OPINION

Racing to poverty

Re: "Srettha woos F1 giants in Italy", (BP, May 21).

Who is going to pay the US$50 million licence fee just to stage the race? That fee does not include all the costly infrastructure that must be built. Couldn't the country better spend that money to improve the lot of its citizens? Or is traipsing around the world spouting all these "glorious" ideas for spending money to make themselves appear more important than they are, actually more important. Minnows in a pond!

Bad PR for PM

Re: "Talk show must be more than PR", (Editorial, May 19).

The Post editorial points out a number of controversial projects and policy decisions about which the government must provide a well-reasoned rationale sufficient to justify their actions. That this is unlikely has been demonstrated by the recent "rice for lunch show" and the long-running "ostrich show".

"Ostrich show?" you ask. When things go horribly wrong after years of trial and error, the government is often left with the alternatives of showing public contrition or burying their heads in the sand. And everyone well knows Thai politics only allows for one response.

The sub-procurement nonsense has been afloat for more than a decade, the Kra canal idea longer than anyone can remember, but legal cannabis now takes the record for sinking like a stone right after being christened.

If the government wants to revive their Frankenstein-like PR programming it will require the PM to reprise the role of Boris Karloff -- not an altogether unimaginable possibility. But its success will depend on regular "egg in the face", genuinely honest scriptwriting. And how likely is that?

Policy pivot

Re: "NESDC: Economy missed recession", (Business, May 21).

Mr Srettha should shift from a shotgun-like handout to a laser focus on improving productivity. The National Economic and Social Development Council reports that in Q1/2024 while GDP grew by just 1.5% year-on-year, the key driver during that period was domestic consumption, which expanded 6.9%. Long story short, the economy's shortcoming isn't domestic consumption -- and the vaunted 10,000-baht digital wallet handout to virtually everybody is superfluous.

Instead, Mr Srettha should zero in on boosting farmer productivity. In 2024, farmers accounted for 30.42% of our labour force, but only 6.2% of 2023's GDP. Farm yields also have the slowest growth. For example, rice yields in 2014 were 2.8MT/hectare -- and that's where they still are, 10 years later. In contrast, Vietnamese rice yields now are 114.3% more than ours, at 6.0MT/hectare (Source: USDA).

Thus, instead of Thais smuggling in Vietnamese rice to seed their fields, Mr Srettha should sell Vietnamese rice to our farmers at heavily subsidised prices. To fight ageing in farm households, freely give work permits to Myanmar youth fleeing their draft, with an acculturation programme and merit-based path to citizenship so they'll stay and help us in the long run.

To fight heavy household debt, give holidays on principal and interest for three years. Promote farming cooperatives to combat small farm size.

Mr Srettha, pivot from the short- to the long run and aim for productivity.