Ladies and Gentlemen, Let me now turn to the last success factor: inclusiveness, which is probably the weakest achievement among the three success factors so far. However, inclusiveness is something that has increasingly gained attention from Thai policymakers in recent years, as it was part  4  IMD, 2010. BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  of the root cause of political unrest. I believe that inclusiveness will be one of the long-term solutions for Thailand political stability. Yet, I should stress that inclusiveness has a different concept from equality. It focuses on creating equal opportunity rather than equalizing income. Income equality ultimately means that the reward system is independent of performance which erodes efficiency. Inclusiveness, on the other hand, refers to having equal opportunity which still preserves efficiency through reward incentive system while allowing the rich and the poor to have the same economic opportunity. As such, inclusiveness refers to equal access to public infrastructure such as education, fair competition and equal treatments of law and regulation to all. In this way, inclusiveness will provide equal exposure to yield the benefits from economic prosperity. Improving inclusiveness in Thailand will be a long process but some initiatives have already been put in place. These include decentralization of public spending, better access to education, informal sector debt alleviation, and better credit access for low income group.
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.