Thai government urged to speed up job creation for people

BANGKOK, February 5 (TNA) - Bangkok-based University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce’s Center for Economic and Business Forecasting has called for the government to speed up job creation in the Thai economy to enable more people to earn income in order to boost national economy. The center's director, Thanavath Phonvichai, made the call on Thursday, proposing that more jobs should be created for people through the government's investment budgets. Thanavath also urged the government to work hard for the matter. Thanavath's remarks followed a drop in Thailand's consumer confidence index (CCI), from 81.1 in December 2014 to 80.4 in January 2015, and in all indices in sub-sectors of his center's latest consumer confidence survey. Thanavath explained although oil prices have generally declined, local consumers remain worried over uncertain national economic recovery, low farm produce prices, especially those of rice and natural rubber, high costs of living and a slowdown in Thai exports and tourism. Thanavath pointed out that the domestic political situation and the upcoming dry season, with feared drought, are also risk factors of the Thai economy. Meanwhile, Deputy Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn told journalists although many parties have projected that Thai exports should grow by 2.5-3 per cent this year due to impacts from foreign exchange fluctuations and global oil prices, her ministry will try all efforts to achieve the 4 per cent export growth rate, as targeted. To realize the target, Apiradi noted her ministry will propose that the Cabinet handle Thai exports as a national agenda and form an international trade promotion committee, chaired by Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-ocha and comprised of representatives from both the public and private sectors. Apiradi also assessed that border trade, which would significantly boost Thai exports, should surge by 30 per cent this year, with its total value likely to reach 1.5 trillion baht, as Thai and Myanmar commerce authorities have agreed to raise the value of their border trade to 120 billion baht annually over the next few years. Besides, Thai commerce authorities are scheduled to visit Laos from February 5-9 and Malaysia from February 11-12 to promote border trade with the two neighboring countries. The senior official acknowledged that the yearly value of Thailand's overall border trade has exceeded 1 trillion baht, about 500 billion baht of which has come from border trade with Malaysia alone. (TNA)