Pavida Pananond is professor of international business at Thammasat University, Bangkok
A recent decision by Thailand's competition watchdog, the Office of Trade Competition Commission, to approve the $10.6 billion takeover by Charoen Pokphand Group of Tesco Lotus, a hypermarket chain, is a blow to investor confidence in the country. The decision raises alarming questions about the integrity of the OTCC -- a supposedly reinvigorated reincarnation of a former regulator -- and demonstrates the power of the country's entrenched big-business oligarchy.
