Thai Commerce Minister hits back at World Bank

[rubl]

Memory refresh for those with problems:

Posted 2013-09-30 17:43:16

"Commerce Minister Niwatthamrong Boonsongpaisan ... said the loss could be slightly over Bt80 billion per year ..."

My memory probably starts to fail me with time, just as is the case with the MoC as it would seem.

2013-07-17

Minister to the Prime Minister’s Office Varathep Rattanakorn said that according to a Finance Ministry sub-committee, the government spent Bt352 billion to buy 21.7 million tonnes of rice in the 2011/2012 crop while Bt156 billion worth of rice remains in the stockpiles and the sold volume was Bt59 billion, leaving net losses of Bt136.908 billion.
http://www.thaivisa....-20112012-crop/

BTW if we made a substancial profit on the THB 156 billion worth of 2011-2012 rice remaining in June the loss over 2011-2012 could be much less of course

[hammered]

The world bank and bloomberg etc favour unfettered free markets with no government intervention. They despise any government program whether it be in Thailand, Norway or Japan in supporting agricultural products and some of those in other countries dwarf the one in Thailand. It would be better to find a neutral body that is neither Thai government nor the horsemen of unregulated free trade (which actually has a lot more to answer for in wrecking world economies than Thailand) to asses the pros and cons of the Thai rice intervention scheme

[Thai at Heart]

The world bank and bloomberg etc favour unfettered free markets with no government intervention. They despise any government program whether it be in Thailand, Norway or Japan in supporting agricultural products and some of those in other countries dwarf the one in Thailand. It would be better to find a neutral body that is neither Thai government nor the horsemen of unregulated free trade (which actually has a lot more to answer for in wrecking world economies than Thailand) to asses the pros and cons of the Thai rice intervention scheme

Per set, subsidies can be OK. Just not the way that this subsidy is put together. The best way is to pay people not to grow.

Ironically, if they had announced that any registered rice farmer over 60 would be paid a pension to sit at home and do nothing I.e. early retirement, the problem they were in now would not have happened or at least been reduced.

Why can't farmers get this but civil servants can?

[boomerangutang]

Advice to Commerce Minister: When Thaksin tells you to declare; "The World Bank is not my father." Don't say it, even if it means suffering Thaksin's wrath.

Seriously though, I sure wouldn't want to be Commerce Minister in this PT administration. What a yuk job. Being instructed to lie every day, while withholding basic accounting info from taxpayers - whose money he is parlaying with. Someone needs to remind the Minister who his boss is. If you were to ask him, he would say the Shinawatres. If you asked him again, he would probably say the Royals. He probably doesn't even know that his real bosses are the taxpayers of Thailand.

[Baerboxer]

What a load of <deleted>. Democracy - for those who pay tax, own property or can attain some other measurement put in place. No votes for the others eh? Why not make it only elite landholding gentry, with a university degree? Or those above a certain IQ perhaps? Or members of certain families.

Democracy - just an idea, not the goal.

Normally I would agree with you but not in Thailand with all the vote buying and stuff. Not with how the reds are totally destroying the democracy by taking away the checks and balances. Not with the massive corruption.. here you can use all that money to buy the votes so the one paying it are captives because they are a smaller group as the ones taking the money. Not really a fair system.

Agree - its not really a fair system. But how will taking the vote away from sections of the community stop the corruption? The vast poor majority? Or take votes away from the rich so they can't be tempted to bribe?

Once you create elitism, the situation of the poor gets worse. I wish I knew the answer - it's certainly not simple or short term. Corruption is ingrained, feudal hierarchical thinking encouraged, education suppressed, indoctrination increased, lies and more lies told with arrogant contempt by those in power. Many Thais, middle class included, that I know, seem to accept this all as too hard to change.

Europe needed two world wars to get out of this syndrome, let's be honest, isn't corruption free by any means.