Reuters/Bangkok

Thailand prime minister and junta leader Prayuth Chan-O-Cha hinted yesterday he may reshuffle his cabinet in September as the government comes under mounting pressure to deal with a slow economy.
Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy has consistently missed government targets for growth since Prayuth led a military coup in May 2014, ending months of street protests that brought the country to the verge of recession.
“There may be changes in some cabinet members,” Prayuth told reporters. “The reshuffle may come when the government has worked close to one year.”
The existing cabinet started work in September 2014, some four months after the coup.
Media has speculated for days on a reshuffle centred on positions related to the economy. Finance minister Sommai Phasee on Wednesday denied a media report that he had resigned.
Prayuth warned that a cabinet reshuffle may not bring quick change to the economic performance.
“It’s not like the shuffle will mean the economy will get better instantly,” he said. “Don’t blame individuals because the poor economy is due to many different factors - both internal and external.”
Thailand is heavily dependent on exports, which are worth about two-thirds of gross domestic product (GDP).
But a mixture of slow external demand and reliance on shipments of products that are becoming obsolete have hurt Thai exports.
Exports in June fell at the steepest rate in more than three years. Exports for the full year are expected to decline for the third consecutive year in 2015.
Domestic demand is also slow amid record household debt and as farmers struggle with low incomes due to drought, weakness in international commodity prices and a sharp reduction in government subsidies.
For 2015, authorities and economists have steadily downgraded their growth projections.
The central bank in June cut its growth forecast to 3% for the year, down from 3.8%. Central bank governor Prasarn Trairatvorakul said on July 16 growth could miss the revised target because of drought.
The economy expanded just 0.9% in 2014, the weakest since flood-hit 2011.
A weak economy could undermine support for the government as frustration with restrictions on political activity simmers, particularly among younger voters and supporters of former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, whose government was ousted in 2014.
Prayuth has laid out a road map involving, among other things, the drafting of a new charter that he says will pave the way for elections some time in 2016.
Thailand has hit out at its longtime ally the United States late yesterday after a scathing report by Washington accused the kingdom of failing to take sufficient action against human trafficking.
The southeast Asian country found itself alongside nations like Iran, Libya, North Korea, Eritrea and Syria at the lowest rung of the state department’s annual ranking for countries accused of turning a blind eye to a trade the US describes as “modern slavery”.
It is the second year in a row the southeast Asian nation has been placed at the lowest “Tier 3” level.
In its damning assessment the State Department said Thailand remained a “source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking”.
But Bangkok’s ministry of foreign affairs said the ranking “did not accurately reflect the significant efforts” made by the current junta government to address trafficking.
“Despite the tier ranking, Thailand will continue to do its utmost to overcome the remaining challenges, while also promoting security and upholding our long and distinguished tradition of adherence to humanitarianism,” the ministry added in a statement.   
The southeast Asian nation has long been accused of ignoring official complicity in the multi-million dollar trafficking trade which had until recent months flourished through its southern provinces and onto Malaysia.
A Thai crackdown in May led to the unravelling of vast people-smuggling networks with thousands of migrants abandoned in open waters and jungle camps by traffickers, a crisis that eventually forced a Southeast Asia-wide response.
A significant proportion of those trying to head to Malaysia are persecuted Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar.
Unlike its neighbour, Malaysia was promoted a ranking to “Tier 2 Watchlist”. Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia also remained on that level.
On Friday, prosecutors in Bangkok said 72 people including a senior army officer would be indicted for involvement in the trade.
But the May crackdown came too late to be included in the state department’s 2015 report while human rights groups have questioned whether the arrests have really dismantled what has long been an entrenched trade.
The country’s lucrative fishing industry has also been dogged by allegations of employing slave labourers, many of whom are impoverished migrant workers from Cambodia and Myanmar who toil for years at sea without seeing land.
Earlier this year the EU threatened to slap Thailand with an import ban unless it did more to regulate its fishing sector, prompting Bangkok to initiate a crackdown on illegal and unregulated trawlers.
Speaking to reporters before the report was released, Thailand’s junta chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha said he was not expecting his country to be upgraded.
“I don’t expect it,” he told reporters. “But I do hope to solve this problem which will take time. It cannot be solved in one day, one month or one year.”
Prayut, who took over in a coup in May 2014, has said tackling trafficking is a national priority and has vowed to pursue any officials caught up in the trade.

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