Word: shin
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...colossus of the North. In Seoul, the attempt by U.S. corporate raider Carl Icahn to get a seat on the board of tobacco company KT&G has, says Jang Hasung, dean of Korea University's business school, "reignited anti-foreign-investor sentiment." The sale of a controlling interest in Shin Corp., owner of Thailand's leading telecommunications company, to Temasek Holdings of Singapore has been one of the catalysts for the Bangkok demonstrations against Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, whose family controlled Shin Corp. In France, an effort by the Italian gas company Enel to acquire Groupe Suez appears...
...overall trends in investment, trade, tourism or other forms of interchange." Sometimes, to be sure, complaints about trade and foreign ownership mask other issues. Thais may have marched on the Singapore embassy chanting "Thailand's not for sale!" but it was Thaksin, and his windfall from the sale of Shin Corp., that they had in their sights. "If [Singapore] took over a glass factory," says Kasit Piromya, a former Thai ambassador to the U.S., "it wouldn't be a problem. But this was a deal with the Prime Minister...
...Thaksin did not have to pay income tax on the Shin Corp. sale. It's not illegal, but it's not particularly ethical. As one of the richest men in the country and its top politician, he doesn't exactly show a good moral example to the business community or the country. If he had just paid the tax, none of this probably would have happened. It's a matter of, say, paying $200 million, which is not the end of the world when you are getting over a billion...
...best way would be for Thaksin to repent, to say: Okay, I did everything by the rules, but there are ethical issues. His best way would be to go back and pay tax on the sale of Shin Corp. and try to do something with the deal so Thais retain majority control. If he does that, maybe he can reduce the tension. He should do that, stay on for a while, then leave politics...
...BRIDGET WELSH Assistant professor of Southeast Asian Studies, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced and International Studies, Washington D.C. When the Shin Corp. deal happened, that tipped people to say enough is enough. But Thaksin created the situation. He felt invulnerable, dismissed his critics and thought he could push things through with sheer force of personality. The Thais will put up with a lot, and then they can be as hard as anyone else...