Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin yesterday unveiled a roadmap to develop the country as a regional hub for tourism, wellness and electric vehicle (EV) production, as he bids to draw much-needed foreign investment to jump-start an economy saddled with high household debt and deflation.
New initiatives to cement Thailand’s position as a tourism, wellness and medical hub are to be centered around visa waivers and a planned single visa for countries including Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, Srettha said in a televised address.
The country will also take steps to emerge as an aviation and logistics hub, he said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The prime minister is to travel to Europe next month to invite companies such as Volkswagen AG and Maserati SpA to invest in Thailand, where manufacturing accounts for 27 percent of economic output.
On Wednesday, Srettha’s government announced a slew of incentives to promote local production of battery cells, and boost the adoption of new-energy buses and trucks.
Thailand has aggressively rolled out incentives and attracted a flurry of foreign investments in the past few years, particularly from Chinese EV makers. The country, often referred to as “the Detroit of Asia,” is targeting 30 percent of its vehicle output to be electric by 2030.
The country expects to draw about 1 trillion baht (US$27.9 billion) in fresh investment into the automobile industry during the government’s four-year tenure, Srettha said, adding that spending commitments have already totaled 150 billion baht since he assumed power six months ago.
Srettha, who is also the finance minister, has clashed with the central bank on the approach to revive Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy. While his government has announced a raft of subsidies and loan waivers to ease the cost of living pressures, the central bank has resisted pressures to cut the policy rate even after data this week showed the economy contracted in the final quarter of last year from the preceding three months.
The former property tycoon wants to lift the pace of annual economic growth to 5 percent during his term, and has announced measures including visa waivers for Chinese visitors and debt moratoriums for farmers, students and small businesses.
However, he has faced hurdles in his push to implement his party’s key election plank — a cash handout to almost every Thai adult. The program’s price tag of 500 billion baht, to be funded through borrowing, has drawn criticism from opposition parties and push-back from the central bank.
The government is to invest in roads, rail networks and ports to develop the country as a logistics hub in the region, Srettha said yesterday.
The government plans to push ahead with a US$29 billion dollar landbridge to connect the Indian and Pacific oceans by bypassing the Malacca Strait, he said.
The government is also committed to developing the nation’s financial markets, including its US$478 billion stock market, to attract foreign investors, especially sovereign wealth funds from the Middle East, he said.
READINESS: According to a survey of 2,000 people, 86 percent of Swedes believe the country is worth defending in the event of a military attack Swedes are stocking up on food items in case of war, as more conflict in Europe no longer feels like a distant possibility, and authorities encourage measures to boost readiness. At a civil preparedness fair in southwest Stockholm, 71-year-old Sirkka Petrykowska said that she is taking the prospect of hostilities seriously and preparing as much as she can. “I have bought a camping stove. I have taken a course on preservation in an old-fashioned way, where you can preserve vegetables, meat and fruit that lasts for 30 years without a refrigerator,” Petrykowska said. “I’ve set aside blankets for warmth, I
FRUSTRATIONS: One in seven youths in China and Indonesia are unemployed, and many in the region are stuck in low-productivity jobs, the World Bank said Young people across Asia are struggling to find good jobs, with many stuck in low-productivity work that the World Bank said could strain social stability as frustrations fuel a global wave of youth-led protests. The bank highlighted a persistent gap between younger and more experienced workers across several Asian economies in a regional economic update released yesterday, noting that one in seven young people in China and Indonesia are unemployed. The share of people now vulnerable to falling into poverty is now larger than the middle class in most countries, it said. “The employment rate is generally high, but the young struggle to
ENERGY SHIFT: A report by Ember suggests it is possible for the world to wean off polluting sources of power, such as coal and gas, even as demand for electricity surges Worldwide solar and wind power generation has outpaced electricity demand this year, and for the first time on record, renewable energies combined generated more power than coal, a new analysis said. Global solar generation grew by a record 31 percent in the first half of the year, while wind generation grew 7.7 percent, according to the report by the energy think tank Ember, which was released after midnight yesterday. Solar and wind generation combined grew by more than 400 terawatt hours, which was more than the increase in overall global demand during the same period, it said. The findings suggest it is
‘ARMED CONFLICT’: At least 21 people have died in such US attacks, while experts say the summary killings are illegal even if they target confirmed narcotics traffickers US forces on Friday carried out a strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat off the coast of Venezuela, killing four people, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said. The latest strike, which Hegseth announced in a post on X, brings the number of such US attacks to at least four, leaving at least 21 people dead. An accompanying video shared by Hegseth showed a boat speeding across the waves before being engulfed in smoke and flames. “Four male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed,” the Pentagon chief wrote. He said the strike “was conducted in international waters just off the
RSS