DPM Somkid says Thailand needs to enforce laws against white collar crime better.

(From Thai Press Reports)

Section: General News - Existing penalties not deterring wrongdoers, says commerce minister, The Nation reports.

Although Thailand's corporate governance (CG) is above the international standard, according to the World Bank, the country needs to tighten and enforce regulations penalising white-collar crime, Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak said on Wednesday.

In a seminar entitled "The World Bank's Views on Thai CG and Future Direction of the Thai Capital Market," Somkid, also commerce minister, said that the lack of regulations must be addressed because current laws fail to deter wrongdoers.

The seminar was held by the National CG Committee, the Federation of Thai Capital Market Organisations, the Stock Exchange of Thailand and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The objective of the confab was to clarify the consequences to the Thai capital market of the World Bank's Corporate Governance Assessment Report on Observance of Standards and Codes (CG-ROSC). The report is aimed at giving market participants a clearer view of their positions in the international community and guidelines on good governance to increase their competitiveness.

The CG-ROSC report indicates that Thailand has largely observed 69 per cent and partially observed 31 per cent of the World Bank's criteria, ranging from the CG framework to the roles of market participants. Somkid said this is above international standards.

"Now, we know how our standards compare to the world standard. Thus, we can set a strategy to improve our CG. This will support our long-term plan ...