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The new government will have to spend like a drunken tourist to keep its campaign promises.

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ECONOMY: NESDB: Who pays for promises by Chatrudee Theparat

It's time for voters to consider how the parties campaigning for the July 3 election intend to finance all the promises they've been making, says the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB).

The state planning agency also said it had not seen any political party focusing on basic policies under constitutional requirements although these policies - involving education, public health and environment - play a very important in Thailand's competitiveness and development.

Voters should consider the reality of policy implementation as the promises being made required massive investment, said Arkhom Termpittayapaisith, the NESDB secretary-general.

Once a political party forms a government, he said, it will discover the many constraints on the fiscal budget. The investment budget accounts for just 17-18% of the total budget, or 400-450 billion baht, providing little room for flexibility when it comes to carrying out new investment projects, he said.

The government also needs to implement policies that balance the interests of different groups such as business and low-income earners, he said, referring to pledges by the main contenders to raise minimum wages substantially.

Mr Arkhom said parties should tell the public that increases in the minimum wage depend on the tripartite wage committee comprising business, labour and government representatives.

Another impact from the increase in minimum wages would be on goods prices, and too high a rise would add further pressure to inflation rates.

Besides making promises to attract voters, he said, political parties should explain to their voters how they intend to implement those policies.

When it comes to basic policies on education, Mr Arkhom said, the government needs to consider improving the system to meet the demands of industries and also ensure the quality development of the workforce.

The quality of public health should be highlighted as well, with a focus on educating people about types of consumption behaviour that can lead to more health problems.

He added that political parties were not mentioning environmental policies, such as how to reduce carbon emissions in Bangkok and main cities or how to create better transport systems that can reduce energy consumption.

(Source: ECONOMY, NESDB: Who pays for promises, 22/06/2011, Chatrudee Theparat, link) 

NESDB - ("Sa-pa-pat"), National Economic and Social Development Board, Thailand's state planning agency that makes long-term plans for economic development, creates five year plans with an agenda of: 1. Alleviation of Poverty and Income Distribution problems, 2. Enhancing Thailand’s Competitiveness, 3. Promoting Social Capital Development, 4. Promoting Sustainable Development (See Wikipedia)

political party - a group of politicians working together to get elected in an election (See Wikipedia)
parties - political parties

election - the process of choosing a person or a group of person for a position, especially by voting elect (v) electoral (adj) synonym: the polls การเลือกตั้ง
election campaign - to take part in a planned series of activities (a campaign) designed to persuade voters to vote for a particular candidate or political party รณรงค์หาเสียง
campaigning - the activity of running an election campaign (in order to get elected to political office)

focus - the main thing something is concerned with ให้ความสำคัญ

intend - to plan to do; to want to happen ตั้งใจให้เกิดขึ้น, วางแผนไว้
finance - to provide money for something; to borrow money to pay for something จัดหาเงินทุนให้

state - government รัฐ
state planning agency - an agency of the central government that creates long-term plans for the economic development of the whole country (such as a "five-year plan")
policy - a set of plans or action agreed on by a government, political party, business, or other group นโยบาย (See Wikipedia)

constitution (noun) - the basic high level statement of how a government operates; together with the duties and rights of citizens (used to make basic enabling laws called "organic laws"), a "constitution" is also sometimes called a "charter" (See Wikipedia)
constitutional (adjective) - correct or allowed according to the constitution ถูกต้องหรืออยู่ในขอบข่ายที่ระบุไว้ในรัฐธรรมนูญ
constitutional requirements - the things that must be done according to the constitution

environment - the natural world of land, sea, plants, and animals
competitiveness - how well a business can do compared to other firms (does it have lower price or higher quality?) การแข่งขัน
development - economic development

reality - what is actually happening (not always the same as what people think is happening) ความเป็นจริง

implement - put a plan into action, make a plan work นำ แผนหรือนโยบายมาปฏิบัติ  นำมาใช้
implementation - making a plan into reality, the process of making something such as a plan, system, idea or law start to work and be used, the execution of a plan การบังคับใช้ (กฎหมาย) (See glossary) นำ (แผนการ) มาบังคับใช้
policy implementation - making policy plans into reality, carrying and actually promised policies

massive - very large มหาศาล
investment - taking your money and putting it into projects to make a profit or earn interest (buying stock shares, bonds, real estate)

constraints - things that limit possible action and solutions to problems
fiscal - connected with the government budget, i.e., public money เกี่ยวกับงบประมาณ
budget - an amount of money able to be spent on something; the amounts of money that an organisation has available to spend on different things during a period งบประมาณ (See Wikipedia)

flexibility - can change easily and adapt to new situations and conditions as they occur ความยืดหยุ่น
little room for flexibility - not flexible, cannot change easily
when it comes to Y - when it arrives at the time to do activity Y

interests - people who gain or lose depending on how events turn out business interests
balance the interests - make all those people happy who will benefit from different decisions (a compromise solution)

income - money that people receive from work or some other source, used for household consumption and savings
low-income earners - poor people (who receive only a small amount of money from their jobs)

X refers Y - X points to or mentions Y (as an example, for example)
pledge - promise
referring to pledges - mentioning promises (that have been made by politicians)

contenders - people who are competing or fighting against each other (to get something)

wage - the amount of money earned per hour or per day by a worker ค่าจ้าง
minimum wage - the smallest amount that can be legally paid to a worker each day for their work
raise substantially - increase by a large amount

tripartite - involving three organisations or countries ไตรภาคี
comprising - consisting of ประกอบด้วย
impact - an effect or influence ผลกระทบ

pressure - a force causing change
inflation - the level of prices rising in the economy as a whole (See Economist Glossary) ภาวะเงินเฟ้อ  
add further pressure to inflation rates - increasing the forces causing inflation (therefore increased chance of inflation)

attract - to cause someone to be interested in something ดึงดูดความสนใจ
X intends to Y - X plans to do Y, X is thinking of doing Y (but has not done yet)

demands - the things that someone is asking you to do
meet the demands of industries - do what companies (in an industry) have been asking you to do

ensure - to make certain that something happens or is done รับรอง ให้ความมั่นใจ ให้การยืนยัน
workforce - แรงงาน all the people in an area or country available for work, all the people who work for a company

public health - the study of how diseases can be prevented, health promoted and life prolonged through education and other activities  in communities (example: vaccines) (See Wikipedia)
highlighted - stressed; emphasized; made something more noticeable ที่เน้นย้ำ

consumption - using, eating or drinking something การบริโภค money spent by households and families on goods and services (See Wikipedia)
consumption behaviour - all the things that people typically buy and then use, eat and

environment - the natural world (world not made by humans, air, water, forests, etc)  สิ่งแวดล้อม
environmental policies - policies protecting the natural world

emissions - amounts of gas, heat, light, etc. that are sent out การปล่อยออกมา gases released into the air (from cars, factories, etc)
carbon emissions - carbon dioxide emissions, one of the main "greenhouse gases" at work in climate change (See Wikipedia)

transport - to move people or things from one place to another ขนส่ง
energy -  power from sources such as electricity and gasoline that makes machines and cars work and that provides heat and powers air conditioning