Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said he aims to balance decisive action with patience and prudent planning to overhaul the country's structural development under the so-called three-pillared strategy.
In his speech as guest speaker at the "Bangkok Post 2022 Forum: Accelerating Thailand" on Thursday, Gen Prayut said his main focus is to add to his government's accomplishments and prepare the country for the future.
"My overriding focus has been very simple. I can summarise it in just three words: get things done," he said.
He blamed political divisions on problems linked to the country's development.
"For many years, conflicts have dominated the political landscape, crippling several governments' initiatives essential to national progress," he said.
"As a result, Thailand's global competitiveness has been undermined, while more than 70 million Thais have missed out on an opportunity to fulfil their true potential," he added.
"The big issue is to get a leader who is prepared, when needed, to be tough to move things ahead, but also to know when he must be patient with the extremely complex processes that civil servants are bound to follow."
Gen Prayut also spoke of how he overcomes obstacles to achieve his development goals.
"It is about my need to strike this balance between firmness to get things done, and the flexibility to lead diverse groups. It means I won't always get what I want. So I prioritise," he said.
"I am also well aware that my firmness sometimes loses me friends, but it is the price of getting things done."
The prime minister spelt out his three-pillared strategy, which he said will help boost welfare, distribute wealth and put the country on the right track for the decades ahead.
The first pillar deals with infrastructure development, he said, adding that large-scale prosperity cannot be achieved through quick-fix solutions or handouts.
Infrastructure, especially transport and digital infrastructure, is a time-tested method to accelerate the creation of broad-based, nationwide wealth, he said.
"In 2015, I started the biggest infrastructure development programme ever undertaken in our country," the premier said.
Laem Chabang Port was the country's primary sea connection to the world, handling about 50% of exports, including car exports.
He has pushed for a project to expand the port so that within two years it will have an additional 30% capacity, he said.
Gen Prayut said there has been considerable progress in modernising the country's rail system.
"Over the last five years, we have already laid more rail tracks than had been done in the previous 50 years. In the next two years, we will have built four times more than were built during those 50 years.
"More rail tracks have been laid and more stations built in Greater Bangkok during the past five years than in the prior two decades, and they will open for service by 2025," he said.
"I will get Bangkok's mass rapid transit system on par with those of Tokyo and London, in terms of kilometres of track and the number of stations,'' the PM promised.
The next pillar involves developing electric vehicles (EVs) and modern agriculture.
The EV industry will be one of the biggest future industries globally and Thailand must join this trend now to capitalise on the wealth generated, he said.
Gen Prayut cited measures to attract new EV manufacturers to set up their plants in Thailand and keep existing ones here to ensure Thailand is a world-leading production base of EVs.
"With the global transition to EVs, both existing and new car manufacturers may choose to move their factories to other countries. We must act faster than other countries to keep them in Thailand," he said.
"If we can succeed, it will set our country on a path to prosperity for another 20 to 30 years.
"I will see to it that technology, research and innovation can help farmers boost productivity and that they have better access to smart farming technology. We are also looking at connectivity between farmer networks and government agencies, the private sector, and research institutes."
Banking is the third pillar, which will help build broad-based prosperity sustainably, he said.
He said young entrepreneurs and self-employed people running thousands of micro-enterprises often struggle to get bank loans due to a lack of documents or assets. Commercial banks play a big role in empowering them to create wealth, he noted.
"I have asked banks to find new ways to evaluate potential borrowers who are small customers, micro-enterprises and the self-employed so that some among these 30 million people who never get loans can be enlisted to help create prosperity," Gen Prayut said.
