Former Energy Minister Urges Thailand to Accelerate DX-NX for Growth
Former Energy Minister Narongchai Akrasanee spoke at the IMF annual meeting, urging Thailand to build on its 35‑year strengths and accelerate digital (DX) and energy (NX) transformations to boost productivity. He outlined the need to restructure businesses, attract foreign talent, and give provinces more autonomy to create future‑ready firms.
Narongchai Akrasanee, former energy minister, addressed the 81st annual meeting of the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund on October 13, 2069 (Buddhist calendar). He said Thailand must leverage its long‑standing advantages in trade liberalization, financial openness, private‑sector infrastructure development, and universal health coverage to meet future economic challenges. He warned that the global economic climate in 2069 is far more uncertain and competitive than the optimistic post‑Cold‑War era of 1991, so simply preserving past strengths is insufficient. Narongchai advocated a dual push for DX (digital transformation) and NX (energy transformation) to raise productivity, noting that AI is only a part of broader digital change that includes internet infrastructure, Web 3.0, and new business and finance models. He stressed that raising productivity requires upgrading utilization rates, allowing weak SMEs to exit, reallocating resources to higher‑productivity firms, and welcoming foreign companies, experts and workers by learning from Singapore’s approach. Finally, he proposed granting greater autonomy to provinces with universities and economic potential to foster cities of the future.
