On 6 August 2009, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on behalf of all members of his government reported on its performance during its first six months in office, saying many projects that had been launched to fight the economic and political crises had shown positive progress.

During an one-hour address at the Santi Maitree Building in Government House, Mr Abhisit said the government, which assumed power in December last year, had launched many projects and more than 100 measures with the main objective to solve the country’s economic and political crises to bring happiness to the Thai people.

Prime Minister Abhisit outlined his government's three stage strategy to advance the country forward once again.

First, provide relief measures to cope with the ailing economy. Second, tackle economic and political woes engulfing the country. And third, rebuild the country for sustainable progress.

Within six months, the government had cushioned the impacts from the global economic downturn and churned out remedies to fight economic and political woes, he said. For the government's remaining term, the priority will be on nation re-building through the Stronger Thailand Project.

Examples of the highlights of the 100 achievements of the current Administration include the 15 years of free education for 12 million students; 2,000 –baht cheques for low-income wage earners; welfare for the elderly in the form of Bt500 per month allowance for 3.5 million elderly people; agricultural products price pledging scheme; career development scheme; short-term measures to lower the cost of living and to assist lower-income families including free buses, trains, electricity, water supply, and the freezing of cooking gas price; Bt600 a month allowance for health volunteers and loans for small- and medium-sized enterprises. Farmers nationwide have also gained access to a new, improved price scheme for agricultural products and Workers can access the retraining scheme to cushion the impacts from job redundancy.

The Government has also initiated the Thai Khem Kaeng (Stronger Thailand) scheme to stimulate the economy though mega-projects. The financing will be done by tapping into domestic funds through the sale of government saving bonds. Measures under the scheme which covers seven key areas – water sources, transportation, education, public health, tourism, science and projects to end the continuing southern unrest – would be implemented during the next six months to continue the Government’s efforts in further stimulating the Thai economy. The debt financing spendings will continue to be geared to improve the agriculture sector, the transportation and logistics infrastructure and the education, health and tourism services.

On the overview of Thailand’s economy, the prime minister said all indicators pointed to the economy bottoming out. He voiced optimism that revitalisation measures will start to bear fruits in the second half of this year.

In regard to the violence plaguing the Deep South, the government will continue to focus on the political solution rather than rely on the military approach. The supervision of the strife-torn region will be placed directly under the Cabinet.

The government has improved on the welfare benefits of the social security system. It is also working to improve on the tax system to ensure fairness, particularly for the collection of land tax revenues.
Commenting on the political turbulence, Prime Minister Abhisit said "I knew from my first day in office that the crises would not be easy to overcome, but I vowed to work hard for the benefit of the country”. He also admitted that it was difficult to build reconciliation in society as there were extremely different political ideas, but that the Government will continue its attempt to build a harmonious society and added that the government believed the political crisis could be solved through parliamentary means.

Prime Minister Abhisit also vowed to uphold the monarchy by preventing the politicisation of the revered institution. He also said he would strive to contain the situation from degenerating into violence.

He said he took pride in honesty, noting his government was not tainted by any graft scandals.
 
 

To read the Policy Statement of the current Administration when it first came to power in December 2008, please click here

To read summary of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's Presentation of the Government's Six-Month Performance Report on 6 August 2009, please click here