Supant to chair FTI once again
Supant Mongkolsuthree has been elected as chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) from April 2018 to April 2020.
Yesterday 357 FTI board members voted unanimously for Mr Supant as chairman, replacing Chen Namchaisiri, who will become an honourable adviser to the FTI.
Mr Supant, now 59, used to be the FTI’s chairman from April 2014 to April 2016. He is also chairman of Synnex (Thailand), a SETlisted IT product distributor, and SET-listed T.K.S. Technologies.
He told the media after the board meeting he will focus more on small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs) to i ncrease their competitiveness.
The Big Brother project is part of the government’s Pracha Rat (People’s State) initiative that aims to help SMEs.
“PTT, Bangchak, ThaiBev and Sahapat will be four Big Brothers in this project and help local SMEs in their supply chain,” said Mr Supant.
He said the FTI seeks further partnerships with government agencies and educational institutions to create more skilled labour to support the country’s industrial sector.
Stakeholders need to adjust themselves to deal with the new trend of technology and innovation to transform the industrial sector, said Mr Supant.
“As FTI chairman, we will try to create a new database for the industrial sector and related agencies and institutions to access new infrastructure and increase labour’s capability,” he said.
Mr Supant said the current trade war, caused by a non-tariff barrier conflict between the US and China, is not expected to affect Thailand much because both countries will soon try to resolve the conflict rather than let it balloon to a global level.
“If the trade war becomes global, no one wins — neither the US nor China,” he said.
“But the private sector has to monitor this issue closely and seek new measures to protect the country’s industrial sector, especially the steel, aluminium and electronic appliance segments.”