Empowering the Treasury Department to Drive the Thai Economy Towards Sustainability

“Treasury Department staff are just as capable as anywhere else. Therefore, when I assumed the position of Director-General, I intended to empower Treasury Department staff to feel that we are a department that can increase the value and worth of the country’s assets to drive the economy, promote the environment and culture, and make them feel proud that the Treasury Department is a grade department. A, who is confident that all personnel want to walk together.”

The Treasury Department is one of the departments under the Ministry of Finance that is important to the economy because it is responsible for taking care of the country's valuable assets, assessing land prices, and producing coins that circulate in the economic system.

Dr. Ekanit Nitithanprapas, Director-General of the Treasury Department  Took office on November 18, 2567. Gave a special interview. bank finance That it has been 5 months since working with the Treasury Department. I feel that the Treasury Department's personnel are capable people. Therefore, the goal is to make Treasury Department personnel use their potential to the greatest extent possible to jointly drive the country's economy towards sustainability.

“Treasury Department staff are just as capable as anywhere else. Therefore, when I assumed the position of Director-General, I intended to empower Treasury Department staff to feel that we are a department that can increase the value and worth of national assets to drive the economy, promote the environment, society, and culture. This will make them feel proud that the Treasury Department is a Grade A department, and I am confident that all personnel want to walk together.”

On target - on target - on target
It is a moral treasury department.

Dr. Ekanit said that the Treasury Department's missions consist of three areas: the management of royal property, the production of circulating and commemorative coins, and land price assessment. Starting from 3, the Treasury Department will move forward in developing and increasing the efficiency of its missions in all areas.

“The Treasury Department is like a sleeping giant. First of all, we must make it known that we are a giant because the Treasury Department is an important department with a role, missions, and a large amount of national assets that it oversees, including royal property, coins circulating in the system, and commemorative coins or collectible coins of enormous value.”

In 2568, the Treasury Department has set a new strategy to be a department that increases the value and worth of national assets to drive the economy, improve the quality of life, promote the environment and culture, and move the country towards sustainability. The organization's goals and indicators (Objective & Key Result: KOR) have been set as follows:

• Targeted revenue collection It has set a target to increase revenue by 20% in 2569, including increasing the rate of return on assets (ROA) by 20% from the current 1.3% from the existing assets of 6.6 trillion baht.

In fiscal year 2568, the revenue collection target is 11,000 billion baht, divided into 10,600 billion baht from commercial land rental income and 400 million baht from commemorative coins.

“In the past 5 months, the department has collected 13% more revenue than last year and 9.2% higher than the target set by the Ministry of Finance, mainly due to the management of the lease contract for the Crown Property.”

• Group asset management By using technology, especially AI, to separate groups of assets so that they can be managed more precisely.

“We need to clearly distinguish which land is suitable for economic development, which land should be used for social purposes to help the people, or which land should be used to help the environment in order to manage it properly.”

• Service that meets your needs The service must meet the needs of both the public who are service recipients and the Treasury Department personnel.

“On the service recipient side, we will use digital to create a user experience to meet the needs of service recipients. In the future, the Treasury Department will use digital and AI in its work processes more in various aspects, with a target of more than 80% customer satisfaction, zero complaints, and increased employee engagement to more than 80%.”

In addition, we will also work on becoming a moral treasury department, as the treasury department is the department that looks after the country’s assets, so it is necessary to have morality as a guideline.

Set strategy VALUE
The Treasury Department is walking in the same direction.

Dr. Ekanit said that after the operational guidelines have been set, it is necessary to set the main strategy to keep the Treasury Department moving in the same direction. Using the VALUE strategy, it consists of 5 main pillars as follows:

Pillar 1 V : Value Strategies to increase value and worth of Crown Property By creating a Master Plan to develop the area holistically so that the use of Crown property is appropriate to the economic, social, environmental and cultural conditions in each area.

“Increasing the value of land, such as in commercial use, some land has not adjusted the lease contract for a long time. It is still rented for 30 years, but the rent is still the same. Therefore, we may have to adjust the lease contract to increase the ROA. In terms of society, such as the Royal Property that helps the people solve the problem of land for farming for the people. In terms of the environment, there must be an area for using Solar Rooftop in the Treasury Department as a model.”

Pillar 2 A : Appraise Strategies to increase the accuracy of land valuation By developing a database of land appraisal prices that are consistent with market prices and fair, by using appropriate technology to assess land prices to increase accuracy, and also developing an online land appraisal price search system so that users can search for appraisal price information easily, conveniently and quickly.

“We intend to be the leader in land price reference in the market. To be a leader, we must start by building credibility. Therefore, we must increase the efficiency of land assessment by aiming to reduce the gap in appraisal prices to meet international standards and not be more than 15% different from private assessments. In 2568, we will start with Bangkok and Nakhon Nayok to be a model first.”

The Treasury Department will link data with the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (Public Organization) or GISTDA to use satellites to assess the details of each plot of land. It will also cooperate with financial institutions to link data between each other.

“Nowadays, when people use land as collateral to apply for loans from financial institutions, they have to hire private companies to assess the value because the Treasury Department’s assessment price is too low. Therefore, if the Treasury Department’s assessment price is made more standardized, the value of the asset will increase, and people will be able to apply for more loans without having to pay private companies to assess the value. They can use the Treasury Department’s price instead.”

Pillar 3 L: Legacy The strategy to add historical value to the Treasury Department's coins and museums will be to upgrade the production and distribution of coins to meet international standards and apply ESG concepts in the coin production process to address environmental, social and governance issues.

In addition, a study is underway on the establishment of a secondary market for the trading of commemorative coins. The quality screening of coins must be developed. The Treasury Department aims to have retired Mint personnel inspect coins brought in for trading, which will help generate income for these personnel.

“The value of collectible coins worldwide is currently trading in the secondary market at 20,000 billion US dollars. As for Thailand, we don’t know the current value because it is traded in the secondary market. Therefore, we are studying the establishment of a secondary market for trading commemorative coins with standards. Our dream is that Thailand will be the secondary market for collectible coins or the first collectible coin exchange in ASEAN.”

For the coins that are generally used in circulation, even though cash is currently being used less, there is still a production of 1,000 billion coins per year, with approximately 40,000 billion coins circulating in the entire economic system, worth 84,000 billion baht, with the 1 baht coin being the most used in the system, followed by the 5 baht and 10 baht coins.

“The coins that circulate in the economic system will also help with inflation, especially the 1-baht and 2-baht coins, because if there were no these coins, when buying things, the price would be rounded up to the full amount. Therefore, even if there is a digital disruption, the coins will not disappear, but the trend will decrease. Today, we have adjusted our strategy to increase the value of collectible coins more.”

In addition, the strategy to increase historical value will be integrated with communities to promote historical learning tourism and cultural conservation, including promoting the Department's museums to help drive the community economy and improve the quality of life of people in the area and nearby areas.

“We went to build a museum in Talad Noi, where people in the community can come and tell stories about history. In addition to increasing historical value, it also helps generate income for the community. Therefore, we aim to use the Talad Noi museum model in museums nationwide.”

Pillar 4 U : Unity The strategy of personnel unity promotes the personnel of the Treasury Department to be excellent, good and happy by adding necessary skills in both Current Skill and Future Skill, establishing an online Treasury School, promoting the personnel of the Treasury Department to be good people through the use of a moral organization to create transparency, honesty and accountability, and also promoting the personnel of the Treasury Department to be happy, creating a pleasant organization that is conducive to work and supporting efficient work.

“I have been the director-general of many departments. The Treasury Department is the most different from the others because no departments communicate with each other. Therefore, we must make them one by implementing the policy of making subordinates skilled, good, and happy.”

Pillar 5 E : Efficiency Strategy to increase work efficiency and public service by adjusting work processes to be agile and using digital technology, data analysis and AI (Digital, Data, AI) in work.

“We will use digital to make work easier. After this, we will change from using paper to using digital because if we don’t do it, we won’t be able to do AI.”

In 2568, “Nong Rak”, an AI system, will be developed to increase the efficiency of officials and improve public services to be more convenient and faster. Laws and regulations will be revised, and unnecessary steps will be reduced. Power will also be decentralized to the Treasury Department to make work more efficient and faster.

Dr. Eknit said that the goal is to complete all projects by 2569. In 2568, it will start with a prototype project to be used as a model, such as the Treasury Project to help people solve housing and livelihood problems, including the development of the Talad Noi Museum, and the creation of a prototype of collectible coins that meet international standards to make it happen first.

“We have set that all of these goals must be completed by 2569, and by September 2568, all prototype projects must be launched so that in 2569, real projects can be launched nationwide.”

Follow and read other columns in the Bank Finance Journal, May 2568, Issue 517, in digital format: https://goo.gl/U6OnIi

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