Bangkok--30 Jan--Master Mind Communications ING Group discloses results of a survey conducted to find out the opinions of investors in 13 countries within the Asia-Pacific Region, saying 69% of surveyed investors believe the overall investment climate in Thailand in 2008 will improve especially during the first 3 months of the year, while up to 93% of the investors are confident that India will enjoy greater investments. ING Group has conducted a survey to collect valuable opinions from investors in 13 countries acrossthe Asia-Pacific Region namely Thailand, Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore and Taiwan. The survey entitled “ING Investor Sentiment Tracking Study” is made to reflect the attitudes and behaviors of investors on a quarterly basis. The latest survey conducted during November-December 2007, which followed the first survey held during July-September last year, boasts a sample group of as many as 1,311 investors. The surveyed individual investors have the minimum age of 30 years and possess investment liquidity worth at least US$100,000 or 3.35 million baht, except those in Indonesia and the Philippines, where deposit accounts have been used as reference. Maris Tarab, Managing Director of ING Funds (Thailand) Co., Ltd., disclosed that his company’s latest comparative investor survey for 2008/2007 revealed 69% of the Thai investors expected to see better investment climate for Thailand in 2008 over last year. However, 17% of the investors cautioned for worse investment condition, while the remaining 14% believed it would be similar to last year. “The results actually coincide with a survey conducted to ask for response on the Thai stock market in the next 3 months, whose outcome concludes that 36% of the surveyed investors are confident in stock market improvement, 16% expecting the market to plummet and the remaining 15% seeing the market floating at the same level as last year,” he said. As for other countries, India receives the highest confidence level from investors with 93% of whom expecting the overall investment climate in the country to ride on the positive trend. The survey also reveals that 61% of the investors believe the stock market will improve. However, the only country in the region expected to see poorer investment climate is Japan as 58% of the investors believe so. Only 17% of the investors believe otherwise. About 60% of the investors believe stock market in Japan will plummet during the next 3 months. With regard to investment return in Thailand, 66% of the investors reveal they have received better investment returns, while 22% report decline and 12% confirm unchanged figures during the last 3 months. As for the next 3 months, 68% of the investors are optimistic for better investment return, while only 10% believe they are in for slimmer return. “Not even half of the surveyed investors say they enjoyed better financial position during the past 3 months. However, more than half expect better situation for themselves and their families in the next 3 months,” he said. In terms of investment behavior, Thai investors are expected to opt for more of short-term investment, while cutting down on long-term investment as pointed out in the survey. “Investors preferring short-term investment will increase from 26% to 33%, while those in for long-term investment will shrink from 38% to 32%. This is the opposite of investors in China and Malaysia, where they are expected to increase the long-term investment and reduce the short-term engagement. Most investors in the region prefer to engage in medium-term investment as in Thailand, there are up to 35% of such investors. The highest number of medium-term investors is South Korea with 73%,” he explained. “Investors across Asia Pacific believe that stock market in China, which is considered a large economy will improve, except investors from Taiwan, who are confident in seeing the opposite,” he added. The managing director of ING Funds (Thailand) continued that most Thai investors (63%) saw the country’s economy is terrible shape in the last 3 months but as many as 55% are positive in seeing improvement in the next 3 months. Only 19% remain pessimistic with Thailand’s economic condition, while 26% believe the situation will remain unchanged. “There are 3 countries in the Asia-Pacific Region, whose investors expect to see declining economic condition. These countries are New Zealand, Japan and Taiwan,” he said. “In addition, the survey also reveals that investors in the more developed economic and investment set ups such as Australia, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore, are more conservative with their investments than those from newly emerging economies like China and India. Investors still believe the factors affecting the investment confidence are the sub-prime loans and the overall economic condition of the United States,” he concluded. For more information please contact : Miss Kritiyaporn polntree Master Mind Communications Co.,Ltd Tel. 02-643-1191-,02-248-7967-8 Fax.02-248-7969 Mobile 08-9636-8414 E-mail address : [email protected]