PM Yingluck won because of large red shirt, Lao voting population in North and Northeast. Thaksin and PTP party pass a policy to help North and Isan. With education, health care, micro economic and so on.Â
Thaksin Economic Policies
Thaksin's government designed its policies to appeal to the rural majority, initiating programs like village-managed microcredit development funds, low-interest agricultural loans, direct injections of cash into village development funds (the SML scheme), infrastructure development, and the One Tambon One Product (OTOP) rural small and medium enterprise development program.
Thaksin's economic policies, helped Thailand recover from the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis and substantially reduce poverty. GDP grew from 4.9 trillion baht in 2001 to 7.1 trillion baht in 2006. Thailand repaid its debts to the International Monetary Fund two years ahead of schedule.
Income in the Northeast, the poorest part of the country, rose by 46% from 2001 to 2006.[60] Nationwide poverty fell from 21.3% to 11.3%.[6] Thailand's Gini coefficient, a measure of income inequality, fell from .525 in 2000 to .499 in 2004 (it had risen from 1996 to 2000) ).[61] The Stock Exchange of Thailand outperformed other markets in the region. After facing fiscal deficits in 2001 and 2002, Thaksin balanced the national budget, producing comfortable fiscal surpluses for 2003 to 2005. Despite a massive program of infrastructure investments, a balanced budget was projected for 2007.[62] Public sector debt fell from 57 per cent of GDP in January 2001 to 41 per cent in September 2006.[63][64] Foreign exchange reserves doubled from US$30 billion in 2001 to US$64 billion in 2006.[65]
Critics say Thaksinomics is little more than a Keynesian-style economic stimulus policy re-branded. In addition, Economist say that Thaksin should not take all the credits, as the recovery was "auto-piloted" from previous government. As there is no proof or evidence showing that Thailand's economy performed better than neighboring countries.[66] Others claimed that the policies got the rural poor "hooked on Thaksin's hand-outs."[67]
Thaksin helped legalize Thailand's massive underground lottery system numbers game (Thai: หวย) to run by the Government Lottery Office. Lottery sales of approx. 70 billion THB (2 billion USD) were used for social projects, including the "One District, One Scholarship" program. The Thaksin government also privatized MCOT, a large television and radio broadcaster.[68]
After the 2006 coup, many of Thaksin's economic policies were ended, the OTOP program was rebranded, the Government Lottery Office's program was deemed illegal, and the government nationalized several media outlets and energy companies. However, economists from TDRI revealed that many of the populist policies had not boosted the economy and some were by coincidence, benefited Shin Corp Subsidiaries.[66]
[edit]Healthcare policies
Thaksin initiated two key healthcare policies: subsidized universal health care and low-cost universal access to anti-retroviral HIV medication (ARVs). Thaksin's 30-baht/visit universal healthcare program won the applause of the general public, but was criticized by many doctors and officials.[69][70] Prior to the program's introduction, a large portion of the population had no health insurance and only limited access to healthcare. The program helped increase access to healthcare from 76% of the population to 96%.[71] The program also increased workloads for health care employees, and caused many doctors to change to higher paying careers. It has also been criticized for being underfunded by the government. The program caused some hospitals to seek alternative sources of income, leading to a boom in medical tourism, with 1.3 million foreign patients earning Thailand 33 billion THB (approx. 800 million USD) in 2005.[72][73]
Post-coup Public Health Minister Mongkol Na Songkhla called the 30-baht program a "marketing gimmick" and claimed that the government would "very soon" stop charging patients any fees for visits to state hospitals.[74]
Many people who received the treatment claimed that they prefer drugs from pharmacists than from facilities covered by the scheme and almost half of the patients were dissatisfied with the service given by the facilities.[75] The universal health care scheme raised a debt of 7.7 billion baht.[76]
During the Thaksin government, the number of people living with HIV/AIDS as well as the overall prevalence rate noticeably declined.[77] Although successful in expanding access to HIV medication, there have been concerns that a free trade agreement with the US could endanger Thailand's ability to produce generic HIV treatments.[78]
Thaksin allowed the estimated 2.3 million migrant workers in Thailand to register and seek health coverage under the Thai national healthcare system. They were also eligible for work permits at the end of the registration period, entitling them to full labor protection. Democrat Party Labour Group Committee Pongsak Plengsaeng criticized the move, claiming that it would lead to unemployment amongst Thais.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaksin_Shinawatra#Economic_PoliciesLarb Dip wrote on 4
th Jul, 2011 at 6:58am:
She still doesn't bear any relation to Lao.
They don't really have the people's best interest at heart. They just want to run the country. Last I heard, the dad (Taksin) went out 'buying' votes. Who knows, maybe that's a trait that runs in the family.
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Thailand first female prime minister (Read 18386 times)
