Bangkok--Jul 7--Francom Asia
This weekend on TALK ASIA, World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi talks to host Lorraine Hahn about the events and influences that have shaped his life.
The Director-General is highly regarded and respected within Thailand’s financial circles, not just for his illustrious career path, but also for the instrumental part that he played in his country’s recovery from the Asian financial crisis. He admits the task wasn’t easy.
“It was critical. Of course the things you do are not things that will please people. You’re telling people to tighten their belts, government will have to be careful with its expenditures. The kind of things we had to introduce into our country was not well liked by the citizens and I could understand. I don’t blame them, and so it was tough to explain, to get people to understand what we were trying to do,” he said.
Dr. Supachai credits some of his career success to his former teacher, Jan Tinbergen, the first Nobel Laureate in Economics.
“He [Prof. Tinbergen
] said: When people go and stand on one side, you don’t go and join them. When the majority, when a lot of people go, you just take a step back and look what they are doing and you have to provide a balance. Because in life you need a balanced approach,” Dr. Supachai said.
The balance in Dr. Supachai’s life comes from being with his family, and through several creative hobbies.
“I have large amounts of Bonsai trees at home; I’ve been doing this for the last 40 years. I play a lot of chess. I’ve [also
] been painting a lot, and now that I live in Switzerland, [there’s
] a lot of landscape that I like there that I’ve been painting.
Log onto CNN’s dedicated website for TALK ASIA, www.CNN.com/talkasia, to find out more about all upcoming guests who are scheduled to appear on the weekly show.
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