More work is required to improve society, especially in the realms of education, stamping out drugs and reducing household debt, despite the government enjoying a high support rate, according to Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin.
Reacting to the results of an opinion survey by the National Statistical Office (NSO), which revealed a high level of public satisfaction towards the government, Mr Srettha said efforts should be ramped up to address the aforementioned issues.
“Education remains the country’s top concern and we must not lose sight of education development. As for household debt, we’ll come up with measures to reduce that. It’s also a priority task,” he said.
He said the government would continue to attract foreign investment, stimulate the economy and create more jobs.
The NSO findings showed 44.3% of respondents were “highly satisfied” with the government’s performance, 39.6% were moderately satisfied and 14.1% were slightly satisfied. The survey was carried out among 6,970 participants aged 16 and above across the country from April 22 to May 15.
Asked which policies or projects they were the most happy with, 68.4% picked the universal health care programme, followed by debt suspension for farmers (38.9%) and tourism stimulus measures (33.1%).
Asked which issues they would like to see the government tackle urgently, 75.3% chose rising prices of consumer goods, followed by lower power bills (46.6%).
Digital Economy and Society (DES) Minister Prasert Jantararuangthong on Tuesday shrugged off criticism that the NSO survey was released to counter a recent opinion poll that suggested a sharp decline in the popularity of the ruling Pheu Thai Party.
The NSO survey was released about a week after the poll by King Prajadhipok’s Institute (KPI), the Office for the Promotion of People’s Politics and the Centre for the Development of People’s Politics. The KPI survey predicted a loss of 36 House seats for the coalition-leading party, giving it 105 seats if an election were to be held soon. The opposition Move Forward Party would win 208 seats, compared with the 151 it won last year, the survey found.
Mr Prasert said the NSO survey was carried out to evaluate the government’s performance after six months in office. He said the results indicated the government was on the right track and the findings would be used to fine-tune its work.
- Editorial: Pheu Thai loses its mojo