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Thai PM: One million unemployed expected in 2009
Associated Press - March 23, 2009
Denis D. Gray, Bangkok – Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva announced measures Sunday to battle Thailand's economic woes, which include unemployment expected to rise to at least a 1 million workers this year.
Abhisit, who survived a no-confidence vote in Parliament on Saturday, said the government was launching an intensive job training program, would introduce several more economic stimulus packages and borrow funds from foreign lenders for infrastructure projects.
Thailand has been hit with the worst economic downturn since the 1997 Asian financial crisis, which put about 1.4 million Thais out of work. The National Statistical Office reported that 540,000 workers were out of jobs at the end of last year.
Abhisit's three-month-old government won the Parliamentary vote Saturday but is likely to face continuing street demonstrations by loyalists of exiled Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
The opposition Phuea Thai Party, which supports Thaksin, initiated the no-confidence motion but failed to deliver any knockout punches as it criticized the government for poor handling of the economy and accused it of supporting the protesters who occupied Bangkok's airports last year.
Speaking at the launch of a job training program Sunday, Abhisit said he anticipated unemployment to rise to at least 1 million in 2009, a rate of about 2.5 percent.
He said the program will teach computer, service industry and other skills to selected candidates from the ages of 18 to 60. They may also receive funds to start businesses after the courses. "It will help restructure the economy in our country," he said. "The economic structure in many provinces will expand and grow."
The government was also planning to launch several more stimulus packages and next week plans to propose borrowing 70 billion baht ($2 billion) from foreign lenders to invest in roads, water resources, education, transportation and health care.
Over the next three years, Abhisit said the government planned to invest about 1. 4 trillion baht ($40 billion) in these and other mega-projects including high speed trains.
Thailand's economy, Southeast Asia's second largest, grew 2.6 percent in 2008. But the economy's performance in the first quarter is expected to be equal to or worse than the fourth quarter of last year, when it contracted by 4.3 percent.
The government earlier injected 116.7 billion baht ($3.3 billion) into the economy to stimulate demand and create jobs. A portion of the funds are being doled out as a one-off handouts to several million low-income employees and government officials.
"The political situation has become more stable. The international community understands our country better. But right now I still cannot be happy because we still have to solve a lot of economic problems," Abhisit said.
Thailand was destabilized last year by months of protests by both supporters and opponents of Thaksin, who was ousted in a 2006 military coup for alleged corruption and abuse of power.
Abhisit's government took control after a court ruled that the previous pro-Thaksin ruling party was guilty of election fraud. Critics say the court ruling and Abhisit's appointment followed pressure from the military and other unelected groups.
Thaksin, who remains popular in the countryside, fled into exile last year and has been convicted in absentia of violating a conflict of interest law. His supporters plan to hold a rally next Thursday at the prime minister's office, the site last year of a three-month siege by their rivals.
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