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I think we have had 18 constitutions,
17 coups or something.
You know, we're losing count.
And yet the remarkable thing is that
while all this has taken place over the last
six, seven decades, or 8 decades now,
we had remarkable continuity
in terms of economic policy
or economic approach.
The fact that we continue to rely on
a pretty large export sector,
the fact that all governments coming
want to measure their success
in terms of ability to attract foreign investment,
clearly show that the political dialogue here
is one that is based on the idea
that we should be business-friendly,
and that we recognize
the important role of the market
and the important role of the private sector
in creating prosperity for our people.
And the current government,
although a number of key differences in politics
are in place,
still broadly pusrsues what they see
as a business-friendly agenda.
Reduction of corporate taxation
Again, that's also something
we had wanted to push for
And also, they are always coming with measures
to help businesses that face difficulties
either from flooding or from
other economic shocks.
But of course, not all politics is good.
Some key politics of this government,
we feel, has been damaging to business.
I take first, I think,
one of the most controversial economic policies,
which is the rice pledge scheme,
or in fact the pledge scheme also
for tapioca and other crops.
This, I think, is a big step backwards.
The last government majority stopped
this kind of pledge scheme
because it distorts the market.
It makes the government a major player
in the trading of a major crop
or item of export,
which is unnecessary.
For labor, while we support the idea
of a big increase in the minimum wage,
we do not think that most businesses
can actually cope with an increase
of 40% up to almost 100% in the minimum wage
within less than a year and half or two years.
And the idea of course that before,
costs in different provinces were different,
therefore the minimal wage
was set at different rates
for all the provinces,
and making that into a single rate
for the whole country
is going to have quite a strong impact
in terms of movement of both investment
and workers across provinces.
The final area that I will raise as a concern,
of course, is the issue of corruption.
We find, for instance,
that the spending on flood-related projects
were lacking transparency,
in complete contrast to when we were in office,
where we actually made all this information
public on a website.
And as you look ahead,
the government's taking on
300 billion Baht loan
is now going to be spent without complying
with the procurement regulations that we have,
because they now have a cabinet resolution
that will allow these projects to be exempt
from the regulations concerning procurement.
That is a big concern
and a recent survey reveals
that maybe up to 30 or 25%
is being lost to corruption.
But there is also a broader picture
which causes concern.
You know, we've been involved in this atmosphere
of polarization and conflict
for almost 7 years now.
And people now think that
the matter has become so complicated
that there could not be a way out.
In fact, I'm not gonna spend long
on this particular issue
because it's not as complicated as it seems,
and one person who has already expressed
his opinion, of course, is Kofi Annan.
When he came here, as an advisor
to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
that was set up in the previous government
but also endorsed by the current government,
he said that the problems in Thailand
are not as complicated as it seems.
It comes down to a single question.
Will Thaksin Shinnawatra do it for himself
or do it for the country?
And that's just the whole problem we've seen
with the political instability or infighting
in a simple nutshell,
in a simple sentence.