for achieving the best possible performance of the company. this means maximizing profits, increasing growth and market share, expanding business lines, and doing all that it takes to maximize the company ’ s share value. on the other hand, the board of directors has to oversee the operations of management, ensuring that they operate well within the bounds of acceptable risks in order to ensure business continuity. the board of directors, thus, needs to act as a check - and - balance against the management with a view to ensuring the safety and soundness of the enterprise. meanwhile, shareholders also expect the board to perform its role as a watchdog or guarantor that the corporation would not incur losses or go into bankruptcy. they also expect the board to check management against excessive risk taking. therefore, it goes without saying that if the roles of chief of management and the chairman of the board are performed simultaneously by the same individual, then other board members cannot fully perform their duties of providing the check - and - balance required by good governance. worse yet, shrewd ceo will tempt other board members with stock options so that they would go along with his policy direction. this would especially be the case when the ceo aims for high growth or business expansion, which usually implies a quick rise in the company ’ s equities. though, these policies are often prone to higher risks, board members may become less inquisitive and more optimistic in their judgment as a result of the personal interests in potential profits from stock options. at the end of the day, their own personal interests would overtake their sense of conservatism and responsibilities. one can think of an even worse scenario when the ceo would like to cover up any wrongdoings or poor performances. since this ceo is also chairman of the board, he can easily influence the agenda of the meeting. thus, board members may never be aware of the company ’ s problems. if and when they have been informed of the problems, it may already be too late, as evidenced in the case of enron. it is for the above reasons that the authorities here in asia, are pushing for the separation of chairman and ceo positions so that they cannot be occupied by the same person in order to properly balance the powers and functions of the two roles. it is also fortunate for us that the practice of issuing stock options to directors of financial institutions is not yet widespread among banks in asia. ladies and gentlemen, what i have highlighted is only one face

tarisa watanagase : thailand's weathering the global downturn address by dr tarisa watanagase, governor of the bank of thailand, at a luncheon with eu ambassadors, bangkok, 3 february 2009. * * * your excellency ambassador hotek, excellencies, honourable guests, ladies and gentlemen, i am delighted to join this luncheon gathering of prominent ambassadors of the council of european union in thailand, under the presidency of ambassador ivan hotek of the czech republic. indeed, i would like to extend my sincere appreciation to ambassador hotek for his kind invitation for me to update excellencies from the eu countries on recent economic developments in thailand and the prospects for 2009. let me begin with the overview of thailand's economic performance. the thai economic performance was satisfactory for 2008 as a whole. gdp is estimated to grow by around 3. 6 percent, driven by the growth momentum during the first three quarters of the year. notably, from october 2008 onwards, economic developments have been deteriorating. during the fourth quarter of 2008, exports weakened considerably, falling by 9. 4 percent from the same quarter of the previous year. since october, exports showed large reduction in manufacturing products, especially high - technology products. on the domestic side, demand as well as consumers'and investors'confidence have deteriorated as evidenced by several indicators reported by the bank of thailand, including the business sentiment index, which fell to the lowest level at 34. 4 in november last year. in light of this, businessmen and the press started to become concerned about the potentially higher unemployment, which exacerbated confidence further. turning to economic stability, inflation pressure has dissipated starting august 2008. headline and core inflation rates, which were at 9. 2 and 3. 7 percent respectively at their peaks in july 2008, fell to 0. 4 and 1. 8 percent at the end of the year. as for the financial sector, our banking system is healthy in terms of profitability and capital base. i will return to touch on the financial sector later on. economic stability on the external front is also very strong. for 2008, the current account recorded a small deficit of 0. 2 billion us dollar. our international reserves amounted to 111 billion us dollar, which is 4 times of short - term external debt. the exchange rate remains competitive and stable. for 2008, the capital account recorded an overall surplus of 12. 8 billion us dollar, of which foreign direct investment or fdi was