The government is confident that the economic crisis in Europe is now quite steady, so they are now ready to adjust tourism policies focusing mainly on tourists’ security and convenience, in order to attract more income from tourists.
Today (14/7/2012) at 8.00am, Mr. Kittiratt Na Ranong, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance, Mr. Chumpon Sinlapa-acha, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Tourism and Sports, Mr. Niwatthamrong Boonsongpaisan, the Prime Minister’s Office Minister, Mr. Surapol Sawetseni, the Governor of Tourism Authority of Thailand, Police Major General Adit Ngamjitsuksee, Police Tourism Commander, Police Major General Dr. Natthorn Praosunthon, Immigration Police 2 Commander, joined the interview in Prime Minister Yingluck Government Meets the People Program broadcasting on Radio Thailand and the National Broadcasting Services of Thailand, Public Relations Department.
Teerat Ratanasevi (MC):Good Morning, this is Prime Minister Yingluck Meets the People Program. Today, I, Teerat Ratanasevi, will be the MC of the program. The government is still not at ease about the economic crisis in Europe as they are closely following the situation right now. Meanwhile, last Friday, Miss Prime Minister has visited Cambodia, so we are going to interview Mr.Kittiratt Na Ranong, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance, today about the reason Miss Prime Minister visited Cambodia and how is the government dealing with the economic crisis. Good Morning, Minister.
Mr. Kittiratt: Good Morning
MC: I would like to ask you a question about the government’s weekly meeting for analyzing European economic crisis. What is the current situation in Europe?
Mr. Kittiratt: The crisis is still steady. The countries facing with the problem are still trying to find a solution for their countries. We will see that European leaders are having meeting to synergize and integrate financial aids in order to increase bank’s asset and also supply entrepreneur’s credits both small and medium entrepreneurs. This will make the overall situation look better for some good number of days, but then after all, people are still worried. So I would say that the situation is still steady as there is no significant improvement yet. However, other countries in Asia are still carefully and consciously operating their policies. We can see that China and South Korea are leaning their interest rates down in order to prepare their economic for the European crisis. For us, we have announced that we need stability, so we will keep every financial rate as stable as possible including interest rate, exchange rate, and other involving rates, such gas price, tax rates, etc. our plan now is to watch the situation closely and we believe that the measures that we have already been operating are working well. For example, we have measures on increasing domestic purchasing power and increasing the numbers of trades with partners in ASEAN both trades along the border and trades in the main system. We are handling these trade with great care.
MC: So the situation is still not so worrisome?
Mr. Kittiratt: Right. There is nothing to worry about so far. I have stated before that Europe still has a big and strong economic such as Germany. So it is the duty of big economic groups to take care of each other and relief the crisis. In Asia, we also have to be prepared and, meanwhile, increase the number of trades among our countries, which is the best way to maintain positive affects and make them less negative.
MC: So for import section, what order does the government put for involving institutes to take care of the imports?
Mr. Kittiratt: We have Export-Import Bank of Thailand or EXIM Bank and SME Bank, under the government supervision, taking care of products from both medium and small entrepreneurs. Then we have the Government Saving Bank that provides products for medium and small entrepreneurs and Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives that is taking care of agriculturists and entrepreneurs of agricultural products. Moreover, we also have other banks that take care of credit guaranteeing and they are ready to work with their most efficiency now.
MC: Are there any special helps or funds for importers?
Mr. Kittiratt: Actually in the past, when we tried to solve this kind of problem, we would have to set up a new fund system because we were not so advanced. For example, to guarantee income from exports to some important countries, EXIM Bank has guaranteeing financial amount up to 40 trillion baht and their credit amount for medium and small entrepreneurs is over hundreds trillion baht. So it is a must to set up a fund for these amounts. In the past, our funds were just in thousands and ten thousands, but now as it gets more advanced, we have educated these fund authorities to be prepared for the harder work.
MC: Are there any industries that will need special care? We have said before that jewelry industry and textile industry might get some effects from the recession in world economic.
Mr. Kittiratt: We have taken care of it earnestly. For example, for textile industry, we have consulted with entrepreneurs that are divided into many segments ranging from low-cost products to well-design and high-cost products. The problems we have from these products are varied, so the solutions differ as well. But we will have workshops to specially discuss about textile and clothes and not only focusing on a big issue like exports because exports also include many other products such as textiles, cloths, jewelries, and electronic devices. These workshops will be more specialized and focusing on consulting about small issues that if we can improve, our industry will be more competent.
MC: How is the goal of expanding new markets going?
Mr.Kittiratt: Our existing markets are, however, still growing – for example our markets in South-East Asia, in ASEAN, the report said that these countries have decreased their exporting goals. It doesn’t mean that their expanding rates have decreased, only that the rates they believe to achieve have changed, from very high to just high. In addition, these countries can still manage to export goods and grow. For the New Age market, such as market in Africa, we have not been strongly engaged in – this market is widely accepted as the continent for future markets. The buying command has been increasing but it is the kind of market has failed to capture interested from many people. For us, we have our representative of Thai Chamber of Commerce, Dr.Orana as our selling representative. We have the market in East Europe, the former Communism countries without marketing strategies. These countries are now changing; employment rates and buying demands – we have been working and having conferences with the countries chamber of commerce’ representative diplomats. In early August we will have another conferences about ASEAN plus 3 and also with the rest of the diplomats.
MC: Alright, it seems to be that in the past week IMF has affirmed its confidence in our improvement and believe that with this V-shape graves of improvement we have been showing progress in, our economy can grow up to 5% this year and 7% next year.Are you sharing the same vision?
Mr.Kittiratt: Madam Kristine Lagarde (Chief Executive officer of International Monetary Fund), with her comprehensive worldview she appears to always be on guard when talking about Europe but when it comes to Thailand – she states that our economy is growing in a V-shape graph which means that due to our economy stun last year. We used to have approximately 3% growth rate, when the growing stopped it didn’t mean that the rate has decreased. From her personal point of view, Thailand has the potential to grow more than 5% and even higher next year. That is why it’s called V-shape graph – well this is good, when people look at our country and see such promising possibility to grow; it also encourages us.
MC: Miss Prime Minister also tries her best to ensure our country’s economic stability. She recently flew to Cambodia on Friday, why was she there for?
Mr.Kittiratt: The business group called U.S – ASEAN Business Council invited her, which means that American and ASEAN business people have gathered up to increase the volume of business and economy context between ASEAN and the United States. In fact, U.S. – ASEAN Business Council occasionally holds conferences. As whichever country is ASEAN representative, U.S. – ASEAN Business Council will have a conference in that country. This year Cambodia is ASEAN representative, so it is quite a mandatory for the conference to be held there. To have U.S. – ASEAN Business council invited us, along with big American companies in which also have branches in ASEAN. Countries leaders pay great attention to the conferences, as well as our Female Prime Minister is, too. This time, President Deng Seng of Myanmar will also be attending the conference. This is the opportunity for business people to exchange their point of views and better understand each other; also, Hilary Clinton the Secretary of State will be attending this conference. The Secretary will have the opportunity to meet with the President of Myanmar. I think this is such a worthwhile opportunity. I think it is very considerate of her to travel there, stay at the conference until very late then have to come back to Thailand right away. She’s very determined to spend every minute there as productive as possible.
MC: So she won’t be there because of Hilary Clintons’ invitation but because this U.S. – ASEAN has been held there so it is a great opportunity for Thailand to show them our ability in doing business with United States and ASEAN.
Mr.Kittiratt: The host is Chamber of Commerce Siam Rieb. At the same time, our Female Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and President of Myanmar, Deng Seng, Secretary of State and many leaders have also travelled to Cambodia as guests. It is just that Secretary Clinton informed the Prime Minister about her joining this conference as U.S. – ASEAN’s invitation.
MC: I see, thank you very much Mister Kittiratt. Dear audience, we will take a short commercial break. After that, Female Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra Government Meets the People Program will return and talk about European crisis and if it affects Thailand tourism or not. After the break.