New competitiveness indices developed for six Thai S-Curve industries

BANGKOK, August 17 (TNA) - The Thai government, through the Ministry of Industry, has developed new competitiveness indices for the country's six S-Curve industries that have been targeted to restructure the national economy and its development progress. Speaking to journalists of the update on August 16, Nattapol Rangsitpol, Director General of the ministry's Office of Industrial Economics (OIE), said that the new competitiveness indices have been separately developed for the S-Curve industries of processed food manufacturing, bio-technology, robotics and automation, electronics and aircraft. Nattapol explained that the newly-developed competitiveness indices of the six S-Curve industries are different from the national-level indices developed by international organizations to compare competitiveness levels between surveyed economies, including those reported by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). According to the senior official, the newly-developed indices will be used to closely monitor the competitiveness of each of the Thai S-Curve industries on the continual basis, the results of which will be analyzed to see the strength and weakness of each of the six industries, compared to those in major rival economies. Voicing his warning on a major risk factor in which migrant workers in Thailand could make an exodus back to their motherlands where more job opportunities would be offered in line with rising foreign direct investment (FDI) projects there, the senior official suggested, meanwhile, that business operators in Thailand pay more attention and turn to utilize more automation systems in the production processes of their products to prevent the adverse effect on their businesses. (TNA)