Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has promised a poll would be held by the roadmap as he began a campaign to explain the Thai position to the international community.
The prime minister used a meeting with the US-Asean Business Council in New York on Friday night to stress the 2017 polling timetable with no detour of the political roadmap.
The government was determined to hold a general election and restore democracy to the country, deputy government spokesman Werachon Sukhondapatipak quoted him as saying.
The new election faced a delay after the now-defunct National Reform Committee threw out the first draft charter. Gen Prayut will select a new team of charter writers after he returns to Bangkok from New York next week.
Gen Prayut is on his first visit to attend the United Nations General Assembly from Thursday to next Wednesday.
The prime minister gives a speech to members of the US-Asean Business Council in New York on Friday. (Government House photo)
The government will spend time until the new polls to increase competitiveness, improve infrastructure, upgrade labour skills, and revise rules and regulations to be in tandem with international standards to facilitate investors, he said. Clamping down on corruption was also high on its to-do list, he added.
The prime minister, seeking cooperation from the council, said he hoped the American Chamber of Commerce in Thailand would send out positive messages on the government's ongoing campaign against illegal fishing and human trafficking to American importers of Thai products.
But he gave no clear timeline on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, saying improvements in the country prepare Thailand to join the US-engineered trade pact in the future.
Earlier on Friday, the prime minister used a UN meeting on development to explain to the international public the new charter and reform plans aimed at narrowing social gaps, allowing more public participation and providing equal access to social services and legal protection.
Gen Prayut said after opening an exhibition on sufficiency economy that poverty was the root cause hampering democracy in Thailand as it put the poor on the sidelines and gave the middle class and the rich an opportunity to manage the country and resources.
The highlight for the trip will be on Sunday in New York when he will deliver a speech at the UN development summit and a key speech at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.
Anti-coup activists planned rallies against him on Saturday and probably on the following days during his US visit.
Gen Prayut reiterated in his weekly speech recorded before leaving for the Unites States that he was prepared for the opposition and called on them to stop tarnishing the country's image.
