Thai government to announce new economic stimulus plan

BANGKOK, September 25 (TNA) - The new Thai government of Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan-ocha will announce a new economic stimulus plan next week. Thai Deputy Prime Minister MR Pridyathorn Devakula told journalists of the update on Thursday, assessing that outcomes of the new economic stimulus should be seen by next year. MR Pridyathorn acknowledged that the government's new economic stimulus plan is aimed at creating more jobs and further developing human resources, but it does not emphasize on any populist policy. Under the new economic stimulus plan, the deputy prime minister revealed, the government will focus on strengthening local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the number of which has reached 2.7 million and employed about 27 million people, to enable them to raise funds in the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) and to invest in overseas economies. According to the deputy prime minister, the prime minister will, himself, supervise the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion (OSMEP) in place of the Ministry of Industry. The deputy prime minister expressed no concerns over the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB)'s recent revision of its economic growth forecast for Thailand, from 2.9 per cent to 1.6 per cent this year. Meanwhile, Luxamon Attapich, Thailand-based senior ADB economist, explained that Thailand's economic growth forecast was revised downward because of a slowdown in the national economy in the first half of this year, while figures in July did not yet show a significant recovery of the country's production and exports. For next year, ADB has, however, maintained its forecast of the Thai economic growth at 4.5 per cent, boosted by investment in the public and the private sectors, promotional privileges for investment from the Board of Investment of Thailand (BOI), financial aid for SMEs and rising Thai exports, expected to increase by 6-7 per cent in 2015, instead of 1 per cent this year. The ADB cautioned Thailand still faces such risk factors as slow investment in new infrastructure projects and household debts, now stands as high as 84 per cent. (TNA)