Bangkok could become the new Singapore

Thailand’s capital, with its strategic location and its position as a regional financial hub, could surpass Singapore in becoming a new gateway for the Southeast Asian region, it has been suggested at a business conference in Bangkok on November 13.
“With a better strategic position, Bangkok will become the next Singapore,” Carey Ramm, executive chairman of the Australian consultancy AEC Group, said on the sidelines of the 2012 Australia-Thailand Business Conference.
He said Bangkok is currently drawing far greater interest from Australian investors than Singapore due to its diversified economic base, its connections with China and India and its role as an attractive hub for Australian firms to access Myanmar and the Greater Mekong Subregion with competitive sectors for investment, including engineering and manufacturing, oil and gas, mining, IT and electronics, and construction and infrastructure.
Charamporn Jotikastira, the president of the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), said at the conference that the local bourse in Bangkok has the potential to become a hub for the region.
Jotikastira told the Bangkok Post that turnover on the SET recently surpassed Singapore as number one in ASEAN. The Thai market has 20 listed companies with a market capitalisation of more than $1 billion, second only to Indonesia with 23.
The Thai bourse, as an active member of the new ASEAN Trade Link programme, will tap a capital market that encompasses 3,778 listed firms with a combined market capitalisation of $2 trillion, Jotikastira said.
The shift of capital flows will also be supported by Thailand’s transformation into a high-income economy by 2020, he added.
[caption id="attachment_5264" align="alignleft" width="300"] Bangkok's is about to become ASEAN's investment hub. Picture © Arno Maierbrugger[/caption] Thailand's capital, with its strategic location and its position as a regional financial hub, could surpass Singapore in becoming a new gateway for the Southeast Asian region, it has been suggested at a business conference in Bangkok on November 13. "With a better strategic position, Bangkok will become the next Singapore," Carey Ramm, executive chairman of the Australian consultancy AEC Group, said on the sidelines of the 2012 Australia-Thailand Business Conference. He said Bangkok is currently drawing far greater interest from Australian investors than...

Thailand’s capital, with its strategic location and its position as a regional financial hub, could surpass Singapore in becoming a new gateway for the Southeast Asian region, it has been suggested at a business conference in Bangkok on November 13.
“With a better strategic position, Bangkok will become the next Singapore,” Carey Ramm, executive chairman of the Australian consultancy AEC Group, said on the sidelines of the 2012 Australia-Thailand Business Conference.
He said Bangkok is currently drawing far greater interest from Australian investors than Singapore due to its diversified economic base, its connections with China and India and its role as an attractive hub for Australian firms to access Myanmar and the Greater Mekong Subregion with competitive sectors for investment, including engineering and manufacturing, oil and gas, mining, IT and electronics, and construction and infrastructure.
Charamporn Jotikastira, the president of the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), said at the conference that the local bourse in Bangkok has the potential to become a hub for the region.
Jotikastira told the Bangkok Post that turnover on the SET recently surpassed Singapore as number one in ASEAN. The Thai market has 20 listed companies with a market capitalisation of more than $1 billion, second only to Indonesia with 23.
The Thai bourse, as an active member of the new ASEAN Trade Link programme, will tap a capital market that encompasses 3,778 listed firms with a combined market capitalisation of $2 trillion, Jotikastira said.
The shift of capital flows will also be supported by Thailand’s transformation into a high-income economy by 2020, he added.
Its never going to happen as long as the corruptions is so huge, the language barrier is so vast and the infrastructure is so poor.
You can not compare Singapore where you can start a business in a day and Thailand where you have to jump through a myriad of hoops and pay like a wounded bull to get anything done.
Sorry but with all the horror stories that we hear and read about weekly in Thailand to suggest that it can become bigger than Singapore is nothing but grandstanding to push a cause.