Phoomthai Sittichai, a fourth-year student in the Faculty of Economics at Thammasat University, received the championship award from “The 2024 World Bank Thailand Young Economist Contest” organized by the World Bank Thailand. The award presentation ceremony took place at the Thailand Economic Monitor July 2024 event, themed “Unlocking the Growth Potential of Secondary Cities,” held recently at the Renaissance Hotel, Bangkok.
Phoomthai Sittichai revealed that the 2024 Thailand Young Economist Contest is a program that allows young people to submit video clips presenting their views on the theme “Building Tomorrow: Unlocking the Economic Potential of Thailand’s Secondary Cities for the Youth” to offer the perspectives of young people on secondary cities in Thailand on how to develop these cities sustainably. His video clip, “Perspectives on Secondary Cities in Thailand,” has won the championship from the competition.
“For me, I believe that Thailand is developing rapidly nowadays, but only in a few provinces like Bangkok. This competition is about presenting perspectives and methods for developing other provinces. It is transmitted through video clips uploaded to social media platforms. The competition details are very interesting because I am already interested in regional development in different provinces,” Phoomthai mentioned.
To illustrate the disparity between Bangkok and other provinces, Phoomthai highlighted the lack of basic infrastructure in these regions. He cited examples such as unreliable water supply, frequent power outages, and inadequate public transportation, which force residents to spend their income on private vehicles. Additionally, he pointed out that the reliance on agriculture in these provinces hinders value creation and production efficiency, unlike in developed provinces where industries leverage technology for increased productivity. Phoomthai also expressed concern that the growing elderly population and the resulting labor shortage would further exacerbate the gap between major and secondary cities, as the latter might face a scarcity of skilled workers.
He proposes decentralizing power to secondary cities in Thailand, increasing their public infrastructure budget, and reforming basic infrastructure. He also suggests reforming the education system to be more modern and accessible to increase the skilled labor force. Additionally, he advocates for developing people in different provinces from the agricultural sector to the industrial sector, which can increase production efficiency and income per capita. These changes aim to reduce the disparity between main and secondary cities in Thailand.
Phoomthai further explained that the video’s script was inspired by the concepts he learned in his Industrial Policy course (EC483) and was presented in a video essay format. To enhance the video’s credibility and appeal, he used a combination of copyright-free footage from the internet and his own footage taken while living in various provinces.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67EadR1KIso
