A lot of problems concerning electrical safety woild be minimised if a common set of standards were to be used.

Everyone uses a common standard and refers to it. I always use AS/NZ3000/2007, or the equiv IEC standard.

What is the opinion of qualified electrical persons on this matter?

TiT. Like herding cats.

Obviously, as a Brit (and member of the IEE) I would say use the IEE Regulations 16th Edition (coz I don't have a copy of the new 17th).

That said, the Oz regs are often more suited to our conditions in Thailand (hot and wet).

To be honest, sensible application rather than rigid adherence should be order of the day, in which case either would do the trick and save lives just fine

The only code I would avoid is the US regs as their system is too alien

I spent ten years of my life doing semina's for MEA and PEA also visiting government departments and consultants in Bangkok trying to get them to adopt or at least standardizing electrical installation practice, mostly on the configeration of circuit breaker boards.

Guess what the net result was after all that work and effort? Makes me feel I'm a failure in life