PM is confident Thailand can cope with any global crisis

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul says that Thailand can cope with any global crisis because the country has both food and energy security.

He asked the Thai people to pursue a normal life and not to be worried that there will be food shortages. He said that the advice for people to store enough food, drinking water and other necessities to last 72 hours is not a warning that the country will go to war or that there will be a food shortage.

In his weekly ‘Talk with PM Anutin’ TV program today, the prime minister also ruled out impacts on the food chain from cyber attacks, saying that Thailand is a food producing country and has distribution infrastructure across the country, without the need to depend on imports or a centralised food distribution system.

On energy, he said the government has diversified the sources of fuel imports while using tax measures and seeking cooperation from oil refineries to ease the people’s energy burden.

Citing the excise tax cut for bio-diesel B20, he said that, if more people turn to bio-fuel and domestic consumption increases to 20 million litres per day, Thailand can save up to 100 billion baht a year in foreign exchange by reducing imports of diesel.

The money saved would help the economy and encourage farmers to plant crops, such as tapioca and sugarcane, for conversion into bio-fuel.

Thailand is, he said, accelerating the upgrading of standards to enable accession to OECD, while proceeding with the ‘Thailand Fast Track’ approach to reduce bureaucratic red tape to encourage foreign investors.

Regarding development of AI, he offered an assurance that AI will not steal jobs from the Thai people, but will create more opportunities for Thai labour.