Investors Must Tap Investment Opportunities In GMS -- Maybank Kim Eng

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 26 (Bernama) -- Investors must tap the investment opportunities in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) via Thailand to gain exposure in the region and capitalise on its growth. In a statement Monday, Maybank Kim Eng said recent developments in GMS, including improved cross-border trade, investment and labour mobility, had helped boost economic activities. GMS is a development project formed by the Asian Development Bank in 1992 that brought together the six states of the Mekong River basin -- Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Yunnan Province, China. It has a combined population of 330 million. Maybank group president/chief executive officer, Abdul Farid Alias, said 2015 would be a comeback year for Thailand with the political gridlock of 2014 cleared, paving the way for public spending programmes that would stimulate the economy. "Improved export performance and investor sentiment will also buoy growth. Therefore, the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET)-listed securities are looking more and more attractive as vehicles of investment into GMS," said Abdul Farid. The SET Index closed 15 per cent stronger at end-2014 compared to a year ago, with average daily trading at approximately US$1.38 billion, the highest in Asean, despite Thailand’s domestic turmoil last year. Maybank Kim Eng said the opportunities that SET presented as the gateway to GMS were expected to further boost the interest in the bourse. The region was expected to grow at 7.5 per cent annually and to double its economic output by 2020, it said. "Currently, there are more than 100 Thai-listed firms, or 17 per cent of total listed companies, owning businesses in GMS," it said. -- BERNAMA