The Thai Economy: The Current State and the Way Forward Dr. Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput, Governor of the Bank of Thailand Japanese Chamber of Commerce (JCC) Seminar, The Athenee Hotel, 29 March 2021  Mr. Shoichi Ogiwara, President of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce, JCC Board of Directors, JCC members, Distinguished guests,  It is a great pleasure and honor for me to be here this evening. I would like to speak on three topics today. The first topic is to discuss where we are today in the Thai economy. The second topic will be about where we are heading next and what to expect in terms of the economic outlook. Finally, I will conclude with the discussion of why I think, despite all of our problems, Thailand is still a good place to do business. I would like to start by sharing some thoughts on where we are in terms of the Thai economy. The short answer is the economy is recovering but slowly. When we were hit by the COVID-19 shock last year, we experienced a GDP contraction of about 6 percent. This year, we expect to register a GDP growth of about 3 percent. Therefore, even by the end of this year, our economy will still not be back to the pre-COVID-19 level. Why has the recovery been slow and perhaps even slower than other countries in the region. There are a couple of reasons I would like to share with you.
This is because traceability in our food products allows customers to realize the added values; whether they are transgenic or organic. This is one of the examples that the presence of the digital technology gives us the potential to move up the value chain in terms of food, which will provide large benefits in terms of employment and income due to Thailand’s high employment exposure in the agricultural and related sectors. Apart from food, tourism is another sector that would benefit from digital technologies. Currently, most of our tourism would stay for a short period of time and hence do not spend much. However, the digital technology’s trend towards work-from-anywhere provides the opportunity for us to attract different types of tourists who come, work, and stay for a long time. They are able to work from anywhere using working-from-anywhere technology which provides significantly higher value-added for the tourism sector. Because of that, one area that needs the improvement immediately is our visas and other regulations which are preventing us to realize possibilities from increasing values that we get from foreigners and foreign workers. Another area that people talk about is medical tourism. With the help from telemedicine technology, patients will able to come here because the technology allows them to talk to their doctor back in their home country while the actual medical treatments are provided by the doctor here in Thailand.