The government must step up efforts to remove unnecessary laws to ensure the ease of doing business in the country in alignment with the state's policy to make 2025 a "year of investment" for Thailand, says the Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking (JSCCIB).
This initiative to promote investment could help drive the economy, but it may be hindered by laws and regulations that could decelerate business expansion, said Kriengkrai Thiennukul, chairman of the Federation of Thai Industires (FTI), a key member of the JSCCIB.
"The committee already submitted the regulatory guillotine framework to the government, so it can consider abandoning or updating laws, but we have received no feedback from the government," he said.
The JSCCIB hired the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) to look into the legal issues and study the regulatory guillotine framework. Its findings were also proposed to the Prayut Chan-o-cha administration.
The TDRI estimated that more than 100,000 laws on the books have hamstrung many aspects of business activity.
Entrepreneurs in the herb industry have been identified as a group of business people being affected by unnecessary laws.
The FTI said earlier that it wants to promote ease of doing business in the country because manufacturers of herbal products are required to go through a time-consuming process to register herb-derived medicines.
This means they are unable to compete with large herbal medicine producers on the global stage, according to Sittichai Daengprasert, chairman of the FTI's Herbal Industry Club.
The JSCCIB wants the government to accelerate efforts to remove or reduce unnecessary regulations and procedures pertaining to business in order to better support business operations in the country.
"Unnecessary laws are a major barrier to businesses run by Thai and foreign investors," said Mr Kriengkrai.
"These laws can make Thailand less attractive as an investment destination."
Thailand is already struggling to deal with economic problems, especially the high level of household debt and slow economic growth. Therefore, the country should not be plagued by the unpleasant impact of having too many unnecessary laws.