His rationale is that these agreements will have deprived the state of up to an estimated Bt140 billion in revenue over the next six to nine years because of improper contractual changes in the past several years. For instance, the state's share of revenues under one of these concessions was reduced from 30 per cent to 20 per cent, resulting in a revenue shortfall of tens of billions of baht.

In addition, all the deals with the four operators - AIS, DTAC, True and Hutch - were not on the same footing, resulting in unfair competition. The minister cited the previous governments' failure to follow the public-private sector joint venture law, which governs all schemes worth over Bt1 billion, as another reason for reviewing the lucrative telecom concessions.

The Council of State is expected to come up with a ruling by the end of this month.

Previously, Sitthichai was also instrumental in abolishing the controversial telecom excise tax levied on these privately-owned telecom operators by the previous Thaksin government so that they reverted to paying their concession fees through revenue sharing with state-owned telecom agencies.

The minister is also a staunch opponent of privatisation in the telecom sector and is considering reversing the previous government's plans for TOT Plc and CAT Plc, both of which were earlier due to be listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand. The two entities were formerly state enterprises but were made into corporations during the tenure of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra. Now, Sitthichai hopes to make them state-owned enterprises once again.

Sitthichai apparently believes that the state is still the best protector of the public good, especially in the telecom sector, which has been one of the country's most dynamic industries.

The minister says the government should set a generous quota of work permits to allow more foreign computer-software specialists to work here. He also hopes for a state programme to translate more international academic and other books into Thai, as he believes the language barrier remains high for the majority of Thai students.

Sitthichai cited the governments of Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China as examples for launching large-scale translation programmes to help their students access the international pool of knowledge and wisdom, since the majority of them are not well-versed in English.

A former president of the privately owned Mahanakorn University, Sitthichai says the situation facing Thai students is similar to that in those countries, so a large-scale translation programme should help close the knowledge gap and speed up national development.

After teaching electronics and related subjects at King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Lat Krabang for 14 years, Sitthichai founded Mahanakorn University in 1989 along with two partners, including Anan Anantrakul, a former permanent secretary for interior. The university is admired for its engineering and related programmes and has so far produced about 40,000 graduates.

Sitthichai, a fellow of the US-based Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, recalled that he first met Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont four or five years ago when the latter visited the Mahanakorn University campus as the Army commander-in-chief and was impressed by its technology and innovation.

On a personal note, the 59-year-old Sitthichai told me that at the time he was born in Thailand, during the Second World War, his father was fighting the communists with the army of General Chiang Kai-shek, then leader of the Chinese Nationalist government.

 Nophakhun Limsamarnphun

 nop1122@yahoo.com