Back when I was regularly writing for Saudi Arabia based Arab News, this was one of my articles: 

Thaksin Shares Thailand’s Secret Of Economic Success With Philippines

Author: 

Julie Javellana-Santos & Agencies

Publication Date: 

Tue, 2003-09-09 03:00

MANILA, 9 September 2003 — Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra urged Philippine businessmen yesterday to support embattled President Gloria Arroyo to help the country achieve economic stability.

Thaksin praised Arroyo as having “very strong leadership and courage,” noting she was able to quell a military uprising in July in about 20 hours.

Asked how Philippine businessmen could help spur economic development, Thaksin said “the business community must give her (Arroyo) the moral support to do the right thing.”

“If she feels she is not alone and the economic community is backing her up, she can solve the economic problems sooner,” the Thai leader told a business forum.

Thaksin also said the key to economic success lay in providing security and in reducing the gap between rich and poor.

Thailand’s economy has left the Philippines trailing in recent years, as it combined political stability with high growth rates and a strengthening currency — achievements President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo would dearly like to emulate.

Addressing a meeting of Philippine business executives, the prime minister — a former businessman — said “Thaksinomics” was founded on political stability and on ensuring that the poor were given the chance to share in economic success. Asia’s policy obsession with strong exports and foreign direct investment before the 1997 crisis had been unbalanced, he said, because it had enriched a few at the expense of many.

At the business forum, Thaksin credited Arroyo with coining the term “Thaksinomics” at a conference in Japan in June, adding he felt “flattered and a little embarrassed” that Arroyo, who holds an economics doctorate, had praised his policies.

He recalled that Arroyo invited him to Manila to discuss ways in which “Thaksinomics” could be applied to help lift the Philippines, which has lagged behind Thailand in growth.

“Having all access to the capital, the urban side got more developed and prospered while the rural side became more underdeveloped and impoverished,” he said. “As a result, the gap between them grew wider.”

Six years after the financial crisis that ravaged Asia, economists have credited Thaksin’s strategy of boosting Thailand’s domestic spending power and home-grown enterprises for his country’s economic rebound.

His comments on the need for greater equality may resonate in the Philippines, where a huge gap between rich and poor contributes to a high crime rate and political volatility.

Although the Philippines was relatively unscathed by the 1997 crisis, its growth rate has since been surpassed by Thailand. Analysts expect the Thai economy to expand by five percent in 2003, at least one percentage point higher than forecasts for the Philippines.

Thailand’s per capita gross domestic product was around $2,100 in 2002, compared to around $900 in the Philippines, according to the Asian Development Bank.

The Thai baht finished 1998 at 36.69 per dollar, while the peso traded at 39.06. Today, one dollar fetches around 40.7 baht while the peso rate of 55.1 is uncomfortably close to its all-time low of 55.75 plumbed in January 2001.

“Some of it you can attribute to the favorable investment climate that Mr. Thaksin has been able to foster as against the recent political turmoil in the Philippines,” said David Cohen, director for macro-economic forecasting at MMS International in Singapore.

“That’s part of the divergence in their currencies in recent months,” he added.

(Link to published article: https://www.arabnews.com/node/237017)