Mr. Anusorn Thammachai, Member of Parliament for Bangkok from the People's Party and Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Finance, Fiscal Policy, Financial Institutions and Financial Markets of the House of Representatives, has revealed that the four economic pillars of the Joint Public-Private Consultative Committee on Economic Problems (GKO) will miss their targets if Thailand does not develop its own technology, does not reform public-sector organisations, and still fails to resolve the corruption crisis.
The Joint Public-Private Consultative Committee on Economic Problems (GKO), chaired by the Prime Minister, has announced that it will drive the economy through four pillars: 1. Future Investment Hub — establishing Thailand as a centre for future investment; 2. Trade and Service Engine — elevating the trade and services sector through the promotion of quality tourism, developing Thailand into a Wellness Hub, and building Food Security; 3. Human Capital Engine — developing human capital; and 4. Government Effectiveness Engine — raising public-sector efficiency through development. The government is pushing for Thailand to become a high-income country within the next 12 years.
If investors have no confidence in law enforcement in Thailand, and still have to pay bribes to government officials and politicians, there is no way we can become a Future Investment Hub. The competitiveness of the agricultural and food sectors is weakening due to a shortage of skilled labour in agriculture, rising per-unit production costs, and a lack of investment in variety development that keeps yields per rai low. Thailand must rely on importing chemical fertilisers from abroad because domestic production is insufficient. Human capital development is being stalled by corruption in educational institutions — cases of cheating in examinations for local government employees and Interior Ministry officials have invariably involved universities in these cheating networks. The deterioration of the merit system in the civil service, and the shaking of confidence in independent agencies and the judicial system, are the first warning signs of a future failed state.
Mr. Anusorn further stated that the usurpation of export rights by Chinese capital groups remains a major problem and may lead to additional trade barriers from the United States. He called for intensive scrutiny of the behaviour of certain companies that appear to be manufacturing in Thailand — that is, they may not be making genuine investment by establishing real production lines in Thailand, but instead use the mechanism of importing near-finished goods and then performing only minor modification, in order to masquerade and claim tax incentives for investment promotion and domestic production, as well as to exploit Thailand's export quotas. We must tighten scrutiny of processing operations to determine whether they are genuinely significant and actually add value to the Thai economy, and whether and how they truly benefit the Thai people.
Mr. Anusorn continued by saying that most of the Board of Investment's (BOI) current key performance indicators (KPIs) tend to be used solely as criteria for reviewing and granting tax incentives to investors, but they still have shortcomings in measuring what Thailand and the Thai people actually get in return.
Improving BOI and fixing its deficient indicators is both necessary and urgent, because the tax incentives BOI grants for factory construction and investment must be managed more rigorously. Tax policy must be clear. Thailand must genuinely benefit through employment and real technology transfer — not serve merely as an export production base that adds very little value to the Thai economy.
The value of corporate income tax exemptions granted through the BOI system has averaged approximately 70 billion baht per year in recent years. Assessing cost-effectiveness must take into account both the direct benefits to the economic system and the spillover benefits.
The BOI Office has analysed that the 67,066 million baht in tax exemptions granted by BOI in 2024 generated investment benefits worth over 600 billion baht and created 80,000 jobs for Thai people. He wished to raise the following observations: how verifiably accurate are these figures? Does investment actually lead to technology transfer and technology development, and if so, how? Why has investment promotion in China, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Singapore led to far better technology transfer and indigenous technology development than in Thailand? One factor is that the human resources capable of absorbing technology are closely linked to educational quality. It must be considered what form of investment tax reform would be most beneficial to the economy as a whole and to the people.
Mr. Anusorn went on to say that the government should prepare additional budget allocations to assist with flooding and drought arising from increasingly severe climate variability. Addressing climate variability must be tackled on two fronts: on one hand, the root causes must be addressed by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating the effects of global warming; on the other hand, the behaviour of business units and the public must be changed to reduce the global warming problem. The economic impact and the impact on people's lives will grow increasingly severe as a result of global warming and climate variability. We must adapt and find a way to live in such an environment.
Climate change is partly caused by human activities themselves — both from production activities by heavy industry and from the lifestyle behaviours of individuals — resulting in increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, causing the Earth's surface temperature to rise and producing global warming. This in turn creates a greater risk of extreme weather events such as heatwaves, drought, and severe flooding. The public must collectively support the use of clean energy, conserve energy, choose fuel-efficient or non-petrol vehicles, recycle and reuse, reduce purchases of new goods, and help plant trees and preserve watershed forests, among other measures.
