The Investment Model and Guidelines that Suitable for Social Security fund in Thailand

Abstract

This research studied the suitability of investment models for social security funds in Thailand and also the most appropriate approaches for social security funds to achieve effective investment development. A qualitative methodology was adopted based on a Delphi Technique with three rounds of questioning to reach a consensus. In the first round, in-depth interviews were conducted with 17 key informants, including 10 interviewees from the Financial Management Department of the Social Security Office and 7 interviewees responsible for investment of the Thai Social Security Fund. Findings of the first round of interviews were summarized. In the second and third rounds of the Delphi technique analysis, questions were tested for P-Value statistics and confirmed by the quantitative results from 71 experts. The Kruskal-Wallis test by one-way ANOVA was over 0.05, indicating that all questions were confirmed with the same results and could be used in group discussions in the next step. This research adapted the issues from the third Delphi analysis to conduct a group discussion with 8 executives and investment experts from the Social Security Fund. Results showed that suitable investment models for social security funds in Thailand can be divided into 6 areas as follows: 1) vision, 2) revenue storage consisting of 4 sub-points, 3) payment of benefits, 4) investment management consisting of 6 sub-points, 5) risk management consisting of 7 sub-points, and 6) future investment consisting of 2 sub-points. Approaches for development of the effective investment model of the Thai Social Security Fund can be divided into 8 areas as follows: 1) investment management consisting of 7 sub-points, 2) evaluation and inspection consisting of 2 sub-points, 3) information technology consisting of 2 sub-points, 4) legal and regulations consisting of 4 sub-points, 5) risk management consisting of 7 sub-points, 6) human resources management consisting of 5 sub-points, 7) financial accounting system consisting of 5 sub-points, and 8) procurement system consisting of 4 sub-points. Investment options should increase the proportion of risk-weighted assets to 11%, while the higher proportion of stable assets should be reduced by 11%.