“FTI” sends a message to the government that the expensive “electricity cost” is becoming an obstacle to foreign direct investment (FDI), ignoring Thailand and possibly investing more in Vietnam. Recently, Vietnam has reduced the electricity bill, recommending to speed up the solution before Thailand loses its competitiveness permanently, accelerating 4 major industrial groups to drive the Thai economy through the BANI World period.
Mr. Kriangkrai Thiennukul, President of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) He said in the seminar “Thailand: New Chapter, Thailand’s New Chapter 2023”, on the subject of the New Era, Thai Industrial Economy, in 2023, that the New Economy that will be used to drive Thailand’s economy consists of 4 main industry: 1 • BCG Industry (Bio Circular Green) Electric Vehicle (EV) ) Smart Electronic and Digital that FTI is pushing together with relevant governments to drive the Thai economy to recover and to be in line with the changes in the world . Especially now that the world has reached the era of BANI World or rapid change from B: Britten, vulnerability from global economic recession (Recession) A: Worried, concern due to climate change (Climate Change) N: Non-linear: Difficult to understand due to changing geopolitics, including trade wars Technology Warfare and I : Incomprehensible Misunderstanding from Disruption
However, in the past, Thailand has lost its competitiveness from many factors. And one of the important factors is higher energy costs, especially the automatic variable electricity (Ft) which continues to increase and for the period January-April ’23 for types of business. The industry adjusted average of 5.33 baht per unit became the production cost of the industrial sector. And it is also an obstacle to attract foreign direct investment (FDI), resulting in Vietnam even more disadvantage of the advantage in terms of FTA signed over Thailand. wages already low Last year, Vietnam’s electricity bill was only 2.88 baht per unit and has recently been reduced to 2.50 baht per unit, opposite Thailand. If Thailand still has expensive electricity bills, where will FDI come to Thailand? So, I would like to leave all the people responsible because if they don’t rush to fix it, it could cause Thailand to lose its competitiveness permanently.
Mr Kriakrai said The world has moved on from the age of the VUCA World (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) BANI World disruption or rapid change from B: Britten, vulnerability from global economic recession (Recession) A: Worried, anxiety due to climate change ) N : Non-linear Difficult to understand due to changing geopolitics including trade wars Technology Warfare and I : Unintelligible So a misunderstanding of the problem is affected by the unrest in Thailand, whose economic structure depends on exports and tourism which depending on foreign markets. But there are still opportunities from the New Economy and in the next stage, Thailand’s New Chapter, despite facing high production costs. slowdown in exports interest rates rising But the tourism sector is improving rapidly. And most importantly, Thailand is about to hold an election in May 2023, which will greatly help the money in the system to flow to the foundations.
“Exporting this year, we may face a global economic slowdown in the United States and the United States. and the European Union By raising interest rates, the United States Federal Reserve (Fed) is still aiming to control inflation further this year. But China opened up the country faster than expected, which could make the Chinese economy grow more this year, which will benefit Thai exports and tourism. But China itself has a large increase in COVID-19 infections, which could cause tourists in the first half of the year not to come out in full. You will have to see after 6 months that China will use an Indian model that’ n solving COVID-19 that is herd immunity, which should be able to see a clearer picture,” said Mr Kriangkrai.
