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.
School bullies in Singapore are to face caning under new guidelines, but the education minister on Tuesday said it would be meted out only as a last resort with strict safeguards. Human rights groups regularly criticize Singapore for the use of corporal punishment, which remains part of the school and criminal justice systems, but authorities have defended it as a deterrent to crime and serious misconduct. Caning was discussed in the parliament after legislators asked how it would be used in relation to bullying in schools. The debate followed stricter guidelines on serious student misconduct, including bullying, unveiled by the Singaporean Ministry of
A MESSAGE: Japan’s participation in the Balikatan drills is a clear deterrence signal to China not to attack Taiwan while the US is busy in the Middle East, an analyst said The Japan Self-Defense Forces yesterday fired a Type 88 anti-ship missile during a joint maritime exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces, hitting a decommissioned Philippine Navy ship in waters facing the disputed South China Sea, in drills that underscore Tokyo’s rising willingness to project military power on China’s doorstep. The drill took place as Manila and Tokyo began talks on a potential defense equipment transfer, made possible by Japan’s decision to scrap restrictions on military exports. The discussions include the possible early transfer of Abukuma-class destroyers and TC-90 aircraft to the Philippines, Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. Philippine Secretary of
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
A South Korean judge who last week more than doubled former South Korean first lady Kim Keon-hee’s prison sentence was found dead yesterday, police said. Shin Jong-o was found unconscious at about 1am at the Seoul High Court building, an investigator at the Seocho District Police Station in Seoul said. Shin was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, he said. “There is no sign of foul play in the death,” the investigator added. Local media reported that Shin had left a suicide note, but the investigator said there was none. On Tuesday last week, Shin presided over 53-year-old Kim’s appeal trial, finding her guilty
RSS