As for the customs system, Thailand has continued to improve the customs system over the past five year as attested by the improvement in indicators of trade across borders, which is a category in Ease of Doing Business assessment, done by the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Export-related requirements in terms of number of documents or period of procedure have been reduced or shortened over time. These improvements and further works will certainly help promote efficiency in international trades. With regards to the issue of human resources, I see that the reliance on migrant labour to fill the current labour shortage is not a long-term viable solution for Thailand. In fact, the economy, with joint efforts of private and public sectors, needs to raise labour productivity by upgrading production technology that uses higher skilled labour. Finally, let me close by stressing that the three success factors: growth, sustainability and inclusiveness are necessary and complementary to achieving long-term economic progress for Thailand. For the central bank’s part, many of the issues discussed this evening are beyond the functional scope of the Bank of Thailand. Our main role is to ensure sustainable growth by maintaining macroeconomic stability through appropriate monetary policy and financial regulations. For this, I can assure you that we are fully committed to our role and responsibility.
Before the euro, national economic policies were based on the close monitoring of several indicators such as the trade balance, the balance of payments, the exchange and interest rates. Policymakers thus constantly received information on the markets’ main reactions to shifts in economic policy and were strongly encouraged to take them into account where relevant. With the introduction of the euro, some of these indicators have either disappeared at the domestic level or their impact has been severely limited. Of course, the indicators continue to exist for the euro area as a whole, hence the importance of the Treaty's provisions on the co-ordination of fiscal and economic policies. Nevertheless, the rules of the market economy continue to apply to each Member State of Monetary Union as well as to the Union as a whole. At the national level therefore, economic policymakers need to be even more vigilant than before regarding the indicators of competitiveness. These data, which focus on trends in unit labour costs, the quality of the regulatory and tax framework and, more generally, an economic, legal and tax environment conducive to the creation and dynamism of companies, represent the main indicators shaping monetary domestic policies in the Monetary Union. The level of unit production costs is of primary importance. It would be a serious mistake to forget this in the context of a buoyant economy.