even go so far as financing projects and infrastructure. In the modern world, it is now normally agreed that each national economy is so vast and complex that central banks could be considered to have done very well if it just keeps the country stable and let government build infrastructure and help the poor and private sector trade and invest to economically develop the nation. The recent trend is that, central banks are now given the sole task of keeping price stability, and is given the independence to do that since if they have no independence, government will, at time ask it to do things that are in conflict to that sole function.