Thai interview: Japan offers R&D help

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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
Japan offers R&D help
THE NATION



INVESTMENT SUPPORT SO THAT THAILAND CAN AVOID THE |'MIDDLE-INCOME TRAP', NEW ENVOY SAYS

BANGKOK: -- JAPAN will help Thailand avoid the "middle-income trap" by shifting its investment into higher-added-value industries, boosting spending on research and development, plus human capital, as well as quality infrastructure projects, said its new ambassador to Thailand, Shiro Sadoshima.

In an exclusive interview with Nation Group, the envoy said Thailand was already in the middle-income trap, as its per capita annual income has surpassed US$6,000 (Bt211,000) thanks to impressive economic development over several decades.

"The unemployment rate here is very low, less than 1 per cent, and the labour force is expected to decline in the near future due to the low birth rate. This means a negative kickback to cost, so we need to shift to more added-value industries, spend more on research and development while scaling up the human-resource development system to produce more engineers and researchers," Sadoshima said.

"The latest Nikkei survey shows that Japanese firms' R&D investment during 2014-15 was at a record high and, outside Japan, Thailand was ranked the second-biggest recipient of R&D spending after the US. Toyota, Mitsubishi and the likes are among the key players.

"So one of our proposals for the Thai government is to boost R&D to get out of this middle-income trap.

"Secondly, Japan is focusing on infrastructure and connectivity issues [to help avoid this trap]. As Thailand's labour market is saturated, we have adopted the Thailand-plus-one initiative, meaning that we retain high-value-added manufacturing operations in Thailand, while shifting more labour-intensive operations to neighbouring CLMV countries such as Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam," he said.

According to the envoy, high-quality infrastructure projects in the region, as well as in Thailand, are needed to increase connectivity to support the Thailand-plus-one initiative.

In this context, the high-speed-rail project between Bangkok and Chiang Mai is a priority, while another priority link is the East-West Economic Corridor from Sa Kaew province near Cambodia to Kanchanaburi province near Myanmar. This will be link to the Dawei deep-sea port and industrial-estate projects.

Recently, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Thai and Myanmar counterparts finalised the multibillion-dollar framework to implement the Dawei projects.

Besides physical connections from road, rail and air services, Thailand also needs to increase "soft" infrastructure links, such as university cooperation and student exchanges among Asean countries, Sadoshima said.

The envoy noted that Thai authorities had implemented some R&D and human-resource development policies in the past but said more measures were needed to expand the base, and all such efforts should be centralised to be more effective.

"Recently, many Japanese universities have established their centres here and cooperation in the education sector has increased, and we would like to contribute more to vocational training and skills development here," he said.

On the coup in Thailand, the envoy said Japan wanted Thailand to return to a democratically elected government, but noted that its position probably lay in the middle between the US - a critic of the military takeover - and China, which has said nothing publicly.

As a long-time friend and economic partner of Thailand, Japan is not competing against China in its bilateral relations with Thailand, the envoy said.

"Thailand is in the driver's seat, and the country can take advantage of such a position concerning its relations with Japan and China. However, we're not ignorant of China's long-term strategy … but we don't think it's a zero-sum game. It could be a win-win," he said.

Sadoshima, a fluent speaker of Mandarin, said Japan did not see China as a threat currently, and hoped that the two countries would return to normal relations soon, because confrontation was not going to solve problems.

On China's "One Road and One Belt" initiative, he said, the grand design to link China with the rest of Asia, Europe, and Africa, was not a bad idea. He noted that Japan was also keen to promote linkages between Southeast Asia and India, which could be achieved via the Dawei projects.

On China's proposed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the envoy said Japan was still cautious about joining because of issues relating to financial discipline and good governance.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Japan-offers-R&D-help-30266330.html


-- The Nation 2015-08-11

[kotsak]

How about he suggests correcting this website first which looks like it was translated by 100 monkeys on a typewriter..

http://www.mol.go.th/en/content/page/6347

[AlQaholic]

I bet this is the first time Thailand hear about these concepts.....huh? what? National social and economic planning? We are too busy being corrupt and looking out just for ourselves and hoarding as much as possible before we get caught and can escape somewhere else.