Thailand: Are we ready to move on?

Moving forward in the economical progress can be a little difficult, especially when the country has just recovered from the worst political crises in the century. Unfortunately, Thailand has suffered far more than just political crises. The inundation of many different provinces due to the inability of the authority to regulate the water current from many dams in the northern part of the country has generated much more serious problems for Thailand's economy. No matter what comes in our sight, today there is a question that we have to ask ourselves. Are we ready to move on?


In the year 2011, Thailand has experienced an economic growth of 1.5%*, which placed our country to be the 158th nation with most economic growth from the list of 185 nations. Not pretty impressive isn't it?


As economists, we must ask ourselves. What kind of policy should the authority enforce? For the current government, they have chosen to raise the minimum wages for the workers in order to provide the workers with insignificant income to receive the higher wages. To my point of view, the government does not only hope to sustain the promises they made during the election campaign. But also, they are pretty much hoping that the workers with less income will eventually prosper, and that could lean toward the higher macro economic growth for the nation.


By choosing this step, they must be very careful. They must also notice that higher minimum wages can easily increase the unemployment rate or even the mass illegal migration of the people from the poorer nations surrounding Thailand. To my point of view, higher minimum wage may also cause many more problems for the country as the whole, if the policy is not carefully regulated. Especially the augmentation of the inflation rate which may eventually cause the Thai currency to eventually decrease.


Despite the possible errors, what could the country benefits from higher income of the people? Of course, the people like me (who are not working at a minimum wage) may not really receive much of the direct benefits. For me, I will only receive the benefits when Thailand's economy has been prospered. That means conducting business in Thailand will then be much more beneficial due to the increased rate of economic transaction, or whatever you may refer as the economic growth.


At this time, there are many debates about this topic by many "adult" economists. To me, I believe the best thing we can do right now is to sit down and watch if the current authority's policy would be a success for the country. If yes, hooray for our country! If not, then we must start to think about the possible remedy process which might then take some time to accomplish.


An article by: Administrator, Thailand Economic Forum. Bangkok.

*Reference: CIA World Factbook