Published at 04:12 (GMT) 12 Jun
The Nation: The finance ministry's plan to sell off its shares in about 100 companies to pare down government debt is "not a priority" for the State Enterprise Policy Office (SEPO), but instead, the priority should be to make sure the SOEs support their subsidiaries. SEPO director-general Kulit Sombatsiri added that all seven loss-making SOEs have submitted business-rehabilitation plans while SEPO will come up with a tangible reform plan and draft an SOE management bill, including the settling up of a holding company for state enterprises listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand. He noted however, the total sum that can be raised from the divestment, ranging from 2-5% of shares in each company, may not be as high as Bt100 billion as expected by the Finance Ministry.
Separately, the Board of Investment announced that incentives for 1,094 projects amounting to Bt 391.7bn has been approved from Jan to May this year. This is almost eight times of the Bt 50.2bn in the same period last year. Projects approved comes from the infrastructure, chemicals electrical and electronics sector.
USD/THB traded flat overnight and into Asia morning at 33.700 levels, likely to consolidate within the 33.600-33.800 band for the day. JP
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