BANGKOK, May 14 – Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra today outlined an urgent seven-point measure to rein in the surging baht and tackle Thailand’s labour shortage.

According to a government spokesman, Deputy Prime Minister/Finance Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong was instructed to carry out the proposed measures, including a push for the baht as a regional trading currency, expanding vocational education to solve the labour crisis, promoting the use of domestic raw materials for local industries, especially in auto production, and exemptions of value added tax (VAT) for export industries and permission for exporters to pay in foreign currencies without having to change into baht.

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