The proposals for the first phase of the economic stimulus projects under the 400 billion baht budget has now surpassed 40,000 projects, the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC) announced on Tuesday.
This budget is part of the government’s emergency loan for relief and stimulus measures against the outbreak of the coronavirus that is worth 1 trillion bath.
A total of 43,851 projects worth 1.36 trillion baht have been proposed on June 22, according to Thosaporn Sirisamphand, secretary-general of the NESDC.
The amount of proposals, which is higher than expected, means that it will take time before the NESDC can hash out what projects will be approved for first, he added.
The decision, however, should be made by June 26 so that the final proposals for the projects that have been approved by the NESDC can enter the cabinet on July 8.
Many government agencies have been pushing for projects that would stimulate the grassroots economy via job creations for unemployed workers who were made redundant due to the coronavirus outbreak.
On the other hand, citizens can also propose projects for their communities via NESDC’s online platform, the ThaiME (www.thaime.nesdc.go.th), which has led to the higher than expected proposals, mostly coming from the public.
With regards to concerns over corruption, transparency and the projects’ effectiveness in stimulating the economy, Thosaporn said the NESDC insisted that its working group on screening of projects are being done by experts from various fields.
“The consideration for the projects is based on good governance and the use of the money will be in accordance to the objectives with concentrations on sustainability, fair response to the citizens’ needs, worthiness, and anticorruption measures,” he said.
However, main opposition parties such as Phue Thai and Move Forward still raised various concerns over the transparency of the disbursement of the budget.
Some said the recent switch for Prawit Wongsuwan, seen as one of the masterminds behind the 2014 coup and a former military general, to be the current leader of the pro-military and ruling Palang Pracharat has added more concerns over the disbursement of the budget.
Prawit has survived several scandals since 2014, including being cleared of wrongdoing by an anti-graft agency over the possession of 22 luxury watches worth over $1 million. His defence was that they were all borrowed.
As head of the country’s ruling party for the next six months, Prawit will play a major part in seeing the disbursement of a 1.9 trillion baht budget intended for coronavirus relief.
A splinter group of Pheu Thai has also been releasing experts’ comments to question the effectiveness of the budget.
Supavud Saicheua, adviser to Kiatnakin Phatra Financial Group, said via the newly created Care Group’s Facebook page on Monday that he is not sure if the projects will be effective since they lack long-term vision.
“The budget to simulate the economy worth 400 billion baht are concentrated on building roads and other construction jobs,” he said.
“I am not sure that this will match with what is needed and the most important thing in this case is that there have been more than 30,000 proposals so far, but provides no clear picture to clearly state where all of this will lead the country to.”
“If we do not know where we are going then we will be lost, and I am afraid that the country will be lost as well,” he added.
Supavud said the country should concentrate on four sectors or “FAAT” which includes food, aging, automobiles and tourism.
Any projects to stimulate the economy should be aimed to improve the development of these sectors as well.
Thailand’s 50 per cent use of its land on farming, for example, only contributes to 8 per cent of the gross domestic product, he said.
This means that they country is using 50 per cent of its resources to produce only 8 per cent of the total output value.
Thailand is a major exporter of cassava, canned tuna, canned pineapple, rice and sugar.
However, three of those major exporting products – cassava, rice, and sugar – are essentially flour and sugar and products most modern consumers would avoid as they believe them to be unhealthy.
The export margin for these products are therefore also low so there needs to be major changes in Thailand’s food sector as well, said Supavud.
Problems for the aging society should be one of the government’s top priority when it comes to forward planning, he added, as this will take up a lot of the country’s resources to manage its funding.
For automobiles, Supavud said that Thailand should promote the research on batteries such as Sodium-Ion and Lithium-Ion to stay relevant in the future of electronic vehicles.
For tourism, he said the sector should be given more support as the government expects international travellers to return in the fourth quarter.
But since they are still insisting on allowing only 1,000 visitors to enter Thailand per day, that would only lead to 100,000 visitors in 100 days.
This means that tourism receipt from visitors will be down to 1 per cent of the GDP instead of the normal 12-13 per cent when there were 10 million visitors per economic quarter, he said.
Supavud’s long-term vision for the country is called the “Blue Zone for Longevity” with a concentration on wellness and hospitality such as medical tourism, he said.
With the expected drop in demand for cars in the near future, makers of car parts should encourage to produce parts for machines within the medical industry instead, he said.
Spas and Thai massage parlours should also receive more promotion to be within the world’s top 5 instead of top 20.
The latest push for the development of the U-Tapao Airport is also concerning, since the country is expected to only receive 10 million visitors this year – not 40 million like in 2019.
The airport should be now be gunning for VIP visitors to support the medical tourism industry, he said.
A fund worth 14.9 million baht of the 400 billion baht budget should be used to provide scholarships for 5,000 Thai medical students to study abroad so that they can come back to improve the Thailand’s medical tourism industry, he suggested.