Abhisit set to claw back kingdom's reputation in his Monday statement

The new government's policy statement will also focus on the healing of years-long political rifts between supporters and opponents of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

In this respect, PM Abhisit will pledge to promote national reconciliation via peaceful means by listening to all parties concerned and by avoiding violent solutions.

He will also pledge to restore the rule of law, presumably meaning that pro- and anti-Thaksin groups will be treated equally in terms of law enforcement.

On the protracted southern unrest, the new government will seek to upgrade the existing conflict-resolution mechanisms into a permanent state agency tasked with resolving southern issues and developing poverty-stricken southern provinces.

On democratic reform, the new government will not mention constitutional amendments directly in the policy statement, despite a request from the 23-member Friends of Newin Group, a key coalition partner.

In terms of rebuilding international confidence in Thailand, Abhisit will highlight the government's plan to move the Asean Summit to the earlier dates of Feb 13-15 from sometime in March next year as announced by the previous government.

This Asean Summit, which would normally be attended by leaders of the 10 Asean countries plus leaders of China, Japan, and Korea, was originally scheduled for mid-December, but political violence in late-November prompted the previous government to postpone it.

If the summit is hosted successfully, it will help restore international confidence in Thailand. This will be one of the first crucial steps to put the country back on a recovery path.

On economic stimulus, the premier will highlight plans to boost fiscal spending by Bt300 billion, or 3 per cent of the country's GDP.

Earlier, finance minister Korn Chatikavanij said government spending would be increased from Bt100 billion to Bt180 billion as part of the supplementary state budget for fiscal 2009.

These measures are among the prerequisites to successfully boost private investment and consumption, both of which have been weakened by the previous domestic political rifts as well as the current global economic recession.

The new government will also have to quickly rebuild tourist confidence in the wake of the week-long shutdown of two Bangkok airports late last month.

In addition, the global economic recession has hit Thai exports, with November shipments down 18.6 per cent year-on-year in dollar terms.

The 2009 outlook is worse, as demand in key markets, especially the US, is expected to shrink further.

In response, the government will have to come up with short-term measures to help these hard-hit export sectors as well as those who will be laid off.

For example, there should be special incentives granted to businesses and industries to help them cope with the unfavourable market conditions so as to slow or minimise workers' dismissals in manufacturing sectors.

The government should also provide a budget to retrain as many as 500,000 workers over the next year.

On farm prices, the government should come up with insurance schemes to help farmers cope with the global downtrend.