Kosit Panpiemras, chairman of the Bangkok Bank board of executive directors and a cabinet minister in several governments, died of cancer at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital on Wednesday. He was 73.
Kosit had been admitted to the hospital for cancer treatment. He died peacefully on Wednesday, June 1. The bathing and funeral rites will be held at Wat Thep Sirin in Bangkok.
After completing his education at Saint Gabriel’s College, Kosit studied at Chulalongkorn University, where he graduated in public finance from the faculty of political science in 1963. He earned an arts master’s degree in economics from the University of Maryland in the United States in 1965. He later took a course at the National Defence College in 1988.
Kosit was a well-known figure who received public recognition for his work with regard to national and regional economic development.
He began as an economist at the World Bank, Washington DC, before entering government service. He rose to the post of deputy secretary-general of the Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board.
He later entered politics, serving as the prime minister’s secretary-general during the tenure of Gen Suchinda Kraprayoon in 1992. He was appointed deputy agriculture minister during the administration of Anand Panyarachun and later took over the agriculture minister's post in the same government. He held key cabinet posts in several governments.
He first joined Bangkok Bank as an executive director and was appointed chairman of the board of executive directors in 1999.