Smog in Thai North not to affect domestic investment, tourism

CHIANG RAI, THAILAND, April 4 (TNA) - The Fiscal Policy Office (FPO), under the Thai Ministry of Finance, says that the smog problem in the country's northern region is unlikely to affect domestic investment and tourism this year. FPO Director-General Lawan Saengsanit, who is also the Thai Finance Ministry Spokesman, made the remarks on Wednesday in the northern Chiang Rai Province, where the 23rd ASEAN Finance Ministers’ Meeting, the 5th ASEAN Finance Ministers’ and Central Bank Governors’ Meeting and related forums are being held during April 2-5. The spokesman acknowledged about 300 participants in the ongoing regional gatherings in Chiang Rai have not expressed any concern over the haze, as they see it a temporary problem that should end within a week. According to the spokesman, the participants include finance ministers, central banks' governors and senior finance ministries' officials of ASEAN and the 10-member bloc's three dialogue partners, including China, Japan and South Korea, as well as senior executives of the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO), the ADB, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), along with representatives of the private sector from the ASEAN Business Advisory Council, the EU-ASEAN Business Council and the US-ASEAN Business Council. The spokesman and FPO chief assessed that there should not, thus, be any withdrawal of investment plans in Thailand due to the temporary smog problem, which should not seriously affect the domestic tourism either, projecting that there should be at least 40 million international tourist arrivals in the Thai Kingdom this year. (TNA)