I, therefore, would like to take this opportunity to thank all MPs to help consider this matter as an urgent case and approve them. For the next steps for the three laws, the Speaker of the Senate put it into the agenda for the Senate’s meeting tomorrow. I would like to seek collaboration from Members of the Senate to accept the principles of the three laws. The review of the Senate can be completed after Songkran. Then it depends whether or not the content needs to be corrected. If no, it is considered being approved by the Parliament. The next step is to raise them to the Constitutional Court for further approval as the three laws are organic laws. Although they require correction, the Members of Parliament can bring them back to review within a short period of time. Therefore, everything can be completed within the set timeline. I would like to thank and seek consistent collaboration from the Members of Parliament.
Visiting India
Last week I had an official visit to India, which was very significant. Apart from China, which is the largest economy in the region, India’s economy also grows fast. A recent survey shows that India is one of the world’s big markets in which 1,200 million people live. The objective of this visit was to strengthen the relations between the two countries. I had chances to meet the Indian President, the Indian Vice President and to discuss with the Indian Prime Minister and the delegates.
I also had a chance to meet delegates from private sector of India during the luncheon and discussed with them unofficially. Indians are leading businesspersons and they are interested in investing in Thailand. Collaborations between Thailand and India in many areas were discussed during the talk and it has been progressed a lot, especially in the economic area. During the talk the target growth of trade value by three years has been set to be double. Particularly next year, the trade value is aimed to reach 10,000 millions US dollars, which Thailand and India considers a very fast growth. The two countries will support consistent talk in term of free trade agreement in order to widen the two countries’ markets. Meanwhile, the investment will be a part of the next talk. This is to facilitate both Indian businesspersons in Thailand and Thai businesspersons in India.
Meeting of Thai-Cambodian Joint Border Committee (JBC)
One of the foreign affairs being interested at the moment is Cambodia, to be specific, the meeting of Thai-Cambodian Joint Border Committee in Indonesia. After the clash this matter was raised to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). And the UNSC viewed that the two countries’ mechanism for this matter still remained and the two countries were members of ASEAN. ASEAN also helped facilitating the JBC meeting, which ran smoothly as Thailand also expresses the way Thailand would like it to be. We have shown to the world community that in fact the issue between Thailand and Cambodia could be solved by negotiation between the two sides. Certainly, there are still some issues which the conclusion or the agreement has not been met and there are many steps that each country must work on but the push is still there.
Meeting of General Border Committee (GBC)
For the meeting of General Border Committee (GBC) that did not happen, it is not urgently needed at this moment. And for Indonesia’s suggestion of engaging an observer, it is being discussed in term of principles. Thailand views that sending an observer to the conflicted areas, which belongs to Thailand 4.6 square kilometer, may make the situation more intense. It needs some time to discuss and negotiate in details on the area where the observer will come to. In fact, we have talked with Indonesia about the situation after the clash in February, until now, it is two months already. As of now we can say that the situation in the area is in order. This is one of the matters that I would like to inform the public as it is being interested. I would like to reiterate that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Royal Thai Army and related organizations mutually agree how Thailand’s method that has been push is and the conflict has never happened. The JBC will continue and for the observer, it is not related to the GBC meeting. Thailand sees that the GBC can arrange the meeting either in Phanom Penh or Bangkok. It is the matter of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to work on.
Thailand’s economy relies on foreign economy
Thailand’s economy relies on foreign economy a lot. Low wage is one of the reasons that make the size of Thailand’s economy not big as it should be. If we can increase the wage, the domestic economy will be strengthened. According to two-year-experience of solving the problem of the government, according to the government’s method, when the domestic economy is strong, we can overcome the economic downturn in overall picture. According to my experience, when the crisis happens, no matter if it is economic crisis or natural disasters, if we go through the monthly figure, it can be a proof. For example, when we launched the measure regarding 2,000 baht cash, which might not be a flawless measure, but when we operated this measure, it was clearly seen that the domestic economy turned positive after being affected by global economic crisis.
Impact on economy during the flood in October-November 2010
Similarly, the flood during October-November last year affected Thailand’s economy but when the 5,000 baht cash were given to the flood victims, the economy in December stopped going down. It shows that if the public have money in their pockets and their incomes increase, the economy will be strengthen and stable. The government now is discussing on wage increase. In the first phase, the wage will be adjusted according to the higher living cost. It is similar to the one that we have done with the government service officers and state enterprise employees.
In the second phase, we will work on structure adjustment. Twenty-five percent increases by the next two years are the target that we think it is realistic and possible. If we allow the wage to soar immediately, definitely, the employers will be unable to bare the higher cost and the employees may not be able to gain benefits from the increase. In other words, if the business cannot run, retirement and unemployment will happen and at the end the public will not get the benefit from wage increase.
However, in the second phase, after we adjust the wage to be in line with the living cost, what we will do in the next step is that we will analyze the cost of industries that require a large number of labors and see if there are any measures that can support their businesses in term of cost reduction.
If the wage is needed to pay more, the income tax will be one of the matters that need to be studied. Other related matters are being studied by the Ministry of Finance and related organizations for further action of making them practical.
Rehabilitating flood victims
As for the recent floods, before viewing the video presentation on how the situation was being dealt with in the previous week, I would like to inform all of you that the Cabinet has approved the 5,000 baht grant-in-aids already. And I would like to reiterate that the special 5,000-baht cash is to help the flood victims at initial stage. The monetary support like this had never happened before until the end of last year.
The monetary support is given to the people or households affected by the flash floods, stagnant floodwater or natural disasters, for example, mudslide or storms at the end of last year. We have estimated the budget and it will be around 3,000 million baht. It is expected to be given to the public after Songkran festival.
The second issue needed to be solved is the disconnected areas in Nakorn Srithammarat, some of the areas were temporarily fixed by the Department of Highways and the Department of Rural Road. Most of the roads now can be used, only some areas are still unable to access. You can see the pictures of bridges, which have been cut off for a long distance and the temporary measure cannot be applied to, in the second part of the program. Yesterday I went to the area connecting Amphur Noppitam with outside, the central budget for fixing this area needs to be approved. In fact I already mentioned that the government would approve this amount of budget in order to fix this connecting route. The local roads being cut off are being complied for prioritizing and operation. This is to bring normalcy in term of transportation back to the public.
The last point that I would like to inform you all today is the issue of housing. At the moment, the situation is improved, still, there are some areas, for example, Pak Panang and Surathani which are still submerged by the floodwater. Now many people can go back to their own houses. However, some houses in many provinces have been totally damaged or ruined. For the provinces that the floodwater level decreases, such as Krabi, the government has already arranged the plan to send army engineers to the areas and give money to help reconstructing houses and infrastructures, except from the areas that people cannot go back because of safety evaluation or people’s worry of safety. You can see the examples in the second part. Nakorn Srithammarat is an area that needs to be examined urgently. Initially, the temporary knockdown house needs to be set up as many who have evacuated to live in schools may be affected when the schools open in early May. It has to be done as soon as possible.