12 July 2010 | By: Mohamed Hairul Borhan

Thailand needs to reform its financial and services sector in the near-term to maintain its attractiveness to foreign investors, said Nandor von der Luehe, chairman of the country’s Joint Foreign Chamber of Commerce.

Calling for the reform, he said that there is wide range of people and businesses looking for financial support. However, not all applications are treated equally, with large companies usually enjoying greater access to bank loans at lower interest rates compared to small businesses and individual owners.

This inequality is a basis for a major overhaul in the country’s banking and financial sectors, he said.

In addition, Mr von der Luehe said that the government should also look at structural reforms in various sectors to improve services, such as auctioning off 3G mobile broadband licences in the telecom sector. He said that the services sector could be a new growth engine that would give Thailand a competitive edge over its neighbours.

He also would like amendments to the Foreign Business Act to be speeded up, and for the role of the Board of Investment to be upgraded so that it could harmonise the country’s economic policies.

In doing so, he is confident that Thailand would be ranked much higher in the World Bank’s “Ease of Doing Business” survey. In the most recent survey, the country is ranked 12^th out of 183 countries but Mr von der Luehe believes that some areas could still be improved.

The country was ranked 55th for Starting a Business, 52nd for Employing Workers and 71st for Getting Credit in the survey that was conducted between June 2008 and May 2009.