AS the Solomon Islands still seeks to grow its economy and provide a meaningful sustainable development policy to accommodate its growing population and at a time of increasing local concern over the effects on climate change, I would recommend the Solomon Islands Government to examine Thailand’s success story on sustainable development.
First some facts.
Thailand sits in the centre of Southeast Asia. It has a total area of 513,000 km (198,000 sg mi); a population of 69 million and the unitary state is subdivided into 76 provinces.
The country is a constitutional monarchy.
Soon after the late and much loved King Bhumibol took the throne in 1946, His Majesty toured the whole country and became acutely aware of the many hardships then facing the rural people, particularly the poor farmers. At that time the, per capita GDP was about US$200.
The King took a keen interest in rural development, devoted his whole life to helping the rural impoverished and instituted many royal projects which led to the sufficiency economy philosophy policy now pursued with growing success by the Thai Government.
The sustainable economy approach has been introduced and adopted in more than 23,000 villages across Thailand, raising prosperity and economic standards to higher levels by stages.
Thailand’s sufficiency economy concept as sustainability at its very core and is now seen as an important contributor to the UN’s international development goals.
The Thai governmental organisation most responsible for implementing the sufficiency economy is the National Economic and Social Development Board
The ECSDB’s primary tool for mobilising action is the excellent, graphically illustrated publication of theNational Economic and Development Plan. A copy can be accessed by using your browser to search –
Yours sincerely
Frank Short
