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.
On macroeconomic indicators, we still retain a high ranking. But our strong macroeconomy is based mainly on legislation and rehabilitation work that followed the 1997 economic crisis.
We did much more poorly in the "institution" category, with our ranking falling 10 places from last year to 67th place due to political instability, corruption, lack of policy continuity and inefficiency of government agencies.
Our investments in health and basic education, technology and innovation were also lackluster, landing us in 78th, 84th and 68th places respectively.
Meanwhile, in the IMD World Competitiveness Rankings, we fell to 27th this year from 30th last year, out of 59 countries.
I don't look at these surveys with a sense of nationalistic competitiveness, a feeling that we must beat our neighbours. But they reflect our growth potential and efficiency in using our resources, which determine our ability to maximise opportunities in the global arena.
As one economist put it, our economy is at a critical juncture and how we fare in terms of economic competitiveness will decide if we prosper or suffer.
I agree completely. Sluggish world economic growth caused by the eurozone debt crisis and US economic stagnation gives us an opportunity to boost the competitiveness of our exports. But our political parties concentrate on improving people's income through handouts rather than investing in education, research and bureaucratic reform.
The rankings show that our economic competitiveness is hindered by weak institutions and infrastructure, and the onus to fix these problems will fall on successive governments.
The private sector has already called for more state investment in research and development. At present, state spending on R&D stands at only 0.3% of GDP, with the ratio of researchers at a lowly 300 per one million population.
The industrial sector has contributed most to our annual economic output, amounting to about half, although it relies significantly on imports.
Meanwhile, the share of the agricultural sector has decreased significantly, to 8% over the past three decades, but it still employs around half of the total workforce, or 17 million.
While Thailand has great potential to supply the world with high-quality crops and fill the gaps in global food security, our rice pledging programme is biased toward subsidies, and away from improving yield and quality rice breeds crucial to sustain our competitiveness.
The service sector, which encompasses small entrepreneurs as well as large businesses such as in tourism and healthcare, accounts for 40% of the country's growth.
Clearly, we have a huge opportunity to grow by improving human resources to produce higher-value modern services.
The government has grand plans to invest 2.27 trillion baht in mega-projects such as high-speed trains, deep-sea ports, expanding Suvarnabhumi airport and upgrading the telecommunications system. Parliament will soon debate if these megaprojects' budgets can be approved separately from the annual budget.
Certainly, this approach will compromise the need for proper scrutiny which is required for all projects under the regular annual budgetary framework.
I fully support the government's plans to overhaul our infrastructure and competitiveness as we are in dire need of it. Public investment has been only around 15% of the total budget during the past several years, compared to the 25% target.
But it is equally important that the public have a say in determining appropriate projects. The government must establish an effective monitoring system to ensure transparency and people's participation. After all, it is the taxpayers' money they are spending.
The government must also put a greater focus on human resources by fostering critical thinking. And why not allocate a larger budget to R&D?
Our policymakers must think long term. We need to increase our economic productivity and efficiency to earn more if we want to improve public welfare and help the less privileged.
Parista Yuthamanop is Senior Economics Reporter, Bangkok Post