Congrats, BoT!
Three chaiyos to Bank of Thailand governor Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput and his team for the BoT's being named "Central Bank of the Year" for 2025 by highly regarded Central Banking Publications.
It said: "The [BoT] has deftly balanced its support of the economy with a strong commitment to long-term price and financial stability. It has achieved this while navigating significant political pressure.
"The BoT had to uphold its operational independence despite sometimes receiving intense criticism. Navigating the political landscape was no easy task. The BoT faced repeated attacks from government-affiliated officials who wanted it to loosen its monetary policy."
Mr Sethaput's tenure ends this September, while the IMF and World Bank Group will hold their 2026 annual meetings in Bangkok. In the lead-up to these events, investors worldwide will watch us, hoping the BoT can sustain its independence to carry out its mission. Disappointing them will give them all the more reason to look elsewhere.
Burin Kantabutra
Flawed role model
Re: "Bucking trend", (PostBag, March 12).
Michael Setter's latest letter is yet another misleading addition to his long and storied catalogue. Yes, to date, 1,977 accredited scientists, among them two Nobel Laureates, have signed the world climate declaration, "There Is No Climate Emergency", but that is less than 10% of the total who have expressed an opinion.
The proportion becomes even smaller when considering those with a significant body of published, peer-reviewed work. Mr Setter cites Dr Willie Soon.
Dr Soon received funding and salary from fossil fuel companies but neglected to declare that when giving his opinions on multiple occasions. The Smithsonian has said it does not support his conclusions.
I would feel better about Mr Setter's role models if they lived by the courage of their convictions.
Patrick Moore, who Mr Setter cited in his letter, said you could drink a whole quart of glyphosate, as it was perfectly safe. When challenged to drink a glass of it during an interview he said he wasn't an idiot and left.
Paul Sumner
Tourism mess
Re: "Group laments lost opportunities," (BP, March 14).
ATT president Sisdivachr Cheewarattanaporn was spot on the money when he said that Thailand's tourism industry lacks new supply, is poorly managed on the tourism supply side, and likely will not see 10 million Chinese tourists again due to Chinese mainland awareness of our recent, massive cyber-scams.
To add to those comments, I met Bangkok's cyber-crimes division in their office a few years ago over a case and, at the time, only one staff member could speak in fluent English with me.
I know not about their Chinese fluency, but if it still is the same lack of fluency which I encountered five years ago, that presents quite a problem for cracking down on Thai cyber-crimes in either the Chinese or English language.
Alas, multiple previous Thai governments did not take cyber threats seriously, acknowledge the human harm, or realise the real-world damage such crimes can do until only recently, after enduring damage was finally done to our precious tourism numbers.
If Thailand only heeded the cyber-security warning signs & human collateral damage around five years ago, these long-term revenue losses may not have happened; but now we're stuck with the losses.
Jason A Jellison
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