VISION OF THAILAND 2022

Among the panel were Jurin Laksanawisit, leader of Democratic Party, Khunying Sudarat Keyuraphan, chairwoman of Thai Sang Thai Party, Dr.Uttama Savanayana, founder of Sang Anakot Thai Party, Varawut Silpa-archa, Chairman of Chart Thai Pattana Party's Policy and Strategy Committee, Korn Chatikavanij, leader of Kla Party and Sirikanya Tansakun, policy director of Move Forward Party.

Arthid Nanthawithaya, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Executive Committee, Siam Commercial Bank and Chief Executive Officer, SCBX and Auttapol Rerkpiboon, Chief Executive Officer and President of PTT also joined the panel to show their perspectives on “The Future Thailand that Everyone Wants to See"

Arthid Nanthawithaya, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Executive Committee, Siam Commercial Bank and Chief Executive Officer, SCBX shared his perspective possibilities for the future of Thailand by turning Phuket into a digital hub like Singapore and Chiang Mai into a base economy development following the steps of ChengDu in China, pushing for Thailand to become a digital hub of Asia.

While Auttapol Rerkpiboon, Chief Executive Officer and President of PTT shared his perspective that Thailand could have a future as a hub for green energy, cultivating green products to add value for agricultural goods, transforming into the EV Detroit of Asia, World Class medical hub of Asia and focusing on E-Entertainment like E-sports and metaverse platforms. He also added that trends that are up and coming are sustainability and health, supply chain.

During the panel, the politicians were asked to show their vision within 7 minutes on how Thailand should move towards.

Jurin Laksanawisit, leader of Democratic Party, said that the direction that the Democratic Party would like to focus on is building cities and spreading money into the economic system. Reduce inequality, which is a big problem in the country, political parties must be more modern and the Democratic Party is the only political party with a modern economic team. Political parties must be the ones that create people, adopt new economic mechanisms including e-commerce, blockchain, meta-verse, and emphasize that Thailand's future must be a democratic country with a full stomach or also known as edible democracy, which is the only way Thailand can survive.

Khunying Sudarat Keyuraphan, chairwoman of Thai Sang Thai Party said that we have to build Thailand from our strengths in tourism, health and food. We also have to take advantage of the new world, making Thailand a Digital Hub. We would like to invest in building people from the womb, good education, free quality education, reducing study time, and increasing education that is applicable to quality of life and livelihood in today's world. Increase medical benefits and for elderly people to have pension to support the aging society. If we don't do this, we'll be a country full of poor old people who are physically weak. And finally, political parties must be transformed into people's parties, for the people only.

Dr.Uttama Savanayana, founder of Sang Anakot Thai Party, said that without reform, it would hinder the development and bright future of Thai people. It's time for us to come together to help drive change so that young people will have the right to determine their own lives and futures combined with the experience of generations who have worked for ten years to modify the political process of some groups. Today, I would like to invite everyone to come together to build the future of Thailand with 5 guidelines : Building a strong Thai economy foundation, Developing industrial sector, digital economy, create a just and supportive society, and building people to be ready for rapid changes in the future and join in to create constructive politics that does not create dissension and become a true democracy.

Varawut Silpa-archa, Chairman of Chart Thai Pattana Party's Policy and Strategy Committee said that for the past 2-3 years Thailand has faced an economic crisis and epidemic and political turmoil.  On the topic of the country's recovery plan after the Covid-19 crisis from working in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, he found that even though Thailand is just a small part of the world, it is abundant. Thailand is ready to be the breadbasket of the world. But old farming techniques such as chemical fertilizers aren’t applicable and there needs to be new technology to become a strength for Thai agriculture.

Chartthaipattana has proposed the idea of ​​using agricultural technology combined with old school knowledge that is available all over the country. For example, Germany coordinates with Thailand, implementing the new concept of rice cultivation that uses less water and less fertilizer, using more organic fertilizers and resulting in more produce. The plan is to export the highest premium quality products that have the least impact on the Thai environment. 

This is the goal to move forward, creating new strengths and help propose ideas to develop a green economy. 

Korn Chatikavanij, leader of Kla Party said that Thailand is currently facing an economic crisis that is different from the past, such as the Tom Yum Kung crisis. People today are facing low income while the cost of living has soared.  And the problems of this crisis in the people's sector are not limited to the poor but the middle class is also in serious trouble. There used to be hope of building a country by increasing the middle class. Students who are about to graduate are feeling hopeless and have no economic opportunity. During the past 2 years, the economy has taken a hit from the Covid-19 crisis and it’s currently facing the crisis of war as well. Polices set based on the past no longer work. There must be higher quality education and personnel must have access to technology and training in innovative thinking systems but it won’t be possible if Thailand maintains the same bureaucracy. The government must be digitalized and fit onto our mobiles, increasing quality and lowering costs.

And Sirikanya Tansakun, policy director of Move Forward Party said the crises and challenges Thailand requires a government with more potential and capacity to solve problems for the people. She also mentioned that the budget that at present, which is 40% of the annual expenditure budget must be paid to government officials, leaving no budget to truly solve problems for the people and believe that without reforming the bureaucracy or the construction of the whole government sector, facilitating capitalists, distributing incomes not to be concentrated on a certain group of people and giving back the people power and opportunities through unlocking local politics would be an explosion of economic power that can stimulate the fundamental economy.

Lastly all were asked if the current government would be gone before the APEC 2022 meeting which will be held during November in Thailand.

Khunying Sudarat Keyuraphan, chairwoman of Thai Sang Thai Party said that she predicted that the current government would last until after the APEC meeting, and dissolve after because what was important was benefits they would received and also predicted that before dissolving parliament, the government would have money schemes to give out to the people as a way to guarantee a spot in the next political race.

Jurin Laksanawisit, leader of Democratic Party said that it was up to the stability of the government and representative but there is no current sign that would indicate the government dissolving before APEC 2022.