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Thailand's interim, army-appointed prime minister unveiled his new cabinet on Monday, with a respected central bank governor as finance minister in an apparent bid to reassure investors after last month's coup.
According to a posting on the Government House Web site (www.thaigov.go.th), Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont appointed 26 ministers to a cabinet expected to have a one-year life before elections are held under a new constitution.
Confirmation of Pridiyathorn Devakula as finance minister was seen as a response to investor desires for a steady hand on the economic tiller amid slowing growth and after months of political unrest capped by the September 19 coup against Thaksin Shinawatra.
"The cabinet line-up includes people with good governance and virtue and that is a good starting point," Pridiyathorn told Reuters. "They are real professionals with knowledge for them to start working right away without waiting for time to learn."
In a further sign that Surayud did not plan any break with Thaksin's broadly pro-business stance, the former army chief installed Kosit Panpiemras, the top executive at Bangkok Bank, Thailand's largest financial institution, as industry minister. But an expected opening rise in the Bangkok stock market failed to materialise after North Korea announced it had conducted a successful nuclear test.
Krirkkrai Jirapaet, a former ambassador to the World Trade Organisation, became commerce minister and Nitya Pibulsonggram, ex-ambassador to Washington and lead negotiator in stalled free trade talks with the United States, was named foreign minister. Piyasvasti Amranand, chairman of Thailand's largest asset management firm, takes over the Energy Ministry, where he had served as a career bureaucrat.
In the first public comment by a minister, Piyasvasti signalled the government's intention to focus on rebuilding social harmony after the turbulence of the coup.
It would shelve contentious issues such as the flotation of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), the state power producer. Thaksin's efforts to privatise the firm helped fuel a Bangkok street campaign against him.
Human rights groups and foreign governments are also likely to scrutinise Surayud's line-up for clues to his democratic credentials and whether he is independent of coup leader and army chief Sonthi Boonyaratglin.

Copyright Reuters, 2006

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