JUDGING by how many times he has seen Tos Chirathivat, chief executive of the Central Group, at the Ho Chi Minh airport over the past year, US-based equity broker Mark Decker believes Thailand's largest retailer must have something big in its investment pipeline for Vietnam, in addition to or part of its acquisition of Nguyen Kim, a major electronic-goods retailer there in January.

Decker is the founder and CEO of Decker & Co, the only equity brokerage in the world that focuses solely on Asian frontier markets, including the Greater Mekong Subregion. He is particularly bullish on the future of the GMS economies, which he believes will share the same growth trajectory that China has been on for a couple of decades. And because of that, Decker told The Nation he was very bullish on Thai stocks, especially small and medium-sized enterprises in consumer goods, non-bank financial firms, and other nimble SMEs that are poised to gain from the GMS growth. The GMS is made up of countries bordering the Mekong River, namely Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand and southern China. "I think this [GMS] is much bigger than everyone is talking about. China has grown from nothing to where they are now in only 20 years. GMS has a 700-million population, almost equal to China," he said.

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