the bullet and adopt what might well be necessarily a fairly costly solution. another important or strategic sector of the economy is probably tourism with thailand well - situated in the air routes of the world. but people don ’ t want to spend 50 weeks in a year or half of their life, whichever the case, and then spend time in an inhospitable location. we have to clean up, especially the visual environment of bangkok, and the major historical sites of ayuthaya, sri satchanalai and chiengmai. putting the electric power line for these cities underground, for instance, would be a most expensive investment, but worthwhile, and the new government must immediately begin to adopt long - term solutions like these. the last area of the private sector which i would like to talk about today is the stock exchange of thailand. the stock exchange of thailand lacks sophistication. it has only just begun to allow short selling, which is essential to allow liquidity in a controlled manner. derivatives are very rare, and this is another area which needs development to reduce the various risks associated with the market, but of course, one should only do it under well known rules, and personally i think only to a limited extent, not to the extent that the beneficiaries are mainly the intermediaries as might be the case in a really large, sophisticated market. as to the scale of the market, i have been visiting msci and other important players in the world. it really is quite easy to improve our market performance. presently, thai market requirements are designed only to fit the thai requirements. requirements that are often self - destructive and unreal leading us into the bubble of 1997. the market in the stock exchange has not been much changed from the bubble days. it ’ s still doing the same thing, just without the bubble. realistically, our rules will have to be changed so that it will comply with and take advantage of rather than be penalised by international norms. in government, the board of investment ( boi ) is probably a crucial instrument. it ’ s doing a good job giving privileges on an individual project basis. that has its own limitations and faults. it might well soon be the time to make operating in thailand generally viable. the original boi philosophy, in that these are projects you wouldn ’ t get if you didn ’ t give tax privileges and therefore have no tax loss costs, is becoming more and more untenable. generally

is one where the central bank becomes a constitutional body of parliament just like the election commission or the national frequency management board. this doesn ’ t mean that we have to change the constitution because the constitution differs from ordinary law mainly in so far as it supersedes ordinary law and the procedure for changing its provisions are rather complicated. by ordinary legislation, we could make the central bank a body of parliament or the senate which is what other new central bank legislations now usually do. this doesn ’ t mean either that the central bank will be operating monetary policy independent of the economic and social policy of the government. the two must be made to intertwine and clear legislation should be made for the procedures for the central bank at appropriate intervals to agree monetary targets with the government and then to be allowed to implement its work independently and unimpeded. but i guess there ’ s no point in talking much about it now. let ’ s wait and see what mandate people give during the election. the only obvious thing is that the present senate seems to be quite qualified to take up such an important role as safeguarding the central bank. let me continue on what the new government has to look at, for instance the general guarantee on deposit. this general guarantee cuts across all good banking practices. banks that misbehave are not being penalised and those that try to do well are dragged down by those who are capricious with the general guarantee that the government gives. the general guarantee will have to be got rid of sooner rather than later if thailand is to get back on an even path. probably, in order to do this, some kind of deposit insurance will have to be in place and seen to be working. it does look like a long road for the new government, where sequencing and implementation of many difficult concepts is still needed before full prosperity returns. let ’ s start on this road to prosperity as soon as possible. ladies and gentlemen, let me turn to the general economy because a central bank or commercial banks alone cannot make the country good very quickly. it is quite obvious that world grain prices are on the way down. between the years 1800 - 1900 when the west was being opened in the united states, grain prices fell over 30 % over a span of a century. with genetic engineering, something of a similar nature might happen over the next 20 or 50 years. we have to plan our still agricultural - dominated population for this eventuality. it does not make sense to base strategy on