Although trade competition between the United States and China would affect Thai exports, demand from Europe and others countries would continue to increase, he said.

Meanwhile investment in infrastructure mega-projects would spur domestic consumption growth.

The IMF board approved the latest $2 billion disbursement under the aid deal signed in November 2016 to support Cairo’s economic reform program, which the Washington-based lender has repeatedly praised.

Since then, Egypt has imposed harsh austerity measures and started to phase out subsidies on many goods and services, including this month’s move hiking fuel prices as much as 50 percent, and electricity rates by about 25 percent.

Consumer prices have soared as the authorities floated Egypt’s currency and adopted a value-added tax.

Meanwhile, a fiscal crisis caused the deficit to balloon to 12.5 percent of GDP in the 2015-2016 tax year.

The government said the subsidy cuts are needed, and acknowledged they would lead to sharp increase in taxi fares.

The IMF said Egypt is beginning to reap the benefits of the reforms, and estimates the economy will grow 5.2 percent this year. Inflation is expected to fall to 20 percent by the end of 2018 from 33 percent last year.

However, IMF staff in May stressed that the government still needs to strengthen its social safety net

Since the 2011 revolt toppled former president Hosni Mubarak, the economy of the Arab world’s most populous country has received multiple shocks caused by political instability and security issues.

The survey shows 2.7 million of the total are micro SMEs.

The SME Development Bank will provide loans to micro SMEs of between Bt50,001 and Bt1 million each at 1 per cent interest rate, the bank’s president Mongkol Leelatham said yesterday.

Somkid toured the Hong Kong Cyberport recently in preparation for the Thai project in line with the country’s policy of economic digitalisation. Hong Kong Cyberport is managed by a corporate, majority owned by the government. It is charged with the promotion and development of the territory’s digital technology advancement.

“We can use this model in our drive towards a digital economy under our the Thailand 4.0 strategy ” Somkid said.

Veerathai made the comment as he described the Thai economy as having sufficient stability to cope with external pressures.

“Although the Thai economy has strong stability, we should not take this for granted. Lessons from 1997 have taught us that neglect can lead to damage,” he said.

“We have to reduce the fragile points in the financial system. Examples of this are supervision of savings cooperatives and preparations to cope with global financial-market volatility, which may arise suddenly.”

The baht was floated on July 2, 1997, and with another anniversary approaching, some are speculating on the possibility of another crisis in the wings, given that several emerging-market countries – particularly Turkey and Argentina – are confronting economic crises.

Thailand is seen as having learnt from the 1997 crisis, and has “boosted its immune system” over the past 20 years.

Thailand has since fared better than most other emerging markets in the spheres of economic and financial stability.

The country’s current account has a surplus of US$50 billion, or 11.2 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP). This year, the nation is expected to enjoy a current-account surplus of about $40 billion. This situation stands in contrast with the pre-crisis period when Thailand confronted consecutive annual current-account deficits for several years.

The country’s foreign reserves are sufficient to act as a buffer against possible fluctuations in the capital and financial markets. The figure is hovering around US$210 billion (excluding net long foreign exchange forward position of about US$33 billion), and total external debts are US$150 billion, or 3.5 times short-term external debts. Total external debts are at 35 per cent of GDP, down from 70 per cent in 1997.

Foreign holdings of Thai bonds account for only 10 per cent of the total bond value. Therefore, risks to capital outflow and economic stability are lower than those of countries that rely more on foreign investors. Some countries have foreign holding of bonds at levels higher than 30 per cent and are exposed when the global financial market tightens.

After 1997, Thailand adopted a flexible inflation target framework with the floating exchange The baht’s value is determined by market mechanisms.

While management of the exchange rate, subject to irregularities that rise, may affect the real economy, the central bank decides its monetary policy based on factors ranging from economic growth and inflation to financial-system stability appropriate to the local economic situation.

Over the past 20 years, more agencies and mechanisms have been established, such as the National Credit Bureau, the Real Estate Information Centre, asset management companies and the Deposit Protection Agency. In the meantime, regulatory agencies have been working closely with their international peers. An example is the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralisation (CMIM), which consists of the Asean countries, China, Japan and South Korea.

Such structures provide solid foundations to the country’s economic and financial system, starting from good information systems, warnings to prevent crises and a system ready to solve situations if a crisis occurs.

In the meantime, the business sector has grown stronger, reflecting their greater competitiveness, corporate governance and the methods of capital mobilisation available to them – loans, debt issuance and equity instruments. Risk management has been more focused with cautious investment, as indicated by listed companies’ debt to equity ratio of 1.2 times. At the time of the crisis, this ratio was five times.

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Now, listed companies have not relied mainly on short-term external debts which could lead to the currency mismatch faced in 1997.

Thai financial institutions have been much stronger, while combined non-performing loan (NPL) lowered from 45 per cent in 1999 to 2.9 per cent in the first quarter of this year. The capital adequacy ratio stays at 18 per cent, one among the most in the region.

Besides, the Thai central bank has applied Basel III requirements including liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) to Thai financial institutions for more stability.

Governance including good committee structure, risk-management culture and recovery plan is the issue the BOT and financial institutions’ executives pay much attention on for the Thai financial system’s good management.

Presently, the key risk is tightening global liquidity in light of less monetary easing of industrialised countries’ central banks and trade retaliations among major economic powers. And as a result, the global economic recovery could slow down and the global capital and financial markets could move with more volatility. The business sector should plan for immunisation particularly in foreign exchange risk management.

The economic reforms in several dimensions should also be focused for less fragility and solutions to long-accumulated structural problems particularly in labour, educational quality, productivity and national competitiveness.

Adjustment should be made in time to changes in other global economic system when technologies have been changing very rapidly. In the future, these structural problems will be more worrying issues than concern over financial stability.

“Thailand is very enthusiastic. Top registered exhibitors involve food and agriculture,” Lu Jun, CIIE media coordinator, told a group of international journalists during their visit to the CIIE bureau in Shanghai early this week.

Among the 200 export-oriented Thai firms to sign up, one large Thai conglomerate has booked a 500-square-metre space – one of the largest spaces so far booked – to showcase their products to potential buyers at the expo, Lu said.

China is Thailand’s top export market. Last year’s total value of exports to China reached Bt997.9 billion, an increase of 19.73 per cent from 2016, according to Thailand’s Ministry of Commerce website.

In January-May 2018, Thailand exported Bt390.9 billion worth of goods to China, a decrease of 3.72 per cent from the same period of last year.

The Expo in China is the only import-only event of its kind in the world, according to organisers. It will be held during November 5-10 at the National Exhibition and Convention Centre in Shanghai, with the aim to further optimise China’s trade structure with the rest of the world.

The event was part of the One Belt One Road initiative and the Chinese government plans to hold it annually in Shanghai.

“China will open its market to the world. Unlike previous expos, this time exhibitors from more than 100 countries will come here to export and we will import [products] from all over the world,” Lu said.

President Xi Jinping of China first announced the 2018 CIIE in a speech before the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in May 2017.

Xi said that China would actively develop mutually beneficial and win-win economic and trade partnership with countries participating in the Belt and Road construction.

The decades-long massive transportation and communication project would drive trade and investment between all relevant countries, he said, lead to a free-trade network, and assist in regional and global economic growth.

Lu said it is a significant move for the Chinese government to host the CIIE. The import expo demonstrates firm support for trade liberalisation and economic globalisation, and actively opens the Chinese market to the world.

Boost to cooperation

It facilitates countries and regions all over the world strengthening their economic cooperation and trade, and promotes global trade and world economic growth in order to make the world economy more open, he said.

According to China’s Ministry of Commerce website, in 2017 the total import and export value of China reached US$4.1 trillion (Bt136 trillion), with an increase of 11.4 per cent year on year. Exports hit $2.26 trillion (Bt76 trillion), an increase of 7.9 per cent, while imports were $1.84 trillion (Bt61 trillion), an increase of 15.9 per cent, while the trade surplus was $422.51 billion (Bt14 trillion), a decrease of 17 per cent.

Lu declined to comment on the Chinese government’s projected figure for increased imports after the Expo. However, during his presentation to media he gave the figure of $10 trillion as the estimated value of the Chinese market’s rapid growth in consumption and imports.

So far, enterprises from more than 100 countries and regions, including One Belt One Road participating countries, the United States, and Europe had registered to join, Lu said.

The CIIE bureau estimates that over 1,700 exhibitors, 150,000 domestic and foreign professional purchasers and up to 200,000 visitors from across the world would daily participate in the event.

With an area of 240,000 square metres, the total exhibition will offer both a country pavilion for trade and investment fair, and an enterprise and business exhibition. The exhibition area will consist of two sections, one each for trade in goods and services.

The 180,000-square-metre section for trade in goods will include six exhibition areas: high-end intelligent equipment, consumer electronics and appliances, automobiles, apparel, accessories and consumer goods, food and agricultural products, medical equipment and medical care products.

The 30,000-square-metre section of trade in services will comprise tourism services, emerging technologies, culture and education, creative design and service outsourcing.

Trade in services will be among the highlights in the exhibition area, the organiser said.

From 2011 to 2015, China’s service imports rose from $247.7 billion to $467.4 billion, with an annual growth rate of 17.2 per cent, according to http://www.shanghaiexpo.org.

China also witnessed the most extraordinary growth in overseas tourism, the site said. Chinese residents’ spending on overseas tours have been continuously increasing for over eight years, with annual growth rate exceeding 20 per cent.

Meanwhile, service imports are also climbing fast in areas such as transport, business service, franchising, construction and insurance.

“These reports were prepared to strengthen the implementation of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in Myanmar. We are eager to make all our extractive sectors responsible and transparent so the nation can generate more income for the good of the people,” said Kyaw Thet, deputy director general at the Department of Mining and government representative of Myanmar EITI Multi-stakeholder Group (MSG).

He believes Myanmar would yield a good result in the validation process which will start from July 1.

“For our country, it is a very important process to become a compliant country for EITI. We are now preparing to develop the Open Data Policy which was described in EITI Standard 2016,” he said.

“Since we began our efforts to join this initiative a few years ago, we have set our heart on having good governance in every single company that is doing business in all the extractive industries here. For developed nations like the United States and the United Kingdom, their institutions are strong enough and well-established so they do not need to be involved in the initiative. But on the contrary, we need to be active in this regard.”

He admitted it was really hard to lure companies to be actively involved in the EITI process, as there was no mandatory regulation for that. Yet, he seems proud to manage to finalise the reports within seven months.

“We want to cover all the extractive companies across the nation. But quite a few of them were involved. Some companies refused to take part in our research works, provided that it is not mandatory. Anyhow, we managed to cover all the major companies here,” he said.

He sees a lot of improvements in the two reports which emphasised on two fiscal years (FY2014-15 and FY2015-16), when compared to the nation’s first EITI report in December 2015. He says the EITI process bears fruit, citing Transparency International’s annual corruption perception index in which Myanmar ranked 130th in the world, improving much from its previous ranking of 172th.

Open data portal

“We are on the right track, provided that we have planned to launch a transparent open data portal next month and will implement, in cooperation with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation, a mineral and gemstone cadaster this year,” he said.

Additionally, Myanmar will launch an initial report on beneficial ownership in collaboration with voluntary companies next month. In support of the EITI process, sub-national coordination units have been established in Tanintharyi and Mandalay regions and will also form in four more regions and States -Magwe, Sagaing, Shan and Rakhine.

Moe Moe Tun, central executive member of Myanmar Alliance for Transparency and Accountability and member of MSG, said the initiative could help reduce environmental impacts caused by extraction of natural resources.

“We cannot deny that extractive industries may harm the environment. Obviously, we can see negative impacts in Hpa-kant. Most of the gem blocks are controlled by the military. People need to be aware of State-owned enterprises and military-run businesses. Whether the military should be actively involved in commercial activities should be a serious question raised by our citizens,” she said.

Zaw Bo Khant, vice chairman of Myanmar Gems and Jade Enterprise Association, said the authorities should ban inactive companies from extraction of the resources.

“It is very easy to establish a company here, if there are two or more directors in the management. There are over 4,000 companies in the gems and jade sector, and a lot of them apply for the blocks for extraction. But many of them become inactive and cannot do any extraction because it costs a fortune to do so. This is a big problem here,” he said.

Orders were placed for over 1.5 million tonnes or Bt14 billion worth of tapioca.

International players praised Thailand as a global leader in tapioca production technology and trade.

Sontirat Sontijirawong, minister of commerce, said: “The objectives of WTC 2018 are to underscore Thailand’s position as a major producer and the world’s number one exporter of tapioca products, strengthen confidence and promote the country’s reputation in tapioca quality and standards, as well as publicise the latest technology and innovation in the production and processing of Thai tapioca.

“WTC 2018 has been a great success. It boosts confidence and further highlights the quality and standards of Thai tapioca to the world,” Sontirat said.

“WTC 2018 serves to promote cooperation with neighbouring countries, enhance bargaining power, and strengthen trade ties. A series of memorandums of understanding have been signed with several countries for the purchase of tapioca. The success illustrates the government’s commitment towards its market-led development policy,” said the minister.

Sontirat added that New Zealand and Turkey were being established as new markets worth over Bt4 billion.

“Tapioca generates income for over 500,000 Thai households with production of around 28-30 million tonnes each year. And 70 per cent and rising is exported, earning about Bt100 billion. This year the average price rose to Bt3.15 per kg, the highest in 10 years.

From January to April, Thailand exported 3.6 million tonnes of tapioca for US$1.2 billion. Although the volume reflects an 8 per cent decrease from the same period last year, the value has increased by 26 per cent. Last year, Thailand exported 3.9 million tonnes for $934 million.

Southeast Asian business, finance and government leaders will discuss the region’ economic future, opportunities and challenges.

Industry Minister Uttama Savanaya will deliver the opening address.

“We are pleased to be partnering with Bloomberg once again to bring the Business Summit to Bangkok,” said Chartsiri Sophonpanich, president of Bangkok Bank. “We look forward to helping businesses tap into the immense economic opportunities in Asean.”

“The summit comes at a critical time for Asean, amid a shift in the global strategic balance, with rising trade tensions impacting business confidence and investment decisions,” said Parry Ravindranathan, managing director of Bloomberg Media Group. “We are glad to be back in Bangkok to facilitate invigorating and solution-oriented conversations on how to position Asean for the future.”

“Asean as an economic bloc is becoming an increasingly important driver of global growth,” said Bloomberg News senior executive editor Otis Bilodeau. “The summit will leverage the full resources of the Bloomberg news ecosystem, creating a robust discussion among the region’s most influential newsmakers.”