Word: thais
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...Forum in Hong Kong where he pledged to keep Thailand's economy open. Now he insists he has always been a free trader, but that he wants to promote policies that encourage efficient deployment of domestic capital, to close what he sees as a gap between foreign producers and Thai consumers. To that end, his economic advisers have promoted a policy of higher interest rates, insisting (heretically, to Westerners used to Keynesian pump priming) that is the only way to grow the economy. "We have to create an incentive to save, for money to stay in the country...
...depressing predictability to it. In our most cynical moments we suspected it would turn out like this; that, just as it seemed Thailand was moving toward genuine democracy and true rule of law and an incorruptible judicial system, the nation would be lurched back to old-style Thai politics, and tainted justice?or even more familiar?sanctimonious injustice. Thaksin had been charged with failing to declare assets when he was Deputy Prime Minister in 1997 and parking those hundreds of millions of dollars worth of his Shin Corp. shares in his drivers' and maids' accounts. Thaksin's defense consisted...
...wears a burgundy top, a traditional, collarless Northern Thai vestment, and sits on a cushion on the soft teak floor under a pavilion next to a bubbling stream while young women in ornate sarongs parade past with plates of spicy chicken, sticky rice and boned freshwater fish. A famous oenophile, he sips an expensive Bordeaux, brought to Chiang Mai from his own cellars. His entourage, a collection of cronies and political allies for whom Thaksin has been criticized, is gathered around him at other low tables. For a putative reformist, he has surrounded himself with numerous politicians associated with corruption...
...Thaksin were just an A-student, however, he wouldn't have risen to such lofty political heights. He attributes his political successes to his early business failures. After graduating from the Royal Thai Police Cadet Academy?he says he attended the military academy and then the police academy because he didn't want to attend a co-ed engineering school?he married Pojarmarn Damapong, the daughter of a police general. Along with his new bride, he moved to the United States, enrolling in a doctoral program at Sam Houston State University in Texas. The future Prime Minister earned his tuition...
...rise was due in part to his ability to work the halls of power and gain crucial government concessions, he has also been a bold innovator in numerous markets. His early bids for the pager business and the mobile phone business, and his gumption in launching the first Thai satellite when most analysts and experts said that wasn't a viable business are all achievements Thaksin can take credit for. But like most successful businessmen who are handed virtual monopolies, as Thaksin was with his most profitable enterprise, his mobile phone empire, he sometimes overstates the role his business acumen...