He made the remark yesterday in response to a World Bank report released on Wednesday, which sees Thailand’s ranking for the ease of doing business being upgraded three places to 46th.
Somkid added that the upgrade could influence the Kingdom’s competitiveness ranking, as rated by the IMD World Competitiveness Centre and the World Economic Forum.
Thailand is aiming high in improving many ways to boost the ease of doing business in the coming years, a senior Thai official said yesterday.
“Thailand is aiming to promote the country’s development in facilitating business growth, so that the ranking can rise to between 30th and 39th place, as Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak has targeted,” said Thosaporn Sirisumphand, secretary-general of the Office of the Public Sector Development Commission (OPDC).
“The country is also aiming to become the world’s 12th and Asean’s second [best] in the ease of doing business after completing its 12th national economic and social development plan, which will be implemented between 2017 and 2021.”
He was commenting after Thailand’s ranking in the World Bank’s “Doing Business” report for 2017 improved from 49th place to 46th among the 190 economies covered.
The higher ranking is attributed mainly to the Kingdom having made strong progress in the resolution of insolvency, an area in which the ranking soared from 49th to 23rd.
Increased efficiency in enforcing contracts, getting credit cards and starting a business are also highlighted.
Thosaporn said the government would continue its strong efforts to improve in areas that still obstructed business growth, including the time it took to get electricity installed, issues concerning construction, and the many layers of tax payment.
He added that the government would coordinate with many agencies, such as the Metro-politan Electricity Authority and the Provincial Electricity Authority, to reduce the time and cost of electricity installation.
It takes an average of 37 days to get connected to the grid in Thailand, compared with 31 days in Singapore, while the respective costs of getting connected are US$42.50 (Bt1,490) and $25.90, according to the World Bank report.

Faster VAT refund
The government will also seek ways to reduce the time it takes to get a value-added-tax refund, the OPDC secretary-general said.
Ruenwadee Suwanmongkol, director-general of the Legal Execution Department, said Thailand’s “resolving insolvency” ranking had improved to the highest level in Asean, showing that the country’s development had had a significant effect in terms of helping businesses emerge from bankruptcy.
Singapore’s ranking in this respect is 29th, while Malaysia ranks 49th in the World Bank’s 2017 report.
The report found that more than two-thirds of the East Asia and Pacific region’s 25 economies had implemented business reforms in the past year to make it easier to do business.
East Asia and Pacific countries implemented a total of 45 reforms, compared with 28 the previous year.
Four economies in the region rank among the top 10 globally in the overall “doing business” rankings: New Zealand, in first place, followed by Singapore (second), Hong Kong (fourth) and South Korea (fifth).
Thailand maintains its place in the top 50 with its improved ranking of 46th.
Ulrich Zachau, World Bank country director for Thailand, said the Kingdom was steadily making progress to ease the process of doing business.
Overall, the country has narrowed the gap between its performance and that of the leading economies, with the “distance to frontier score” in doing business improving from 71.65 to 72.53.
He said Thailand had taken steps to improve the business climate by implementing three reforms in the past year: making it easier to start a business through the creation of a single window for registration payment and reducing the time taken to obtain a company seal; improving access to credit information by starting to provide credit scores to banks and financial institutions; and making the resolution of insolvency easier through new restructuring for small and medium-sized companies and streamlining legal provisions related to company liquidation.
Zachau suggested that the country should continue focusing on reforms to promote a better business environment, in addition to implementing public infrastructure investments, developing skilled workers through quality education, and promoting innovation.
These efforts can further improve the country’s competitiveness, which will lead to more and better jobs for many Thais, he added.