Thailand Needs Clearer Development Strategy by Phairath Khampha 30 June 2000 New challenges facing the country Thailand needs a clearer development strategy to boost competitiveness and turn the country into a knowledge-based economy, academics said on June 8, 2000. Krisanapong Kiratikorn, the rector of King Mongkut Institute of Technology, told a seminar Thai society had become more polarised and the "one-size-fit-all" development strategy would never work. He cited the agricultural sector as an example of the challenges facing the country. "We have to segregate farmers into various levels. There are those medium and large agri-businesses and the self-sufficient and poor farmers and they need necessary but different incentive conditions to be able to be competitive in the globalised world." Knowledge-driven industries include electronics and the Internet. They have become a driving force for development in countries as Singapore, Japan and South Korea, Mr Krisanapong said. He added that Thailand should focus on competitive industries and identify ways to support them without neglecting the backward sectors. Phasina Tangchuang, Chiang Mai University's head of the Education Extension Department said the country had to develop the information and communication sector and human resources. Wilaiporn Liwgasemsan, the senior adviser to the National Economic and Social Development Board, said the ninth master plan, which is being drafted for implementation in October 2001, aimed to make the country more competitive by focusing on macro-economic reforms, the development of software-infrastructure, specific policies for rural and urban development, natural resources management and good governance. He also said that many lauded the work carried out by agencies such as the ADB in assisting in a refocus on more appropriate development strategies. However, he added, it was obvious from what was said, and perhaps not said, at the ADB annual meeting in Chiang Mai in May that lot of this worked revolved in meetings, seminars and writing papers espousing development strategy theories, but that at the end of the effort little physically changed on the ground. Phasina Tangchuang called for more effort at the rural level, meaning that instead of stting in hotel conference rooms or air-conditioned offices somewhere espousing what should be done, that agencies should put people in the rural areas to live with those who needed the assistance long-term and develop strategies that had a local origin. Driving around on one-day to one-week field trips is insufficient time to truly understand the local issues, particularly as 95% of those involved cannot speak the local language to truly understand the culture at heart. Reliance on government officials, he said, should be circumspect because more often than not in Thailand, what they claim the locla people said has been twisted to meet other agendas--usually those of wealthy individuals or senior government officials.