The Thai economy in 2012 is expected to recover in a "V" shape and gross domestic product growth should reach five per cent year-on-year, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said Wednesday.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra: GDP growth for 2012 should reach 5%.
"The government has set the economic growth target for this year at five per cent and believes that all economic sectors will be revived within the second quarter following the great flood last year," Ms Yingluck said.
In her keynote speech on “The Thai Economy in 2012” delivered to a seminar on "Decoding 2012 GDP”, organised at the Dusit Thani hotel by the Economic Reporters Association, she said the government had to issue an executive decree to seek 350 billion baht in loans in order to restore the confidence of foreign investors.
She said the government will rapidly implement flood prevention projects to restore the confidence of investors and prevent them from moving production bases to other countries.
The fund will be for financing mega-projects on water management and preventing a recurrence of last year's flood crisis. If the government fails to do this, foreign investors might move out their production bases from Thailand, she added.
Ms Yingluck said this year is the year of challenge, confidence restoration and joining forces among Thai people to rebuild the country.
She said the Thai economy relies too much on global economic growth. Exports accounted for 70 per cent of gross domestic product, while the remainder was from domestic consumption and government spending.
"Therefore, Thailand must prepare to deal with a possible global economic crisis. The government planned to strengthen the country's economic status by looking for other potential export markets," said the prime minister.
She said risk factors that could derail the country’s economic recovery included the fragile economy in the United States, the continuing debt crisis in Europe, the fluctuation of the currency exchange rate and unpredictable natural disasters.
These problems will definitely affect the country’s trade, investment and tourism, she added.
In order to minimise such negative impacts of global economic crisis, she said, Thailand will look for new export markets, such as the Middle East, India and member countries of Asean.
She said the government will try to conclude free trade agreements with other countries, including Australia, New Zealand, China and Japan.
The government has also planned to spend about 2.27 trillion baht from this year to 2016 in infrastructure construction megaprojects. They will include the construction of highways linking Burma, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. A transportation network linking Dawei port in Burma and Laem Chabang port will also be built, she said.
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