SMEs want Thai govt to focus on sufficiency economy, avoid populist policies
The six areas they want the Paetongtarn administration to focus on
The Federation of Thai SMEs has urged the new government under Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra to focus less on populist policies and more on following the sufficiency economy philosophy to ensure sustainable development.
“Small and medium-sized enterprises want to see economic policies that do not focus on free handouts but rather on creating change through the sufficiency economy philosophy applied to public administration, using knowledge in conjunction with ethics,” Sangchai Theerakulwanich, federation president said on Friday.
He underscored that the new government should help build self-reliance among the people, managing the country's budget to ensure sufficiency and maximise national benefits. He also advised using a people-centric approach in managing the economy, society, environment and culture to ensure a sustainable development.
Sangchai proposed six urgent topics that the new government’s economic team should prioritise:
- Stimulate the local economy and income distribution, with focus on creating a circular economy in local communities to ensure sustainable development.
- Reduce the cost of living for people and operational costs for entrepreneurs, ensuring affordable consumer goods, electricity, fuel, and cooking gas.
- Restructure debts of SMEs and maximise their access to soft loans.
- Systematically enhance SMEs and the capabilities of the Thai workforce to build resilience against technological and climate change, including digital transformation and artificial intelligence.
- Address obstacles from rules, regulations, and laws affecting business operations. Responsible agencies must coordinate with the private sector and civil society to smooth operations for SMEs.
- Prevent unfair practices by multinational corporations that affect Thai entrepreneurs and workers.
“Thai SMEs are ready to cooperate and support the new government in transitioning from the traditional economy to a new economy where the grassroots and national economies thrive together,” said Sangchai.
