• OPINION

  Is lower growth a 'sustainable' blessing in disguise?

  News, Sawai Boonma, Published on 04/02/2015

  » Economic numbers and growth prospects seem to make few people happy these days. But unless we are among the desperately poor or unemployed with few prospects of changing our lot, perhaps we should not feel bad. 

• OPINION

  Big ideas like Kra Canal take guts to follow through on

  News, Sawai Boonma, Published on 07/01/2015

  » With attention focused largely on holiday celebrations in the past couple of weeks, most Thais probably missed the news about a milestone event in Nicaragua just before Christmas. The event was a groundbreaking ceremony, commencing the construction of the Nicaragua Canal linking the Pacific Ocean with the Atlantic Ocean.

• OPINION

  Sufficiency economy doesn't mean self-sufficiency

  News, Sawai Boonma, Published on 03/12/2014

  » Since the head of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) announced some six months ago that he would use the sufficiency economy (SE) as the guiding light for governing the country, I again have seen discussions equating SE with self-sufficiency. It's not.

• OPINION

  Debt-inequality trap risks being sprung any moment

  News, Sawai Boonma, Published on 05/11/2014

  » Last month, the International Monetary Fund issued its latest assessment of the global economy for 2014, lowering the growth rate from 3.7% projected in its previous assessment to 3.3%. The picture is less rosy despite better outlook for the United States - the largest engine of the world economy – that leads the Federal Reserve System to stop pumping massive amounts of money into the economy via quantitative easing, which totaled some $4.5 trillion over the past six years. Gloomier prospects for other economies have been attributed to continued feeble demand.

• OPINION

  An end to wasteful spending is the key to real reform

  News, Sawai Boonma, Published on 03/09/2014

  » The National Legislative Assembly is considering a 2.57-trillion-baht budget for the next fiscal year proposed by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO). This budget will incur a national deficit of 250 billion baht. Members of the National Reform Assembly — the body charged with spelling out reforms to be undertaken in 11 areas stipulated by the NCPO — have not yet been selected, so how the new budget will be adjusted to accommodate the changes is not clear. If the government is serious about its reform it must start during the coming fiscal year. That should lead to a lower deficit than projected.

• OPINION

  Keep a keen eye on the advisers, not just the NCPO

  News, Sawai Boonma, Published on 06/08/2014

  » Recent days saw the 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War One and the latest default by Argentina on its international debt.

• OPINION

  Generals must lead way with sufficiency economy focus

  News, Sawai Boonma, Published on 02/07/2014

  » The timetable is set. If the generals keep their word, the country will hold parliamentary elections sometime late next year. Until then, they will be running an interim government as well as working with a constitution drafting committee and a national reform assembly to draw up ground rules and an agenda for governing and developing the country in the years to come.

• OPINION

  Coup-makers must lead by example

  News, Sawai Boonma, Published on 04/06/2014

  » Every military intervention is costly and the current one is no exception. It costs a lot of money to keep soldiers on the streets, and their presence spooks tourists and investors, and interrupts the process of democratic development.

• OPINION

  A tale of two Isan villages’ attempts to end poverty

  News, Sawai Boonma, Published on 07/05/2014

  » About three decades ago, a seemingly great idea was put forward with the express purpose of raising the incomes of the people of Isan — the Northeast — so that they would no longer be the poorest compared with Thais in other regions of the country. Having relatively less water, it was believed, was the key factor contributing to Isan’s lower level of development and poverty. With more water, Isan could be planted with more crops, including trees such as eucalyptus to be harvested as feedstock for paper mills, making it green all year round as well as generating more income for its people.

• OPINION

  Judging Thai women on the words of Jimmy Carter

  News, Sawai Boonma, Published on 02/04/2014

  » I am an admirer of Jimmy Carter, due largely to what he has done since leaving the office of US president in January 1981. Instead of leading a comfortable and quiet life or focusing on making a lot of money by using his political connections as many prominent American politicians do and, in the process, tarnishing the glow of democracy and market economy, Mr Carter has been doing things largely for the benefit of others. The 2002 Nobel Peace Prize is testimony to his good deeds.

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