Thailand must compete for a brighter future

COMMENTARY

Thailand must compete for a brighter future

Published: 11 Oct 2012 at 00.00
Newspaper section: News

One comment I keep hearing from business executives, economists and government officials who are concerned about our collective well-being is that we seriously need to improve our economic capabilities.

They're worried because global competitiveness surveys have shown that our economic competitiveness is falling behind other developing countries.

For example, although Thailand rose one spot to 38th place out of a total of 146 countries in the World Economic Forum's global competitiveness rankings this year, the move up followed six consecutive years of decline.

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spiceman
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Discussion 13 : 12 Oct 2012 at 08.1713
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Khun RonnieC #12, I hope you understand that we are not talking about a perfect economic system here. In fact, I don't think such a thing exists at all. However, we can find correlation of certain economic elements, that separate striving Economies from struggling or even failing ones. So, can you tell me why the Soviet Union, along with its Eastern Blog satellite countries, collapsed, or why the Old China was forced to adopt free market system, or why Greece is collapsing, while Spain is on the verge of doing just that? China is a good case study, and do you think more of its people are better off today under free market system, than when they were under centralized economic system (Socialism) only a few decades ago? And between the USSR and the West, which one do you think had a higher pollution level? Does the name "Chernobyl" mean anything to you? I believe the USSR was very good in pure science, but the West is much better in applying it to solve the problems of everyday lives, hence, improving people's standard of living.
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ronniec
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Discussion 12 : 12 Oct 2012 at 06.5512
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khun spiceman: Stating that what we have is better than one other system is no winning argument!
Your free market capitalism does not provide a good standard of living for the majority of humans on this planet, contrary to your belief.
Because it only equates how efficiently a resource is distributed depending on its scarcity relative to its demand through price & quantity, it ignores important factors that a true economy would factor in, such as sustainability, waste, environmental impact and pollution. Your understanding of efficiency is obviously only concerned with monetary elements.

"Also, growth can mean anything, so I wish you would be more specific."
So how do you define the economic growth that every nation is so desperately striving to achieve?
"And for addressing the question of "Life," you need religions and philosophy, not Economics."
Religion and philosophy - no. Science and the application of an economic model that adheres to sound scientific understanding.
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spiceman
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Discussion 11 : 12 Oct 2012 at 01.4511
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Khun RonnieC #9, how efficient a resource is distributed depends on its scarcity relative to its demand through price & quantity paradigm. A good example is Diamond-Water Paradox. In recent history, there are two schools of economic thought, a centralized economic system (Socialism), and a free market system (Capitalism). Do you want to guess which one produces less pollution, while providing better standard of living to more people? Also, growth can mean anything, so I wish you would be more specific. And for addressing the question of "Life," you need religions and philosophy, not Economics.
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upena
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Discussion 10 : 11 Oct 2012 at 21.3210
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Get rid of the corruption and watch Thailand's economy zoom
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ronniec
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Discussion 9 : 11 Oct 2012 at 18.179
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khun spiceman:
I am afraid YOU are mistaken about what Economics is.
The true meaning of an economy is the distribution of goods and services in as efficient and sustainable way as possible.
What we have is, as I said, an economy based on infinite growth, regardless of the consequences, e.g. resource depletion, pollution, human suffering, etc.
Your Price & Quantify paradigm ignores the most important aspect of our existence -life.
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spiceman
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Discussion 8 : 11 Oct 2012 at 13.368
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Khun RonnieC #6, I am afraid you are mistaken about what Economics is. Economics is all about distribution of resources, especially, on how to satisfy unlimited Demand with limited Supply, within Price & Quantify paradigm. It is neutral, and passes no judgement whatsoever. For example, the Economics of corruption or illegal drugs, and etc. Anything beyond this is to enter a realm of philosophy or belief. And money is a form of financial instrument for facilitating transaction, storage, and investment. Hope this helps.
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englishjon
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Discussion 7 : 11 Oct 2012 at 12.117
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Disc#2 has a very valid point : where Thailand shines are the manufacturing industries which are simply using Thailand as a labour base. This does very little for the country to stand on it's own feet in the future and have any world-class home-grown industry other than farming.

They absolute key to all this investment IMHO is transparency of the budgets, contract allocations and spending to make corruption much more difficult to hide.

However PT seem to want to keep everything secret.

After watching them in power for the last year, my own opinion is that this is because they have every intention of taking as much honey out of the pot through corruption as they possibly can.
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ronniec
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Discussion 6 : 11 Oct 2012 at 10.316
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Economics 101:
Perpetual growth is required to survive.
Growth requires investment and resources
An infinite amount of investment and resources are required.
Money, being a man-made concept, is unbounded.
The planet has a finite amount of resources.

Can anybody else see a problem with our number one, unchallengeable rule for life?
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Aussie John
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Discussion 5 : 11 Oct 2012 at 08.045
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As long as the country's economy is held by such a small percentage of the population, R&D will remain small as why would these wealthy families invest in broadening their scope especially in human capital when all they want to do is retain maximum market share...Sharing wealth to create wealth is the antithesis to these monopolistic enterprises that have seen very little innovation and expansion only a retention of centralisation and nepotistic practices.
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siamitude
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Discussion 4 : 11 Oct 2012 at 07.544
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No brighter future with corruption.
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Thailand must compete for a brighter future | Bangkok Post: opinion