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Chinese seek greater say in Thai banks
CHALIDA EKVITTHAYAVECHNUKUL
Beijing and Guangzhou
June 28, 2009

China's largest commercial bank, Industrial and Commerce Bank of China (ICBC), has asked Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to consider lifting the foreign shareholding ceiling in Thai banks.

ICBC chairman Jiang Jianqing made the proposal at their meeting in Beijing on Friday, said Prime Minister's Office Minister Virachai Virameteekul.

Virachai said ICBC was keen to take more than 49 per cent of Thailand's ACL Bank but Thai law caps foreign shareholding in Thai businesses at 49 per cent.

ICBC also asked the premier to consider raising to 50 per cent the current 25-per-cent limit on foreign directors on any board.

ICBC has expressed interest in such a deal for years, but it has delayed in expectation of a revision of the foreign share-ownership level in a bid to seek control of management.

Abhisit said he would ask the Finance Ministry to consider the request, which he said would depend on whether the entry of ICBC would increase competition within Thailand's banking sector, which would narrow the spread of the interest rate.

The other issue the finance ministry will consider is whether the entry of ICBC would make financial services in Thailand more widely accessible to Thais.

"The Thai PM said the central bank and Finance Ministry had known of the proposal for several years and would consider it positively way," Virachai said.

Finance Minister Korn Jatichatikavanij is willing to meet ICBC's executive to discuss the proposal during his visit to China in September, he added.

ICBC's executive told the Thai PM that its entry into the Thai market via acquisition of ACL Bank would have a very positive impact and substantially enhance the Thai strategic profile in the Mekong area.

Virachai quoted Jiang Jianqing as saying that ICBC's expansion in Thailand would support Chinese investment and trade in the country and would dynamise the local market with a large customer base, experienced management, advanced IT technology and proven solid performance and risk management experience throughout the recent financial crisis.

ICBC is the largest of China's "Big Four" banks by assets and operating scale. It is also the world's largest bank by market capitalisation at US$252.85 billion (Bt8.6 trillion).

nationmultimedia.com



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blackgang

Why not go for it and then they could add a big RED star to the center of the flag also.

Sakeopete

Its been there for years you just need to hold a UV light up to the flag and squint your eyes to see it.

blackgang

I kind of thought that was what it was all along.

Johnny Longprong

Tell them to F off. Bloody cashed up bastards looking for cheap countries to buy.
The bastards want Australia to allow them to take controlling interests in companies which presently supply them with raw materials like coal, iron ore, bauxite etc, etc. Tell them to f off and don't sell them the farm. They want to be price setters in not price takers which is smart-arse business in the extreme. We are better off keeping the stuff in the ground and we can well afford to do so, unlike the Thais who have to bend over and take it.

Muadib

^ Yep, Rio Tinto has been bouncing up and down the charts based on whether China will rise or fall...

sabang

About the only prominent political and business figure in Thailand who is not Chinese is Prem.

blackgang

But being Thai, he is surely for sale tho ain't he?

DrB0b

Why do you all hate the free market? Are you communists?

Rural Surin

Actually, the elephant is just a clever disguise.

Rural Surin

The Chinese will get what they want. They're running the show these days.

Mr R Sole

They have been for centuries...haven't they????

avaliable soon a your nearest destroyed temple!!!! Just ask the Tibetans

Rural Surin

Been my understanding. Most can't see it....

Frankenstein

A bit like the Easter Bunny really now that you mention it...

robuzo

According to Chris Baker, there was a brief period around the end of the 19th Century when the Western colonial powers helped to bring about the end of the original great Chinese trading families and even controlled the rice trade for a while, but that ended after the next big wave of Chinese immigration in the early 20th, when by 1912 (I think I remember this correctly) Bangkok was already 50% Chinese.

China rules SE Asia, either more or less directly, as in the case of Burma and probably Laos, or through the overseas Chinese elsewhere. Also take into account who controls the water (Chinese dams on the upper Mekong, for starters). I think the role of the overseas Chinese has undergone a dramatic change from less than a decade ago, and coincides with China's rise as a manufacturing and economic powerhouse- a development that wasn't really anticipated by the Western powers, Japan, or, probably, the overseas Chinese themselves. I think that until very recently the overseas Chinese felt culturally Chinese- in fact in some cases saw themselves as the keepers of Chinese culture after attempts to destroy it in the PRC through the Cultural Revolution, etc.- but the Chinese "homeland" was for a time consigned to history and not much more than a distant memory to most of them, if they knew it at all. This has all changed, and now there seems to be a newly found sense of Chinese identity, i.e., an actual identification with China itself, which is now reopened to them (even to the Taiwanese). I'd like to look into this idea more, and examine how it affects, for example, ethnic Chinese feelings of "Thainess", if I ever have time that is.

The one place the Chinese don't have much control over in SE Asia is Vietnam, and I wouldn't be surprised were the Great Dragon (Smaug?) to butt heads with Vietnam again one day.

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BobR

Considering how oppressive the Chinese Government is to its own people, our own countries morally empty acts of dealing with them and making them as influential as they are is ironic. We (especially America) are getting what we deserve. Unfortunately, the Chinks whining about the dollar being the reserve currency is one of the reasons it has gone down the last few months, so the bastards are costing me money in Thailand.

robuzo

Discussion of arguments about where "Chimerica" is headed, here: Fallows v Ferguson at Aspen (updated) - James Fallows

panama hat

Speed is of the essence in these regions . . . and Thailand leads the way. Several years, eh?

Hehehe, do they actually believe this shit?

I was wondering that myself . . . how dare the Chinks try to buy 'our' companies like Rio Tinto!?!
I see no problem as long as it is quid pro quo, but this big panic against China (though I share the sentiment) is very illogical given that we all support free trade.

I doubt Bangkok was ever nor will it even be 50% Chinese. Having said that, our neighbour back in the early to mid 60's was a gentleman by the name of Benny Wong . . . none of this Thai-ness bullshit. Plain Benny Wong. He owned three houses down soi 12 off Sukhumvit.

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Plus ça change plus ça reste la même chose.

good2bhappy

I thought the elite were all Chinese

robuzo

UNHCR | Refworld | World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - Thailand : Chinese
During this period Chinese migration increased substantially, so that at the beginning of the twentieth century the Chinese had come to constitute perhaps more than half of the population of the capital, known in the west as Bangkok.
-snip-
Today those of Chinese or partial Chinese descent occupy all strata of Thai society, including Thailand's biggest companies outside of the agricultural sphere. More than half live in the Bangkok area and the Chinese population as a whole is largely urbanized.
- - -
If the population of Thailand is roughly 66 million, and 14% are ethnic Chinese (whether or not native speakers of Thai), and more than half of that 14% live in Bangkok, then Bangkok is still more than 50% ethnic Chinese. If you take into account people with one or more ethnic Chinese grandparent, that number would be far higher, I think.