Business backs anti-flood spending: poll

More than three-quarters of businesses believe the development of anti-flood infrastructure – in particular a floodway – will benefit the economy in the long run, according to the TCC’s business poll conducted by the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC).
Just 2 per cent of the 420 attendees at the TCC’s 29th annual meeting believed such investment would not be worthwhile.
According to the survey of businessmen across the country, most respondents think Thailand needs to present a long-term and concrete plan for future flood prevention.
The priority infrastructure projects are the floodway, irrigation dams to support agriculture and a logistics system.
Most respondents said infrastructure development should be financed directly by the government, rather than by collecting more taxes from the private sector.
Saowanee Thairungroj, vice president of research for the university, said only 41.2 per cent of respondents were willing to pay more taxes for flood prevention.
The most appropriate amount was about Bt2,000 per year, but not more than Bt5,000 a year, the survey found.
The survey showed that most respondents consider the Bt130-billion budget for rehabilitation and Bt30-billion budget for soft loans as insufficient to help businesses, particularly SMEs, recover from the flood damage.
Enterprises are also afraid that the government’s spending for post-flood projects could lead to corruption, so all parties, including the public and private sectors and non-governmental organisations, should closely monitor spending to prevent graft. Thanavath Phonvichai, director of the UTCC’s Economic and Business Forecasting Centre, said the bolstering of confidence is the most important task of the government, so a concrete investment plan for infrastructure development was needed.
Now businessmen give a higher weight to domestic economic fundamentals than the global economy, so the government should urgently create a good business environment to boost confidence and stimulate economic growth, Thanavath said.
The forecast of economic growth next year with the widest support, 36 per cent, was 3.1-4.0 per cent, reflecting that the country was hit by a severe flood and needed time for recovery.