The Thai economy may expand by as much as 4.7% this year as exports, tourism and private investment have shown clear signs of steady recovery over the past three or four months, says Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

"I am feeling confident that economic growth this year would outpace the earlier projection of 3.5%," said the premier, brushing aside concerns about the escalating political campaign by the red-shirt protesters to topple his government.

"We are quite sure of achieving 4% to 4.5% growth, but we'll flex all muscles to drive the figure to as high as 4.7%."

According to Mr Abhisit, the driving forces will mainly come from recovering tourism, exports, private investment and government spending.

He also believes that foreign investment would remain in place despite the lingering legal concern over Map Ta Phut environmental issues, saying all new investments are expected to comply with constitutional requirements.

Citing the latest report of the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB), Mr Abhisit said the economic figures in the fourth quarter and all of 2009 were better than earlier expected.

The government's think-tank is scheduled to release the final official economic growth figures for 2009 on Feb 22.

According to Mr Abhisit, the government is also preparing to revise the mix of the Thai Khem Khaeng infrastructure projects to focus more on the medium- and long-term development of four sectors: water, infrastructure, public health and education. The revision is expected to be completed soon.

But he noted that the government would focus this year on long-term development projects includingmass transit, deep seaports, logistics development and other infrastructure plans.

The government also pledged to go ahead with rail investment plans of the State Railway of Thailand and the Southern Seaboard development project.

The investments in those projects preferably would be in the form of public-private partnerships, he said.

Mr Abhisit also vowed to resolve within this year the impediments to the long-awaited 3G mobile broadband service and concerns over telecommunications concessions, and added that the cabinet was also planning to look into the controversial land tax this month.

The land tax is one of the policies being considered to promote improving farmers' access to land. The others include community land deeds and state funding for farmers to occupy land. The land tax proposed by the Finance Ministry is based on the principle of taxing people's wealth as well as their incomes.

The proposal is believed to have many opponents, among them landlords whose numbers include many politicians.

But the premier said the government did not expect a major contribution to state income to come from the land tax.

The land tax and other land-access policies aim to promote farmers' access to land and agricultural development, which are keys to economic growth, he said.

He also said the government might not need to borrow all of the 400 billion baht allowed by the decree, as the government's revenue is expected to increase by about 200 billion baht in fiscal 2010.

Public debt to the country's gross domestic product (GDP) is also expected to be lower than the 60% projected earlier, with the budget deficit likely ending in 2012 instead of 2013 as planned earlier.