Trump said on the election trail that he would renegotiate trade pacts with China and Mexico, withdraw the US from the World Trade Organisation and the Trans-Pacific Partnership and retaliate against currency “manipulators”.
China could not avoid the impact from the introduction of trade barriers under such a programme, as it is major trader with the US, Suwatchai said.
If Trump were to execute what he promised during the election campaign, Bangkok Bank (China) acknowledged that it would face a new challenge in doing business in China next year, on top of the giant economy’s continued slowdown, he added.
“We will monitor the policy of the US and the impact from that policy on our clients. Yet, our clients have less exposure to the US because, since the sub-prime crisis, Chinese companies shifted from exports to supplying goods for the domestic market instead. More than half of the bank’s customers are engaged in domestic consumption,” the CEO explained.
Bangkok Bank’s China office has a lending target for next year and there is no plan to adjust the business plan following the result of the US presidential election, he stressed.
The bank looks to the financing of corporates doing business in sectors related to domestic growth in China, such as foods, services and electricity-generation projects, Suwatchai said.
China still has demand for power to support domestic consumption, and it was looking to finance this business, he said, adding that his bank and Bangkok Bank’s headquarters had recently agreed to facilitate a loan of 700 million yuan (Bt3.63 billion) to a Thai corporate that had set up a joint venture with Chinese companies to proceed with a 3-billion-yuan coal-fired power plant.
Two-thirds of the investment cost comes from financing, for which banks in China are supporting the local companies in the joint venture.
Construction of the power plant, which will have a production capacity of 1,400 megawatts, will take two years, with electricity generation scheduled to commence in 2019.
The chief executive said that lending to a coal-fired power project represented lending growth of 6-7 per cent for his bank office. With the loan amount being booked to its portfolio next year, the bank’s 2017 lending growth will be higher than this year’s level, he added.
Bangkok Bank in China also has two or three other deals in the pipeline, including the financing of serviced apartments and food businesses.
While inbound investment has eased off due to the slower growth of China’s gross domestic product, the fact that the country has been able to sustain GDP growth of 6.7 per cent for three consecutive quarters was a healthy pointer supporting domestic-market expansion, he said.
Bangkok Bank in China has seen more demand for working-capital loans than for term loans, as the latter require greater consideration before businesses are prepared to commit, he explained.
Two-thirds of the bank’s loan portfolio is in the form of lending for working capital.

Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn said last week that Thailand expected to be upgraded from the US Priority Watch List (PWL) to the Watch List (WL) next year, due to its efforts to protect intellectual property rights.
The government has also made strong efforts to raise IPR awareness and enforce many related laws, she said.
“Despite [the likelihood] Trump will tighten IPR law, Thailand is not [unduly] concerned as we have already developed our IPR protection standard, as well as increased awareness and our own innovation,” Apiradi said.
Moreover, the government also has a policy to promote the country under a digital economy and support innovation and the use of IPR for commercialisation, the minister said, adding that the Kingdom’s IPR standard has made major headway compared to the past several years.
Thailand was downgraded to the PWL in 2007 and has remained at that level as it struggled to manage IPR problems, meaning that exports to the US could be made subject to high duties or other trade barriers.
Apiradi said that two new laws – on copyright protection and the illegal use of camcorders – had been enforced since the middle of this year.
The government has also drawn up a plan to suppress IPR violation and has had national strategies on intellectual property rights since 2012, setting out a clear road map for work that needs to be done, and which will be continued in the years to come, Apiradi explained.
Tossapon Tungsubutra, acting director-general of the Intellectual Property Department, said the US Trade Representative had followed up on Thailand’s moves to crack down on IPR violation and solve the problem of infringement, especially on the Internet.
To raise awareness among traders, the department has provided a manual for merchants to warn them that the copying of goods is illegal and that violators will be subject to punishment under the law.
Moreover, to boost awareness among foreign visitors, the department had also asked for cooperation from Airports of Thailand to install a billboard at Suvarnabhumi Airport warning travellers not to buy copied goods, the official said.
In addition, to promote creativity in Thailand, the department has set up an Innovation Driven Enterprise, or IDE, centre to support innovation from upstream to downstream.

The DOT report said these groups also visited the Temple of the Reclining Buddha (Wat Pho) along the way.
Wanasiri Morakul, director-general of the DOT, said that according to the statistics collected by the Bureau of the Royal Household, since the two main destinations were reopened to tourists, 75-85 per cent of visitors were with guided tour groups from China. Most of the rest were independent travellers from Europe or North America.
To render services to tourists during this busy time in Bangkok, four service points were set up. The first was in front of the Grand Palace’s Viset Chaisri Gate; the second in front of Siam Rath newspaper headquarters on Rajdamnoen Avenue; the third at Tha Chang Pier; and the fourth at Tha Maharaj Pier.
There are four public-relations points at tourist drop-off locations – in front of Viset Chaisri Gate, at Tha Chang Pier, at Tha Maharaj Pier, and at Chang Rongsi Bridge.
Three automated information kiosks have been installed at Tha Chang Pier, in front of Siam Rath headquarters, and in front of Viset Chaisri Gate.

Viset Chaisri Gate
The main Tourist Police service point (white police box) in front of Viset Chaisri Gate is ready with police officers, DOT officials, and volunteer interpreters in English, Mandarin and other languages. They provide tourist information including news updates, directions to entrances and exits, walking routes, opening hours, and lost-and-found services.
At the tour-bus drop-off point in front of Royal Rattanakosin Hotel near Chang Rongsi Bridge, a squad of traffic police, officials from the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority, and Bangkok police are there throughout the day to regulate the bus traffic.
At Tha Chang and Tha Maharaj piers, service points have been set up to assist tourists visiting Bangkok Old Town via boat routes, manned by officials from the DOT, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration and the Marine Department.
Some tour groups have reportedly switched from bus to boat when travelling to Bangkok Old Town as the two piers are in the vicinity of the Grand Palace, whereas the tour-bus drop-off point in front of Royal Rattanakosin Hotel is quite far away.
Westerners were the first to recognise the advantage of using the boats, followed by tour groups from China, who, after visiting the Grand Palace, take the boat at Tha Chang Pier and continue on to other points of interest in Bangkok.
Wanasiri said there have been reports about shady activities by some street merchants around Royal Rattanakosin Hotel. Some are reported to have taken advantage of tourists by forcibly putting merchandise into tourists’ hands without permission.
She said the DOT had coordinated with the Tourist Police Division and Bangkok City Police, and street merchants now were allowed to set up stalls only in designated areas.
Tourism associations and tour guides have also been asked to warn tourists not to purchase unlicensed photos of the Royal Family sold on the streets. Tourists have also been advised not to break away from their groups to take photos or buy drinking water or food at service tents.
The department has urged tour agencies and other tourism-related businesses to communicate with their foreign clients about the actual situations in Thailand, urge them to dress appropriately during this time, and inform them about tightened security measures. So far foreign visitors have cooperated well, it said.
Management of queues at the Grand Palace has also been orderly. The Grand Palace can now welcome more tourists without disturbing the long lines of Thais waiting to pay respects to His Majesty the King lying in state in the palace.

KTC has reported to the Stock Exchange of Thailand that its gross NPLs were down to 1.86 per cent at the end of September, from 2.19 per cent a year earlier, while its credit-card NPLs stood at 1.37 per cent, down from 1.42 per cent.
The company’s NPLs for personal loans were unchanged, at 1.01 per cent.
The Bank of Thailand on Thursday announced that NPLs in the credit-card industry had surged to 5.1 per cent, the highest level in 10 years.
However, the central bank said this was not a critical concern because the sector accounted for credit of Bt200.19 billion, just 1.7 per cent of Bt11.7 trillion-worth of lending in the banking system.
Rathian Srimongkol, president and chief executive officer of KTC, said the company would maintain its NPLs for 2017 at the same level as this year’s, even though it aims to grow by at least 15 per cent in credit-card spending and achieve portfolio growth of around 10 per cent.
KTC remains capable of generating income and profit from increases in card spending and portfolio in both its key businesses – credit cards and personal loans – he said.
Its credit-card approval standards are consistent with target groups, as well as constantly fluctuating circumstances, he said, adding that collection measures are also efficient, making its NPLs the lowest in the sector.
In the first nine months of the year, KTC achieved credit-card spending growth of 14 per cent, well above than the industry rate of 7.2 per cent.
Net profit came in at Bt1.854 billion, some 21 per cent per cent higher than the Bt1.53 billion made in the same period last year.
KTC’s credit-card and personal-loan businesses both contributed to earnings growth, as did effective collection and the ability to drive the company’s funding cost lower, Rathian said.
By the end of September, KTC had a total of around 2.8 million accounts – an increase of 12 per cent, year on year.
This consisted of 2.039 million credit-card accounts, representing 13-per-cent growth, and 793,486 personal-loan accounts, for 8-per-cent growth.
KTC had total receivables of Bt62.18 billion as of September 30, comprising Bt41.325 billion credit-card receivables and Bt20.29 billion personal-loan receivables.
The company’s president said he expected the national e-Payment project to boost e-commerce and consumer-finance business.
To support sustainable growth, KTC aims to be the most preferred brand in both card business and non-collateral personal-loan business by the end of 2018, he added.
It also plans to penetrate all related business areas – merchant acquisition, distribution and online businesses – on top of its core credit-card and personal-loan operations.
Rathian said the company would employ three major principles in achieving its sustainability goals: firstly, developing human-resource potential, cultivating ownership and promoting proactive processes; and secondly, adopting a customer-centric approach to work procedures.
Thirdly, it will utilise cutting-edge information technologies to support new businesses and deliver effectively to customer demands, as well as cultivate long-term relationships with customers while maintaining portfolio quality at a favourable level.