Thai military junta urged to eye long-term national solutions

BANGKOK, June 26 (TNA) - Economists have called on the Thai army-led National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) to plan clear reform strategies that would solve all national problems in the long run in a sustainable fashion. The call was part of a recent survey on the one-month achievements of the NCPO, conducted by Bangkok University from June 18-25, during which opinions from 60 economists at 27 leading organizations were collected. Of the respondents, the majority of them, or 62.6 per cent, viewed that the NCPO's solutions over the past month could handle national problems only in a short term, while the NCPO appeared to have lacked long-term solutions and national problems might, thus, return in the future. But 18.5 per cent of the respondents opined that the NCPO's solutions would have long-term effects and 10.6 of them did not think the solutions would be successful. For the Thai military junta's reconciliation attempts, 53.3 per cent of the respondents viewed that they would only be successful temporarily and 20 per cent of them thought they would fail. Most of the respondents, or 78.3 per cent, expected the NCPO's activities to entertain the general public would have temporary effects. Asked whether the Thai economy would grow by 3 per cent this year, 51.7 of the respondents said they did not think so and only 25 per cent saw the possibility. (TNA)