Business chiefs in five Asian countries have confidence in Thailand because of the administration of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) over the past three months, according to a survey released Thursday.
Dhurakij Pundit University surveyed 600 businessmen from China, India, Japan, South Korea and Malaysia.
It reported that 88.2% of them had confidence in the NCPO’s ability to solve economic problems - as judged from urgent measures implemented over the past three months.
However, they would closely monitor the NCPO to see whether it can lay strong fundamentals for Thai economic growth in the future, said Kiatanan Luankaew, director of the university’s Social and Economic Research Institute.
The Asian businessmen were of the view the NCPO should not stay longer than three years, because staying too long would lessen the confidence of foreign investors, but staying for too short a time might allow the political conflict to re-emerge.
Most of the Asian businessmen surveyed do not want to get involved in Thai politics. They just want Thailand to have a government with the determination to better the country, so they will allow another 60 days to evaluate the performance, he said.
The pollster said respondents still have confidence in the Thai economy, agreeing that GDP growth will be at 2.5-2.7% in 2014 due to the disbursement of the government’s budget in the second half of the year.
The Asian businessmen were not concerned much about inflation and living costs, but they were worried about corruption and wanted the Thai government to reform the education ssystem to produce quality workers, Mr Kiatanan said.