The President of the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), Mr. Kittirat Na-Ranong, in reference to the SET Board resolutions for the month of May 2002 (22 May 2002), announced that the Board had passed resolutions to set up a SET subsidiary to produce educational media to increase public comprehension of finance and investment. The new subsidiary will have 20 million baht worth of registered capital. The Board also approved in principle to allocate another 250 million baht to support operations of the first phase.
"The SET Board of Governors has placed importance on market education, and, thus, approved the establishment of the SET's new subsidiary aiming at producing educational medias on fundamental knowledge in finance and investment which will engender a greater understanding amongst general public. This is regarded as crucial especially when the economic and financial conditions become more sophisticated. Moreover, the financial institutions also increasingly offer more varieties and more complicated services to customers. The fundamental financial and investment knowledge provided, hence, will help promote for better consideration and judgment in making financial decisions," Mr. Kittiratt said.
The SET will proceed to ask for an approval the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to set up this new subsidiary. The subsidiary will collaborate with various media. It will initially produce the edutainment TV program which provides financial and investment information as well as entertainment. The company will have an experienced professional in finance and investment act as coordinator who will help establish a guideline of the program content and will work closely with the producers. The program, then, will be more interesting and closer to people's lifestyles.
Mr. Punsak Vejanurug, Executive Vice President of the SET, who is responsible for this project added that: "In addition to producing television programs, the new subsidiary will also distribute financial and investment knowledge to the public via other public medias. The establishment of a separate entity to be another SET's new subsidiary to specifically be responsible for public education will create new kinds of presenting the financial information. People's perceptions that finance is difficult, complicated, limited to only educated group of people will be changed. They will know that finance is quite close to them and actually the subject involved in their everyday life. The style of presentation will then have to be informal and easily comprehended by the general public. When the people have a good foundation, they will then become quality investors leading to the expansion of investor base in the Thai capital markets over the long-run.
