Sirinya Wattanasukchai Mobile phone service providers have been urged to provide systematic alerts for their customers to warn them about their credit use after many customers complained of huge phone bills. Jandee Pattani yesterday said she was shocked when she discovered that her mobile phone bill last October amounted to 1.3 million baht. The Office […]
Reforms offer hope of a cure for our chronic disease – but only if they block self-serving politicians from high office Thailand suffered another blow when it slipped in the latest World Corruption Index (2013), scoring just 35 points out of 100 to rank 102 of 177 nations. Corruption is old news here, of course, […]
Nanchanok Wongsamuth Calls for reform of public records law Access to information should be the top priority for Thailand to undergo a reform to tackle corruption, said a researcher at a Bangkok seminar. Deunden Nikomborirak, the research director for economic governance at the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI), said the public should use information as […]
Erich Parpart and Pichaya Changsorn Lack of trust, poor enforcement highlighted Public sector corruption was a major problem last year, with the “Corruption Situation Index” (CSI) in December showing that 75 per cent of those polled saying it had got worse. That was up 12 percentage points from 2012. This trend needs to be rectified immediately […]
Erich Parpart Amid the political turmoil and demands for the country’s reform, the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI), economists and academics have proposed efficiency, transparency, and good governance in every sector of the country. The aim is to stamp out the country’s chronic economic and political problems in all aspects. In each of the past […]
Erich Parpart ADDED TRANSPARENCY and contingent liability are needed to serve as extra checks and balances on the government’s off-budget loans to improve the government’s financial and budgetary discipline, according to the Thailand Development Research Institute. “Laws that limit government loans and prohibit the government from spending more than its revenue usually do not work […]
Nop Tephaval Darana Chudasri Thai small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) must find ways to integrate both academic and practical knowledge through partnerships with educational institutes to survive growing competition when the Asean Economic Community (AEC) is established late next year, says one think tank. Kosit Panpitmras, chairman of the Thailand Development Research Institute’s council of […]
Improving education, tax reforms cited Reform measures aimed at developing social welfare should be enacted to improve the living conditions of the poor and enhance their political participation, say academics. Somchai Jitsuchon, research director at the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI), said reforms should consist of developing education, improving human resources, and providing management skills, […]
By Nattha Thepbamrung and Chaiyot Yongcharoenchai Criticism of the rice-pledging scheme mounts even higher as farmers who have gone unpaid for months are driven to the streets in protest Mother of two Sasikarn Puang-In, 41, has been waiting almost two months for the Yingluck Shinawatra government to pay her for her rice and if she […]
Some academics and private-sector representatives yesterday slammed the government over its controversial rice scheme and its “insincerity” in tackling the country’s chronic corruption problems. Ammar Siamwalla, a scholar at the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI), said the National Anti-Corruption Commission should consider probing the government for “policy corruption” in the rice-pledging scandal. “Can the NACC […]
>>When Commerce Minister Niwatthamrong Bunsongphaisan told the sad story of how the current political brouhaha cost Thailand and its noble rice farmers a 1.2-million-tonne rice sale to China, the most common reaction was,”Huh?” This was the sale announced with fanfare last year, proving government-to-government rice sales were viable and successful. To put it another way,it […]
Pathom Sangwongwanich Non-welfare strategy a risk, say economists The government should abandon its nonwelfare populist policies on the grounds that Thailand could fall further into the middle-income trap and face low productivity, says an economist. Addressing social welfare is important as part of economic reform and nonwelfare policies, such as the the first-time car buyer […]
