BANGKOK, 25 July 2012 – Economists in Thailand have expressed their worries over the government’s populist policies, asking the government to skip some unnecessary ones.
A seminar on the government’s economic performance was held at the Kukrit Institute. Nipon Poapongsakorn, President of the Thailand Development Research Institute, viewed that the populist policies are creating more burdens for the government. He said the first-car and first-home schemes must be abolished, while the amount of rice being under the government’s mortgaging scheme must be reduced so that the administration has more budgets for other developments and necessary projects.
Meanwhile, Former Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister M.R. Pridiyathorn Devakula is concerned about the government’s finance and impacts from rice-pledging scheme losses, which is estimated at 200-300 billion baht. He said the losses will create a big problem.
Stock Exchange of Thailand Executive Vice President Veerathai Santiprabhob gave the government 6 out of 10 points as he sees it places an emphasis only on short-term projects. He explained that there is no economic, education, nor civil administration reform, plus the government lacks transparency in debt management.
