EABC supporting the Greater Mekong Investment Forum on 1 June 2017
On 1 June 2017, EABC members, Board members and EABC Executives participated in “The Greater Mekong Investment Forum” organised by Euromoney Conferences. The Forum was supported by the EABC and it attracted more than 500 attendees.
The topics presented and discussed during the Forum included:
- The GMS and its Major Trade Partners
- Digitalisation and E-Commerce Boom in the GSM
- Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) and implications on the GMS
- Myanmar banking and Investment
- Experiences and Challenges in Greater Mekong Expansion
- Cross-border Projects – Power and Infrastructure
The Forum was a mix of plenary sessions, panel discussion and workshops and a keynote address was given by H.E. Dr. Veerathai Santiprabhob, Governor of the Bank of Thailand on key developments for Greater Mekong including human and financial connectivity H.E. Dr. Veerathai did soften the concerns about a real estate bubble in Thailand’s property market caused by the warnings of Mr. Supachai Panitchpakd, a former director general of the World Trade Organization, and clarified that there haven’t been any indications of that. “We did not see strong growth in loans used for speculation on property prices compared with overall housing loans”, Dr. Veerathai was quoted as saying.
He further explained that the main contrast to the property speculation in 1997 can be described as the source of the money used to buy property: Whilst today the majority comes from savings, the Asian Crises of 1997 mostly relied on loans. Furthermore, the increasing property prices in today’s real estate market are overall concentrated to the luxury residential segment and therefore, there are no indications of a bubble in Thailand’s property market recognizable yet. Dr. Veerathai also pointed out that investments in sectors as information and communication and technology as well as in the digital economy have achieved a consistent growth.
