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Published on March 8, 2008

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Surapong Suebwonglee yesterday said the moves would be in addition to the tax-stimulus package announced earlier.

Surapong said Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej would next Wednesday call for the first meeting of the mega-projects committee on transportation with relevant agencies, in order to review working plans and funding issues.

He said diverting money from the Oil Fund - which was intended to finance mass-transit development - to subsidise diesel prices would be only temporary.

It will not distort market mechanisms or become a burden to the country like in the past.

After a meeting yesterday with Austrian Economics Minister Martin Bartenstein, Surapong said Austrian firms were keen on investing between Bt40 billion and Bt50 billion in healthcare projects here.

Democrat Party deputy secretary-general Korn Chatikavanij said the government should hike mid-year spending for rural areas by Bt50 billion.

Meanwhile, economist Ammar Siamwalla expressed concern for the low level of investment in Thailand.

Before the 1997 crisis, investment equalled 41 per cent of gross domestic product. Today, that number has fallen to 22 per cent, he said, adding that the normal rate should be 30 per cent.

He said the Samak government had not shifted government policy away from those of the Thaksin Shinawatra administration and was handing out money through different programmes and state-run banks.

The Nation