Sacrificing Investment Thailand's new leaders "are better at being soldiers than in running the country,'' Song Seng Wun, regional economist at CIMB-GK Securities in Singapore, said of the Thai government's plan to limit foreign investment. "At the moment, their hearts are with the nationalistic elements, and foreign direct investment is being sacrificed.''
Added Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University: "The coup-makers have lost their way. They are trying to put in safeguards against economic colonization after the pendulum swung very far under the previous government. So far, they haven't done it very well.''
Thing is, nations such as Russia and Venezuela can use their vast oil revenue to offset drops in foreign direct investment, trade or gross domestic product. When you are Thailand and your big exports are agricultural products, fish and labor-intensive manufactured goods, turning away from the global economy isn't an option.