When Kosit started at the ministry on October 9, he said he would operate in accordance with the policy of sufficiency economy and would brainstorm each new project with the private sector.

Moreover, he said he would let the private sector operate some projects independently.

Kosit's stated intention is to change the government's role from operator to facilitator in the belief that private operators know their industries better than the government.

He said the last government's policy had sought to increase the gross domestic product (GDP) by urging consumers to spend more, which only added to national problems such as the budget deficit.

Kosit intends to raise the GDP by increasing the productivity of Thai industries.

Speaking to the press at the "Boosting Industrial Productivity Model Scheme" meeting at the Miracle Grand Hotel in Bangkok yesterday, Kosit said that he would focus on internal productivity, which meant improving workforce skills and industry management, as well as probing market demand.

He cited information from the Thailand Productivity Institute that the Thai workforce lacked IT knowledge and English-language ability and that one Malaysian worker was as efficient as two Thai workers.

Aside from the productivity project, Kosit has altered the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and One Tambon One Product (OTOP) policies by dropping the government's "inside-out" policy and having private operators create their own approach.

Last week he declared six new projects for the SME sector that were created by the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) and the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion. The projects have a total budget of Bt1.2 billion.

FTI president Santi Vilassakdanont said the federation was also waiting to receive a productivity plan from each of its 35 industries. If the plans are approved, the Industry Ministry will propose a budget for each of them in the 2008 fiscal year, he said.

On Thursday Kosit shifted the direction of OTOP projects to encourage production of numerous products from within each community.

He said that, unlike the old policy, the new approach would produce what was demanded by the market by encouraging OTOP operators to make goods that matched customer's needs.

Kosit has also assigned the Department of Export Promotion (DEP) under the Commerce Ministry to market and promote the Thailand Kitchen of the World project.

Yutthasak Supasarn, deputy executive director of the National Food Institute (NFI), said that now that the project had been split between the NFI and the DEP, the NFI could get back to improving the quality and productivity of its client industries. Half of the project's budget, about Bt140 million, has been transferred to the DEP.

Regarding the Bangkok Fashion City project, the Industry Minister has declared he will not continue with its second phase once the nine projects of its first phase are completed in March next year.

He said it wasn't worth its budget because it had been developed by a small group of entrepreneurs and did not boost competition in the SME sector.

Of the nine projects, which have a total budget of Bt1.53 billion, six are complete. The final three, which share a Bt175-million budget, are the Bangkok Fashion City Road Show, the Bangkok Fashion City Promotion and a project to increase competition in the leather industry.

Kosit said that in the past the government had only been interested in external factors such as developing logistics. He said he would now focus on both external and internal factors to promote the competitiveness of Thai industries in local and international markets.

"We won't focus on GDP growth but on sustainable growth according to the sufficiency economy," he said.

Chalida Ekvitthayavechnukul

The Nation