Economists from the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) have criticised the Thaksin administration's public policies of the last three-years, suggesting increasing discrimination, minimal impact on the economy, and little in the way of follow-up measures.

Speaking yesterday at a seminar entitled "The Public Policies of the Thaksin Administration", Ammar Siamwalla, honorary advisor of TDRI, said the debt suspension and village funds over the last three years have had less impact on the economy compared to the first three years of the administration.

The village fund, he said, has not really benefited the poor in the provinces but has  created political problems instead. The village funds also provide benefits on an across-the-board basis, which means that high-income earners also benefit from the fund.

There are also several problems concerning the Small and Medium Loan scheme including discrimination in granting loans, he said.

Somkiat Tangkitvanich, an economist from TDRI, said he was not surprised that some public policies are unfair as borrowing for the education fund, similar to the village fund, does not really benefit the poor. The fund provides loans to those who wish to study at university. However, there are few people from poor families that can further their education to university level. Thus, this becomes a discrimination by practice.

"Thai Rak Thai policies contain vote maximisation and wealth maximisation," Somkiat said.

He said "wealth maximisation" was brought about by giving benefits to only a few groups. For example, telecom and communications are two sectors that are capital for the Thai Rak Thai administration - and directly benefit from the government's policies.

In addition, privatisation is only a policy to change state-owned enterprises to listed firms, while the Thai Rak Thai only wants these stocks to have a large market capitalisation in order to get the benefits from them.

Tax privileges granted to foreign investors by the Board of Investment have been recently granted by consideration, rather than on a clearer zoning basis, he said.

The government has also established two special economic zones in Chiang Rai rather than just the one like in other provinces, because they will benefit those who are related to politicians, Somkiat said.

Ammar said the government had failed to follow up the Bt30 for universal health care scheme, particular on the sufficiency of funds - and on the quality of hospitals and services. He said the government ignored following the scheme, because it already had the votes. Although it still has money left, it will not put money into the scheme, he said, because it wants to keep the money for other "gimmicks".

He said the Thaksin administration now wanted to stimulate exports to boost GDP growth figures, as its domestic expenditure is not enough to drive the economy.

Anoma Srisukkasem

The Nation