Fulham teen Ben Davis to play for Thailand amid Singapore conscription row

Singapore’s first English Premier League footballer looks set to play for Thailand in the Southeast Asian Games, after the city-state warned he could face jail for skipping national service.

Ben Davis signed a two-year deal with Fulham last year at the age of 17, but Singapore’s government refused to allow him to defer mandatory national service.

He will join Thailand’s under-23 squad for the Southeast Asian Games, in the Philippines in November and December, according to a provisional squad list posted by the Football Association of Thailand on its website.

Davis had previously represented Singapore at the under-16 and under-18 levels.

While he is a Singapore citizen, local media reported he was born on the Thai holiday island of Phuket to a Thai mother and a British father and only moved to the city-state aged five.

All Singaporean men aged 18 must serve two years in the military, the police or the emergency services, an obligation authorities rarely let people skip.

The defense ministry warned earlier this year that Davis could face up to three years in jail if convicted of violating the enlistment act.

He could also face a fine of up to S$10,000 (US$7,200).

The ministry said Davis did not meet the criteria to skip national service when it refused his application to defer it last year.

The refusal to allow Davis to miss national service fuelled a debate about whether the conscription system is too strict in the city-state, where the Premier League is hugely popular.

In the past 15 years, only three athletes, including Olympic champion swimmer Joseph Schooling, have been given permission to miss national service, according to The Straits Times newspaper.

The biennial Southeast Asian Games is a multi-sport tournament attended by thousands of athletes from around the region.

AdChoiceTV News, Robi Chan contributed to this report

Pope Francis to meet Thai king, PM and top monk

(Thailand) Pope Francis will hold two masses in Bangkok during his four-day visit to Thailand next month and meet the king, prime minister and the nation’s top senior Buddhist monk.

The pope’s schedule was unveiled Wednesday afternoon at The Catholic Bishops’ Conference in Bangkok’s Yannawa district. The high pontiff’s itinerary included meeting King Vajiralongkorn, Prime Minister Gen. Prayuth Chan-o-cha and Supreme Patriarch Somdet Phra Ariyavongsagatanana IX.

He’ll meet Prayuth and his cabinet on Nov. 21 at the Government House, where he will give a speech. He then will visit Wat Ratchabophit to meet the supreme patriarch. 

The same day, he will visit patients and medical professionals at Saint Louis Hospital on Sathorn Road. After a meal at the Apostolic Nunciature Embassy of the Holy See, the pope will go to the Amphorn Satharn Villa to see King Vajiralongkorn. The day ends with a mass ritual at the National Stadium. 

The next day — Nov. 22 — the pope will visit Catholic priests and bishops at St. Peter Catholic Church in Nakhon Pathom’s Sam Phran district. Then he’ll come back to the Apostolic Nunciature Embassy of the Holy See for a break before holding another mass at Assumption Cathedral in the capital’s Bang Rak district. 

The 82-year-old pope will depart Bangkok for Tokyo on the morning of Nov. 23.

The two-day itinerary was announced by Monsignor Andrew Vissanu Thanya-anan, deputy secretary of The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Thailand.

The organization will hold a “media center” at the Holiday Inn Bangkok Silom, a few hundred meters from the Apostolic Nunciature Embassy of the Holy See where the pope will stay. More information will be available on the official website.

Bangkok is the only stop in Southeast Asia that Francis will make. After Bangkok, the pope will visit Japan to meet Emperor Naruhito and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe from  Nov. 23 to Nov. 26. 

AdChoiceTV, Robi Chan contributed to this report

Poverty in Thailand

Bangkok - Over the last four decades, Thailand has made remarkable progress in social and economic development, moving from a low-income country to an upper-income country in less than a generation. As such, Thailand has been one of the widely cited development success stories, with sustained strong growth and impressive poverty reduction, particularly in the 1980s.

While Thailand historically has been known to have a fairly strong economy, it experienced setbacks in 2013-15 as a result of domestic political turmoil and slow global demand. Since then, the Southeast Asian country has undergone a period of economic growth, advancing as a middle-income country and moving toward achievement of its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), poverty in Thailand has decreased from 21 percent in 2000 to about 12.6 percent in 2012, 7.9% of the population lives below the national poverty line last 2017. But the proportion of employed population below $1.90 purchasing power parity a day in 2017 is 0.0%. This 2020, Thailand poverty is expecting to lower down to 6.7% but we're still monitoring the purchasing power of the country if there will be a bit of a movement. 

Thailand’s economy grew at an average annual rate of 7.5% in the boom years of 1960 to 1996 and 5% following the Asian Financial Crisis during 1999-2005, creating millions of jobs that helped pull millions of people out of poverty. Gains along multiple dimensions of welfare have been impressive: more children are now getting more years of education, and virtually everyone is now covered by health insurance while other forms of social security have expanded. After average growth slowed to 3.5% over 2005-2015, with a dip to 2.3% in 2014-2016, Thailand is now on the path to recovery. The Thai economy posted the highest growth rate in six years, at 4.1% in 2018, despite external shocks to trade and tourism.

Poverty declined substantially over the last 30 years from 67% in 1986 to 7.8% in 2017 (as measured by the upper-middle income class poverty line of $5.5/day) during periods of high growth and rising agricultural prices. However, in recent years, progress in poverty and inequality reduction has slowed down, mainly due falling agricultural prices and slower wage growth. This led to low and negative growth in household consumption among the poorer segments of the population and caused a small increase in inequality. As of 2014, over 80% of the country's 7.1 million poor live in rural areas. Moreover, an additional 6.7 million were living within 20% above the national poverty line and remain vulnerable to falling back into poverty.

While worsening and stagnating poverty and inequality conditions were seen between 2015-2017, positive indicators are emerging in 2018 that may signal renewed progress in poverty reduction. In 2018, employment increased after four years of decline, led by strong recovery in agricultural employment. In line with rising employment, the unemployment rate was the lowest in eight quarters.

According to the World Bank Human Capital Index, which measures the productivity level for the next generation of workers relative to their full if all education and health outcomes were maximized, finds that while Thailand scores in the upper half of the various indicators compared to ASEAN countries and other upper-middle income country peers, there remains room for improvement.

For Thailand, unequal education quality is a big challenge, with poorer areas being underserved. Small under-resourced schools with inadequate infrastructure and education materials are mostly located in poorer regions of the country. A Thai child born today can expect to obtain 12.4 years of school before the age of 18. However, the same Thai child can expect to complete only 8.6 learning-adjusted years of schooling, indicating a learning gap of 3.8 years.

Thailand has laid out its long-term economic goals in its 20-Year National Strategy (2017-2036) for attaining developed country status through broad reforms. The reforms address economic stability, human capital, equal economic opportunities, environmental sustainability, competitiveness, and effective government bureaucracies.  Recent reforms include the implementation of large multi-year public infrastructure projects related to dual tracking of railways, regulatory reforms aimed at improving ease of doing business, setting up the State Enterprise Policy Committee to improve state-owned enterprise governance, the transfer of supervisory oversight of specialized financial institutions to the Bank of Thailand, the approval of progressive inheritance and property taxes, and the launch of the National Savings Fund, a retirement safety net for informal workers.

Mr. Robert Chan, CEO of Robert Chan International Ltd told AdChoiceTV News that Thailand is the 6th out of 10 in Southeast Asia Country with 7.9% poverty rate where Myanmar is still on the 1st spot with 32.1% poverty rate followed by Lao's Republic with 23.2% and the Philippines on the 3rd spot with 21.6%. He also said that while it is important to note the remarkable progress that has been made in Thailand, certain challenges and conditions still pose a threat to the entire Thai people and the society. With a massive population of more than 68 million as of 2017, poverty in Thailand affects many individuals, business person and more. Fortunately, with awareness and assistance, there are opportunities for the nation’s recovery to eliminate poverty and help boost prosperity for all citizens. 

Moving Forward, Just more than 38 percent of the population have at least some secondary education. Advancements in education have been particularly impressive and a large contributor to reducing poverty in Thailand as a whole. - ADCHOICETV NEWS