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Published on November 30, 2007

The People Power Party (PPP) yesterday vowed to continue the populist policies introduced by former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and blamed the September 19 coup for upsetting the gains of the past five years.

"Now the party has to volunteer to salvage the economy because the coup has led to the undoing of achievements by Thaksin," PPP leader Samak Sundaravej said.

Samak said if he was elected to the lead the next government, he would focus on solving the grievances of the grass-roots people - just like Thaksin did.

PPP economic team leader Mingkwan Saengsuwan said his party had a four-pronged strategy to revitalise the economy.

The four goals are to strengthen the populist policies, to boost the people's earnings and cut down their living expenses, to get results in the short term in order to alleviate the plight of grass-roots people and to "achieve value-added to any innovations". He did not elaborate.

Mingkwan said populist policies were not the squandering of public funds as alleged but a quick remedy for the people's livelihood. He claimed his party could reduce the cost of living by four fold and boost incomes by four fold also.

"A government that spends a lot of money on populist policies will have to be good at generating revenues as well," he said, pointing out that new income sources would be from export earnings, the service industry and increased foreign investment.

The PPP will promote the tourism industry by developing the country into a hub for medical and pharmaceutical services, he said, outlining plans to form new towns for hospitals, university hospitals, medicinal production of modern drugs and herbal treatments.

In regard to public investment outlays, he said there would be five rail networks - the existing system of the State Railway of Thailand, a high-speed train, 10-route underground trains, the ring transport for Bangkok and surrounding areas and the 'fish-bone' system for cargo transport from upcountry into the national rail system.

In order to cut expenditures, the PPP will introduce a 20 per cent mixture of ethanol in gasohol within three months of taking office. The new bio-fuel should cut the cost of petrol by Bt4.5 per litre.

The next step is to ask all vehicle assembly plants to install engines geared for natural gas within one and a half to two years. The petrol prices would then fall from Bt32 to Bt8.5 per litre. The country is expected to save Bt850 billion to Bt1 trillion in oil imports.

There will be several international roadshows to boost the confidence of foreign investors and the film industry will be promoted with a successful model pioneered by South Korea.

The return on investment will be boosted for 12.5 million rai of treasury plots. At present the earnings on land use amounts to 0.6 per cent of land valuation estimated to worth Bt2 trillion.

Key figures in the Mingkwan team include Surapong Sueb-wonglee, Plodprasop Suraswa-di, Noppadon Patama, Yong-yuth Tiyapairat and Charupong Ruangsuwan.

Plodprasop said he would focus on the reallocation of farm land for the entire country in order to boost production as well as promote the bio-fuel industry.

He did not elaborate on the scheme.

Wacharapong Thongrung

 The Nation