Sufficiency Economy Lecture For Thai Investors

[Jai Dee]

Sufficiency Economy lecture for Thai investors

The Deputy Prime Minister and Industry Minister, Mr. Kosit Panpiemras (โฆษิต ปั้นเปี่ยมรัษฎ์), is confident that the Sufficiency Economy policy will help the 2007 GDP to increase and meet the government’s target.

Mr. Kosit gave a special lecture under the theme “True Understanding of the Sufficiency Economy” to the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) officials. He said the foundation of the Sufficiency Economy lies on the way people think on how to adapt themselves with the globalizing society. Knowledge and morals are needed for the implementation of this philosophy.

Mr. Kosit believes the growth of the nation will not oppose this policy because Thailand chooses to grow sufficiently rather than growing with risks. However, he considers that the GDP growth rate will be about four to five percent next year. The government will continue to explain Sufficiency Economy to all investors so that they will understand its true meaning clearly.

Another lecture by Mr. Kosit and Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Pridiyathorn Devakula will be held to more than 500 investors on November 10th at the SET.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 26 October 2006

[younghusband]

Sufficiency Economy lecture for Thai investors

The Deputy Prime Minister and Industry Minister, Mr. Kosit Panpiemras (โฆษิต ปั้นเปี่ยมรัษฎ์), is confident that the Sufficiency Economy policy will help the 2007 GDP to increase and meet the government’s target.

Mr. Kosit gave a special lecture under the theme “True Understanding of the Sufficiency Economy” to the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) officials. He said the foundation of the Sufficiency Economy lies on the way people think on how to adapt themselves with the globalizing society. Knowledge and morals are needed for the implementation of this philosophy.

Mr. Kosit believes the growth of the nation will not oppose this policy because Thailand chooses to grow sufficiently rather than growing with risks. However, he considers that the GDP growth rate will be about four to five percent next year. The government will continue to explain Sufficiency Economy to all investors so that they will understand its true meaning clearly.

Another lecture by Mr. Kosit and Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Pridiyathorn Devakula will be held to more than 500 investors on November 10th at the SET.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 26 October 2006

Reading between the lines Khun Kosit is giving the self sufficiency economy a rather different spin, ie adapting to globalization.My guess is that the concept will be watered down further over time.

[ColPyat]

Reading between the lines Khun Kosit is giving the self sufficiency economy a rather different spin, ie adapting to globalization.My guess is that the concept will be watered down further over time.

It would be most interesting to know what exactly "sufficiency economy" means other than being a well proven phrase to be adapted to momentarily needs.

[sbk]

Reading between the lines Khun Kosit is giving the self sufficiency economy a rather different spin, ie adapting to globalization.My guess is that the concept will be watered down further over time.

It would be most interesting to know what exactly "sufficiency economy" means other than being a well proven phrase to be adapted to momentarily needs.

Look here for a speech by Gen Prem, from 2001. Might give you an idea of the original intent

Here is part of the speech which targets your main question:

I do not pretend to have a full grasp of the principles involved in all their profundity and intended intricacies, but I do know that it is surely in our best interest to make the effort, however modest, to understand and draw inspiration from the wisdom of His Majesty.

Sufficiency Economy has as its thrust “the middle path as the overriding principle for appropriate conduct by the populace at all levels”. The middle path, when practiced at the level of the individuals, families and communities, as well as collectively in the choice of a balanced national development strategy, will provide a firm foundation for all in standing up to the trials and challenges of today’s world. It means moderation in all human endeavors, reining in expectations to within the bounds of self-support and self-reliance, having enough to live on. It lessens human proneness to the extremes and excesses, both in our insatiable appetite for wealth and wasteful consumption, which marked the period leading up to the crisis.

Sufficiency Economy does not advocate isolationism but presupposes the inevitable process of increasing global interdependence. What it does envisage and promote is the way towards a smoother, and more successful, integration of the Thai economy into the sweeping and stormy process of globalization. Moderation could be the means by which the sail of interdependence can be trimmed and adjusted so as to prevent the boat from being capsized by over-dependence. We all have seen how over-dependence made us extremely vulnerable to the whims of international capital, which, on its part was not immune to the influence of herd behavior.

Knowledge is and integral component of Sufficiency Economy. Our successive Chakri Kings have over the centuries placed great importance on learning from the outside world in ensuring the survival and the modernization of our country. Today the acquisition of knowledge, not just in the sciences and the technologies but also of other nations’ experiences in development and reforms, continues to play a central role in capacity building and in charting the course of our own national development. Here, his Majesty urges prudence in the application of knowledge, “in particular, great care is needed in the utilization of untested theories and methodologies for planning and implementation”. The question, which I have often asked myself in this connection, albeit with the benefit of hindsight, is whether we have been a little too unquestioning and a little too fast in embracing forces of the market from outside? Could we have been more discriminate and selective in our approach?

Sufficiency Economy seeks to strengthen the symbiosis and harmony between man and his natural environment. The crisis has brought into sharp focus His Majesty’s lifelong work in agriculture and conservation, built up over the years with a great number of the Royally initiated projects. Agriculture, the mainstay of the majority of the Thai population who are still toiling in poverty, can serve as a buffer against external shocks, testifying to the value of “getting back to basics”. For too long, the growth-oriented strategy has led to the rapid depletion of environmental assets priced cheaply at below their replacement cost. Conservation is but an integral part of sustainable development. His Majesty has truly been teaching us by example, be they His projects to restore watershed areas through reforestation, or to reverse desertification or to harness the sometimes-destructive forces of nature such as flooding, benefiting at the same time from power generation and irrigation.

Towering above all else as a constant in any overall equation is the need “to strengthen the moral fiber of the nation, so that everyone, particularly public officials, theorists and businessmen, adheres first and foremost to the principles of honesty and integrity”. It is true that at times people were badly demoralized on being turned into paupers overnight. Each, out of necessity, went his own way, caring little, if at all, for his fellow men. Moral fiber gradually reinforced, contributed to the collective national resilience, and seemed to be the single most important factor that kept us afloat and pulled us through the crisis.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

His Majesty’s “Sufficiency Economy” was timely in pointing the way forward. It gave heart to His people when they were in dire need, and was so well received that it now provides the foundation for the formulation, now in progress, of the Ninth National Economic and Social Development Plan (2002-2006).

[ColPyat]

Look here for a speech by Gen Prem, from 2001. Might give you an idea of the original intent

Here is part of the speech which targets your main question:

I do not pretend to have a full grasp of the principles involved in all their profundity and intended intricacies, but I do know that it is surely in our best interest to make the effort, however modest, to understand and draw inspiration from the wisdom of His Majesty.

That is a nice policy speach.

Completely lacking tough is practical implementation.

Prem talks about the need to strengthen agriculture. What please does that mean?

If that means promoting export of worldmarket products, you will kill off the about the 50% of the Thai population directly involved in small scale agriculture.

If it means strengthening the small scale farmers through, for example, the orginal idea of sittakit por pueang (a model of small scale selfsufficient farming), than there must be a land reform so that those small scale farmers have land to actually do that. In addition there must be funds avaliable for farmers willing to do that. In reality though it is mainly only retired middle class people who do this systhem of farming as a luxury, and not the ones who this system was developed for. As it is now, those do not have the money to buy the land originally reserved for them.

He talks about "moral fiber". Nice, welcome to reality, people are corrupt.

In order to force people into more "moral fiber", there must be independent institutions, and accountability. How does he think to develop them? Difficult, especially when he himself is always involved in backdoor politics away from the public eye, and lives from a carefully built up PR machine that is beyond open investigation.

There are many people waiting for answers what all that sufficiency economy actually means in practical terms. But so far, people are only directed to these sort of policy speaches, and individual leaders interprete them as is momentarily convenient.

That is not enough.

[ColPyat]

If this post breaks the rules, please delete it.

At the nation website is just the unoffial translation of Surayud's government policies published,

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2006/10/28...es_30017376.php

This again doesn't explain much more about sufficiency economy, or even what the government actually intends to do. Other than promoting happiness, harmony and moralily they seem to be going ahead with almost every Thaksin policy.

Rather disturbing is the sentence: "Virtue before knowledge".

Typical how wishy washy the phrase of "sufficiency economy" became is this:

The government is expected to clarify the sufficiency economy philosophy, which has created confusion among foreign investors who mistakenly believed that under the concept, the Thai economy would look inward. Rather, the concept highlights good governance as a means of regulating development in a market economy.

Among the policies which will be put to the National Legislative Assembly this week, the government will emphasise the importance of development in the agricultural sector, which will include the continued promotion of the One Tambon One Product scheme, initiated by the Thaksin government.

I have serious doubts that the confused foreign investors will be any less confused by this.

[Tarragona]

I've just dug up the King's English translation of his birthday speech of 2001, a couple of years after he introduced the concept. It won't tell you what Sufficiency Economy means (read it through to find out why - quite amusing), you can dig further yourself if you really want to know the King's ideas in depth. Genuine attempts at practical application would be interesting but I'm sure nobody's expectations are high.

The speech is here.

Edited October 28, 2006 by Tarragona

[ColPyat]

Back to square one. I still don't know what "sufficiency economy" in its practical implementation means, translated into a national economical policy.

When i first came across the "sittakit por puaeng" concept 11 or 12 years ago, it was a practical system of how small scale farming can be done at land holdings of a size that made market oriented farming a loosing venture.

I was fascinated by its possibilities for the rural poor, and after a long time searching i found a suitable plot of land that i could even afford. With certain adaptions to human nature, and lots of persuasion, my wife's family has worked with that systhem there rather successfully.

But what is promoted now, since a few years, lacks the clear definitions of the early system of small scale agriculture for a clearly defined sector of society, and seems to be open to wide interpretition.

Even that early system of agriculture has had very little impact on the sectors of society it was designed for, and is mostly only taken up by civil service retirees that have aqcuired the land that was originally reserved for the rural poor exclusively.

[Tarragona]

Back to square one. I still don't know what "sufficiency economy" in its practical implementation means, translated into a national economical policy.

Well, I don't think anyone does - wasn't that the point the King was making?

I think though that the concept specifically related to small-scale farming is the 'New Theory', and as you say, it's more focused and practical than the whole 'Sufficiency Economy' idea.

Edited October 28, 2006 by Tarragona

[ColPyat]

Back to square one. I still don't know what "sufficiency economy" in its practical implementation means, translated into a national economical policy.

Well, I don't think anyone does - wasn't that the point the King was making?

I think though that the concept specifically related to small-scale farming is the 'New Theory', and as you say, it's more focused and practical than the whole 'Sufficiency Economy' idea.

And now we have as a base for national economic policy a theory that nobody knows or understands. Oh my... this is going to definately create investor confidence.