Joint push for more investment

Yesterday saw the first meeting of a working team on attracting investment. The team is headed by Finance Minister Apisak Tantivorawong, the representative from the government, and Bangkok Bank president Chartsiri Sophonpanich, representing the private sector.
Tos Chirathivat, CEO of Central Group and head of the working team for boosting incomes and spending, said the finance minister had urged the private sector to help out in the area of agricultural and community goods, especially by creating and developing distribution channels, particularly through modern retail.
He said the government and the private sector agreed on the need to promote the sale of agricultural and community products through modern trade as well as other channels.
“We will select a few major provinces to be the pilots for such projects, to be executed during this first quarter,” said Tos, adding that major modern retailers would be urged to purchase agricultural and community goods from farmers and small producers so boost their incomes.
“We will work closely with Thapana Sirivadhanabhakdi, president and CEO of Thai Beverage Plc, who heads the working team on the development of the grass-roots economy, and the Pracha Rath state-of-the-people model,” he said.
“Today, many middle-to-higher-income earners spend money abroad. What we would like to do is stimulate them to spend money domestically. Meanwhile, lower-income earners should be helped by allowing them to travel on the mass-transit system cheaply.”
Tos said 500 big companies would be urged to host their staff seminars domestically, instead of overseas.
There are 12 committees under the Public - Private - Pracharat committees, which the members consist of ministers and leading businessmen from various sectors.
Chartsiri said Apisak gave many directions to private businesses, focusing on how the private sector can help push investment from medium to grass-roots scales.
The government recently announced that 2016 was the year of investment, and the private sector agrees with this, Chartsiri said.
External factors are not a barrier to investment in the country, he said, adding that the key is how to push actual investment and make Thailand an Asean investment hub.
The country should attract high-value-added investments and to achieve the latter goal, and some regulations should be adjusted to support investment, he said.
Those at the meeting talked about how to make each infrastructure project run smoothly.
The Environmental Impact Assessment was raised, as it should not be a barrier for anyone, including local communities.
Thailand should be a destination for global supply-chain investment, so projects under the public-private partnership scheme were part of the discussion, he said.
What are the suitable projects under PPP and how to co-invest in them and share risks were topics for the meeting, and the private sector will brainstorm on this again and present its findings to the Finance Ministry at the next meeting, he said.
Leading businessmen who joined the meeting yesterday included Plew Trivisvavet, chairman of Ch Karnchang; Premchai Karnasuta, managing director of Italian-Thai Development; Vikrom Kromadit, chief execccutive of Amata Corporation; Keeree Kanjanapas, chairman of BTS Group; Boontuck Wungcharoen, CEO of TMB Bank and chairman of the Thai Bankers’ Association; and Thongma Vijitpongpun, chairman and CEO of Pruksa Real Estate.
Thongma said after the meeting that Pruksa made a proposal to Apisak on how to build homes priced lower than Bt600,000.
“We also provide more information about the demand for resident at price lower than Bt600,000 per unit that have about 400,000 units a year as we also already to do if the government support the incentive to do the business,” he said.
He said that if the government invested in 10 new mass-transit routes in Greater Bangkok over the next 10 years, it would stimulate growth in the property market by an average of 7 per cent a year through 2025.
 Investment in double-tracking railways, building motorways, and implementing high-speed rail would help the property market in the provinces grow by 3-5 per cent a year in the same period.
Last year, the value of the residential market in metropolitan Bangkok was Bt330 billion, up 15 per cent from 2014.