Ousted Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told current Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak that his plan to revive the One Tambon One Product (OTOP) could be wasteful if the scheme is not updated.
Core member of Phue Thai Party Watana Muangsook mentioned on his Facebook post that Thaksin believes the government needs to be aware of changing consumer behavior if they want to copy his policy that he enacted over 20 years ago. It must be updated to match the current consumer behavior.
“Even a virus has developed to make it harder for humans to beat it,” Watana wrote while indicating that it was his “boss” who suggested it to him. “Hence, human beings have to develop and think forward accordingly or else they will lose to the virus and the money will go to waste such as in the case of using Thai Rak Thai’s policy without understanding it,” he added.
As part of the OTOP scheme, each village would have to come up with one unique product and the government would then help produce, promote, and sell them. It was made popular during Thaksin’s era. However, the scheme has not been followed up by governments in the past – until it was mentioned by Somkid on Wednesday.
“Developing grassroots economy is very important as exports and tourism are definitely not recovering right now so the hope for the economy to come back to its growing trend in the past will be hard,” he said.
“If the US and European economies are still under the current situation, it will be hard for workers to return to factories. Therefore, we have to find a way to go back to agricultural production that can lift the quality of the food industry,” he added.
Of the one trillion baht emergency loan that has been approved, 400 billion baht has been set aside for economic recovery schemes, which Somkid has now hinted could involve reviving the OTOP scheme.
“The One Tambon One Product is what will nourish the Thai society to move past this point and this is the heart of it all because domestic consumption and government spending will play a much bigger role from now on,” he said.
The key is the private sector as they will have to produce for domestic consumption. The deputy prime minister said the government has already discussed this with some of them, such as 7-Eleven, Big-C, Tops, PTT, Thai Chamber of Commerce and the Federation of Thai Industries – all of whom would help find market channels for these OTOP products.
Somkid said the Thai food industry is recovering and it must be supported in order to remain competitive against the food industry in Vietnam.
According to Watana, he was the one to come up with the OTOP idea when consumers were still attracted to “unique” products, but that is no longer the case today.
He suggested that the 400 billion baht should be used to develop industries that will have a future once the coronavirus pandemic is contained, such as those within the agricultural sector.
Other industries that must be supported are the service industries within the tourism sector to make sure that they do not let any more people go. This includes the postponement of debt payment and debt restructuring programs.
The government should also seek to reaffirm confidence in the tourism and service industries by supporting the installation of sterilization machines and capacity building to ensure the safety of Thai and foreign customers.
Lastly, the government should research changing consumer behavior to learn where people are more likely to spend time as social distancing continues.
