THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
nationthailand

Economic cabinet urged to be more responsive

Economic cabinet urged to be more responsive

ANY new economic cabinet should respond faster to the recommendations of the private sector while a new and effective economic cabinet could help stimulate the economy, experts said yesterday.

Supant Mongkolsuthree, chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries, yesterday expressed exasperation at the poor performance of the public sector in acting on the urgent needs of the private sector.
“The task of economic stimulation must be a combined effort of the private and public sectors, which work together, and the new economic cabinet should respond faster to the recommendations of the private sector,” he said.
“The problem is that the government does acknowledge and respond to the recommendations of the private sector, but it is too late, either because of the government or the bureaucratic mechanism,” he said.
The new economic cabinet should concentrate on firming crop prices and cutting production costs for farmers while increasing government assistance for small and medium enterprises, as the latest measures have arrived too late.
“The support for farmers and SMEs will boost domestic consumption and the overall confidence of consumers, as there are many people involved in these two sectors. 
“People will start consuming more and that would help boost tax collections,” he said.
“There’s no point in continuing to worry about exports because everybody in the region is experiencing the same slowdown in shipments, so we have to strengthen our domestic situation,” he added.
Tim Leelahaphan, an assistant vice president and economist at Maybank Kim Eng Securities (Thailand)’s research department, said a new and effective economic cabinet could boost the economy, but the new shortlist of candidates is “unexciting”.
Somkid Jatusripitak, a former deputy prime minister, should take the post as head of the economic cabinet more than become the next industry minister, as speculated, he said.
The prospect of Finance Minister Sommai Phasee being replaced by the ministry’s permanent secretary, Rungson Sriworasat, is just going to be an internal shuffle and that is not going to create a big enough wave to change things within the ministry.
 
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