Base your opinion of 2-tn scheme on its probable benefits

Of course, given that this is one of the country’s most ambitious schemes to date and considering the scale of impact it will have on our social, economic, financial and political fronts, I am sure it has been worth reporting every detail of it. Also, as a Thai citizen regularly paying corporate and personal income taxes, I have been very keen to look into this project carefully, considering the number of zeroes in the investment figure that I always lose count of when cited.

Right after the scheme was announced, most of the comments and insights provided by academics and experts were focused on the source of funds and the transparency issue, worrying that the country would be saddled with indefinite debt and that corruption would eat away at the funds. 

Initially, I was also drawn into such an argument. But since Thailand is a country quite divided, ideologically and politically, I realised that many comments were not constructive and were used as tools to obfuscate the issue rather than make me feel prepared for what this investment has to offer in terms of social and economic development. 

So instead, I switched to basing my opinion on the probable benefits and advantages the investment could bring, preparing myself for what’s good to come and projecting our business direction towards them.

I had the chance to visit the exhibition at the Government Complex on Chaeng Wattana Road in March, and based on the initial information provided in a simple format for the public, I can clearly see why this project is mandatory to drive our country forward. 

On paper, it will directly benefit the construction industry, create more than 500,000 jobs and bring about very significant productivity improvements, beneficial changes in the employment mix and major employment growth and relocation to various parts of Thailand. 

Of course, these are only the initial and obvious benefits that our government wishes everyone to be aware of because of their fundamental impact on the social and economic agenda. However, I believe that if we look into the details we cannot help but find more constructive impacts that are the result of the multiplier effect from the direct benefits.

This Thailand 2020 project reminds me of another similar case that I read about in newspapers a while ago when I was on a business trip to the United Kingdom. 

The project is called HS2, the biggest transport project undertaken in a generation, and it is still going on at the moment. HS2 stands for High Speed Two, which is a high-speed railway linking London’s Euston Station to the English Midlands, northern England and potentially the central belt of Scotland. 

Besides fundamental economic and social impacts, the spillover benefits that the British government quotes as a result of HS2 also include easy access for companies and individuals to a wider range of labour markets, customers and suppliers, increased interaction among entities and the production of “knowledge spillovers”.

In addition to these, it is believed that many benefits are hard to quantify. The history of major upgrades in the UK, such as the original railways or the motorway network, suggests they can have significant unforeseen effects on the economic geography. 

For example, a report by KPMG suggests some very interesting spillover benefits including higher wage levels in areas with higher rail connectivity of 1.1 per cent. What this means is an increase of annual tax receipts by £6 billion to £10 billion  (Bt275 billion to Bt460 billion) for the British government. These are only a few of the quite interesting impacts we may not know for now.

As mentioned earlier, I would rather base my opinion of Thailand’s programme on its positive effects, and I would like to encourage others to do the same. 

This is not the world’s first mega-project initiated by a government, so it is likely that we all can look for tried and tested examples that we can analyse and improve on. 

We all know that the main objective of this project is to raise our competitiveness and drive our country forward, so I would like to think that by embracing the idea and making sure our business direction complements the big picture, there will be a happy ending for all.