TOT assesses qualifications

Business News - Thursday December 20, 2007

TOT assesses qualifications

KOMSAN TORTERMVASANA

The TOT board will meet tomorrow to determine the qualifications for the next president of the state telecom enterprise, which has been leaderless for almost four months.

Col Natee Sukolrat, a board spokesman, said directors would discuss a new law relating to the qualifications of state enterprise executives, which was announced in the Royal Gazette last week.

The law allows state enterprises in which the Finance Ministry holds shares to determine the qualifications of executives by themselves, which gives TOT more flexibility than it had previously.

Current TOT regulations say that a president needs to be at least 45 years old and have held at least a C9 level position in government, or be a deputy managing director of a private organisation. The applicant also must have managed a venture worth at least five billion baht, he said.

But the board is expected to ease the qualifications, notably the age of the president, Col Natee said.

''We want a person who has profound knowledge of the telecom industry to revive our financial position,'' he said.

He said a five-member selection committee would be appointed to screen the qualifications of candidates.

Col Natee said the board would try to finish the selection process by February. It has been without a president since Somkuan Bruminhent was ousted over the failure of TOT's Thai Mobile business.

Gen Saprang Kalayanamitr, the TOT chairman and a senior figure in the 2006 coup, has been pushing to have Col Natee appointed to the position, but he is just 41 years old and lacks the other requisite management qualifications.

Bangkok Post