BoI: A Valued Asset
In an extremely challenging financial climate Dr Atchaka Sibunruang took the helm at Thailand’s Board of Investment. Since then, she has proven to be an astute and accomplished leader. Director’s Greg Lowe met her to discuss her first year in office.
It would have been hard for Atchaka Sibunruang to have been appointed secretary-general of the Board of Investment (BoI) at a more challenging time than October 2008.
Back then Wall Street was at the centre of a financial firestorm whipped up by the winds of investor panic that raged across the world's market economies. Investment cooled due to evaporating liquidity and freezing credit. And in Thailand the global crisis was compounded by domestic political turmoil.
The tear gas from violent clashes between police and protesters from the People's Alliance for Democracy had barely cleared when Atchaka took up her post on October 14, 2008. Over the next eight weeks she would see the prolonged occupation of Government House, blockades at Bangkok's airports which would cost the economy THB 280 billion, and a new government come to power.
Recession then took Thailand firmly in its grip in early 2009, exports and imports plummeted and political turbulence and regulatory risk continued to dampen investor confidence throughout the year.
But with 16 years at the board under her belt, interrupted only by a three-year post at the Office of Industrial Economics, Atchaka refused to panic.
"I've been here [at the BoI] so long... we no longer panic in any situation as we have seen so many problems and crises, one after the other. They come and go. Investment goes up and down, but if you look at the overall trend then there is always an increase and investors still have confidence in Thailand.
"But unlike the [1997] financial crisis we now have political complications, which don't help the economy or the tourism industry," she says. "There are also short-term problems which can be resolved by the government, like what happened at Map Ta Phut [where a court ruling suspended the operating permits of 76 industrial investment projects worth about THB 400 billion] and problems relating to the Customs and Revenue departments, as well as longer-term issues such as concerns over the quality of workers and education and training."
