Buoyed by recent opinion polls, which indicated that Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut, of the People’s party, is the most favoured candidate for Thailand’s next prime minister, his party unveiled its four potential deputy prime ministers today.
They are Phicharn Chaowapatanawong in charge of democracy and new security, Veerayooth Kanchoochat in charge of the economy, Decharut Sukkumnoed in charge of quality of life and Sirikanya Tansakul in charge of bureaucratic reform.
Natthaphong said that the party has also hand-picked candidates for Cabinet portfolios, based on their abilities and resourcefulness, not on the usual quota system, under which Cabinet seats are distributed according to the number of seats each coalition party controls in the House.
He said that a government led by the People’s party will bring about change and will work for the benefit of the people.
The headline missions of the next government cover 12 areas:
- Industry: To turn Thailand into the 5th Tiger of the region and increase Thailand’s industrial product competitiveness.
- Economy: To promote SMEs and to pull Thailand out of economic stagnation.
- Foreign Affairs: To upgrade Thailand’s standing in the international arena.
- Budgetary reform and decentralisation for “lean and clean” administration.
- Improvement of the quality of life.
- Land reform: To enable sustainable agriculture and rural transformation.
- Infrastructure development through “Orange Mega Projects” (orange is the party’s colour).
- Reform of the police, the courts and correctional affairs. Restoration of social justice.
- National security: Modernisation of the military and suppression of scam activities and ‘grey’ business.
- Education: Seamless learning to increase the skills of the Thai labour force.
- Energy reform.
- Improvement of labour rights and a new minimum wage linked to the cost of living.
