Thailand is aiming to become a country with high average income in the next 17 years, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha told his audience at a hotel in New York yesterday.

In his address to a lunch meeting, hosted by the Asia Society for Executives and foreign media, the Prime Minister said that, during the past five years, his government has set the foundations needed to drive the country forward with the objective of making Thailand a high-income country, in which all Thai people will share equally in the fruits of development and none will be left behind.

He told the audience about what the previous government, also under his leadership, had done to improve the livelihoods of the majority of the Thai people, to reduce social and economic disparity, to amend many regulations and enact laws to facilitate investment by Thai and foreign investors and to resolve the problem of illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing, among others.

Politically, the Prime Minister said that his government had fully implemented its pledged political roadmap to restore democracy, with an election in March. There is now an elected government under his leadership, he said.

In his capacity as the current chair of ASEAN, the Prime Minister said he expected a stronger ASEAN to play a greater and more active role in the Indo-Pacific region and to forge closer cooperation with countries outside the region, especially trading partners of ASEAN, under the principle of “Advancing Partnership for Sustainability and Sustainability of Things”.

He said Thailand attaches importance to reducing economic and social disparity and to promoting closer cooperation among ASEAN member countries.

During his address, there was a minor disruption when a Thai woman in the audience held a solo protest when she raised a face mask and shouted the Prime Minister’s name “Prayut Chan-ocha”.

She was escorted out of the conference room by security guards.