Economist Saowaruj Rattanakhamfu isn’t employed by the government or a corporate
interest, so as an independent she’s one of relatively few people able to make a
dispassionate argument about what the Asean Economic Community (AEC) initiative
slated for 2015 will mean for the kingdom. She works as a research fellow for Thailand
Development Research Institute (TDRI), one of only a handful of think-tanks in the
country, and unlike much of what is published in the media, Dr Saowaruj believes not
much will change by 2015.