“Chulphan” insists it is not strange that the government’s policies will be similar to “Thaksin’s” vision because he has inherited the ideology since the Thai Rak Thai Party. He emphasized that the entertainment complex has already passed the approval of the parliament and the cabinet. It is in the process of amending the law. He believes that opening full services will make the economy grow by 1%. He confirmed that he will distribute 10,000 baht to vulnerable groups into their accounts. He warned that there are 1 million welfare cardholders who have not linked their accounts yet. He is confident that the money will reach the people in full of 10,000 baht for sure.
Mr. Chulaphan Amornvivat, Deputy Minister of Finance, explained to the joint parliamentary meeting on the government policy statement agenda about the lack of details in the government policy guidelines that he wanted to separate the vision and the operational plan. If we look at the government policy guidelines, we will know that the government’
s vision will be seen in which direction the government is being portrayed. However, the details of the project content will follow, which will be discussed in depth.
As for the policy that is similar to what former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said in his speech on August 22, 2024, it is normal because we have inherited the ideology from the Thai Rak Thai Party, the People’s Power Party, and the Pheu Thai Party. As for the government leaders, it is probably no different. They inherited the intentions from a former political party. When it was dissolved, they changed parties, but the idea was still passed down. It is normal. Therefore, I would like to emphasize that what is included in the policy is a vision. But what is clearly different is that they see that Thailand can only grow to this potential. As for the current government, they are trying to drive the economy to grow to the appropriate point and distribute wealth to the people fairly.
Mr. Chulaphan also mentioned the entertainment complex proj
ect or the integrated entertainment venue. The House of Representatives has set up a committee to study this issue since one year ago until it was completed and submitted to the meeting for approval and sent to the Cabinet. The Cabinet has sent the Ministry of Finance to study the draft law and amend it to make it more appropriate, which has been done quite a bit. The government has amended the law to follow the government’s procedures and held a public hearing with more than 80% approval, which is good that the people accept it. According to the procedure, the Ministry of Finance will submit it to the Cabinet. If they approve, the draft will be sent to the Council of State for review before being sent back to be included in the agenda of the House of Representatives meeting for consideration in 3 readings as usual.
In this regard, a model of economic impact dimensions has been created, comparing it to the Singapore model, dividing the benefits into 2 periods:
1. During the construction period, which will t
ake approximately 3-4 years, with an investment of at least 100 billion baht per point, the economy will expand by 0.23 per point. In total, over 3 years, there will be an investment of no less than 30 billion baht per point.
2. During the full service period, it will be possible to increase tourist spending per person by no less than 66,000 baht per person, which, if calculated from the base of 3.6 million tourists, will result in an economic growth of no less than 1%. As for the details of the project implementation, government revenue, and compensation for the impact on the people, the government will accept them for consideration in order to push forward the law.
As for the 10,000 baht digital wallet payment project, Mr. Chulaphan confirmed that the project is ready in terms of money. He thanked the members of the House of Representatives who approved the budget framework for both the additional budget for 2024 and the annual budget for 2025, resulting in approximately 300 billion baht for the project.
Phase one will be for vulnerable groups, including the disabled, with no age limit, and vulnerable groups holding state welfare cards, but the money will not be paid via card, but via account. In this group, there are still approximately 1,000,000 people who do not have accounts linked to the PromptPay system, so they are asked to go to the bank or ATM to do so.
These two groups, when combined, will have approximately 14.5 million unique names, who will receive cash. After listening to opinions from many sectors, it was seen that the economy should be stimulated quickly, so the method of distributing money has been changed, with the transfer date set for September 25-30.
The remaining budget, which is the budget for stimulating the economy, confirms that the money distribution will still be in the form of digital wallets and blockchains, and conditions are set to create circulation in the economy as before. After this, there will be a clear announcement of the money distribution date again. But in the end,
the money will reach the hands of the people in full 10,000 baht, and it will create the basic structure of the digital economic system.
Source: Thai News Agency