You are here
First Silver Reserve puts more of its cash into metal that can''t be leased
Business Day, Bangkok, Thailand
Thursday, January 13, 2005
http://bday.net/detail.asp?id=61154
The government wants to cut the proportion of Thailand's
$50 billion worth of foreign reserves kept in US
dollar-denominated assets, to cut the risks associated
with the currency's roller-coaster ride on the forex
markets.
Olarn Chaiprawat, adviser to Minister of Finance Somkid
Jatusripitak, said yesterday: "The government may have
to take a gradual step to reduce its investment in US
dollar-based bonds. Over the past couple of years, the
government had started bring down its investment in the
US dollar-based bonds, while investing more in both the
euro and Asian bonds."
The government's intention of reducing its reliance on US
dollar bonds follows the steady slide in the dollar's value
over the past two or three years as the US has built its
huge current account deficit and budgetary imbalance,
Olarn said.
According to the Bank of Thailand's figure, the country's
foreign reserve as of end-December last year totalled
$49.8 billion, said Olarn. Over the past two years
Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong ,and India
had each tried to reduce the amount of their foreign
reserves invested in US dollar bonds, he said.
From now on, he said, the intention of the Thai
government would be to keep only half its foreign
reserves in US dollar bonds and the rest in a mixture
of European and Asian bonds. Previously up to 80
percent of the national foreign reserves were in US
dollar-based bonds, with the rest in a mixture of
European and Asian bonds.
Representatives of Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia,
Hong Kong, and India plus China, Japan, South
Korea, and Taiwan are due to meet in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia, in September to discuss international
financial issues. They will cover foreign reserves
policies, currency exchange rates policies, and Asian
bond investment plans so they can help each other
ride out the risks of the currency markets, said
Olarn.
The Thai Cabinet has approved a plan to use $250
million from the foreign reserves to co-invest in the
new Asia Bond Fund 2 (ABF2), which will need an
initial investment capital of more than $1 billion.
Under the ABF2's establishment plan, Thailand and
the central banks of 10 other countries in East Asia
and the Pacific will join forces to establish the fund.
The fund establishment plan will be officially announced
by the end of December.
"This fund will be bigger than the ABF1, which has a
total investment capital of only $1 billion," according
to the Ministry of Finance's deputy spokesman,
Pongpanu Sawetroon.
He said that in the first stage, the ABF2 will raise fresh
capital from members of the Executives' Meeting of
Asia-Pacific Central Banks (Emeap), including Thailand.
The fund will focus on investing in local-currency-
dominated government or semi-government bonds of its
eight members, excluding the local-currency-dominated
bonds of its three founding members, Australia, New
Zealand, and Japan, which are developed countries, he
said.
Once set up, the ABF2 will be a new market instrument
for investment. The Asean-plus-3 (China, Japan, and
South Korea) Group has given its weight to supporting
the Asia bond market, which aims to support
cross-country investment in local currency-dominated
bonds.
"The Cabinet's approval yesterday was in line with the
finance ministries of Asean-plus-3 group's efforts to
enhance a cross-country investment by offering a
withholding tax exemption privilege," Pongpanu said.
He said after the establishment of ABF2, the fund will
be divided into eight local currency-dominated
sub-investment funds with the aim of increasing
investment in its eight founding-member countries. He
said the eight sub-investment funds would be managed
by professional fund managers of each country.
He said the fund managers would extend their
cooperation to cover members of the Asia Cooperation
Dialogue (ACD) in the near future.
Thailand was instrumental in setting up the initial
ABF after getting a strong response from ACD members.
Pongpanu said the main objective of the ABF was to
enhance the ability of the ten members of Asean to
play a crucial role in the international financial
community.
----------------------------------------------------
To subscribe to GATA's dispatches, send an e-mail to:
gata-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to:
gata-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
----------------------------------------------------
RECOMMENDED INTERNET SITES
FOR DAILY MONITORING OF GOLD
AND PRECIOUS METALS
NEWS AND ANALYSIS
Free sites:
http://www.cbs.marketwatch.com
http://www.capitalupdates.com/
http://www.silver-investor.com
http://www.thebulliondesk.com/
http://www.goldismoney.info/index.html
http://www.minersmanual.com/minernews.html
http://www.a1-guide-to-gold-investments.com/euro-vs-dollar.html
http://www.investmentrarities.com
http://www.kereport.com
(Korelin Business Report -- audio)
http://www.plata.com.mx/plata/home.htm
(In Spanish)
http://www.plata.com.mx/plata/plata/english.htm
(In English)
http://www.resourceinvestor.com
Subscription sites:
http://www.lemetropolecafe.com/
http://www.interventionalanalysis.com
http://www.investmentindicators.com/
Eagle Ranch discussion site:
http://os2eagle.net/checksum.htm
Ted Butler silver commentary archive:
http://www.investmentrarities.com/
----------------------------------------------------
COIN AND PRECIOUS METALS DEALERS
WHO HAVE SUPPORTED GATA
AND BEEN RECOMMENDED
BY OUR MEMBERS
Blanchard & Co. Inc.
909 Poydras St., Suite 1900
New Orleans, Louisiana 70112
888-413-4653
http://www.blanchardonline.com
Centennial Precious Metals
3033 East First Ave., Suite 807
Denver, Colorado 80206
1-800-869-5115
http://www.USAGOLD.com
Michael Kosares, Proprietor
cpm@usagold.com
Colorado Gold
222 South 5th St.
Montrose, Colorado 81401
http://www.ColoradoGold.com
Don Stott, Proprietor
1-888-786-8822
Gold@gwe.net
El Dorado Discount Gold
Box 11296
Glendale, Arizona 85316
http://www.eldoradogold.net
Harvey Gordin, President
Office: 623-434-3322
Mobile: 602-228-8203
harvey@eldoradogold.net
Gold & Silver Investments Ltd.
Mespil House
37 Adelaide Rd
Dublin 2
Ireland
+353 1 2315260/6
Fax: +353 1 2315202
http://www.goldinvestments.org
info@gold.ie
Investment Rarities Inc.
7850 Metro Parkway
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55425
http://www.gloomdoom.com
Greg Westgaard, Sales Manager
1-800-328-1860, Ext. 8889
gwestgaard@investmentrarities.com
Kitco
178 West Service Road
Champlain, N.Y. 12919
Toll Free:1-877-775-4826
Fax: 518-298-3457
and
620 Cathcart, Suite 900
Montreal, Quebec H3B 1M1
Canada
Toll-free:1-800-363-7053
Fax: 514-875-6484
http://www.kitco.com
Lee Certified Coins
P.O. Box 1045
454 Daniel Webster Highway
Merrimack, New Hampshire 03054
http://www.certifiedcoins.com
Ed Lee, Proprietor
1-800-835-6000
leecoins@aol.com
Miles Franklin Ltd.
3015 Ottawa Ave. South
St. Louis Park, Minn. 55416
1-800-822-8080 / 952-929-1129
fax: 952-925-0143
http://www.milesfranklin.com
Contacts: David Schectman,
Andy Schectman, and Bob Sichel
Missouri Coin Co.
11742 Manchester Road
St. Louis, MO 63131-4614
info@mocoin.com
314-965-9797
1-800-280-9797
http://www.mocoin.com
Resource Consultants Inc.
6139 South Rural Road
Suite 103
Tempe, Arizona 85283-2929
Pat Gorman, Proprietor
1-800-494-4149, 480-820-5877
Metalguys@aol.com
Swiss America Trading Corp.
15018 North Tatum Blvd.
Phoenix, Arizona 85032
http://www.swissamerica.com
Dr. Fred I. Goldstein, Senior Broker
1-800-BUY-COIN
FiGoldstein@swissamerica.com
The Moneychanger
Box 178
Westpoint, Tennessee 38486
http://www.the-moneychanger.com
Franklin Sanders
1-888-218-9226, 931-766-6066
----------------------------------------------------
HOW TO HELP GATA
If you benefit from GATA's dispatches, please
consider making a financial contribution to
GATA. We welcome contributions as follows.
By check:
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
c/o Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer
7 Villa Louisa Road
Manchester, CT 06043-7541
USA
By credit card (MasterCard, Visa, and
Discover) over the Internet:
http://www.gata.org/creditcard.html
By GoldMoney:
http://www.GoldMoney.com
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
Holding number 50-08-58-L
Donors of $1,000 or more will, upon request,
be sent a print of Alain Despert's colorful
painting symbolizing our cause, titled GATA.
Donors of $200 or more will receive copies
of "The ABCs of Gold Investing" by Michael
Kosares, proprietor of Centennial Precious
Metals in Denver, Colorado, and "The Coming
Collapse of the Dollar" by James Turk and
John Rubino.
GATA is a civil rights and educational
organization under the U.S. Internal Revenue
Code and contributions to it are tax-deductible
in the United States.
