, and sometimes conflicting, roles – namely, being policymaker, regulator, operator, and owner at the same time. the bill will set principles to dismantle these distinct roles into separate governing entities. the revision of the trade competition act will ensure a fairer and more competitive environment among business. lastly, the business securities act helps improve credit access for small and medium sized firms to funding by allowing inventories, machineries, and intellectual property as collateral. the second group of legal amendments aims to enhance productivity. there are four laws that might be of your interest. the licensing facilitation act helps acquiring permits easier and more transparent for all businesses. the royal decree on review of laws and regulations requires that all laws and regulations be reviewed once every five years to ensure that necessary adjustment be made to accommodate dynamic changes in business practices. the payment system bill is meant to replace the old governing laws and regulations that are dispersed under many different authorities, especially electronics and digital payments, and allow the bank of thailand to be the sole regulator in this field. the eastern economic corridor bill will establish a special economic zone across three provinces to attract investment in industries of the future with extensive infrastructure investments to support transport, logistics, and public utilities. the last group of legal reform is to strengthen long - term sustainability. the fiscal responsibility bill will impose fiscal discipline through improvement in public spending transparency and governance of overall fiscal management. more importantly, future governments will find it very difficult to conduct open - ended populist policies, as the law will require the government to calculate costs and identify sources of fund ex - ante. the introduction of the inheritance tax act and the land and building tax bill will augment prudent spending by expanding the government ’ s ability to collect revenue and ensure a better tax structure to deal with future liabilities, promote greater fiscal balance, and reduce wealth inequality. all these developments will promote administrative efficiency and improve ease of doing business in thailand. putting the aforementioned laws into practice will change thailand ’ s business and financial landscape regardless of which political party steps into power after the next election. they will contribute to better governance and equality, higher productivity, and long - term sustainability of the country. however, i should point out that, as for all reform initiatives, effectiveness in execution will be the bottom line of their success. ladies and gentlemen, as for the bank of thailand, we also play an important role in upgrading thailand ’ s financial infrastructure and regulatory reform within our responsibility. in the

in recent including bank of thailand bonds months. given that the export recovery is now a regional phenomenon, we expect the trend to continue. on exports of services, the tourism sector, which was temporarily affected by the crackdown of illegal tour operators in the fourth quarter of last year, has recovered faster than expected. at the same time, fiscal stimulus remains an important growth driver with the additional mid - year budget and the implementation of the medium - term public infrastructure investment program. apart from improved government disbursement, the government has proposed the supplementary budget for fiscal year 2017 amounting to 190 billion baht, which is over 1 % of gdp on top of the originally planned budget deficit of 2. 6 % of gdp. in addition, fiscal policy will continue to be expansionary with a budget deficit of 2. 9 % of gdp proposed for the fiscal year 2018. despite the continued sizable budget deficit, there are fiscal buffers to cushion against unexpected difficulties ahead. the public debt to gdp ratio currently at 43 percent is projected to stand well below the sustainability ceiling under the ongoing fiscal reform. in coordination with the expansionary fiscal policy, monetary policy remains accommodative to reinforce the economic recovery. the monetary policy committee ( mpc ) has decided to keep the policy interest rate on hold at a low level since april 2015. yet the mpc deems that monetary conditions should remain conducive until the economic recovery becomes more broad - based and more robust. for the future, the mpc ’ s decision on monetary policy will be carefully balanced between accommodating economic recovery and avoiding financial stability risks that could result from an extended period of low interest rates. ladies and gentlemen, to wrap things up before i move to the second part of my talk, the thai economic recovery has become more broad - based with a firmer momentum compared with last year while our economy has relatively strong buffers compared to emerging - market peers in the region. now let me turn to the way forward for the thai economy. with the short - term trajectory of the thai economy holding up well thanks to the first two ‘ arrows ’ as in the abenomics terms, namely fiscal stimulus and monetary easing, thailand ’ s long - term future depends critically on the success of the third arrow of ‘ structural reforms ’. this brings me to the second part of my talk tonight on the way forward for the thai economy, and how we and our partners like japanese businesses may work together towards sustainable economic prosperity.