'Prioritise investments and productivity'

The government needs to prioritise investments, boost productivity and develop the supply side to support Thailand’s transition into a higherincome country, while helping the economy grow by more than 4 per cent next year, an economist said. 

Speaking at “Thailand’s Economic Outlook 2015” seminar, Sethaput SuthiwartNaruput, executive chairman of the Thailand Future Foundation, said the government should be clear about its megainvestment projects to boost confidence instead of just focusing on secondary goals such as an inheritance tax and a “digital economy”. He said these concepts were not as important as upgrading the supply side and investing in infrastructure. 

The seminar was organised by the Thammasat Economics Association.

“In terms of stimulating the economy, I want the government to lay down clearly what it is going to do and what its goals are in terms of state investments in the next three months, while providing [information on the] progress of their projects in the meantime,” he said. 

He said that though real capital from the large investment projects was not expected to enter the economy next year, if the government provides clarity, then the private sector would follow and the level of investments would eventually rise in tandem. He added that at the best, 510 per cent of the capital might be seen in 2015. 

Sethaput said the second priority for this government should be getting rid of corruption to restore peace in society by finding those responsible for largescale graft, such as in the ricepledging scheme, and actually punishing them for such crimes. 

Supavud Saicheua, managing director at Phatra Securities, said Thailand needed to find out “what we are going to do for a living” and the government had to come up with a national agenda based on the people’s consensus and the country’s capabilities. 

“Are we going to continue as an exportdriven country or are we going to find a new way to move forward? These are the questions that need to be answered,” he said. 

He said that if the government wanted to attract foreign companies to manufacture their goods here, then it would have to focus on increasing the number of industrial estates and complexes, while concentrating on energy supply and resources. 

If it wanted to focus on the agriculture sector, which is one of its advantages, then the government would have to concentrate on high productivity and the upgrading of valueadded products. If it chooses to focus on the service sector, then it will have to choose the sort of service that looks most promising, such as medical tourism, as reflected by the high pricetoearnings ratio in the industry.

“Singapore aims to become a new London. What is our agenda?” Supavud asked. 

Mathew Verghis, an economist for Southeast Asia with the World Bank, said that if Thailand wanted to boost its productivity, it would have to focus on upgrading its human resources by improving education. Thailand should also aim for higher percapita income of about 4.7 per cent if it wants to transition into a highincome country.