PM:Thai economy will grow by 5% in 2012

BANGKOK, February 1 (TNA) - Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra affirmed Wednesday her government will be able to gear up the Thai economy to grow by 5 per cent on average this year as targeted. At a seminar in Bangkok on Thailand's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2012 organized by the Economic Reporters Association, Yingluck explained that the 5-per cent growth target for the national economy in 2012 should be achieved through three main factors. Firstly, her government will promote Thai exports to other member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, India and the Middle East, as well as other countries having concluded free trade agreements (FTA) with Thailand, namely China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, to relieve risks in the downturning US and the European economies. Secondly, the Thai government will expedite developing infrastructure networks with neighbouring countries, paving the way for Thailand to become a regional center of trade and investment, including the connection of Thailand's Laem Chabang deep-sea port with Myanmar's Dawei deep-sea port and the link between the Gulf of Thailand and India's Chennai deep-sea port. Thirdly, the Thai administration will stimulate spending by local households and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through government-sponsored village and women development funds. Premier Yingluck said that he expects the Thai economy will experience a V-shaped recovery, rather than a U-shaped one, and that the national economy should clearly rebound in the second quarter of this year, in the wake of the country's flooding crisis late last year. (TNA)