In his weekly nationally televised address, Prayut lauded all related agencies and the private sector for working under the “civil-state” approach to create happiness and for keeping unemployment and inflation rates low and stable for the past three years, which has resulted in Thailand being declared the happiest nation in the world in a recent survey.

The civil-state approach, aka “Pracharat”, seeks to integrate cooperation between state agencies and private organisations.

Bloomberg recently released its 2016 Misery Index, ranking Thailand the least miserable country among 63 economies surveyed.

The premier referred to the index saying that there have been improvements in many areas in Thailand, driven by good governance, anti-corruption efforts, and measures to resolve existing problems which include illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing and human trafficking, to name only a few.