Yingluck sets goal of high-income nation
Prime Minister Yingluck Shina-watra's administration has set an ambitious goal of developing Thai-land into a high-income country in five to 10 years through policies for promotion of research and development, income equalisation, capacity-building for sm
The Cabinet appointed PM’s Office Minister Varathep Rattana-korn to spearhead this initiative, which is expected to kick off in fiscal 2014. Varathep, who was also assigned to oversee the Budget Bureau, said yesterday that first, the government planned to raise average annual growth in gross domestic product to 5-6 per cent from an estimated 4.2 per cent this year.
The expansion in GDP would lift per capita income from US$4,420 to $12,400 a year in five to 10 years. In the same period, national research and development investment would be increased to 1 per cent of GDP from just 0.24 per cent now.
The government will focus on bridging the gap between rich and poor. It wants to bring the Gini coefficient down from 0.47 to under 0.4. The Gini coefficient measures the inequality among people’s income.
The contribution of SMEs would be expanded to at least 40 per cent of GDP from 36.6 per cent now.
Along with all this growth, the country would become greener. Carbon emissions in the energy sector would be slashed to less than 4 tonnes per head annually while forested areas would be stretched to 128 rai (20.5 hectares) from 107 rai per head now.
