Kittiratt denies he lied about export projections
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Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong told the House yesterday that he did not tell lies about this year's export projections.
“I, as a deputy prime minister and the finance minister, do not lie and will never lie and do not want to lie,” he said. Responding to a motion by Democrat MP Kiart Sitthi-amorn, Kittiratt said he disagreed with the projections of Finance Ministry permanent officials but he did not want to spoil their efforts so he did not speak out.
Kiart played a video clip of Kittiratt’s speech at the Dusit Thani Hotel on August 23. During the speech, Kittiratt admitted that sometimes he had to exaggerate about the country’s economic growth.
“But [the government] must aim high in order to create confidence,” Kittiratt said in the speech. “The finance minister needs to lie sometimes to create good feelings. The world knows this as a ‘white lie’. The goal is to create confidence, which in turn benefits the country’s economy as a whole.”
Kiart told the House that Kittiratt’s admitting he told “white lies” prompted Thai and foreign critics to write more than 500 articles.
Kiart said he wondered whether the government’s other policies would also be “white lies”.
Kittiratt said the Finance Ministry’s permanent officials consulted him about the export projections and they saw that last year Thailand could achieve 15 per cent growth despite the flood crisis so they expected that this year the country would achieve the same growth rate.
The minister said he disagreed but he did not express his opinion out of fear that it would lead to other problems and would cause government officials to become discouraged.
When he gave the speech at the Dusit Thani, Kittiratt said he was simply speaking his mind but that he was not good at playing with his words.
