Author: tdri
Thai Broken Rice
By DAVID WALTER Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand Bangkok’s splashy, costly subsidy scheme has been ineffective at helping poor farmers. Ask farmers in the village of Ban Laitung what they think of the Thai government’s rice subsidy scheme, and they tell you that actually, please, they’d prefer it if Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra stopped buying up rice harvests at […]
Farmers agree to lower price
B13,500 per tonne for paddy for next season. Farmers’ representatives say they would be willing to accept a rice pledging price cut for white rice paddy to 13,500 baht a tonne for the 2013-14 harvest season. Such a move would be acceptable to help the government reduce the massive losses that have resulted from the […]
Sustainable rice prices are set by the market
Minister of Commerce Boonsong Teriyapirom is under fire for his lack of transparency in disclosing information about the losses incurred by the rice-pledging scheme. Instead of providing any proper answers to the direct questions on the total losses, the minister has been evasive and has refused to give any numbers, while still denying the scheme […]
All of us need income security
Worawan Chandoevwit Thailand Development Research Institute It is more likely that Thai people live longer than 70 years of age. Imagine you are lucky to reach the age of 75. By that age, your physical condition deteriorates and you may be unemployable. You still need to consume and have social life. Most of us would […]
The changing face of Thai populism
In Thailand, the term ‘populism’ does not yet have the negative connotations it has earned in Latin America and Europe, but the trend is in that direction. This was the message of a seminar entitled ‘Rethinking Populist Policy: From Thaksin to Yingluck’, held on 30 May at the Thailand Development Research Institute in Bangkok. Under […]
Warning on rice policy a wake-up call for govt
TDRI says losses from rice-pledging scheme may exceed estimates A warning by credit-rating agency Moody’s about the government’s controversial rice-pledging scheme is “worth listening to”, and the loss from the scheme this year is expected to exceed estimates, a senior Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) official said yesterday. An earlier forecast of the scheme estimated […]
TDRI suspects lower rice stocks, illicit sales
The Thailand Development Research Institute suspects that the rice inventory held by government could be far less than the reported 17 million tonnes, as the system has given rise to illegal domestic sales so that certain parties could reap the benefit of a Bt5,000-per-tonne price differential. The TDRI suggests that the government should limit the […]
Adapting to change
Pathom Sangwongwanich Faced with challenges from high wages to the strong baht, Thai SMEs are seeking ways to turn crisis into opportunity, with varying degrees of success, writes Five months after the 300-baht daily minimum wage took effect nationwide, the mileage varies among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with some taking a big blow and […]
RDS to hit the streets if talks fail
PARITTA WANGKIAT Rural doctors drop call for Pradit resignation The Rural Doctors Society (RDS) and its allies have vowed to return to the streets in two weeks to campaign for their demands if this week’s talks with the government fail to bring about satisfactory results. The RDS and health activists are scheduled to meet Public […]
Populism debate must filter the bad from the good
While populism can be worrisome for many, we should find a way to debate and talk about it in a way to minimise “bad” populism and encourage “good” populism in our political landscape. In an effort to do that, leading academics last week joined a public debate on the topic of “Rethinking Populism:From Thaksin to […]