(Mr. Suphadej Poonpipat) Vice Chairman In 2022, the Thai economy is expected to continue recovering. The major supporting factors include the recovery of domestic demand and tourism in line with the state’s promotion measures as well as the public health measures aiming at mitigating the impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic. Other key factors include the export growth and the government’s investments. The Board of Directors is still of the opinion that the current guidelines for conducting business affairs remain appropriate. These include continuing holding shares in various companies as they are now as well as supporting the business operations of every company, ensuring that they have a stable financial position. In this connection, the Company will consider additional new investments and operate the businesses in which it has expertise in a more proactive manner. Furthermore, the Company plans to expand the business networks of the Group’s various member companies, aiming at generating an appropriate return to shareholders in the long term. Thanks to the stable performance and the likelihood of the recovery of the Thai economy, the Board of Directors has adopted a resolution to make an interim dividend payment of 1.20 baht per share and another resolution to propose to shareholders the second round of a dividend payment of 1.80 baht per share. The combined payments will amount to 3.00 baht share, which is equal to the total dividend payment in the prior year. The combined payments account for 59.50 percent of the net profit attributable to the Company. The Board of Directors expects that the performance of Thanachart Group will continue to be at a satisfactory level and will enable the Company to maintain the fairly reasonable level of dividend payments as in the past. Sustainable business operation has been one of the matters to which the Board of Directors always pays great attention. In this connection, it announced and put in place the Corporate Governance Policy and the Handbook of the Code of Ethics, the Anti-Corruption Policy, the Risk Management Policy as well as other policies. As well, it requires the subsidiaries to consider announcing and putting in place their policies in line with those of the Company. Importantly, the Board of Directors not only monitors the implementation of the policies but also implements the activities relate to business operations, which are useful to the society. Moreover, it develops business operations and practices, aiming at waste reduction, energy conservation, as well as reduced use of natural resources, which will have good impacts on the environment. In this connection, Thailand’s Private Sector Collective Action Coalition Against Corruption (CAC) renewed the memberships of the Company and all the member companies of Thanachart Group, which marked the 10th consecutive year of their memberships. 14
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