Soft loans to be 10-point agenda in meeting with PM : FTI

FTI Chairman Santi Vilassakdanont said a meeting with the prime minister was scheduled for today.

A 10-point proposal is being prepared, including the provision of Bt50 billion soft loans to SMEs, another 100 basis points cut in policy rate, and the cut in corporate tax rates.

Dusit , vice chairman of Board of Trade, said Abhisit would meet the association's members tomorrow. He said Abhisit would be asked to come up with short-term and long-term measures to handle four main fronts - restoring confidence among consumers and investors, reviving the tourism industry, luring back investment, and boosting domestic consumption.

He expected closer cooperation between the public and private sectors, as this would send a positive signal to the business community which have been neglected by the previous government.

Yesterday, the FTI revealed that Thailand's industrial confidence index in November stood at 71.8 points, near the lowest level of 71.4 points registered in May, as domestic and overseas orders have sharply declined. The index in October was 75.1 point.

"Manufacturers are suffering from domestic political conflicts and global economic slowdown. However, positive factors included the lower manufacturing cost," said Adisak Rohitasune, FTI vice chairman.

The November data was compiled from a survey of 1,309 firms in 39 industrial groups.

He said large-sized manufacturers started to feel the pinch of the global crisis, a few months after small and medium-sized operators.

Their confidence in November plunged to 69.9 from 80.4 in the previous month.

Their confidence in the next three months also fell from 82.4 in October to 78.5, mainly due to  fears that the global impact would continue and concerns over the future impact of the closure of airports.

Most manufacturers said ending political conflicts was the urgent measure of the new government to restore confidence. It should also encourage low-rate loans to industrial manufacturers, find new markets for Thai products and stabilise the foreign exchange rates.

Athiphum Kamthornvorarin, president of Federation of Industries in Lampang, supported the new government's populist policies.

He said the expansionary budget deficit should not be concentrated on infrastructure development, which usually gets parts of the annual budget, but extra amounts must be distributed to the manufacturing and service sectors to minimise layoffs and boost spending.

"The urgent mission is to create jobs," he said, while expressing concern over the stability of the Abhisit government which consists of various parties.