A large majority of people are of the opinion that Thailand has benefited from the 35th Asean Summit held in Bangkok on Nov 1-4, according to an opinion survey by Suan Dusit Rajabhat University, or Suan Dusit Poll.
The poll was conducted on Nov 6-9 on1,159 people throughout the country to compile their opinions on the summit.
Asked about their overall level of interest in the summit, 41.24% of the respondents said they were fairly interested while 21.23% were very interested, believing it would yield positive effects on the economy of Thailand and Asean as a whole. On the other side, 24.16% were not particularly interested, saying that Thailand had hosted several summits before and this time the leaders of some countries did not attend, while 13.37% said they paid no attention to it at all, saying they were more interested in bread-and-butter issues.
Asked how impressed they were by the summit, 46.98% said Thailand's hosting of it was successful, since it was free of any untoward incidents; 31.99% said several important political and economic agreements were signed; and 28.64% said the attendance by delegates from many countries had helped promote mutual relations in the Asean region.
However, 49.12% of the respondents said they worried that the agreements made would not be actually implemented; 29.24% raised concerns that Thailand might be left at a disadvantage in some of the agreements; and 23.68% said they had worried there would be rallies or protests during the summit.
Asked whether Thailand had benefited from the summit, 44.35% said "yes", especially from the promotion of its image, while 25.80% said it had tightened relations with other countries as the summit served as a forum for promoting understanding and competitiveness. On the other side, 19.41% said Thailand derived little benefit from the summit, saying that past summits it had hosted were slow to produce results, while 10.44% said Thailand did not benefit from it at all as the global economy is currently in a downturn and even superpowers are suffering from it.
Asked about concrete achievements made during the summit, 60.67% said several cooperation agreements were signed to push for economic improvements; 30.79% said foreign news media covering the summit had helped disseminate the Thai identity; and 28.31% said the summit allowed leaders of various countries to outline their vision.