Growing ties with
Thailand
VIV Asia
wmt viv-AziË
WHAT'S NewS Issue 7 November 1995
banker on the spot
13
The bank's Bangkok operation was launched officially at the end of August, but
representative Tjepke Nawijn had already been in the Thai capital for some
time exploring this potentially exciting market. As he prepared for the bank's
contribution to VIV Asia, which was held in Bangkok this year, we asked him to
talk us through the situation there and explain how he is positioning the bank.
WHY IS THAILAND IMPORTANT
FORTHE BANK?
This is a major food and agribusiness
country with high levels of exports in sea-
food and other agricultural products, in-
cluding so-called soft commodities. Just to
give you some idea - even though agri's
share in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is
falling as a result of rapid economie
growth in other sectors, it was still 11 per
cent in 1994. Annual agricultural growth
is forecast at between 2 and 3 percent.
The sector still accounts for about 25 per
cent of exports, or USD 11 billion, while
imports are at around USD 6 billion. So,
as a major F&A bank, it makes real sense
for us to be here.
HOW ARE YOU TACKLING THIS
MARKET?
As a rep office, officially our role is to
gather and disseminate information and
establish contacts for our head office and
our other branches. We are not allowed to
engage in commercial banking activities.
At present, we see our role as building
name recognition for Rabobank and, of
course, working on estabiishing a cliënt
base for our branches. This means we can
offer our whole product range here in the
market through the network.
WHAT IS YOUR INITIAL FOCUS?
We're concentrating on market leaders
and upper middle-market companies. We
see the sector as comprising traders, pro
ducers and processors in a whole range of
industries, including fish, rubber, sugar,
rice, feedstuff, dairy and fertilizers. We
also think textiles may be worth looking
at because the garment industry is one of
the highest single export earners here,
while 30 percent of its value is imported -
fabrics, fibres, yarns, and so on.
WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER NON-
FOOD STRATEGIC AREAS?
I think we may have real potential in a
number of those sectors. Thailand's fan-
tastic and rapid economie growth has
strained the country's infrastructure and
some of the problems, specifically in tele-
communications and the transport net
work, are becoming really serious. So
decisions on implementing projects to im-
prove the situation are expected in the near
future. This could result in opportunities
for us in transportation, telecommun-
ications and water. In addition, we'11 also
be looking closely at health-care, pharma-
ceuticals/chemicals, power plants, oil, port
activities and Dutch(-related) business.
YOU'RE CURRENTLY IN THE
PROCESS OF UPGRADING
That's right. We're hoping for a licence.
But even if we get it, we will still have se-
H GROEIENDE BAND
mm MET THAILAND
Onze vertegenwoordiging in Bangkok werd
eind augustus officieel geopend, maar verte
genwoordiger Tjepke Nawijn was toen al
enige tijd in de Thaise hoofdstad om deze
spectaculaire groeimarkt te verkennen. De
enorme export- en importstromen bieden
grote kansen. Naast Food Agribusiness zijn
ook de gezondheidszorg, transportbranche,
textiel- en telecommunicatiemarkt interes
sante sectoren.Tjepke hoopt dan ook op korte
termijn een banklicentie te krijgen, zodat er
concreet zaken gedaan kunnen worden.
Besides a stand in the main trade fair, Rabo
bank also organized a special seminar, Inten
sive production or intensive trade?, to coin-
cide with the VIV-Asia event. 'As speakers, we
invited Dutch agricultural attachés from both
Hong Kong and Bangkok,'Nawijn says.
'Sjouke Postma and I also gave presentations,
and were pleased to have MrThirayuth Phitya
Isarakul, a top executive from the giant Cha-
roen Pokphand agro-industry business group
as final speaker/The seminar was also used to
present the bank's latest study - this time on
the impact of the GATT Uraguay Round on
agriculture in the Asia-Pacific region.
Rabobank organiseerde een speciaal
seminar'lntensieve produktie of intensieve
handel" gedurende de "Vakbeurs Intensieve
Veehouderij (VIV)"Naast landbouwattaché's
en een spreker uit de top van het Thaise be
drijfsleven hebben ook Sjouke Postma (GM
Hong Kong) en Tjepke Nawijn een presenta
tie houden.
rious problems with staffing. But if we up
grade, we're also going to need more staff.
The financial sector is expanding just as
rapidly as the ecomony so we're faced with
a real shortage of skilled professionals.
And you won't be surprised to hear that
salaries in the banking sector have sky-
rocketed in recent years. What we're
currently looking for is two experienced
bankers with good connections in the mar
ket and trade finance or corporate banking
skills.
At least the amazing publicity you got at
the time of the opening will have done
something to help name recognition - also
among banking professionals.
You mean our audience with the Princess -
that was quite a coup and it's all down to
Kanitta Uawithya. She planned and
arranged the whole event. The Princess,
the King's daughter, is one of the most re-
spected and well-loved members of the
Royal Family. She is patroness of the Thai
Red Cross and we had a very generous
donation for her. It was anything but easy
to arrange this and we thought it would
be no more than handing it over. But she
allowed us - Henk Visser, Hanno Riedlin,
Kanitta and myself - quite some time and,
as a result, we got several minutes of
coverage on all five local television
stations. It was much more than we had
expected and we got a great many positive
responses. It all helps to make the bank
known here.
