THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
nationthailand

Somkid sees rosy economic outlook in immediate future

Somkid sees rosy economic outlook in immediate future

While Thai Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak says he has not been surprised by economic projections recently made by public and private economic houses, he is expressing confidence that once the new government is firmly in place the prime minister will be able to continue implementing the national plans.

Opening an exhibition at Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Centre yesterday, Somkid said that the research agencies’ downward revision of their estimates for the nation’s economic growth was normal as the Thai economy has slowed down on the back of political matters. With the political situation becoming more certain and the government on the eve of formation, the new prime minister will be able to continue driving government policy.
The Thai economy has very strong fundamentals and the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Index has continued rising from capital inflows from foreign investors confident in the Thai economy.
In the event that the fiscal 2020 budget is delayed, it could affect the disbursement and investment budget in the latter half of this year, said Somkid. There will be a push on executing the government’s previously approved mega projects with a fast disbursement of funds in order to get that money circulating in the Thai economy.
Somkid has also asked the private sector to pay attention on adjustments as, based on the IMD World Competitiveness Ranking, Thailand’s private-sector competitiveness ranking did not go up. That reflected the Thai private sector’s need to adjust itself to cope with fast technological changes such as the internet of things and Big Data.
With Japanese industry having moved into Industry 5.0, which applies higher technology to enhance production efficiency, Thai private enterprises in several industries are in Japan’s supply chains, Somkid said.
If Thai private enterprises could not make adjustments in time, it may be difficult for them to link with Japanese supply chains in the future, he said.
Regarding the Pracha Rat project and the state welfare cards, Somkid said that he wanted to see large-sized private enterprises join the project in order to expand its ability to help low-income earners. Large-sized private enterprises will also be able to aid SMEs, which would be a good project, he added.

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