The new government is being urged to stimulate the country's agricultural sector because crop prices remain low and farmers have limited purchasing power in the local market, says the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI).
Supant Mongkolsuthree, the FTI chairman, said the agricultural sector needs stimulus mechanisms, either a price-pledging scheme or a price guarantee programme to increase prices of important crops.
Low crop prices are a key concern of the private sector because farmers are suffering.
"This is affecting the country's consumption, so the new government should deal with this issue quickly during the remaining months of 2019 and inject money into the agriculture sector," Mr Supant said. "Any farm schemes must be carried out transparently because of problems with corruption in the past."
Other measures like a value-added tax break for shopping are still necessary to beef up the country's economy, he said, and taxpayers can use the measure for their personal income tax deductions.
Mr Supant said the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) scheme should be carried out because foreign investors are waiting for new outcomes from the scheme.
"Many pipeline projects in the corridor are being delayed," he said. "Earlier, I met with Japanese companies who had visited EEC provinces and found that they have high expectations for this scheme as they venture into Southeast Asia to avoid the escalating US-China trade war."
Montri Mahapreukpong, the FTI's vice-chairman, said the federation has coordinated with the Commerce Ministry and set up a war room to monitor the trade war issue and the Thai export situation.
"The FTI wants to meet with ministry officials every two weeks to weigh in on the trade war," he said. "While the ministry has agreed to the FTI's offer, it has to wait for the new minister to approve the meetings."
Mr Supant said the FTI aims to connect with the new government to require the Joint Public-Private Sector Consultative Committee to meet every six months and a working committee on Ease of Doing Business to meet quarterly.
"Both the public and private sector have to cooperate to solve urgent problems and improve the country's economy for future competitiveness," he said. "Based on sentiment, GDP cannot grow by over 4% in 2019 because the export sector remains flat due to the trade war while the benefits of the EEC and public spending will only be seen in the long term."