36
SEP2017
FOOD FOCUS THAILAND
SPECIAL
INTERVIEW
the international organizations under the United Nations, has
suggested that thebest index fornational success is thehighaverage
age of the national populations. To put it simply: countries with the
highest average age are the most successful countries. This is
because it reflects thegood livingconditionsof thepopulations,with
work and pleasure balanced out nicely”, remarkedMr.Apirak.
ThreeMainGlobal MegaTrends
It seems that the3main trends in this Internet ofThings (IoT)eraare
not that far fromusafter all.Thefirst trend turnedout tobeabout the
aging population and the elderly society. The United Nations has
defined that older persons are male and female aged 60 years or
over,andhas forecasted that theyear2001 to2100wouldbedefined
as thecenturyof theolder persons.Ourworldhasbeenentering the
elderly societywithdifferent paces indifferent countries, depending
oneachcountry’senvironmentandconditions,suchas theeconomic
growth, medical development, food and nutrition, etc.
The National Statistical Office of Thailand announced that
Thailand has entered the elderly society since 2005, with numbers
of older persons amounted to 10.4 percent of the total national
populations. By estimation, the countrywill fully become the elderly
society by the year 2024-2025.
The second trend regards thepopulation’s healthandwellness,
which is in accordance with the index indicating national success.
The third trend is themovement towards urbanizationand the rapid
growthofmetropolises.Theworldhasseen theurbanizationprocess
over the20
th
centuryand ithasbeenestimated thatby theyear2050,
urbanpopulationwill reach2.4billion,which is66percent of the total
global population.”
Mr.Apirak further explained that this urbanization and growth of
mega cities is not something we can simply sidestep. Instead, we
need tofindaway tobridge thegapbetweencityandoutskirtpeople.
Thailand has also seen and experienced the growth of many of
our cities, such as Chiang Mai, Khon Kaen and Phuket. These
expansions should be seen as opportunities and a positive drive
towards the economic growthof thewhole country.
WorldCompetitiveness
“If asked to rank countries in terms of their competitiveness, most
peoplewould thinkof countries like theUnitedStates,Germany, and
China as the ones with highest competitiveness ranking. However,
themain factorsused indeterminingeachcountry’scompetitiveness
are the economic system employed by that particular country, its
currency reserves,aswellas itsmonetaryandfinancepolicies.Other
things to be considered regarding a country’s competitiveness are
whether the country’s major financial institutions have the
accommodatingpolicies topromoteandstrengthennewbusinesses
andSMEs,aswellas thecountry’spolicyonForeignDirect Investment
or FDI.”
“Government policy towards political stability is also taken into
account,aswellas thestrengthofbusinesssectors,qualityofoverall
workforce, and the country’s public utility structure.” With this said,
Mr.Apirak also added that national competitiveness is not about
country’s GDP, size of country, or number of population. The 2017
first ten highest ranking countries in terms of competitivenesswere
Hong Kong, Switzerland, the US, Singapore, Sweden, Denmark,
Ireland, theNetherlands, Norway andCanada.
Officeof theNational Economic andSocial Development Board
has recently released the result from the survey done by theWorld
Economic Forum (WEF) on 2016-2017 Global Competitiveness
Report (GCR), which showed overall pictures of Thailand’s level of
competitivenesscompared toothercountries in theworld tradearena.
Thesurveyshowed that Thailand is the34most competitivenations
in theworld out of 138 countries, dropping from the previous year’s
No.32outof140countriesparticipated in thesurvey.However,when
compared to other Asian countries, Thailand’s ranking dropped not
as much as the others and still ranked a third place; behind only
Singapore andMalaysia.
Data fromOfficeof theNationalEconomicandSocialDevelopment
Board also suggested that in 2016 Thailand was outstanding in
developing Macroeconomic environment, placing itself at the 13
th
ranking—escalating from the2015’s27
th
ranking.Factors thatshowed
distinct development were government budget, gross national
savings, and government debt. Moreover, in terms of innovation,
Thailandalsogot up3 ranks, byplacingatNo.54 in2016 fromNo.57
in 2015, which was the result of government’s steady support and
encouragement towards innovation developments.
4.0 --AChange for theBetter Future
Symbolically,4.0 representsachange ineconomicstructure towards
Value-based Economy or Innovation-driven Economy, and a shift
from “domoreandmake less” to “do less andmakemore” -- toadd
value to country’s products, services, and economy. That is why
technology is so important as a driving force towards all sorts of
development,’’ addedMr.Apirak.
In 2017, it is estimated that Thailand’s food export will have
reachedTHB 1 trillion in value, andwill have grown up 6-7 percent.
As oneof theworld’s leading foodproducers, the transition towards
“Industry4.0” inaccordancewith “Thailand4.0”policywill yieldmany
prospective benefits and propel Thailand to escaping the middle
income trap.
Worldeconomic leadership tends tomove toAsian region.Being
able toadapt to the Innovation-drivenEconomywithgenuine insight
and understanding of the changing global mega trends, along with
use of cluster approach by the operators will hopefully launch
Thailand’s food industries farther and higher in world’s arena”,
concludedMr.Apirak.
