Dr Somkiat stressed that the most important solution is to create \u201cGood Jobs\u201d \u2014 jobs that provide adequate income, benefits, safety and career advancement. Good Jobs, he said, underpin social stability, political stability and sustainable economic growth.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood Jobs can only exist if citizens have higher skills, the production system is strong and businesses can compete globally,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He likened the economy to an aircraft powered by four spending engines \u2014 consumption, private investment, government spending and exports \u2014 and four production engines \u2014 agriculture, industry, services and public services. Thailand, he argued, has focused too heavily on stimulus and spending, while neglecting production, leaving the country overburdened and unable to accelerate growth amid household debt, weak investment and difficult export conditions.<\/p>\n
Thailand\u2019s production sector faces three major structural problems:
\n\u2022 severe labour shortages,
\n\u2022 falling birth rates,
\n\u2022 high numbers of deaths from accidents and pollution each year,
\n\u2022 labour loss from military conscription (70,000 men annually),
\n\u2022 low education quality that fails to raise productivity,
\n\u2022 shrinking public investment due to high fixed expenditure,
\n\u2022 limited FDI that does not sufficiently integrate with the Thai economy, and
\n\u2022 outdated regulations that hinder new investment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThailand still produces low-productivity goods. Agriculture remains a commodity business competing on price. R&D investment is very low, and resources are distorted by poorly targeted policies,\u201d Dr Somkiat said.<\/p>\n
He noted that Thailand is being squeezed from all sides:<\/p>\n
\n\tthe US has raised tariffs to the highest in decades,
\n\tEurope has introduced environmental trade measures such as CBAM and EUDR, and
\n\tChina\u2019s overproduction is pushing industrial prices down worldwide.
<\/p>\n
To survive, Dr Somkiat proposed a new production model with four pillars:<\/p>\n
1. Revolutionise Thai agriculture<\/p>\n
Thailand should abandon the outdated assumption that 30% of the workforce must remain in agriculture. No high-income country maintains such a large agricultural labour share.
\nThe way forward is high-value agriculture, similar to Japan\u2019s premium melons, Hokkaido snow crabs and Wagyu beef. Thailand already has strong candidates for high-value production \u2014 economic bamboo, Nam Wa bananas, mud crabs and biochar. These can create genuine grassroots income.<\/p>\n
2. Upgrade tourism and food services<\/p>\n
Thailand has one of the world\u2019s densest concentrations of restaurants and ranks high in Michelin Guide\u2019s \u201cgood value\u201d category, but still trails Singapore in Michelin stars, reflecting weaker state support.<\/p>\n
Thailand should enhance product value, IT systems, business succession, global branding, overseas expansion (similar to Singapore\u2019s push for JUMBO Seafood) and convert more services from non-tradable to tradable, enabling exports of Thai culinary and tourism expertise.<\/p>\n
3. Promote modern services<\/p>\n
Modern Services include chip design (where India is among the global top five), IT and digital services, professional services and creative industries. These sectors are mobile, carry fewer trade barriers and are well-suited to Thailand\u2019s talent pool.<\/p>\n
4. Expand the film and series production industry<\/p>\n
This year, more than 451 foreign productions were filmed in Thailand, bringing in 7 billion baht. Major films such as Jurassic Park and Alien Earth have filmed here, generating widespread employment \u2014 electricians, camera crews, extras, hotels, transport and backstage workers. With stronger incentives and transparent management, this sector could become a major growth engine.<\/p>\n
Dr Somkiat concluded:<\/p>\n
\u201cThailand must build new engines if it does not want to fall behind ASEAN. We must use our labour and capital efficiently, strengthen production across agriculture, industry and services, reduce reliance on spending, increase productivity and adapt to the world\u2019s shift towards deglobalisation. If we do not start now, Thailand risks falling below our neighbours and drifting further behind the global economy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dr Somkiat stressed that the most important solution is to create \u201cGood Jobs\u201d \u2014 jobs that provide adequate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[11388,4057,251,138,25833,219,111,139,69,16860,53779,41177],"class_list":{"0":"post-141269","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-asean","9":"tag-behind","10":"tag-breaking-news","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-economic-growth","13":"tag-economy","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-newzealand","16":"tag-nz","17":"tag-reform","18":"tag-slows","19":"tag-tdri"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}