NESDB Secretary-General Wirat Wattanasiritham, on August 27th, 1997
gave a special interview to Mr.Termsak Carupran for the "Morning News
Program broadcasted via FM MHz.
Termsak : Good morning NESDB Secretary-General, welcome and
thank you for joining us today.
Secretary-General : Good morning Khun Termsak.
Termsak : Given the recent Baht Float, I wonder if the Eighth
Plan's economic targets have to be adjusted.
Secretary-General : Thank you again for giving me a chance to clarify this
issue. First of all, I would like to say that the
Eighth Plan is the first people's plan, formulated
under participatory process of all parties in society,
and the Office of the NESDB was serving as a
coordinator in the planning process.
Every year, we have to monitor and evaluate if the set
targets have been achieved, and the mid-plan review
will be conducted after two years of operation. The
NESDB will cooperate with the Bureau of the Budget,
the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Thailand in
reviewing the annual economic targets, based on the
annual budget framework.
Termsak : Would it difficult to set the target under the current
circumstance.
Secretary-General : Critics would say that the economic targets under the
Eighth Plan would be too high, so they wonder if the
targets would be attained. The Eighth Plan in fact,
was formulated when the economy was healthy, but, as
generally accepted, the previous economic prospering
was very difficult to sustain, due to high reliance
on the global economy, as well as too much emphasis
on labor-intersive and natural resource-based
industries. We ignored environmental concern and
quality of life, so the booming economy lacked
sound stability. The current account deficit widened,
so did social inequalities and the imbalanced pattern
of growth. For years, our comparative advantages in
terms of cheap labor and natural wealth diminished.
The current financial structure of the country was
not strong and efficient enough to cope with market
liberalization. This was the fact, and we did not
ignore it while formulating the Eighth Plan. We
realized that the previous development plans placed
too much emphasis on economic expansion targets.
Hence, the Eighth Plan's targets were shifted to focus
on human development, having economic development as a
tool to enhance the betterment of people. We also
wished relevant agencies to follow this target by
mapping out their annual action plans. Holistic
planning approach has to be emphasized, and we wished
to see all action plans contribute to one another.
There are 7 major strategies in the eighth Plan and
what concerns the topic of our discussion today is the
strategy for economic competitiveness development.
Termsak : Would the austere IMF framework affect the Eighth
Plan's strategies ?
Secretary-General : The Thai economy is now growing at a slower pace than
earlier projected, due to the rising current account
deficit and external debt burden in non-performing
sectors.
Termsak : Accourding to the IMF economic rehabilitation plan,
how do you feel when consider cutting the expenditure
budget ?
Secretary-General : This is a very good question. The IMF wishes to see
the yearly inflation at 7-8 percent on average during
the beginning of economic rehabilitation, and should
be maintained at 4.5 percent in the following years,
very consistent with that of the Eighth Plan. The
current account deficit should stand at 5 and 3
percent during the first two years, and then at 3 or 4
percent in the following years, as against the planned
target of 3-4 percent in the last year of the plan.
According to the IMF projection, this year's economic
expansion is likely to stand at 2-4 percent on
average, and somewhere around 4-6 percent next year,
still lower than the planned target of 8 percent.
This target has to be adjusted accordingly. To answer
your question, the adjusted economic targets would
lead to austere supervision over public investment
projects. It would not be too difficult to control
the government spending in order to contain the
current account deficit. The same would be true for
private spending as everybody would be more prudent in
their investment spending, especially during the
economic downturn.
Termsak : would it mean that all public investment projects have
to be screened by the NESDB ?
Secretary-General : This is one of our ligimate duties. In fact, we are
not too much concerned about the public investment
spending as it accounted for oly 20 percent of GDP.
We have to prudently consider necessary investment
project to avoid adverse effects during economic
recession, not to cause too much burden to the current
account. Those requiring high import contents will be
postponed.
Termsak : However, some would wonder if the postponement would
result in delayed operations of state enterprises.
Problems might become too complicated and state
enterprises would be less independent in their
decision making.
Secretary-General : I would like to tell you that state enterprise budget
is set at over Bt 900 billion, very close to the
government budget, but their working efficiency was
at 60 percent only, given the actual budget
disbursement of about 40 percent. Of course, some
efficient state enterprise would spend over 80 percent
of the budget, but, every year, not all the approved
budget will be used. Hence, we have to set priority
for both government agencies and state enterprises in
order to ensure efficient operations and management.
All budget spending should be more efficient.
Termsak : Would this mean stricter supervision over state
enterprises ?
Secretary-General : This is a common practice, so far.
Termsak : I wonder if these state enterprises deliver all the
shares of their profit to the government. How can
we solve this problem if some state enterprises are
unable to meet this requirement.
Secretary-General : It is the duty of the Ministry of Finance to handle
this problem. Everything has to depend on actual
capability of each state enterprise, and this year,
most of them would be affected by the Baht float.
Those committing to external debts would operate at
a lose, so it relies on the Ministry of Finance to
adjust its crieria.
Termsak : Does it mean that revenue derived from state
enterprises would drop ?
Secretary-General : It would drop in accounting terms, but those dealing
would international services such as Thai Airways
International Plc. are still okay.
Termsak : As head of a major economic agency, would you like to
say something as a clue to servive from the current
crisis.
Secretary-General : We have discussed this issue at a meeting of the
National Economic and Social Development Committee.
We unanimously agreed to take this opportunity to
strengthen cooperation among the people when the
economy tumbled. Previously, no one was interested
in translating the Plan in to action, and we would
take this chance to operationalize this idea. What
we should do at the moment is not to adjust the Eihth
Plan, but we have to restructure our society all at
once. Political stability should be promoted, and ways
of life of the Thai people should be adjusted to focus
more upon thiftiness, sharing and cooperation. If is
time to cooperate among all parties concerned. Of
course, the Eight Plan is not perfect, so we have set
up working groups to study which issues of the Plan
that should be adjusted. From now on, we would
solicit cooperation from all public and private
sectors concerned to work out an effective plan which
would halp the country to prosperity once again.
--Development News Bulletin, National Economic and Social Development Board,
Volume 12, No.8: August 1997--
gave a special interview to Mr.Termsak Carupran for the "Morning News
Program broadcasted via FM MHz.
Termsak : Good morning NESDB Secretary-General, welcome and
thank you for joining us today.
Secretary-General : Good morning Khun Termsak.
Termsak : Given the recent Baht Float, I wonder if the Eighth
Plan's economic targets have to be adjusted.
Secretary-General : Thank you again for giving me a chance to clarify this
issue. First of all, I would like to say that the
Eighth Plan is the first people's plan, formulated
under participatory process of all parties in society,
and the Office of the NESDB was serving as a
coordinator in the planning process.
Every year, we have to monitor and evaluate if the set
targets have been achieved, and the mid-plan review
will be conducted after two years of operation. The
NESDB will cooperate with the Bureau of the Budget,
the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Thailand in
reviewing the annual economic targets, based on the
annual budget framework.
Termsak : Would it difficult to set the target under the current
circumstance.
Secretary-General : Critics would say that the economic targets under the
Eighth Plan would be too high, so they wonder if the
targets would be attained. The Eighth Plan in fact,
was formulated when the economy was healthy, but, as
generally accepted, the previous economic prospering
was very difficult to sustain, due to high reliance
on the global economy, as well as too much emphasis
on labor-intersive and natural resource-based
industries. We ignored environmental concern and
quality of life, so the booming economy lacked
sound stability. The current account deficit widened,
so did social inequalities and the imbalanced pattern
of growth. For years, our comparative advantages in
terms of cheap labor and natural wealth diminished.
The current financial structure of the country was
not strong and efficient enough to cope with market
liberalization. This was the fact, and we did not
ignore it while formulating the Eighth Plan. We
realized that the previous development plans placed
too much emphasis on economic expansion targets.
Hence, the Eighth Plan's targets were shifted to focus
on human development, having economic development as a
tool to enhance the betterment of people. We also
wished relevant agencies to follow this target by
mapping out their annual action plans. Holistic
planning approach has to be emphasized, and we wished
to see all action plans contribute to one another.
There are 7 major strategies in the eighth Plan and
what concerns the topic of our discussion today is the
strategy for economic competitiveness development.
Termsak : Would the austere IMF framework affect the Eighth
Plan's strategies ?
Secretary-General : The Thai economy is now growing at a slower pace than
earlier projected, due to the rising current account
deficit and external debt burden in non-performing
sectors.
Termsak : Accourding to the IMF economic rehabilitation plan,
how do you feel when consider cutting the expenditure
budget ?
Secretary-General : This is a very good question. The IMF wishes to see
the yearly inflation at 7-8 percent on average during
the beginning of economic rehabilitation, and should
be maintained at 4.5 percent in the following years,
very consistent with that of the Eighth Plan. The
current account deficit should stand at 5 and 3
percent during the first two years, and then at 3 or 4
percent in the following years, as against the planned
target of 3-4 percent in the last year of the plan.
According to the IMF projection, this year's economic
expansion is likely to stand at 2-4 percent on
average, and somewhere around 4-6 percent next year,
still lower than the planned target of 8 percent.
This target has to be adjusted accordingly. To answer
your question, the adjusted economic targets would
lead to austere supervision over public investment
projects. It would not be too difficult to control
the government spending in order to contain the
current account deficit. The same would be true for
private spending as everybody would be more prudent in
their investment spending, especially during the
economic downturn.
Termsak : would it mean that all public investment projects have
to be screened by the NESDB ?
Secretary-General : This is one of our ligimate duties. In fact, we are
not too much concerned about the public investment
spending as it accounted for oly 20 percent of GDP.
We have to prudently consider necessary investment
project to avoid adverse effects during economic
recession, not to cause too much burden to the current
account. Those requiring high import contents will be
postponed.
Termsak : However, some would wonder if the postponement would
result in delayed operations of state enterprises.
Problems might become too complicated and state
enterprises would be less independent in their
decision making.
Secretary-General : I would like to tell you that state enterprise budget
is set at over Bt 900 billion, very close to the
government budget, but their working efficiency was
at 60 percent only, given the actual budget
disbursement of about 40 percent. Of course, some
efficient state enterprise would spend over 80 percent
of the budget, but, every year, not all the approved
budget will be used. Hence, we have to set priority
for both government agencies and state enterprises in
order to ensure efficient operations and management.
All budget spending should be more efficient.
Termsak : Would this mean stricter supervision over state
enterprises ?
Secretary-General : This is a common practice, so far.
Termsak : I wonder if these state enterprises deliver all the
shares of their profit to the government. How can
we solve this problem if some state enterprises are
unable to meet this requirement.
Secretary-General : It is the duty of the Ministry of Finance to handle
this problem. Everything has to depend on actual
capability of each state enterprise, and this year,
most of them would be affected by the Baht float.
Those committing to external debts would operate at
a lose, so it relies on the Ministry of Finance to
adjust its crieria.
Termsak : Does it mean that revenue derived from state
enterprises would drop ?
Secretary-General : It would drop in accounting terms, but those dealing
would international services such as Thai Airways
International Plc. are still okay.
Termsak : As head of a major economic agency, would you like to
say something as a clue to servive from the current
crisis.
Secretary-General : We have discussed this issue at a meeting of the
National Economic and Social Development Committee.
We unanimously agreed to take this opportunity to
strengthen cooperation among the people when the
economy tumbled. Previously, no one was interested
in translating the Plan in to action, and we would
take this chance to operationalize this idea. What
we should do at the moment is not to adjust the Eihth
Plan, but we have to restructure our society all at
once. Political stability should be promoted, and ways
of life of the Thai people should be adjusted to focus
more upon thiftiness, sharing and cooperation. If is
time to cooperate among all parties concerned. Of
course, the Eight Plan is not perfect, so we have set
up working groups to study which issues of the Plan
that should be adjusted. From now on, we would
solicit cooperation from all public and private
sectors concerned to work out an effective plan which
would halp the country to prosperity once again.
--Development News Bulletin, National Economic and Social Development Board,
Volume 12, No.8: August 1997--