BANGKOK, Dec 15 – Hours after Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva was elected Thailand's 27th prime minister on Monday and began forming a new coalition government, ranking business executives called on him to speedily address the nation's social divisiveness and to accelerate the government's budget disbursements in order to boost public spending.
Their requests were made after Mr. Abhisit, a former economics lecturer at Bangkok's prestigious Thammasat University, said on Sunday that building national reconciliation and improving the country's economy would be his first priority if he was elected prime minister by members of parliament.
After a new coalition government is formed, members of the Joint Public/Private Committee will propose to the administration guidelines for further developing the country, according to Pramon Sutheewong, chairman of the Board of Trade of Thailand.
What the new government should do in the short-term is to boost public spending which has become sluggish, said Mr. Pramon. The government's special budget of Bt100 billion should be given to Parliament for approval soon, and spent to prevent a national economy from worsening.
Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) chairman Santi Vilassakdanont, noting that the previous government planned to begin spending the Bt100 billion budget in April 2009, said the new government has sufficient time to determine where to apply the money and if the funds are not sufficient, it could ask for a higher budget.
Thailand's economy in 2009 is expected to be hard hit due to the global recession and major importing countries of Thai goods will encounter the problem so the Thai government must inject money into the system, restructure the tax system and provide support to small -and medium-sized enterprises, said Mr. Santi.
Chookiat Opaswong, president of Thai Rice Exporters Association, said he believed that the business should see more confidence after Mr. Abhisit said he would himself lead the economic team in the new Democrat-led government.
"The first priority for the new government is to restore confidence, solve unemployment and falling exports," Mr. Chookiat said, adding that all concerned parties must attempt to reduce divisions in the society and help solve the economic problems.
