The move follows Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak’s policy for the ministry to reform state-owned enterprises.

Ekniti Nitithanprapas, director-general of SEPO, said yesterday that having the ministry’s representatives understand the role of active shareholders and work with SEPO for state enterprise development would make them a mechanism to drive the government’s key policies efficiently.

Based on Somkid’s policy, state enterprises would be focused for the country’s economic development and fiscal stance, given their combined assets of Bt13.5 billion.

They account for half of public investment and their combined contribution was Bt160 billion in fiscal 2015.

Finance representatives in SEPO will be active shareholders, emphasising the government’s key policies particularly the promotion of the country’s investment in the year of investment in 2016.

Planned acceleration in disbursement of state enterprise investment is included for policy expedition with a target of 94 per cent of the approved investment budget, while public-private partnerships and the National e-Payment scheme are planned for actual support.

Others include the Baan Pracha Rat project, enhancement of specialised financial institutions’ efficiency, good governance for asset management and best practices with benchmarking with key competitors.

SEPO will play a part in state enterprise reform, promoting finance representatives to become active shareholders for such reform.

SEPO will have to play a proactive role to support the ministry’s representative through information and data exchanges and two-way communications for fast reporting of state enterprise issues and facts.