The government's economic development projects will enable the economy to grow at full capacity of 4-5% annually in a few years, Finance Minister Apisak Tantivorawong said on Monday.
The increase in gross domestic product of 3.7% in the second quarter this year resulted from the government's past infrastructure investment, but the economy was still not growing at full capacity, he said.
The expected 4-5% rate of expansion would come from the government's Eastern Economic Corridor development. It normally it took a few years for new investment projects to start having positive effects on the economy, the finance minister said.
There were already good signs for private investment in the applications for investment incentives with the Board of Investment.
When the GDP was growing at full pace, the poor would benefit from economic development investment. The government was trying to help the poor with subsidies for travel and water and electricity charges, these people were suffering from a previous economic slowdown, Mr Apisak said.
Soon the government would promote household accounting and improved vocations for the poor, to lift them above the poverty line of 30,000 baht per person per year, the finance minister said.
This should be accomplished in a few years, Mr Apisak said.
This year, the government registered 14.1 million poor people, he said. About 1.4 million of them had problems with informal creditors. Problematic informal debts were estimated at 67 billion baht.