Teerat Ratanasevi (MC): Good morning everyone, this is Prime Minister Yingluck Government Meets the People program and I’m Teerat Ratanasevi being a host for the program. In this next coming week, Prime Minister Yingluck will have quite an extensive week that would do good for the people and she’s now here with us to talk about it. Hello, sir.
Prime Minister: Hi all. Today is a great auspicious day. On the occasion of His Majesty’s Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn 60th birthday anniversary, I’d like to invite all Thai people to express and show their wishes with love, gratitude, and loyalty to His Royal Highness.
MC: I was informed that after the visit to Germany and France last week, you had the opportunity to welcomed President of Myanmar, Thein Sein. May I know the purpose of his visiting?
Prime Minister: This was the first time for President Thein Sein visiting Thailand in 57 years. Myanmar is considered a country that Thailand has quite a good relationship with among the ASEAN country members and had officially visited Thailand. Besides the bilateral consultation between Thailand and Myanmar, President Thein Sein also came to Thailand to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) agreement with Thailand in terms of the cooperation in order to develop Dawei Deep Sea port to construct Transborder Corridor Link between Dawei Deep Sea port and Laem Chabang port of Thailand. This topic is a really matter subject since there are so many people, who are interested in this development. This agreement would also benefits Thai and Myanmar economics especially the export section because later on we can expand and develop Dawei Deep Sea port to other countries as well. This is part of the process called ‘connectivity’ in order to unite with other ASEAN country members.
MC: This is like a communication connection for logistics industry. An export from the West of Thailand will go to Europe or India by Dawei Deep Sea port. Therefore, if we link this port to the one in Laem Chabang, it’d be good for both Thai and Myanmar’s economics.
Prime Minister: In fact, the development of Deep Sea port will be the site for various factories and a growth in industrial estate, which will be a good investment for Thailand and Myanmar. Also, since Myanmar is now in the adjustment process to become a more democracy country, Thailand will be helping Myanmar from the starting point. We’ve agreed to help them in several divisions such as the capacity of the personnel. In 2014, Myanmar itself will be the host ASEAN and Thailand will be there to help them for the preparation of economic reform as well as in energy subject.
MC: In that year, 2014, I think it’s the 64th anniversary of Thailand and Myanmar relationships, too.
Prime Minister: Yes, and this is great news. We would have activities in order to strengthen the relationships between Thai and Myanmar citizens.
MC: Because of MOU, the cross border trade will be so much more convenient. Did you guys talk or mention about open the borders?
Prime Minister: Certainly. This topic is one of the consultations we had besides the MOU agreement between Thailand and Myanmar. What we agree on this matter is that we would add 3 more borders between the 2 countries, one near Chiangmai province, one near Mae Hong Son province, and one near Kanjanaburi province. This is also good news for people who live in those border areas in term of trading and economic development.
MC: This is to add the existing ones?
Prime Minister: Yes, this is considered a development between Thailand and Myanmar.
MC: Trading between Thailand and Myanmar would get better in preliminary while in a big picture, there would be a progression in Thailand and Myanmar private sectors in terms of exchanging information and knowledge.
Prime Minister: Yes.
MC: For the preparation in joining ASEAN community, you had joined the workshop last week. What was the main objective of that meeting?
Prime Minister: The meeting just happened a few days ago and actually all departments have been preparing for this changing so that later on in a few years we can truly say that we’re one of the ASEAN member countries. In other words, this is a cooperation to strengthen relationships between Thailand and other 9 ASEAN countries, 600 million people, which is a good thing for the economics especially at this time when Europe’s economic is in crisis, more people from Europe will be looking for a place for the investment in ASEAN countries. This would be an opportunity for ASEAN to liberalize trades and labors more freely. However, the most important among all these is that we need to make that our people both from the public and private sectors have a good understanding and be prepared for this changing because in the near future, Thailand would work more closely to neighbor countries and that we need to know what to prepare for. This is what the workshop was all about. It was the first integrating meeting because this was the first time every Minister got a chance to inform and report others the progress on what they have done so far. Furthermore, we would also integrate 3 more sections. The first one is the economics in terms of taxation. We would have non-taxation for certain import goods that can be useful for the people. However, we will have to study and examine more on this issue first of what we and other investors get from using this taxation system. Second is about culture and society. For this one, we will see what we can do to enhance people’s lives so that they can be happier by using cultural and communicating connections especially among citizens between these two countries. Lastly is the stability. The word stability for this condition means that in order for 10 ASEAN countries to live happily together we need to be stable and fair to each other. This, I think is very important since when people want to come invest in ASEAN countries, stability is one of the facts they have to be considered of. They have to be sure and happy to invest in ASEAN countries. However, for this matter, there are still several more issues to take care of such as the word ‘Connectivity’. Actually, connectivity is part of the economics backbones that we called ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). We also need to talk about some other issues, too, but, without these 3 core subjects, the plan or project would not be complete.
MC: To follow the 3 pillars to create ASEAN Community, we can’t look only to satisfy the needs in Economic area but also Security and Socio-cultural area as well like our Female PM has said. These 3 pillars need to come together to move the integration of all the government ministries towards the same goal.
Prime Minister: Actually there’re more to this than the main 3 pillars. For making basic foundation we must think about the ways to construct transportation line; by water, by land or by air which include 1. How can we reduce the cost of transporting the goods in a long-run? For example, we will soon be trading vegetables and ship it from the north down to the south – if it takes too long the vegetables will lose its quality or if it will be too expensive if we overdo the speed of the shipping. These are the things we need to keep in mind, mainly where the goods come from, and 2. Tourist attractions, we need to increase to availability to the places so to attract more tourists 3. Enhance the access of civilization throughout the regions in the country – or the word Connectivity. All 3 points needed to be integrated involved Ministry of Transport and Communications, Ministry of Agricultures and Cooperatives, Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Tourism and Sports to create a prototype plan; to create Connectivity that will give our people the best benefit possible.
MC: This will be National agenda?
Prime Minister: Indeed, we all need to cooperate. Besides building a plan and ways to improve it, one point we can’t overlook is the way to improve our people’s capability. Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Labor and Ministry of Education working together to decide what type of personnel will be in need for the future. Also, we have to make sure that Ministry of Labor, Ministry of Education or Ministry of Social Development and Human Security can produce the type of personnel needed – including language skill. In a big picture, we start our integration from the government ministry then cooperate it with the private sections for any supports or assistance to drive the plan forward. Rules and regulations will eventually follow the integration system.
MC: So basically we are preparing the government sectors and then work with the private sectors to create a master plan to determine which way for us to go in order to become the center of ASEAN on the main land. This will follow
Prime Minister: That’s right, and we will finally connect to our people’s sectors
MC: How is it like in terms of assigning each ministry for such procedures?
Prime Minister: Mainly, the vice president mister Kittirat will be responsible for Economic area; Ministry of Social Development and Human security will be in charge of Socio-cultural area while Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defense are accountable for Security area.
MC: 2 years and a half until becoming part of ASEAN Community, will we be ready?
Prime Minister: I must say for the government sectors we are quite ready, but our integration is not only aim for preparing ourselves but also to make ourselves become competitive. It is as if we are building a house to live in, this house however will have to support our neighbors coming in – so we need to see where in the construction we need to fix, finding the architect to create our house’s plan. After having a plan we need to know how to build it, to which style should it be built so people find our house interesting, more outstanding and more welcome than the others.
MC: You have mentioned Connectivity, which means to connect us together besides transportation wise. Speaking of technology, after tablets distribution for the kids, how is the internet network in Thailand going so far?
Prime Minister: Before speaking of the Internet or wifi system as part of the government’s measure, I would like to tell you the reasons behind this measure: the idea is that since the way to approach new knowledge has become infinity; compare to the traditional way of going to class to approach knowledge. Technology has stretched boundary to become endless. What the government aims for our young generation to have the opportunity to approach is opportunity is for them to think 1. How can I get the best out of it and 2. Create equality in terms of education for people in the city and outside the city. The second purpose can be divided into 3 categories: 1. Internet is like the main route, so we need wifi to connect us to other places 2. Is which method will we give the young generations to approach knowledge and 3. A form of communication used to transmit information which in this case is computer, mobile phone and tablets. This is why we have given the 1st graders tablets so that they have the opportunity to approach knowledge. As we have delivered the device, now we are planning to create the wifi connection. The aim for our first year we would like to see about 40,000 free wifi spots in public, 20,000 of them have been done over the past 6 months with over 300,000 registered users.
MC: It is said to be expanded wider throughout the country?
Prime Minister: We are working with the private sectors and asking for their cooperation from Office of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission, TOT and CAT Telecom Public Company Limited; the private sector’s operator of AIS, DTAC and True. Thanks to them we are now having more Free wifi spots from 20,000 in August to 100,000 by early next year and the first three months next year we can expect up to 200,000 spots.
MC: Moving from wifi to health, there are some concerns about hand foot mouth syndrome, it had killed some kids. What are the procedures to prevent this problem?
Prime Minister: About hand foot mouth syndrome that has been spread for about two weeks now, the rates of infected patients have declined and I believe it will be dissolved in 6 weeks. Meanwhile I have urged Ministry of Public Health, Ministry of interior and Ministry of Education to educate people about the disease and to immediately admit the patients for treatment to stop the spreading.
MC: Trying your best to protect the lives of the young kids
Prime Minister: Parents and teachers must be cautious in terms for cleanliness, like watching the kids hands before having food.
MC: There will be two important days tomorrow which are the national Thai language Day and the Buddhist Lent Day. Would you like to say anything about it?
Prime Minister: Tomorrow is the important day which is the national Thai language Day. We should be proud that we have our own language. I would like to persuade everyone to speak and use Thai language properly. Moreover, there will be another two important days in Buddhism which are the Buddhist Lent and the day before it. I would like to induce everyone do a good act and abstain from an evil one. Let’s we all calm our mind together.
MC: Finally, Miss Prime Minister will go to the roving cabinet meeting in Surin province. What are you planning to do there?
Prime Minister: This meeting is held regularly once a month. We will do the fieldwork by going to each specific province. We are going to the Surin province this time. The meeting covers the area of 8 provinces which are Surin, Buriram, Sisaket, Ubon Ratchathani, Nakornratchasima, Chaiyaphum, Aumnart Jaroen, Yasothorn. The cabinet will be working with the private sectors and the governors in 8 provinces. We will take this opportunity to promote the new governmental policy which is the credit card for the agriculturists. The credit card will be handed to the agricultural representatives from different 19 provinces .The money will be spent on the factor of productions such as fertilizers, plant seeds and pesticides. This is a planting season so the cultivators can spend this money on the following output.
MC: Thank you so much Miss Prime Minister. Let’s have a break and then come back with the interview of the Minister of Commerce about the rice situation in Prime Minister Yingluck Meets the People Part 2.
MC: Back to Prime Minister Yingluck Meets the People Program part 2. For so many years that Thailand is considered the number 1 rice exporter. However, after we have the rice-pledging policy. The domestic rice price is higher. The economic crisis in other countries also impacts the amount of rice exporting in Thailand. We are start losing to Vietnam and India in terms of rice exporting. How is the rice situation in Thailand? Let’s talk to Mr. Boonsong Teriyapirom, the Minister of Commerce. Hello, Mr. Minister
Mr. Boonsong: Hello
MC: Should we be worried about the rice situation in Thailand?
Mr. Boonsong: In the view of the Ministry of Commerce, I am not very worried because we also have time to work on it for over 6 months. According to the statistic during the last 6 months, Thailand exporting is not really less than the others. In the next 6 months, the government will be selling rice to the foreign governments through the state to state system. We have been negotiating economically with many countries. Some countries already opened LC to order the rice from Thailand. Therefore, the rest of the 6 months, I am pretty positive that we have a satisfied and high result.
MC: But the Ministry of Commerce reported that exporting number of the agricultural products especially rice has been decreased over 40%. Also, the private sector reported that Thailand already became the third rice exporter in the first half of the year. Would that be a problem?
Mr. Boonsong: I would like to explain each part separately. The first thing we have to consider is the government policy. The Yingluck government announced the agricultural 16 emergency policies. 1. Increasing the living standards of agriculturalist.2.Increasing the price of agricultural products. The first two are considered the heart of this government policy. Therefore, that is why we have the rice-pledging measurement and set the price for 12000 baht and 20000 baht. This policy is actually successful because we can increase the rice price up to 10000 baht. It has never happened. This makes the agriculturalist happy because when the price is high, they will have enough money to deal with their debt. The living standard will be higher. Therefore, we certainly succeed on these two points. However, the rice exporting price will be higher. It is the government’s responsibility to take care of. We will sell it by through two procedures. The first way is selling through the sate to sate system. Thai government will sell it to the foreign government. The second way is to put it on the auction. The one who bids the higher price than the government will be able to buy it. The third measurement is to take care of the living standard of Thai people. The rice that belonged to the government will be packaged and sold through the governmental storehouse project such as the Blue Flag rice project. The Ministry of Commerce is doing the Satisfied Shop project by packing 1-kilo bag of rice and sells it in a cheap price for low-income people to consume appropriately each day. Come back to another point about how would we deal with the 40%-export declining. The rice was highest exported last year in 2011. Before that year, the average number was approximately 8-9 million tons per year. This year, the number of rice exporting from the beginning of the year to 20 something of July, the result during middle of the year is more than 3 million tons, around 3.8 million tons. If we time the number, the result will be 7.6 million tons.
MC: How would you compare the quality of our rice to Indian and Vietnamese rice?
Mr.Boonsong: Our quality is a lot better than theirs. I have asked the customers of Thai rice why they have chosen our product. They said it is because Thai rice has a better quality, tastes better, gives more energy also has lower calories and fat. There is actually a research about the planting technique about let’s talk about it later. The overall picture is that they trust in our quality and they trust that we will not do any frauds. I am not saying that the other countries do but we have been in this market for 30-40 years. Also, Thai rice is well-known in terms of taste and quality especially jasmine rice that has a high nutrient. Therefore, we might have some advantages in terms of quality and some disadvantages on the price.
MC: So we win in terms of quality but the price might be too high. However, we should use apple to apple compassion which is using the product of the same category and quality to compare to each other. We should be able to win over the same kind of product. What we are doing right now is comparing between two products from different quality.
Mr.Boonsong: We have to make our products unique especially the jasmine rice. We are asking for GI (Geographical Indication Registration) for the European countries. During the time I went to the working visit with Miss. Prime Minister, we already discussed German and French to support us about the IG registration.
MC: IG is a source of new products, right?
Mr. Boonsong: Yes, that’s right. The jasmine rice that is planted in Thungr Kula Rong Hai will be the only one in the world. It will be different from the other countries in the world. We can increase the price from the other markets. I think we will be successful during this year.
MC: The grade of the normal rice and the jasmine rice will be categorized. Who is working on it right now? How far of this project right now? And how exactly are you going to separate them?
Mr. Boonsong: In the Ministry of Commerce, we have the international trading division that takes care of the quality of some agricultural products. Also, they are responsible for selling and buying. In addition, we have the Public Warehouse Organization (PWO) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives that will be cooperating with us. We have been working on it a lot. I believe we will have the summary about how many grades will be separated and what the price different of each grade will be.
Meanwhile, I have to say that there are only about 4-5 countries in ASEAN that have extra rice for export which mainly include Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar. During the last couples of months, I went to consult with Cambodia and Vietnam and we got good response from them in cooperating for the rice issue.
Mr. Boonsong: One thing is about the cooperation I just stated. The countries that grow rice in ASEAN will also have to have these consultants and standardizations. We use the same standard. I don’t one to be the one judging which country is standardized and which is not, but with using the common standard, the rice qualities will judge which country is in which group. Then there will be reference price in the world market. There are only a few marketers in this field because although there are over hundred millions of tons of rice produced each year, the US produced the amount of hundred millionth, as well as China and India, but they mostly consume rice domestically. There are only a few countries that are actually exporting rice and Thailand is one of them, along with Vietnam, Cambodia, USA, India and a few other small countries. In total, the amount of rice in the world market each year is just slightly over 30 million tons. The 5 countries are ASEAN own about 60% and the rest of 40% is shared among other countries. Therefore, if we succeed in this rice cooperation, we will become the one setting the standard of world rice and we will truly become the food provider of the world.
MC: Another question that many people are worried about is how the government’s rice stock is. When there is rice pawn, there is more rice in the hand of the government. How is the government releasing the rice stock? And how is the rice stock gained from last year?
Mr. Boonsong: During the last few years, the government has making progress in increasing the price of agricultural products. Rice is also an important issue. When there is rice pawn, there surely is a lot of rice in the hand of the government. There are two main issues that the government is worried about. The first thing is food stability. In case there is a big flood like last year that damages rice growing, there might not be enough rice, so we have to save some part of the stock for that. In the past years, we saved approximately 2 million tons a year, so we are going to maintain that in case we are really in need. The rest of the stock is consumed domestically and exported. When there are new stocks coming in, we sell the old ones, so that the old stocks would not be kept for so long.
MC: So the rice would not be too old? There is this kind of cycle?
Mr. Boonsong: We also grow new rice. Thailand grows over 30 million tons of unmilled rice and 10 million tons of white rice. Half of them are exported and the other half is consumed within the country. The management of this stock is under the control of the government, so we are the one deciding when the right time to release products is and when the market is ready to take the released rice. This is under the supervision of the Ministry of Commerce. This progress of the neighboring countries should be harmonizing with Thai progress as well because if we released the products at the same time, the price would fall. So we have to observe other countries’ activities when they are going to export their products. The institute that will be taking care of this is the department of International Trade who will also be watching the right time and the right price in the market.
MC: For this year, how many bids did we have already? And what are the results of the bids?
Mr. Boonsong: Since I was promoted to this position in January, there were already 3 rounds of bidding. The first round is about 30,000 tons. The second one is about 100,000 tons and the last round is about 300,000 tons. But because in the last round, the bidder proposed lower price than the median price, so they canceled the bid and postponed it to the beginning of August. For the G to G trade, we have constantly discussed for 3-4 months and have received orders from many countries that we have MOU connection with. In total, we should get about 4 million tons.
MC: Was one of the reasons for the 3rd bid to be canceled from the private individual who joined the bid and forced the price down in order to sell the rice themselves in lower price to compete with others?
Mr. Boonsong: That is also possible. Now we have to take a look at all the proposed price and see the differences. If the prices are among the same range then, it is ok. But if there is some that is overly higher than others, then there might be some competition. The last time we checked, the price was not too far from the median price. But in any case, we tend to set up the standard by setting up the median price and all others’ prices should abide by it. This is under the responsibility of the Department of International Trade and it is whatever they want to call it.
MC: right, so how is the G to G rice trade going to help the release of the rice stock?
Mr. Boonsong: First of all, we can sell large amount of rice each time because in some countries, there are policies on food stability, so they have their own safety stock and when they use up all their safety stock, they would have to buy more from other countries. In some country, they circulate their stock, so it’s up to them. That’s why G to G can help us release large stock in one time. Second, the price we get is not too low, although there is some “friend price”, but these prices never affect the country.
MC: Recently when there is rice pawn, the price of rice increases, do we lose much on this?
Mr. Boonsong: I would have to admit that in whatever country that has agricultural products’ price control, the government gets a hard job. During the last government, there was a price guarantee project that used up 7-8 ten trillion baht each year and lost all 100%. No matter how much money they used, there was no rice left. For our recent rice pawn, although we lost about 2-4 ten trillion baht each time, I’m confident that the lost under the government’s responsibility is manageable and not as bad as the last project for sure.
MC: So at least the government has rice under their management. The last thing to worry about is whether we will have enough rice in the government’s stock next season.
Mr. Boonsong: It’s actually circulating. Public Warehouse Organization, along with the Marketing Organization for Farmers of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, is constantly providing supportive stocks, so this year we accepted 10 million more tons than last year, almost another 10 million for white rice. Now, we can still accept more with no difficulty. Then in August, we will start releasing the stock to the G to G bid as the new season will be starting. Now, we haven’t announced for a new pawn shop yet, but I think we are going to start in October. So we have about 2 months to release the stock. There should not be any problem.
MC: Alright, We have to say thank you very much to Mr. Minister for joining us today. Now that we have listened a lot from him and known that Thailand has always been rice exporter, but the government did not pay much attention to whether Thailand will be the top of rice exporters or not. What they really concern about is how to take good care of farmers. The rice-pledging policy is one of the 16 policies from the government to improve people’s quality of life. When farmers have better income, their lives surely get better, but the government never neglects them. They always try on G to G trade, managing the stocks and grading the products, so that the world will know how qualified and standardized Thai rice is comparing to other competitive countries. This is all for Yingluck Government Meets the People Program today. I am Teerat Ratanasevi, goodbye.