Samart seeks Govt help

November 19, 2009
By Sirivush Toomgum
The Nation

Samart president Watchai Vilailuck is seeking the government's help now that Cambodia has decided to take temporary control of his firm's subsidiary, Cambodia Air Traffic Services (CATS).

In a phone interview, he said the company was gathering facts on the move and has been coordinating with influential figures in the Thai government. It is also asking the Cambodian government for help.

Though CATS is still in operation, none of its nine or 10 Thai employees is allowed on the premises.

"The company's office was set ablaze once in 2003. We don't know what will happen this time. Cambodia has said this is temporary, but they have not set a specific period. We need to continue negotiating and the Thai government must help restore the confidence of Thai businessmen overseas. I don't know how we can be political victims, when we have insisted all along that we have nothing to do with politics," he said.

Watchai also flatly denied that Samart might have set up the whole arrest and commotion to please former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

"We're just investors and have never been involved in politics. We'll never have our firm - a listed one - get involved in politics. What benefit will we get from doing something that might severely affect our business? We have already informed the Thai government that we're being affected by politics. We're the victims here, it's not our fault," he added.

He said his firm had already tried to set up a meeting with high-ranking Cambodian government officials to clarify that it had nothing to do with the case of Siwarak Chotipong, but it has yet to be granted permission to meet them. Siwarak was arrested for allegedly providing the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh with details of Thaksin's itinerary.

CATS is protected by the Thailand-Cambodia investment-protection agreement, he said, adding that the Cambodian government could not terminate the concession as long as CATS does not violate the concession contract. Samart has already hired an international-law expert to look into the matter.

He added that he had no idea how long the problem would last, and that the company was waiting to see how the Thai government proceeded.

The Cambodian government has appointed a senior civil aviation official as a temporary caretaker to oversee the operations to ensure uninterrupted services over Cambodian air space.

CATS is a wholly owned subsidiary of Samart, providing air-traffic control services with a 32-year concession under a build, co-operate and transfer model with Cambodia.

Samart is 18.96 per cent owned by Axiata Group, a large Malaysian Telecom Group.