March 23, 2003 – The final episode of this season of A Closer Look focuses on Thailand, only a few weeks before the national election. What's on the minds of the Thai? Will Prayuth Chan-o-cha, who came to power in a military coup, survive as prime minister? How has the tourism industry survived the COVID-pandemic, and how quickly is it recovering? The country is popular with the Swiss: of all countries in Asia, it has by far the largest number of Swiss nationals living there – a bit over 10,000 at the moment.

Hear from Associate Professor Punchada Sirivunnabood at Mahidol University and Kan Yuenyong, Executive Director at Siam Intelligence Unit. The conversation is moderated by Noel Clehane.

SPEAKERS

Punchada Sirivunnabood is an associate professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at Mahidol University in Bangkok,Thailand. She was a visiting Fellow in the Thailand Studies Programme at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. She is an expert on political parties, elections, and politics in Thailand and Indonesia.  Punchada is currently preparing a book on stability, change, institutionalization and evolution in the Thai political-party system. She is also a frequent contributor on Thai politics for The Diplomat.

Kan Yuenyong is a co-founder and Executive Director of Siam Intelligence Unit, a private think tank and research service on various social, environment, business and economic issues in Thailand. He studied Computer Science and Economics and has graduated with a Master's Degree in Public Administration (MPA) from Chulalongkorn University.
Kan is specialized in geopolitics. He is a co-principal investigator, responsible for the geopolitics and public policy section on TrendNovation Southeast, a monthly Southeast Asia foresight journal. Kan is an alumnus of Asia Society's Asia 21 Young Leaders program, and was selected by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation to represent Thailand in seminars on strategic planning and public management, held at the International Academy for Leadership, Germany.

Noel Clehane is the Global Head of Regulatory & Public Policy at BDO and a chartered accountant with over 30 years’ experience in professional practice and public policy affairs. He coordinates the involvement of the BDO network globally in regulatory and public policy matters and is heavily involved in Europe-ASEAN matters for BDO. He is a frequent visitor to Southeast Asia as a result. Based in Brussels, Belgium, he is a member of the Executive Board of the EU-ASEAN Business Council. He is an active member of both Asia Society Switzerland and Asia House in the UK. Noel is a Fellow of both Chartered Accountants Ireland and the ICAEW in the UK. He also holds qualifications from Law Society Ireland, Instead Paris, the Institute of Risk Management, Florida Atlantic University and Zurich University of Applied Sciences.

A Closer Look is organized by Asia Society Switzerland with support of BDO and the Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies at the University of Zurich.