6 May 1999: The Thai defence ministry has offered to divest control of three ailing enterprises that produce glassware, leather and batteries.
Deputy defence minister General Wattanachai Wuthisiri sa…
6 May 1999: The Thai defence ministry has offered to divest control of three ailing enterprises that produce glassware, leather and batteries. Deputy defence minister General Wattanachai Wuthisiri said that the Glass Organisation was up for sale to private buyers while investors would be invited to take 30% stakes in the Tanning Organisation and the Battery Organisation. “The ministry has to abide by a cabinet resolution to sell the Glass Organisation. At this stage a committee is valuing the Organisation,” he said. “The ministry is also proposing that the private sector take 30% stakes in the Battery and Tanning organisations,” Wattanachai said. The defence ministry controls two other enterprises: the Preserved Food Organisation and the Textile Organisation. All the enterprises, which have lost billions of baht over the years, were set up soon after World War II, and their output is mainly supplied to the military. The ministry made the announcement on its enterprises after workers of a state-run power agency, protesting in Bangkok against a government plan to privatize a power plant, had accused the government of being lax about implementing plans to sell off the military“s ailing enterprises.