BANGKOK, 17 May 2019 (NNT) – Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak has accelerated the spending of investment capital of five state firms while the national economy has slowed down, adversely affecting export sector.
The deputy premier and Finance Minister Aphisak Tantiworawong held a meeting with executive officials of 19 state firms with huge amounts of investment capital and relevant agencies to accelerate and increase the spending of the respective investment capital during the second and third quarters of this year. In particular, the highly potential state firms have been instructed to help bolster the national economy which may have been affected by domestic and external factors as well as those which have planned to invest on business development projects to upgrade the country’s competitiveness.
The finance minister said a decline in export sector due to the world’s economic recession has prompted the state firms which have a combined 330 billion baht in investment capital to spend more on their respective economic bolstering projects. So far, only about 80 billion baht has been reimbursed while more is to follow in May and June.
Given a fundamental strength, Thailand’s Gross Domestic Product is projected to rise 3.8% this year which remains in the range of a 3-4% growth earlier forecast. However, five state firms have spent less than earlier planned.
