.

The objective was to “create perception and trust” among the foreign envoys, investors and entrepreneurs, an IEAT official said.

The IEAT promoted the potential and opportunities to add value to Map Ta Phut Industrial Port Phase III, private-sector investment in which is to be announced at the end of June.

It’s also touting the Smart Park Industrial Estate Project, which has already attracted private-sector investments worth more than Bt10 billion.

IEAT acting governor Attapon Jirawatjanya said his agency was seeking investments in 21 industrial estates in the EEC, which has been designated as an industrial promotion zone.

The government has finished the draft of the legislation for the national strategy – which will be binding on future governments – and will shortly send it to the NLA for debate, Kobsak said while promoting the plan to the public at CentralWorld, a shopping complex in Bangkok. The government regards the 20-year strategy as a key plank of its series of reforms and the bill is set to be rubber-stamped by the NLA.

The long-term strategy covers 11 areas ranging from national security to the economy in the fourth round of reforms initiated by the government, according to Kobsak.

“It is designed to solve the issue of inconsistency of government policies as new governments often cancel the policies of previous government and initiate new projects and each government has an average of two years in office,” he said.

In response to criticism from politicians who fear that the strategy is part of the junta’s efforts to straitjacket the new government to come in after next year’s election, Kobsak said the strategy could be adjusted in line with a changing economic and social environment.

He pledged that that the government will give priority in its implementation to the reforms that improve the living standards of the people and reduce income inequality.

He highlighted the issue of access to financial services. To promote this goal, many of the 100,000 or so savings cooperatives nationwide could be upgraded into community banks, he said, and in this way they would better serve the interests of local people.

The interests of small farmers would be better protected by a law on contract farming that took effect last year. Large companies often took advantage of small farmers in the contracts they struck with them, according to Kobsak.

Local people will have more power to manage local natural resources as the government will allow them to have rights over community forests and they will be able to grow rare and high-value tree species on their own land.

Reducing inequality between the rich and the poor would be given priority. For example, the quality of education at schools in the provinces would be upgraded to the same standard as that in Bangkok, he said. Social welfare would be improved, he added.

Public administration will be reformed in order to make life much easier for the people since many laws and regulations have created bureaucratic red tape and other burdens for the people. And to ensure people’s participation, people or interested groups would be invited to formulate organic laws related to national strategy, Kobsak said.

In an apparent response to criticism that the government had failed to improve ordinary people’s livelihoods in the four years since it seized power, Kobsak claimed that the government has started to implement many development projects. Last year the government established a new institution for water management, which could better deal with flooding or drought issues, he said.

To promote businesses, the government had changed many laws and regulations and lately the government efforts have resulted in an upgraded ranking on the World Bank’s index for ease of doing business. The country moved up 20 places to 26th on the closely watched measure.

“Government policies always come with cost since we have to finance them via limited options,” Pipat said.

These options are cutting the budgets for other projects, raising taxes or incurring more debts, said Pipat who was the only person from Thailand joining the 2018 Global Fellows of Eisenhower Fellowships programme, attended recently by 25 fellows from all over the world.

The Thai government has launched shopping schemes for the past three years, claiming that it would boost the economy. But nobody knows whether it did , Pipat said yesterday.

The independent research institution could make a difference because they could dig into an issue objectively without political influence. They could then provide fact and make objective analysis of a project for a public debate before policy makers make a decision

“The role of researchers could help strengthen the check and balance in public administrations as well as accountability,” said Pipat who is also head of private wealth management research at Phatra Securities.

Another key issue on public policies is that free trade or trade protectionism has often resulted in losers and winners, he said.

So policy makers have to weigh the impact on different interested groups. Research institutions could provide analysis and make assessment of the projects and release their findings to the public.

In Thailand, the rich or influential groups who could access political power may have more bargaining power than ordinary people and consumers.

An example is the drafting of the Land Tax bill designed to collect tax from all property owners. Land developers have raisedobjection against it, leading to the government making change to some clauses, but other groups of people may not have such influence, said Pipat.

Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) is the top research centre in the country, however, it depends largely on funding from government projects and this could create conflicts of interest, threatening integrity of the institution, he said .

Pipat was pessimistic about the prospect for creating an independent research institution in Thailand.

Key challenge for creating an independent research institution is the funding. In the US , billionaires, corporates and people donate their money to support such institutions. In Thailand people largely donate money to Buddhist temples, he said.

“But the first thing we can do is to create awareness of its benefits to society,” said Pipat. He foresaw the potential of the Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research at Bank of Thailand to analyse public policies.

Apart from creating independent research institutions, Thailand also needs a free press which could pickup the studies done by researchers for public debate. In the US free press plays an important role in publishing researches for public debate.

TDRI has been pushing for the creation of an organisation similar to the Congressional Budget Office in the US where it represents non-partisan views and funded by Congress to make sure that it would not lean towards the Democrats or Republicans, he said.

In the US, there are 100 research institutions, representing all political spectrums; from right to left wings. Thailand does not have such political culture, he added.

 In 2017, Asia Pacific was the largest agricultural region accounting for $6419.05 billion or 54.49 per cent of market share, making Thailand an attractive place for sustainable growth.

“Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry (MOAC) is proud to showcase the King’s philosophy on water and farm management and agricultural innovations. Farmers and agricultural operators will find a comprehensive range of agricultural machinery, technology and farming practices to meet their operational needs,” Teera Wongcharoen, Advisor to the Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MOAC) said.

“We are excited to have more than 200 leading companies and brands from Thailand and the world participating in the event . More than 9,000 visitors are expected, including 100 top regional buyers as well as up to 2,000 farmers and industry professionals from the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MOAC).

SIMA ASEAN is part of the SIMA series and the portfolio includes SIMA Paris, one of the largest agri-business exhibitions in the world. With a global network of agri-business events covering Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia, SIMA Asean has world-wide support and endorsements.

“Thailand will increase renewable energy up to 30 per cent of total capacity in the year 2036,” Siri said at the event.

ASE 2018 features technologies, innovations and solutions for Integrated Energy from over 1,200 brands from 45 countries. The event is being held form June 6 to June 9 at Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Center (BITEC), Bangna.

“If it can be sustained, the robust economic growth that we have seen this year could help lift millions out of poverty, particularly in the fast-growing economies of South Asia,” World Bank group president Jim Yong Kim said.

“But growth alone won’t be enough to address pockets of extreme poverty in other parts of the world. Policymakers need to focus on ways to support growth over the longer run — by boosting productivity and labour force participation — in order to accelerate progress toward ending poverty and boosting shared prosperity.”

Activity in advanced economies is expected to grow 2.2 per cent in 2018 before easing to a 2 per cent rate of expansion next year, as central banks gradually remove monetary stimulus, the June 2018 Global Economic Prospects says.

Growth in emerging market and developing economies overall is projected to strengthen to 4.5 per cent in 2018, before reaching 4.7 per cent in 2019 as the recovery in commodity exporters matures and commodity prices level off following this year’s increase.

This outlook is subject to considerable downside risks, the Bank said.

The possibility of disorderly financial market volatility has increased, and the vulnerability of some emerging market and developing economies to such disruption has risen. Trade protectionist sentiment has also mounted, while policy uncertainty and geopolitical risks remain elevated.

Porametee, who is now permanent secretary of the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, will replace the current chairman, Ampon Kittiampon, who will end his term this month.

Among other posts, Porametee, 58, was a former secretary-general of the National Economic and Social Development Board.