PM Stresses Farm and Food Sector Economic Development

Delivering a keynote speech on “Future of Industry in Eyes of the Prime Minister” at a seminar on“Green GDP: Future of Thailand,” he said the Thai economy is expected to expand more than 3.5 per cent this year against last year’s contraction of 3 per cent, although there remain many key economic risk factors.

To ensure the strong and sustainable economic growth, the government would still adhere to the sufficiency economy philosophy for the national economic development.

He said although the industrial sector plays a key role in economic development, the agriculture and food sectors, which remain the backbone of the country, should not be ignored.

So, the government would give a priority to counting more on the farming and food sectors than the industry sector and other sectors to develop the country’s economy.

This could be witnessed by the government’s efforts to accelerate improving the living conditions of farmers by helping address their debts through the farm product price guarantee scheme, developing the irrigation system to reduce farming costs, and increasing productivity and competitiveness.

He said the government would also pay more attention to developing the alternative energy industry as fuel prices are likely to go up further. Regarding the Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate case, he said the government had made much progress in resolving the problem, which should help restore investor confidence.

The government has issued a ministerial announcement on its study of the environment impact assessment and the health impact assessment, considered a great stride for its efforts to solve the Map Ta Phut problem.