Flood prevention plan still not clear

Dr Virabongsa Ramangkura expressed confidence in the continuity of international reinsurers’ interest in Thailand, and no relocation of factories of major foreign investors from Thailand is expected.

However, the remedial action to date has been fluid and conflicting. No blueprint is in sight except for the figure of Bt350 billion heralded as a cure all. The fault for the floods was not exclusively due to our rivers and canals but due substantially to people’s disrespect and underestimation of the power of water. This is the best time to imprint on the population that our attitude to water needs changing, right from throwing garbage irresponsibly. Prevention is better than cure. But, instead, the focus has been made on big pictures and how to juggle our public debt in order to borrow more.

With non-action and continuous bickering, reinsurance premiums for Thai floods could end up prohibitively high (which is the gentle way of rejecting Thailand) and gradually Thailand’s previous advantages will be decimated in the eyes of foreign investors, especially with the laid-back but self-important attitude currently shown by those in power.

Songdej Praditsmanont

Bangkok