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.
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