Khon Kaen: Springboard Of Northeast?

[george]

Khon Kaen: springboard of Northeast?

Isaan's central metropolis is pulling itself up by the bootstraps in a post-1997 world

Education, corporate transparency and accountability, software development, non-toxic farm businesses. These are some of the things that young business people in the Northeast would like to see happen in their region.

It isn't that poverty, lack of irrigation and lack of opportunities have been solved, but the younger generation of Northeastern business people want to build for the future, which they outlined when invited to a round-table discussion with the Nation Group's Editorial Board at the Kosa Hotel.

"Our businesses are fragile, and costs are rising. We need to become more value-added by raising human capital," the secretary of Khon Kaen's chapter of the Federation of Thai Industries Yuthapol Tavachalee said.

Khon Kaen businesses can claim credibility and unity in an often fragmented Thai business culture. The chapter has a unifying role in working with many organisations, including the state planning agency, to map out development strategies.

"Khon Kaen is a natural hub. We are almost an even three hours away from anywhere else in the region. That is why we are pushing for an inland container depot. But the railway line needs to be upgraded," Khon Kaen University's Dr Panatklit Klangboonkrong said.

The Northeast also has about 200,000 people working overseas who remit Bt40 billion annually.

A little off centre is Maha Sarakham province, which has few industries and little development in business infrastructure. But the province, due to the efforts of its forefathers, has a university where many Northeastern parents send their children.

"Maha Sarakham has nothing except education, which accounts for 20 per cent of business activities in the province. We want to build on that," Narong Laosuwan said.

"There is a lot to do in education. Even in Khon Kaen, where we have more than 1,000 educational establishments, the quality of graduates is still not good. We need better standards and better teachers," Kosa Group chairman Chai Kosavisuts said.

Piyabutr Promlakano, secretary of the Khon Kaen Chamber of Commerce, painted a picture of the province also becoming an information, communications and technology (ICT) area and software hub.

The idea is to reach out to the estimated 4,000 northeasterners who are working as software-developers in Bangkok. If 1,000 could be attracted back to Khon Kaen, they would contribute an estimated Bt1 million each in salaries to the local economy.

Yuthapol, who also owns a productivity consultancy, wants to disseminate the notion that Khon Kaen citizens are people able to think and act, professionals who embrace transparency and accountability.

This idea, he said, would open up provincial businesses to opportunities in the outside world, including stock-market listings.

The provincial capital can also claim a certain international status, being twinned with Da Nang in Vietnam. Khon Kaen provincial officials are looking for similar alliances in China, Yuthapol said.

Khon Kaen has attracted support from Sweden to map out plans of becoming a gateway city to the Northeast and Indochina, he said.

Vithoon Suriyavanakul, who runs a chain of construction-material outlets in Roi Et, Udon Thani and Khon Kaen, said the economy had been recovering, with many of the businesses hurt in the 1997 crisis returning to normal business cycles.

The lending support from state financial institutions has helped the real-estate and construction sectors, Vitoon said.

About 3,000 new houses have been built and are for sale. Service outlets have been revitalised after a long period of depression. Village funds and the one tambon one product projects of the government have assisted the flow of cash into the local economy, he said.

Business people also want to keep one set of financial records and will come clean if the government grants an amnesty for tax-evaders, which would encourage them to come forward and be financially transparent.

The National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) has proposed an investment and development budget for the Northeast to the tune of Bt52 billion over the next four years.

"We need to push growth at least to the national level," NESDB Northeast branch member Montree Boonpanich said.

After the 1997 crisis, growth in the northeastern region fell to less than 1 per cent a pre-crisis 8 per cent, he said.

Per-capita income is Bt28,000, three times less than the national average. Forested areas have fallen to less than 12 per cent of the total area when sustainability demands forest coverage of 25 to 40 per cent.

The region also has an estimated five million people living on the poverty line or below. The poor account for 16 per cent of the population in the Northeast, Montree said.

Areas slated as priorities include an increase in value-added production, especially in agricultural products; tourism and culture development and promotion; the development of Khon Kaen as a centre for the Bt20-billion trade with Indochina; reforestration; and realigning the cattle industry to reduce transport costs, especially to ports.

Wish List:

Hopes and aspirations of northeastern business people:

- Better education.

- Completion of East-West corridor highways.

- Flood prevention on Chi River in Maha Sarakham.

- Amnesty on tax evasion.

- Railway-line upgrade.

- Financial and political support for CEO governors to serve local needs.

- Budget allocation from Tourism Ministry.