Thai Businessman-turned-PM shows Midas touch

By FRAN O'SULLIVAN

Soccer-mad Thai leader Thaksin Shinawatra - a billionaire businessman-turned-politician - makes his first official visit to New Zealand today.

Since he became Prime Minister in 2001, he has turned Thailand's economic life on its head and this year posted the country's first balanced Budget since the 1997 Asia crash.

Thaksin, 54, is widely credited with a Midas touch. He worked in the family's silk trading business and at 16 was managing a movie theatre.

Educated in the US - where he has a PhD in criminal justice from Sam Houston State University - Thaksin worked for 14 years in the Police Department before returning to his first love: business.

He set up the software company Shinawatra and went on to build a computer and telecommunications empire, Shin Corporation.

This year he mounted a bid for a 30 per cent stake in Liverpool Football Club.

But Bangkok's Nation newspaper found that two of three Thais thought a Government bid would be a waste of state money.

Thaksin subsequently dropped options which ranged from using taxpayer money, floating shares on the Thai stock exchange and even launching a massive US$250 million public lottery to raise the money.

He entered politics in 1994, forming his own political party Thai Rak Thai (Thai love Thai) four years later.

His children are understood to have spent part of their education in New Zealand.