Thailand: Industrialists rosy on growth

• Apr 04, 2018

The Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking (JSCCIB) is optimistic about the country’s economic outlook in 2018 after witnessing better sentiment over the first two months of the year. 
The committee increased the group’s 2018 GDP projection from growth of 3.8-4.5% to 4.0-4.5%. Chen Namchaisiri, chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) who chaired the JSCCIB monthly meeting yesterday, said major economic engines have performed better than the Thai private sector expected. 
“We have increased the outlook of Thai shipments to rise by 5-8% this year from a previous projection of 3.5-6% because of the healthy global economy,” he said. 
The Commerce Ministry reported shipments totalled US$40.5 billion (1.26 trillion baht) from January to February, up 13.8% from the same period last year, with imports totalling $39.8 billion, up 20.1% year-on-year. The trade surplus for the two-month period totalled $689 million. 
Mr Chen said the country’s tourism sector is expected to shine throughout the year as the Tourism and Sports Ministry reported international arrivals to Thailand over the first two months totalled 7.1 million, up 15.5% year-on-year. 
But the private sector has expressed concerns that public investment may not grow as forecast after contracting 6% year-on-year in the first quarter of fiscal 2018 (October-December 2017). 
“Government budget disbursement remains the big issue, which always has a huge impact on the GDP,” he said. 
The JSCCIB is also concerned about the global trade war, with US President Donald Trump moving to impose a series of tariff barriers. 
Mr Chen said the private sector is looking out for any signs that harm has been done to the Thai economy. 
Separately, the JSCCIB met with the Labour Ministry earlier about future cooperation between the government and private sector to grow the number of skilled workers in the flagship Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) project. “The ministry is conducting a survey to explore human resource issues with JSCCIB members, but is only 60% complete,” he said. 
“We know that 23,000 employees are ready to work in EEC locations and they will need new training programmes to improve their skills for S-curve industries.” 
But Mr Chen said the private sector has a neutral outlook regarding the country’s daily minimum wage hikes, when went into effect on April 1. 
He said it is too early to forecast any negative effects to local companies. 

Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/news/1440286/industrialists-rosy-on-growth