Bangkok: The government is advancing its economic strategy with the launch of "Thai Helps Thai Plus" alongside a 220-billion-baht BOI FastPass investment initiative. The program aims to alleviate the cost of living and sustain consumer purchasing power through strategic investments.
According to Thai News Agency, the government has announced positive indicators across all sectors supporting the "Thai Helps Thai Plus" initiative. This project is designed to mitigate the cost of living and uphold purchasing power amid economic pressures from rising energy costs, inflation, and global economic instability. The initiative will proceed with parallel investments to sustain economic momentum, with 25 projects under the Thailand FastPass program slated for rapid execution, amounting to 223 billion baht.
Ms. Rachada Thanadirek, spokesperson for the Prime Minister's Office, highlighted that feedback from both public and private sectors regarding the government's economic measures, particularly the "Thai Helps Thai Plus" project, has been favorable. This consensus emphasizes the strategy of maintaining cost of living and purchasing power during economically challenging times.
The Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) has projected that the "Thai Help Thai Plus" program, which involves the government subsidizing 60% of costs while the public contributes 40%, will significantly reduce living expenses compared to the previous "Half-Half" initiative. This is expected to stimulate purchasing power during economic fragility, potentially boosting GDP by 0.2-0.3%, and possibly up to 0.5% with effective implementation.
Ms. Rachada explained that this measure is not only a short-term stimulus but also aids in circulating money to small retailers, fresh markets, service sectors, delivery businesses, and SMEs in manufacturing, particularly consumer goods companies. These sectors are poised to benefit from increased orders driven by enhanced consumer purchasing power.
The Prime Minister affirmed the necessity of maintaining economic momentum from current measures, noting that increased purchasing power will have a ripple effect throughout the economy, impacting production, trade, employment, and incomes.
Simultaneously, the government concurs with the private sector's view that the Thai economy requires concurrent driving forces, particularly private sector investment, foreign direct investment, quality tourism, and industrial restructuring towards high value-added industries.
Ms. Rachada conveyed that the Prime Minister has directed the government to persist with investment support measures, including streamlining approval processes, attracting investments in target industries, promoting new investments through the Board of Investment (BOI), and hastening the disbursement of government investment projects to ensure swift economic fund circulation. This is especially pertinent for projects within the BOI's Thailand FastPass program, which has approved 25 projects totaling 223,216 million baht. Recently, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Eastern Economic Corridor Office (EEC) and Vietjet Group for cooperation in developing an aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) center at U-Tapao International Airport.
Ms. Rachada emphasized, "The 'Thai Helps Thai Plus' measures will help maintain purchasing power, while investment measures will create jobs, income, and new capabilities for the country. The government will pursue both aspects simultaneously to ensure the Thai economy has sustained momentum, people have jobs, purchasing power, and a good quality of life in the face of challenging global economic conditions."