NCPO to boost Thai economic growth to 2% in 2014

BANGKOK, July 5 (TNA) - The Thai army-led National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) is implementing several measures, as part of its attempt to boost the country's gross domestic product (GDP) growth to 2 per cent in 2014. Army and NCPO Chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha told the public of the NCPO's attempt during his weekly address on Friday (Jul 4) night, acknowledging the Bank of Thailand (BOT) made a projection earlier that Thailand should enjoy only 1.5 per cent GDP growth this year due to impacts from domestic political turbulence earlier this year and a slowdown in the national economy consequently. General Prayuth insisted that the NCPO is putting efforts to stimulate the national economy in the rest of 2014, namely accelerating investment on state projects which have been delayed or incomplete, as several ministries have not yet invested although their projects were approved with their total budget investment amounting about 50 billion baht. On an official water management programme aimed at preventing flooding in the country, the NCPO leader noted that the budget could be increased by another 50 billion baht and it could be spent during the rest of this year and in 2015. Besides, the NCPO has given the green light to some state mega-projects which require investment funds ranging from 100 million baht to 10 billion baht, but some mega-projects which encountered problems need to be revised so that they can be later implemented. On efforts to boost Thai exports, the NCPO chief suggested that the Thai baht needs to be monitored closely to make sure that it is not “too strong”, while domestic tourism is also to be promoted, as it is a major money-maker for Thailand, while concerned state agencies have also been assigned to solve tourism-related problems as soon as possible. According to the NCPO chief, state-run banks will be asked to provide soft loans to local business operators, especially those running small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to stimulate the national economy and to help them solve the bad debts problem. (TNA)