www.thaigov.go.th

Mr. Minister of Commerce,

Dr. Veerapong Ramangkura, Chair of the Strategic Committee for Reconstruction and Future Development,

Governor, President of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, Members of the Chamber of Commerce, Secretary of the Bank of Thailand Association,

Secretary to the Foundation for International Human Resource Development,

Distinguished guests from businesses, private enterprises and the government:

Today, I am delighted that we have the opportunity to listen and participate in an exchange of views on such an important topic: the Thai economy in the ASEAN Community. I would like to thank the Commerce Ministry, particularly the Department of International Negotiation, and the Chamber of Commerce, the Industrial Association of Thailand and the Bank of Thailand Association for hosting this symposium.

The phrase “ASEAN Community” has been thrown around a lot recently, but I think it’s time that we gather together to debate what the ASEAN community really means and to consider fundamental questions. What will happen to the Thai economy when we become more integrated with ASEAN? How can we prepare for such an integration? And how will the government help support private businesses in growth and stability?

I’d like to thank the organizers of this event for giving us the opportunity to debate these questions. In the future, I am sure that we will ponder even more details on the ASEAN Community in even more forums. Today, we’re honored to have the Permanent Secretary of the Interior Ministry with us. The rural areas are extremely important, and in order to see growth we must also prepare these areas for the upcoming transition.

The first pillar of the ASEAN Community is politics and security. We will ready ourselves for the transition by maintaining stability in politics and security, and building investor trust in our nation. My government has made improvements in this regard, and we are confident that we can gain the trust of these investors.

The second pillar is economics—abbreviated as the AEC (ASEAN Economic Community). Our symposium today is dedicated to this very important topic, and will touch upon the importance of laying a strong foundation for our economy and how our economy will operate in the context of the AEC.

The third pillar is society and culture. In the next three years, ASEAN nations will lead integration efforts in these pillars. In the ASEAN Security Community, for example, there is a move towards greater democracy in our nations, especially in Myanmar. In the AEC, we see tremendous economic progress toward freer and fairer trade for ASEAN nations. Regarding the Socio-Cultural Community, ASEAN countries are culturally related, and our task is to move toward the integration of the peoples of our ten nations into a unified group. This will be a big benefit, especially because the total population of ASEAN is 600 million; in addition, we are living in rapidly developing countries. In order to sustain our growth, we need to quickly prepare ourselves economically for the integration, which is why the AEC blueprint is so important.

There are four AEC goals. Just a few moments ago, the Minister mentioned the first goal of becoming part of the ASEAN market. Once 2015 comes around, ASEAN will be considered a single production base, which will give us a bigger bargaining chip. It is no mystery that the entire world is now talking about ASEAN because our countries are rapidly developing and have a large population base. Thailand is in a unique position to benefit from this integration.

The second goal is creating an economy that is fair and transparent. How do we create a fairer economy? After 2015, producers and businesspeople will be able to choose an ASEAN country where they can decrease their international tax and maximize their profit. Of course, competition will increase, but that also means we have more opportunities to invest in other countries. We need to further study the niches of each ASEAN country and how we can best maximize our benefits from this integration.

The third goal is to increase ASEAN competitiveness. Opening our market up increases both competition and opportunities, and we need to ready ourselves, from production to human capacity-building. We must develop the collective ASEAN Economy and make it stronger together; this will allow us to effectively do business with other world economies such as Europe and the United States. The critical point—the heart of the AEC—is that in integrating with ASEAN countries, we will inherently integrate further with other world economies.

Today is the starting point where we work together and organize workshops to prepare ourselves for 2015. The Chamber of Commerce is organizing workshops all over the country, in many different provinces, and I would ask the governor and Interior Ministry to support these workshops in any way they can, along with helping the private sector prepare for the transition. Because with the integration comes opportunities, yes, but also fiercer competition. Consumers will be the final judge on the quality and price of our goods, and we must ready ourselves for this by not only talking about production improvements but about other aspects that can increase the value of our goods: understanding the market, branding and marketing. The government is looking at all aspects of the equation and we see importance in all of them.

We need to prepare ourselves by doing the following:

First, the government must strengthen our economy by balancing different investments. This means that while we strengthen our exports, we will also look inward to promote our local economies.

Second, we can increase our competitive edge by focusing on expanding our small and medium enterprises (SMEs). While we attract investors to Thailand, we must also expand investment opportunities for our businesses abroad. My government, for example, has invited many members of the business sector to travel abroad to realize opportunities for market expansion.

Third, we must make sure that our public policy aligns with private interests as much as possible; we must consult with private companies in all provinces to make sure that this happens according to plan. One way to do this is through workshops like this one where people from all sectors and provinces come to exchange information on the ASEAN Community. That said, we need to hear from you directly—if you have any unique perspectives or information that may be helpful for us as we craft our policies, then please send them our way.

Fourth, we must connect ASEAN together. Now that we have connected the country together, we must connect our country to other nations. You may have heard the word “connectivity” repeated often—what it means is that we will create transportation routes, roads, trains and ferry lines from our country to our ASEAN neighbors. For example, we will develop our economic corridors: one North-South, which leads from China through Thailand; another East-West, from Myanmar through Thailand to Laos to Vietnam; and another from the South of Myanmar through Cambodia, and eventually to India, a huge economic base. My government has prepared a plan to improve nation-to-nation connectivity, and we are ready for the transition.

With that, I would like to open the symposium: “The Nation’s Time: A New Thai Economy in the ASEAN Economic Community.”

Thank you.