WEF to help boost Thailand's competitiveness

BANGKOK, November 14 (TNA) - The Thai government will learn on approaches proposed by the World Economic Forum (WEF), aimed to further boost the country's competitiveness. Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn told journalists on Tuesday that WEF, the Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) and her ministry, will jointly organize a conference on the Competitiveness and Inclusive Growth : Navigating towards Thailand 4.0 in Bangkok on November 20 to mainly discuss approaches on enhancing the Thai Kingdom's competitiveness for long-term national development on the sustainable basis. Apiradi noted that the cooperation between the WEF, NESDB and her ministry, followed the WEF's latest competitiveness ranking in 2017 among member economies worldwide, in which Thailand is now on the 32nd place, from the 34th place in the previous ranking. The minister said the WEF has, however, proposed that Thailand expedite national development further in such areas as good governance of domestic institutions, a further cut in bureaucratic red-taped procedures for more efficiency in marketing and trade and more preparations for the adoption of advanced technologies, as well as facilitations for the development of innovations, education and skills, while also focusing on the inclusive development policy to reduce disparity in the country in the long run. According to the minister, WEF experts participating in next Monday's conference will share their knowledge and experiences on how to achieve the national development through the proposed approaches. Besides, the Ministry of Commerce will invite chief executive officers (CEOs) of leading Thai corporates which are members of the WEF, namely Bangkok Bank, PTT Public Company Limited (PTT), the Charoen Pokphand Group (CP) and Thai Beverage Public Company Limited to share their experiences, along with those from the World Bank, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP), Oxfam, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and other international consultant organizations. The minister revealed that representatives of technological start-ups, leading small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and foreign chambers of commerce in Thailand will also be invited to participate in the upcoming conference for concrete brainstorming to be adopted for national development through integrated policies and measures of both the public and private sectors in the future. (TNA)