A supermarket in Thailand (Photo: wsj.com)Bangkok (VNA) - Thailand needsrestart its economic engine in more green and inclusive ways that benefit allpeople in the country and help protect the environment, a latest World Bankreport said on March 13.
The report - “Getting Back on Track:Reviving Growth and Securing Prosperity for All,” is the first systematicanalysis on national economicissues for Thailand by the World Bank (WB). It assesses the mostpressing challenges and opportunities in ending poverty and boosting sharedprosperity in the country.
The WB’s report highlights four priorities:reining in rapid depletion of its natural resources; strengthening theinstitutional capability of public sectors to implement reform; creating moreand better jobs and providing support to millions of the 40 percent poorest ifit is to achieve green growth that brings prosperity to all.
"Thailand is a country of vastpotential. We believe that when economic development benefits all groups insociety, then that will by itself contribute to stability and socialcohesion," Ulrich Zachau, the bank's Director for Southeast Asia, toldjournalists at the launch of its report.
A decade ago, Thailand ranked above otherSoutheast Asian and upper-middle-income countries on all dimensions measured inthe World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Index. Today, other nationshave caught up, the WB’s report said. The country of 66 million people is alsoexperiencing a slowdown in job creation caused by a weak global economy andloss of its competitive edge.
According to the report, between 1986 and2014, high growth reduced poverty in Thailand from 67 percent to 10.5 percentof its population. But the country has been troubled by unrest in the pastdecade. In 2014, an estimated 7.1 million Thai people were poor and anadditional 6.7 million were at risk of falling into poverty. Inequality alsoremains a major challenge of Thailand, the report said.
Meanwhile, one-third of all 15-year-oldsnationwide are illiterate, the report said. The number rises to 47 percent invillages, underlining the inequality between the capital city and the rest ofThailand.
The rate of depletion of Thailand's naturalresources has sped up in the last decade, the report showed. It costs 4.4percent of gross national income, similar to other countries in the Pacificregion, but is almost double the rate in 2002 and triple the rate in the 1980s.Saline intrusion could also cause coastal farms to be less productive, thereport said.
Climate change and environmentaldegradation, meanwhile, are making Thailand more vulnerable to naturaldisasters, the World Bank report warned. More frequent coastal flooding posesthe biggest threat low-lying Thailand, the report said.
According to the Thailand Meteorological Department, the country's annual meantemperature rose by one degree Celsius from 1981 to 2007, and precipitation hassuffered an overall decrease over the last 50 years, raising the risk ofdrought in many regions of the country.-VNA
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