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Sanguanruang, SaengDevelopment Planning in Thailand: The Pole of theUniversity.Regional Inst. of Higher Education and Development,Singapore.Sep 73106p.Regional Institute of Higher Education andDevelopment, c/o University of Singapore, Cluny Road,Singapore 10 ($1.75)

EDRS PRICE MF-$0.76 HC Not Available from EDRS. PLUS POSTAGEDESCRIPTORS Community Development; Economic Development; *Foreign

Countries; *Higher Education; *Institutional Role;*Regional Planning; *School Community Relationship;Universities

IDENTIFIERS *Thailand

ABSTRACTThis study attempts to provide a better understanding

of the role of institutions of higher learning in nationaldevelopment planning in Thailand, and further attempts to providesome answers to the question of the involvement of the university indevelopment planning in the regions as a whole. Emphasis is placed onthe historical background, development objectives, and strategy,major problem areas, and the role of the university. (MJM)

DEVELOPMENT PLANNING IN THAILAND:

THE ROLE OF THE UNIVEXSITY

by

Saeng Sanguanruang

U S DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH.EDUCATION & WELFARENATIONAL INSTITUTE OF

EDUCATIONTHIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPROmicro EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROMTHE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONSSTATED 00 NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE OFEDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY

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Singapore

September 1973

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©All rights reserved. This publication may not bereproduced either partially or as a whole or storedin any retrieval system or transmitted in any otherform by any means whether mechanical, electronic,recording, photocopying or any other method withoutthe prior written consent of the Regional Instituteof Higher Education and Development.

FOREWORD

One of the main objectives of the Regional Insti-tute of Higher Education and Development is to bring aboutcooperation between the university community and govern-ment agencies in national development efforts. To thisend, this Institute has launched several research projects,one of which is "Development Planning in Southeast Asia:Role of the University".*

This country study from Thailand by Dr. SaengSanguanruang of the School of Business Administration, TheNational. Institute of Development Administration, Bangkok,is an important part of this project. It has followed thesame outline required of all country studies in the pro-ject. It is hoped that this study will render betterunderstanding of the role of institutions of higher learn-ing in national development planning in Thailand and, alongwith other country studies completed, provide some answerto the question of the involvement of the university indevelopment planning in the region as a whole. It is alsohoped that such studies will lead to a more meaningful andcloser cooperation between universities and governments inthe development of countries in Southeast Asia.

Originally, the plan called for publication ofthese research studies in three volumes. Volume One, con-sisting of an introduction and country studies on Malaysia,Singapore, South Vietnam and the Philippines was publishedin 1973 (see Yip Yat Hoong, Development Plannin in South-east Asia: Role of the University, RIHED, 1973 Thesecond volume was to consist of the remainder of thecountry studies on Indonesia, Khmer Republic, Laos andThailand, with the third and final volume being a compara-tive analysis of the studies. However, because of unfore-seen circumstances and problems, country studies onIndonesia, Khmer Republic and Thailand will be publishedindividually. It is disappointing that a country studyfrom Laos will not be completed because of the uncertainand difficult situation in that country. It is alsoregretted that a comparative analysis of these countrystudies will not be attempted for two main reasons: First,the completion dates of the country studies come at dif-ferent times, and second, since the completion dates of

:kilthis research project was initiated and supervised by Prof. Yip YatHoong, former Director of RIHED, with collaborators from Indonesia,Khmer Republic, Laos, Singapore, Thailand, 1;outh Vietnam and thePhilippines.

sonic of the country studies, new developments within thecountries snake a comparsion out of date. These two factorsseem to prevent a meaningful and relevant comparativeanalysis.

On behalf of the Regional Institute of HigherEducation and Development, I wish to express appreciationto Professor Yip Yat Hoong, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of theUriversity of Malaya, for his supervision of this signifi-cant research project, and to Dr. Saeng Sanguanruang forhis contribution. Thanks are also extended to UNESCO forits partial support of this research project.

Amnuay TapingkaeDirector

Reg nal Institute of HigherEL LAtion and Development

Sing.poreSeptember 1912

CONTENTS

Foreword (iii)

I. Historical Background 1

II. Development Objectives and Strategy 15

III. Major Problem Areas 48

IV. The Role of the University 62

V. Conclusion 94

Bibliography 96

I. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

A Brlef Description of Social and Economic Development; overthe Ton Years

Amidst the turbulent changes that have erupted inmainland Southeast Acia, Thailand stands out as a nationof remarkable stability. Intimately iavoled in the longand miserable war in Indochina, Thailand has managed toescape the horror of the. war while her economic fortunehits waxed and waned with the tempo of the American involve-: ,ant. In the process of accommodating external change, theThai population has undergone the necessary pains associatedv;th this change, both physically and psychologically.Undoubtedly, there is no lack of verdicts from all sides onthe yerformance of the Thai society during the past decadeand beyond.' For some, what has transpired has almostamounted to the total destruction of long-cherished Thaicustoms, mores and the beauty and security of the past.2To them the materialistic progress, if it can be calledprogress, has been achieved at the expense of "Thainess",whatever that phrase collies to mean, with the obviousimplications that there should be other ways of bringingabout progress consistent with the cherished values. Forothers, liThainessn stands in the way of achieving progressby putting a premium on traditional complacency as againstseriousness of purpose, on compromise of principles asagainst rational approach to problem solving and on super-ficial impression as against nexcellencen,3 Differencesin opinion are probably largely a matter of emphasis ctem-ming from different views on the process of growth or fromsimply sheer impatience. Yet Thailand has come out nottoo badly. Of course, luck has much t, do with the satis-factory performance of the economy, but it may be arguedthat luck would meably have not worked so well without

1As examp3ea of the soul searching: in the midst of changes, see theCommittee of Arts Conservation, Notes on the Seminar on Future SocialIdentitr_of Thailand, (Bangkok: Association of Arts and EnvironmentConservation, 1972) in Thai; and Chulalongkorn Alumni Association,The Present and the Future of the Thai SocietY (Bangkok: Chulaloug-kora University, 1971 , in Thai.

2See, for example, M.R. Kukrit Pramoj, Siam Rath Daily, p. 5, March30, 1973.

3Se..1, for example, Prasert Yaemklinfung, in The Present, and the Futureof the Thai Society, c 6.

1

a

the vigorous entrepreneurship on the part of the people,and the conscious efforts of the Thai bureaucracy.

Thailanri entered the sixties with a strong govern-ment. The 1957 coup which brought 4are" .:1 Sarit Thanaratto power ended in a sel:s-innicted (out in 1958 which didaway with any remnants of democratic institutions. Thai-land was to be under an autocratic rule unttl 1968 when anew constitution was promulgated and a National House ofRepresentatives elected. The constitution has been enforcedbarely three yee.rs when it again was scrapped in late 1971.

Under the autocratic form of government, the countrywent about trying to solve her basic economi problems.During the Sarit regime in early 1960's, there seemed tobe, at least in appearance, a sense of urgency to get onwith the basic problems of the country. For the first time,intellectual resources were mobilized to give advice to thegovernment on economic, scientific and other matters. AMinistry of National Development was set up to minimizedelays in development work. TLe First Six -'ear NationalEconomic Development Plan was prepared by the newly createdNational Economic Development Board. A Budget BureaucLi.rectly under the supervision of the Prime Minister wasset up to engage in the preparation of annual governmentbudget. The National Education Council,' the NationalResearch Council, the Board of 1nvestmeat, the Board ofExport promotion and the Board of Tax Supervision werecreated during this period and are testimony to the effortsto provide the country with organizations needed for thetask of development administration.

The sixties also saw an influx of foreign-educatedindividuals into the civil service. Unlike their predeces-sors who had been forced to manage largely trom guesswork,these young government officials had been exposed toscientific principles ce management requiring the use ofdata. It is difficult to say how much the "modernizedbureaucrats" contribute to the well functioning of theeconomic system, :nit one can hardly avoid the impressionthat these modernized elements must have some impact onthe performance of the economy.

The following paragraphs summarize the economicperformance during 1960-70. Gross Domestic Product at cur-rent prices increased from 53,884.9 million baht in 1960to 135,600 million baht in 1970 with an average rate of

1In early 1973, the official name of the National Education Councilwas changed to the National Education Commission, but for convenience,its old name and abbreviation will be used throughout this study.

2

growth o4: 9.8 per cent per annum. The Gross Domestic Pro-duct at constant prices (1962, see Table I) grew from56,069.4 million baht in 1960 to 119,604 million baht in1970, implying an average ra+e of growth of 8.1 per centper annum.

The growth performance has not been even duringthe decade; the highest rate of growth was attained duringthe 1965-69 period as can be seen from Table II.

The breakdown of the expenditures on Cross DomesticProduct at current market prices indicates a substantialdecline of private consumption expenditures from 75.1 percent in 1960 to 69.4 per cent in 3970 with th, share ofgovernment consumption expenditures :;ncreasing slightlyfrom 10.2 per cent in 1960 to 12.5 per cent in 1970.1Gross investments rose rapidly from 16.1 per cent in 1960to 25.7 per ce.it in 1970. Exports of goods and servicesdecline slightly as a proportion of Gross Domestic Pro-duct from 18 per cent in 1960 to 16.8 per cent in 1970while the share of imports of goods and services rose from19.4 per cent to 21.1 per cent t:uring the same period.

Almost all of gross inve3tments were financed bygross national savings until after the mid-sixties. Evenin 1969, the gross national savings financed about 80 percent of the gross investments with the rest coming fromthe net import of goods arlri non-factor services.

The favourable investment climate during the 1966 -67 period resulted in a strong investment demand which wasmade possible by the large inflow of foreign exchange. Theinvestment boom and the growth of foreign exchange earningshave been important sources of growth until the last twoyears of the 1960's when investments and the American mili-tary expenditures began to decline. The fastest growingsource cc: demand during this later period was the risinggovernment consumption expenditures.

The percentage distribution of Gross Domestic Pro-duct at market prices indicates a declining share of agri-culture from almost 40 per cent in 1960 to approximately

1

These figures and those appearing in the following paragraphs, unlessindicated otherwise, are taken from the unpublished records of theOffice of the NEDB. For a scholarly description of the performanceof the Thai economy during the 1950-70 period, see James C. Ingram,Economic Chan e in Thailand 180-12721 (Stanford: Stanford universityPress, 1971 , chs. 11 and 12, which are added to a former book,Economic Change in Thailand since 1850, by the same author.

'10

TABLE I

Gross Domestic Product at Current and atConstant (1962) Prices

Current Prices(million baht)

Constant Prices

1960 53,984.0 56069.4

1961 58,970.0 59,029.2

1962 63,793.0 69,793.0

1963 68,078.6 69,125.3

1964 74,667.3 73,692.9

1965 84,301,o 79,486.5

1966 101,374.7 89,189.6

1967 108,2240 94,109.3

1968 117,306.7 102,578.4

1969 130,612.7 112,377.5

1970 135,600.0 119,604.0

Source: For 1960.69, Office of the NEDB,1968-69 edition, Table 1 and 7.estimates prepared by the Office

TABLE II

National Income of Thailand,For 1970, from unpublishedof the NEDB.

Growth Performance(per cent per annum)

1960-65 1965-69 1969-70

GDP average rate of growth(1962 prices) 7.7 9.1 6.0

Source: For 1960-69, Office of the National Economic DevelopmentBoard, National Income of Thailand, 1969, edition. The 1970figure is a preliminary estimate by the National Income

Office.

30 per cent in 1970, while the share of manufacturing inthe total product gained from 12.1 per cent in 1960 toalmost 15 per cent in 1970. The share of constructionrose materially although it was still small (7 per cent)in 1970. The share of trade, banking, insurance and realestate increased from 17 per cent to 21.3 per cent duringthe same period.

During the past decade, population has increasedat a rapid rate of over 3 per cent per annum from26,634,000 in the 1960 census to 36,218,000 in 1970 whenthe latest census was conducted.

Although agriculture accounted for only 30 percent of the Gross Domestic Product, it still is the mostimportant source of employment, taking in about 78 percent of the total employment in 1.970 compared with 83 percent in 1960. While there has been an inc -ease in theshare of the labour force employed in manul'acturing, itwas `till al a low level of 4.3 per cent in 1971, indicat-ing a poor employment generating capability.

Examination of the external accounts reveals aweak performance of the merchandise export sector and aheavy dependence on the American milital, expenditures asa source of foreign exchange. Merchandise exports grew atan average rate of 5 per cent per annum during the 1960-70 period but only 2.4 per cent per annum during theSecond Plan period. The expenditures of the military ser-vices (mainly American) sharply increased from 438.7 mil-lion baht in 1964 to the peak of 4,918 million baht in 1968and declined to 4,192 million baht in 1970. It should alsobe noted that the export of tourist services increaseddramatically from a negligible 183 million baht in 1962 to2,175 million baht in 1970.1

There has been a substantial change in the composi-tion of exports from Thailand during the last decade. Theshare of the four traditional exports (rice, rubber, tinand teak) declined from 70 per cent of the total merchan-dise exports in 1960 to 50 per cent in 1970. The "newexports!' that have gained importance include maize, cas-sava, kenaf, oilseeds, beans, shrimp, precious and semi-precious stones and gunny bags. Although these exportsaccounted for only 16.7 per cent of the total merchandiseexports in 1961, they increased to 27 per cent in 1970.2

1Hank of Thailand,

2Bank of Thailand,

Monthly Economic Report, various issues.

Monthly Economic Report, various issues.

5

During the decade (1960-70) and indeed during als'most of the previous decade, Thailand has experienced aconsistent deficit in the merchandise account. Althoughthere has been a persistent surplus on the service account,the surplus has not been large enough to offset the widen-ing deficit in the trade account, resulting in a deficit inthe current account in all the years except 1961. Thedeficit in the current account represents a real transferof capital from abroad and has been financed by the inflowof capital, foreign aid and grants. As the current accountdeficit has been less than the net inflow of foreign capital(in most years), the transfer has not been completed result-ing in an accumulation of foreign resources.1 The foreignexchange reserves declined for the first time in 1969 andcontinued to decline in 1970.2 It is expected that thedecline in reserves will continue during the Third Planperiod.

The swing of the balance of payments into the defi-cit side has caused quite a concern within the government,the business circle and the intellectual community.3 Atleast three explanations can be given for this situation.First, Thailand has enjoyed a surplus on th balance ofpayment$, account over the years and has come to expect itas a normal :lituation. Second, the traditional financialpolicy of the Thai authority has been one of conservatism,which puts a premien' on the accumulation of foreign re-serves. This may be because the authority believes thatfor an agricultural country like Thailand facing relativelyuncertain market and widely fluctuating prices for its ownproducts, a large cushion of foreign exchange reserves isnecessary. The third and most troublesome reason thatexplains the concern over the worsening balance of paymentsdifficulties is the deeply-rooted pessimism over the poorexport performance of the country in the face of rapidlyrising imports. Of course, the reduction of the flow offoreign exchanges (e.g. on account of the reduction of theAmerican milLtary expenditres) would tend to directly andindirectly reduce the size of the current account deficit,

1For an excellent treatment of the Thaaand's balance of payments

prJblem, see Ingram, op. tit., pp. 30t' -322.

"There was an increase in foreign exchange reserves of 160.1 million

dollars durth 1972, however.

3Evidence for this concern can be seen by glancing through the daily

papora issued during 1970-71.

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but this reduction would be at the expense of the growthperformance which the authority would be highly reluctantto permit. Thus the concern over the balance of paymentsdifficulties really cen4 'es around the perception that theperformance of the external sector in effect constitutesa limit to the growth performance.

One aspect of the growth experience needs to bementioned to complete this brief survey of eceaomicdevelopment. Much has been said and discussed about theuneven development that has taken place in the country(see Table III). Substantial physical growth has beenvisible in the urban areas, especially in the BangkokMetropolitan region. Under the present system, one canhardly visualize the development otherwise. With heavysocial infrastructures in the metropolitan area and withthe advantage of Greater Bangkok as the major port, theonly financial and trade centre, the hub of all means oftransport and the seat of the central government, one wouldbelieve that investment opportunities would naturally bemore abundant here than elsewhere. This observation isconfirmed by an evidence indicating that there has been anet transfer of bank deposits from the provincial branchesto the headquarters in Bangkok.l

There have been many attempts on the part of thegovernment to diversify the development efforts away fromthe metropolitan area. Examples are the establishment ofregional universities in the North, the Northeast and theSouth, the allocation of large amount of investment expendi-tures on irrigation works and the development of highwaysand feeder-roads. But these have been an integral part ofnational planning which allocates resources among competingclaims without sufficient considerations as to how theseinvestment expenditures can contribute to the developmentof regional centres. This results in each investment beingconsidered on a piecemeal basis rather than within a totalregional framework. The role of the public sector in chang-ing the resource balance presupposes clear and definitedevelopment objectives and serious sub-national planningbased on existing stock of knowledge of the resource poten-tials of different regions. It is here that there is alarge gap in knowledge which impedes intelligent regionalplanning and development. We shall return to this subjectlater in this report.

1Alek A. Rozental, Finance and Development in Thailand (New York:Praeger, 1970), pp. 176-182.

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TABLE III

Per Capita Gross Domestic Product by

Region at Constant (1962) Prices

Region

1960

(baht)

1966

(baht)

Average Annual

Growth Rate (%)

(1960-66)

1967

(baht)

1970

(baht)

Average Annual

Growth Rate (%)

(1967-70)

North

1,627

2,167

4.89

2,248

2,620

3.3

Northeast

1,260

1,479

2.71

1,486

1,840

2.8

Central Plain

3,499

4,588

4.62

5,730

6,470

6.0

South

3,013

3,103

0.49

3,072

3,622

4.2

The Entire Kingdom

2,264

2,822

3.66

3,165

3,840

4.6

Source:

For 1960-66 P. Uathavikul, "Regional Development Planning in

Thailand", Research Paper No. 125,

presented to the Committee on Research

Promotion, National Institute of Development

Administration,

July 1970, mimeographed, Table 2, p.

8; for 1967-71, Office of the NEDB, The Third National

Economic and Social Development Plan, p.

169.

History of Development Planning in Thailand1

The first national economic development plan waslaunched on January 1, 1961 but the history of planningwent back a decade earlier. The National Economic Council,the predecessor of the present National Economic Develop-ment Board,2 was set up in 1950 to provide staff servicesto the government in the areas of current economic studiesand research, and analysis of fiscal and monetary problems.A Committee on Economic Plan was organized within theNational Economic Council with the primary function ofevaluating the capital budget requests from differentgovernment agencies. Thus development planning was under-taken in an embryonic form by this committee.

Later in 1951 the Thai Technical and Economic Co..operation Committee (TTEC) was set up in the NationalEconomic Council to administer the economic and technicalassistance offered by the United States. Because the staffof the National Economic Council and of the TTEC were inti-mately involved in the analysis of development projectsoriginating from the government itself or from abroad underforeign assistance programmes, it gained valuable experiencein the area of benefit and cost analysis. Yet whateverplanning was done was far from systematic. For one thing,the projects were analysed on an individual basis withoutmuch regard to linkages with other projects to consistencyovertime. Lack of long term planning made it necessary toappropriate the budget on an annual piecemeal basis whilethe demand for resources for development efforts was con-tinuously rising.

At the request of the Thai government, an IERDSurvey Mission arrived in Thailand in July 1957 to start a

1For a definitive treatment of the history of economic developmentplanning in Thailand, see Snoh Unakul, "History of Economic Develop-ment Planning in Thailand", in Monsters? and Fiscal Policies. andEconomic Development Planning_inglitiMd, (Bangkok: Ramindra Press,1972), ch. 11, from which this section heavily draws upon. The bookis a collection of articles, both in Thai and English, by one of themost prominent planners in. Thailand.

2In December 1972, the official name of the NEDB was changed to theNational Economic and Social Development Board, but for convenience,its old name and abbreviation will be used throughout this study.

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comprehensive study of the current economic problems andpotentials. The team spent almost a year in the country;this was longer than usual for this type of assignment.The IBRD report, A Public Development Programme forThailand,' published in 1959, was the first comprehensivestudy of the development problems and potentials of theThai economy. A major feature of the report was a five-year forecast of the development needs and financing withthe Bank's suggestions on the pattern of resource alloca-tions, and policy measures as well as administrativerequirements for development work. Several of the Bank'srecommendations were directly implemented while otherswere acted upon in modified forms.

Among the Bank's recommendations which had directbearing on development planning is its suggestion that apermanent, central planning agency be set up to undertakeeconomic studies and research, and to prepare the nationaldevelopment plan.

The proposed central planning agency would becalled the National Development Board, and to provideaccess to the highest political leadership, would bechaired by the Prime Minister, with ministers closely in-volved with development work serving as the Board members.The Certral Statistical Office, the National Income Officeand the TTEC would be integrated with the proposed Boardto ensure a ready flow of statistical information, andcooperation required for planning.

The Sarit government upon assuming absolute powerfollowing the coup in October 1958 began a series ofadministrative reforms and innovations. The NationalEconomic Development Board was founded in July 1959 withthe National Economic Council now called the Office of theNational Economic Development Board, acting as its secre-tariat. The organizational setup of the newly createdNEDB was somewhat different from that proposed by the IBRDteam. The Board consists of 45 members drawn from allquarters and is chaired by the Prime Minister. A]1 cabinetmembers serve as advisors to the Board with each ministerdirectly involved in development activities chairing thesub-committee on the affairs concerning his own specializedfield. The Secretary-General, who is the administrativehead of the Office of the National Economic Development

1International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, A PublicDevelopment Programme for Thailand (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1959).

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BEST COPY AVIIITLE

Board, serves as a member and secretary to the Board.

Given its large size and its diverse composition,the Board meets only infrequently (usually once a year).Policy decisions are .made by the Executive Committee ofthe Board consisting of nine highly qualified members.The day-to-day operations and staff work are carried outby the Office of the NEDB headed by the Secretary-General.

The major administrative reorganization in 1963removed the Central Statistical Office and the TTEC fromthe Office of the NEDB, the former becoming the NationalStatistical Office under the Office of the Prime Ministerwhile the latter acquiring the departmental status in thenewly created Ministry of National Development.

Nature and Scope of Development Planning

The nature of the planning process can be dis-cussed at two different planes, the political plane andthe ideological plane. On ideological grounds, in arelatively free-market economy like Thailand, planning isan attempt to rationalize the resouyNes utilized in thepublic sector while guiding the pOwite sector by way ofpublic policy signals and measures affecting the profit-ability of investment undertaking.

The emphasis on the promotion of the private sec-tor, however, reflects not so much ideological preferenceas the pragmatic adaptation dictated by the nature of thesituation. The ruling group whit": was in power prior tothe 1958 coup had established numerous state enterpriseson nationalistic and security grounds. A common justifi-cation in setting up a state enterprise is that thedomination of the economy by the Chinese minority can bereduced or that the enterprise is vital for securityreasons. It is clear, however, that apart from thesenationalistic and security motives, the ruling group sawthe operation of state enterprises as an avenue to achievepersonal or oligarchic gains. As it turned out, many ofthose enterprises were operating at a loss. To carry onas state corporations, they would require large amount ofsubsidies from the public coffer. The pragmatic solut:.onwould be to sell these losing enterprises off and torefrain from setting up additional ones. This was pre-cisely what was done in the early sixties. The pledge ofnot creating new state enterprises was offered to assurethe private sector of non-competition from the government.

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In political terms, planning has been consideredas the manifestation of the national government's commit-ment to progress. As far back as 1932, which saw thechange in the form of government from an absolute monarchyto a constitutional one, one of the six points pledged bythe coup group was to prepare a national economic plan toimprove the standard of living of the people. The plan,devised by a leader of the coup, Dr. Pridi Bhanomyong, wasdiscarded on grounds of its socialistic content.1 Theseveral coups during the forty-year span since 1932 wereall justified by the coup makers on economic grounds,although no commitment to formal economic planning wasmade until the coup in October of 1958. It is significantthat the promulgation of the First Six-Year DevelopmentPlan in 19602 was considered by the political leadershipas the "auguring of the new economic life, a new dawn ofour economic historyn3 which would begin a new era ofnational building.

The scope of development planning has widened withtime. The First Six-Year Plan was no more than a collec-tion of government projects submitted to the NEDB bydifferent government agencies for inclusion in the Plan.The Plan itself was divided into two phases, each coveringa period of three years. A justification offered forsplitting the planning period into two phases was thatinadequate statistical data made detailed planning beyondthe three-year horizon unfeasible, thus it was stated thatthe substance of the Plan for the second phase would berevised in the light of the additional statistical informa-tion expected to be increasingly forthcoming.

The revision of the second phase of the First Six-Year Plan covering the years 1964-66 attempted to make thePlan a more comprehensive public document, covering notonly the development activities of the central governmentbut also those of state enterprises, local governments and

/For the text of the Economic Programme proposed by Pridi and the

commentaries, see Duan Bunnag, Pridi: the Elder Statesman (Bangkok:

Sermvit Banakhan, 1957), in Thai.

2The Plan was announced on the second anniversary of the coup onOctober 20, 1960 but was to take effect on January 1, 1961.

3Sarit Thanarat, preface to The First Six-Year Economic Develo ent

Plan, 1961-63-66.

regional development activities. Also an attempt was madefor the first time to estimate the manpower requirementsof the Plan.'

The Second Five -Year Plan for Social and EconomicDevelopment which covered the period 1969-71 was animprovement over the First Plan in terms of coverage andmethodology.2 Manpower planning was extended beyond theestimate of the manpower requirements of the First Planto the estimation of the needs and considerations on thesupply side. For the first time she Private Sector Plan-ning Committee was set up to: (1) improve the realism andconsistency of the national plan by intensive analysis ofthe components of the private sector; (2) guide the formu-lation lf national economic policies affecting thedecision-making of the private sector; and (3) identifythe promising investment opportunities in the privatesector.3 Financial planning was also improved by fore-casting foreign exchange requirements, availability andthe gap in exchange rates.

The Third Five-Year Economic and Social Develop-ment Plan4 covers the planning for development activitiesof the central and local governments, private sector andstate enterprises planning, regional planning and manpowerdevelopment planning. Planning for the private sectordevelopment includes: (1) the statement of public policiestowards business; (2) the formulation of measures designedto promote private investment in agriculture, industry andthe development of the capital market; and (3) the esti-mation of the investment fund requirements of the privatesector during the plan period as well as the identificationof their sources.

Planning for state enterprises includes the formu-lation of public policies concerning the types of the

1Office of the NEDB, The Six-Year Plan, Second Phase, 1964-66.

2For a comprehensive examination of the methodology of the Second Plan,see Office of the NEDB, "The Methodology for Preparing the Second andSocial Development Plan of Thailand", mimeographed.

3Ibid, pp. 78-79.

4Office of the NEDB, The Third Five-Year National Economic and Social..Development Plan, 1971.2., in Thai.

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nterprises to he promoted and retained, a pledge not toitablish new Pnterprisos to compete with the private

sector, the estimation of investment expenditures of theseenterprises, the sources of funds and the expected profitsto be transferred to the government treesu:'y.

Regional planning Wa.3 made by the Regional Develop-ment committees set up for each region. Planning activitiesinclude the establishment of development guidelines appro-priate to the situation in each region, preparation of thelist of sectoral development activities to be undertakenin the regions, and the estimated size of expenditures andtheir sources of financing. So far only a summary of the"plans" for the North and the Northeast appears in theThird National Plan.

Manpower planning includes the population projectionfor the plan period, the estimation of employment potentialsof the plan, forecasting of manpower requiremew,s and sup-plies in different fields including employment problems inthe rural sector and the formulation of policies to meetthe manpower needs for development.

Evaluation of Develo ment Plans

The Office of the NEDB is charged with the func-tion of evaluating the development plans. This evaluationis carried out in terms of the comparison of the productiontargets with the actual achievements, comparison of planneddevelopment expenditures with budgeted and actual disburse-ments, by projects and by operating units. Problemsencountered in the execution of the plans are identifiedalong with recommendations to mitigate or avoid the pro-blems proposed. The plan evaluation is undertaken to coverthe entire plan period but an attempt has been made toevaluate the plan on an annual basis to throw light on thechanges that need to be made and incorporated in the annualplan. Standard forms and procedures developed by the NEDBare used in progress reporting and plan evaluation.1

For the evaluation of the First and Second Plans, see Office of theNEDB, Evaluation of the First Six-Year Plan 1961-66, Bangkok 1967, inEnglish and Report on the Execution of Develo ent Pro ects under theSecond Economic and Social Development P an, 19 7-71, Bangkok, 1972,

in Thai.

II. DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGY

Social and Economic Policx

The clearest expression of the "national" socialand economic policy is given in the text of the Third Five-Year Economic and Social Development Plan. The six-pointdevelopment policies or "guidelines" include:1

(1) strengthening of the nation's economicstructure and the enhancement of thenational income and production;

(2) maintenance of economic stability;

(3) promotion of regional development andreducing regional income disparities;

(4) fostering of social justice;

(5) manpower development and job creation;and

(6) encouragement of the development effortsof the private sector.

In the first development plan promulgated in 1961,most of these aggregate guidelines were not explicitlyarticulated although some of them were scattered about inthe text of the Plan. Notably absent from the First Planare the policies on the regional income disparities andthe question of social justice. In striking contrast,the Second Plan explicitly recognized as one of the policyguidelines the reduction of income inequality and geogra-phical imbalance.2 Presumably, the growth of Bangkok, theprimate city, the teeming investmentsespecially that sup-porting construction activities in the metropolitan region,an :increase in the use of luxuries of certain groups ofthe urban population made possible by the prosperity inthe mid-sixties, and the investment in such activities asnighteries and restaurant undertakings, accentuated theregional income disparity. At the same time, it has beenincreasingly acknowledged that the fruits of economicgrowth had not been equally shared by the different groups

1he Third Plan, p. 31.

2The Second Plan, p. 34.

15

22

SST CO MAKE

of the population.1

One ci the most persistent policy guidelines isthe encouragement of the private sector's developmenteffort. Under this guideline, the private sector isassured that the government will not establish new enter-prises in direct competition with it.2 As previouslystated, the experience with state enterprises in thefifties conceived on nationalistic and on less idealisticgrounds has demonstrated the high cost of the state'sdirect participation in business activities. Moreover,to induce foreign capital inflow, foreign investors haveto be assured of the government's non-competition. Since1961 a few losing state enterprises had been sold off tothe private sector and some others had been amalgamated.3

Another persistent policy guideline is the inten-tion to maintain economic stability. Thailand has a longhistory of conservative fiscal and monetary policiesdating back to the period when the country was firstopened to the West. Under the expansive colonial climate,less conservative fiscal and monetary policies wereperceived as a threat to national sovereignty.4 Theconservative tradition has continued long after this"external threat" became less real. There were times whenpressures from the political leadership demanded an expan-sive and less orthodox fiscal management. On the whole,however, thanks to its top professional staff, the Bank ofThailand has succeeded in maintaining internal and exter-nal fihancial stability.

The monetary authorities have, however, occasional-ly been criticized for their overemphasis on stability atthe expense of development.5 At issue is the problem of aclassical trade off between "liquidity and "profitability"considered from the standpoint of the economy as a whole.

1,..,ee for example, the NEDB, Evaluation of the First Six-near Plan

1961-66, Bangkok 1967, p. 6.

-See, the Thai versions of The Second Plan, p. 111, and The Third

Plan, p. 134.

3The Third Plan, p. 149.

4Ingram, op. cit., p. 170.

"For example, Ingram in ibid., p. 311, was ambivalent on the wisdom

of accumulating reserves.

16

23

Implicit in the central bank's conservative "external"policy line is the judgement that for an agriculturalcountry like Thailand, international liquidity commandsa high premium, hence the accumulation of foreign exchangereserves. Also implicit in the conservative internalfiscal management is the judgement that inflation hurtsmore than it helps economic development. During the majorpart of the 1960's the emphasis was on keeping inflationarypressures from going out of hand, while the influx offoreign capital inflow added to the accumulated foreignexchange reserves. One of the more challenging tasks ofdevelopment facing Thailand is how to achieve a high rateof growth and yet maintain reasonable external balance.

Development Objectives

The following development objectives are envisagedin the Third Five-Year Plan.1

(1) To help strengthen national security inview of the intimate interrelationshipsbetween the national economic well-beingand national security. It is recognizedthat economic development is a sine quanon of national security and vice versa.

(2) To redress the current economic reces-sion and to cope with the economicproblems anticipated during the planperiod.

(3) To correct the balance of paymentsdifficulties thereby preventing theheavy drawing down of foreign exchangereserves.

(4) To maintain economic stability.

(5) To raise the income level and thestandard of living of the populationresiding in the outlying areas.

(6) To decentralize the public servicesso that they reach all strata of thepopulation.

/The Third Plan, pp. 91-92.

17

(7) To slow down the rate of populationgrowth by providing assistance infamily planning to the needed families.

(8) To create job opportunities to absorbthe increase in population, both in theurban and rural areas.

Development ''ar et s

In line with the above objectives and following

the policy guidelines mentioned above, the followingoverall development targets have been set for the Third

Plan period.1

(1) To raise the national income at anaverage rate of 7 per cent per annum.This targeted growth rate compareswith the actual growth of 8.1 and 7.2per cent per annum achieved duringthe First and the Second Plan periods

respectively. The Third Plan contends,however, that with the slowing down ofthe population growth to the 2.5 percent growth rate targeted for 1976,the per capita income growth would behigher than an average rate of 4 per

cent realized during the Second Planperiod.

(2) To maintain adequate foreign exchangereserves in order to assure Thailand'sstrong international position.

(3) To maintain economic stability and togear production to the market demand.

To achieve the targeted growth rate with economic

stability, public investment expenditures will be increased

at an average rate of 8.5 per cent per year during the

Third Plan period to the level of 15.5 billion baht in

1976. This c,rowth in investment expenditures will be lower

than the 9.1 per cent average rate of increase plannedfor in the Second Plan. Private investment expendituresare estimated to grow to 30.5 billion baht in 1976,

1lbid., P. 96.

18

representing a 7.3 per cent average rate of growth per year.Table IV indicates the targeted national expenditures duringthe Third Plan period compared with those during the earlieryears.

Under the Plan, total domestic expenditures willincrease at an average annual rate of 7.5 per cent comparedwith a 7 per cent annual growth in production. Thus it isbelieved that there will not be a violent change in theprice level if production and expenditures are more or lessin line with the Plan.

The performance of the foreign trade sector loomslarge in the development planning of Thailand. The exportgrowth of 7 per cent per annum is considered a reasonabletarget, while, in order to correct the balance of paymentsdifficulties, the import growth for the plan period is setau a low level of 2.8 per cent per annum compared with theannual growth of some 7 per cent during the previous fiveyears.

The sectoral production targets under the Plancompared with the estimated performance in 1971 are shownin Table V.

In line with the anticipated growth of differenteconomic sectors and with the public policies to be effected,it is estimated that jobs will be created for 19.5 millionpeople representing an increment of job opportunities for2.6 million persons during the plan period. Compared withthe estimated growth in the labour force, the size ofemployment generation implies that some 80,000 additionalpersons will be added to the rank of the unemployed duringthe Third Plan period.

The sectoral employment targets imply a slightchange in the employment structure as indicated in Table VI.

Sectoral Development Projects

Agriculture

The agricultural sector continues to assume acentral position in the Third Plan. The prime objectivesin agricultural development are to raise the level of liv-ing of the agricultural population, to enlarge the foreignexchange earning capacity, to reduce rural underemploymentand to promote the organization of farmers to foster their

19

TABLE IV

Targeted National Expenditures

(billion baht)

1966

1970

Second Plan

Average A-inual

Rate of Increase

(1967-71)

%

1976

Third Plan

Average Annual

Rate of Increase

(1972-76)

%

Public Sector

Consumption Expenditures

9.3

16.9

14.8

24.7

6.1

Investment Expenditures

6.7

10.0

9.1

15.5

8.5

TOTAL

16.0

26.9

12.4

40.2

7.0

Private Sector

Consumption Expenditures

66.7

93.9

7.8

140.4

7.1

Investment Expenditures

13.6

20.5

10.4

30.5

7.3

TOTAL

80.3

114.4

8.3

170.9

7.2

Foreign Sector

Experts of Goods and Services

I19.3

22.1

3.8

28.7

4.4

Imports of Goods and .Services

- 19.7

-29.3

8.2

-34.0

3.3

TOTAL

-0.4

-7.2

--

5.3

-

Total Domestic Expenditures

- 95.9

134.1

8.1

205.8

7.5

Source:

National Economic Development Board, The Third Five-Year Economic and Social Development Plan,

Bangkok 1972, Table 3, p. 105

TABLE V

Sectoral Production Targets

(in 1962 prices)

(billion baht)

Sector

1971 Production

(estimated)

GDP

%Target in 1976

GDP

%

Annual Average

Growth Rate (%)

1967-71

1972-76

Agriculture

37.3

29.5

47.8

26.8,

4.1

5.1

Crop

26.0

20.5

32.5

18.2'

2.7

4.6

Livestock

3.9

3.1

4.7

2.6

2.4

3.4

Fishery

4.3

3.4

6.9

3.9

17.3

10.0

Forestry

3.1

2.5

3.7

2.1

6.5

3.4

Mining and Quarrying

2.1

1.7

2.8

1.6

8.3

6.0

Industry

21.4

16.9

31.4

17.6

9.2

8.0

Primary Processing

6.5

5.2

8.3

4.6

5.1

4.8

New Industries

14.8

11.7

23.1

13.0

11.4

9.2

Construction

8.4

6.6

11.7

6.6

8.4

6.5

Utility

1.9

1.5

5.9

2.2

19.0

15.0

Communications and Transport

8.6

6.8

11.5

6.5

7.5

6.0

Trade

20.5

16.2

29.3

16.4

7.5

_7.0

Banking Insurance and Real Estate

5.1

4.1

11.0

6.2

14.4

15.0

Residential Construction

2.4

1.9

2.7

1.5

4.1

2.5

Public Administration and Defence

5.7

4.5

7.6

4.3

10.0

6.0

Service

13.0

10.3

18.5

10.3

8.8

7.0

GDP

126.4

100.0

178.2

100.0

7.2

7.0

Source:

NEDB, The Third Five-Year Economic and Social Development Plan, Bangkok, 1972, Table 1, p.98

TABLE VI

Employment Estimates Under the Third Plan by Sector

Sector

Employment

Incremental

million

%persons

1972

1976

1

million

persons

cy do

million

persons

Agriculture, forestry,

hunting, fishing

13.076

77.4

14.606

75.1

1.530

59.7

Mining and Quarrying

.051

0.3

.066

0.3

.015

0.6

Industry

.751

4.2

.785

4.0

.C70

2.7

Construction

.150

0.9

.191

1.0

.041

1.6

Utility

.042

0.2

.066

0.3

.024

1.0

Trade

1.278

7.6

1.688

8.7

.410

116.0

Communication

Warehousing, Transport

.317

1.9

.404

2.1

.087

3.4

Service

1.273

7.5

1.658

8.5

.385

15.0

TOTAL

16.920

100.0

19.464

100.0

2.562

100.0

Source:

Nr;DB, The Third Five-Year.Economic and SocialDevelopment Plan, Bangkok, 1972

Table 3, p. 194.

own as well as national interests.1

The overall target for agricultural developmentduring the Third Plan period is to increase the agri-cultural production at a rate of not less than 5.1 per centper annum.2 This targeted growth rate compares with anaverage rate of increase of 4.1 per cent per annum achievedduring the Second Plan period. In the pursuit of thisobjective) several development projects are proposed whichare summarized here.3

Research and extension are among the major projectsproposed. Attention is given to practical research intoways and means to increase per acre yield and to identifycrops suited to the local conditions for which there ismarket demand. An agricultural research centre will beset up in the North whose activities will include thepromotion of permanent cultivation as a measure againstslash-and-burn agriculture commonly practised by the hilltribes.

Fishery development is also an important aspectof the agricultural development programme. Marine fisheryis given special attention with a view to increase thesupply of protein food for domestic consumption and toincrease export earnings.

Important among the livestock development pro-grammes is the promotion of beef cattle for local consump-tion as well as for export.

As the destruction of forest resources has becomea serious natural concern during the past few years, theforest development programme includes forest surveys,reforestration and forest conservation.

The Plan does not provide for any radical changein the land holding system although there has been muchtalk lately about a land reform programme, the nature ofwhich has not yet been made clear.

1Ibid., p. 221.

2Ibid., p. 99.

3The following paragraphs are a summary of important sectoral develop-ment projects proposed in the Third Plan, no specific references willbe given.

23

3 0

At present, some 096,000 farm families or 14 percent of the total of $1000,000 families belong to sometape of agricultural institution, which includes agricul-tural cooperatives, farmers' associations and privateirrigation associations. The Third Plan contemplatessetting up multi-purpose cooperatives in which productionand marketing activities are integrated for the benefit ofthe members.

Large irrigation projects were started under theFirst and the Second Plans but none is contemplated duringthe Third Plan period. Emphasis has been shifted to thecompletion of the distribution systems connecting the damsand the reservoirs with the farms.

An element in the agricultural development packageis the provision of agricultural credits by the Bank forAgriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives. It is estimatedthat at the end of 1970, some 10 - 15 per cent of the totalagricultural credit needs were supplied by some type ofagricultural institution.

Also included in the agricultural development pro-grammes is the provision for additional warehouses, silosand other storage facilities, and the provision of equip-ment and pesticides at reasonable prices.

Industry and Mining

The overall target for industrial development isto increase industrial production at an annual rate of 8per cent, raising the share of industry in the GrossDomestic Product to 17.6 per cent at the end of the ThirdPlan period. The strategy in industrial development isto encourage private investment by appropriate policymeasures. The Industrial Promotion Act will be revised togive special privileges to export industries, importindustries with high value added and industries to be setup outside the metropolitan region.

Elements of the industrial development programmealso imclude the promotional activities of the IndustrialFinance Cooperation of Thailand which will be geared toserving priority industries mentioned above. It isestimr-ted that the demand for funds to be supplied by theFCT during the Third Plan period will amount. to 1,700

million haht. In addition to financing services, technicalassistance and training programmes will be offered to some300 small businesses a year.

24

3i

Another project of high priority in the industrialdevelopment programme is the proposal to set up an Indus-trial Estate Committee to study and make recommendationson matters of zoning, including free port and exportpromotion zoning. Other auxiliary industrial promotionservices include standardization of industrial productsand the establishment of industrial information centres toserve the information needs of both the private and thepublic sectors.

The Third Plan enumerates a list of private indus-tries to be given high priority, which include mining andmineral processing, food processing, machine tools, chemi-cal and petroleum industries, steel sheeting, animalproducts industries, automobile assembly and other indus-tries requiring locally produced raw materials such aspaper manufacturing, toy and furniture making, and tanning.

Trade and Service

Projects for the development of the trade andservice sectors include the improvement of the marketingsystem by creating facilities needed for the efficientfunctioning of the market, e.g., warehouses, silos andstorage facilities at different stages of the marketingchannel, the agricultural price support programme and theestablishment of marketing boards for major agriculturalproducts.

Realizing that foreign exchange earning capacityis strategic in the development process, the Plan attachessubstantial importance to foreign market research, tradeexhibition and trade information services.

In the service sector, attention will be given tothe development of insurance and tourist industries.

Communications and Transport

In contrast to the previous two Plans under whichdevelopment efforts in the field of land transport hadconcentrated on the building up of important major nationaltransport networks, the Third Plan aims at improvement ofthe feeder and rural road systems. Construction of theroad systems to relieve the traffic congestion in themetropolitan region is also given special emphasis in thePlan.

25

32.

In connection with air and water transportation,economic and engineering feasibility studies of the secondinternational airport and deep sea port will be conductedduring the Third Plan period.

Communications development includes the extensionof the telephone network both within and outside the metro-politan region and the installation of additional televi-sion stations in the northern and southern regions.

Power

Power development projects covered in the Planinclude the installation of both production facilitiesand the distribution system to accommodate the anticipatedincrease in the demand of the industrial users. As partof the effort to diffuse development benefits to the out-lying areas, a widening of the rural electric power systemis contemplated. A feasibility study of the oil pipe linesconnecting the East with the Northeast and the South isalso planned. The third phase of the economic and engineer-ing studies of the Pamong Project (lower Makhong basin) isalso scheduled during the Third Plan period.

Social Development

Two objectives are of overriding importance in theminds of the Thai social development planners. The firstis the improvement of welfare of the population while thesecond aims at changing the attitudes, behaviour and modesof living of the people in keeping with the times. It isofficially admitted that the material gain brought aboutby the development effort of the last decade brings withit a host of social problems. In the eyes of the planners,the social problems that should be given adequate attentioninclude unemployment, both urban and rural, land fragmenta-tion, rural migration, employment safety and the cultural"tensions" concurrent with the development process. Tocope with these problems, the Plan proposes a number ofdevelopment measures which include rural public works,provision of information on the labour market. labourtraining, a more efficient land allocation system, com-munity development, revision of the existing labour lawsto provide for an appropriate collective bargaining pro-cess, extension of the welfare services for underprivilegedgroups, religious training in schools, and renovation andpreservation of historical sites and shrines.

26

33

Urbanization and Local Development

The Plan pays special attention to the urbanizationproblems in the metropolitan region admitting that publicinvestment in the social overhead facilities has heretoforebeen inadequate. The urban problems as visualized by theplanners include the lack of comprehensive city planning,housing shortage and increasing slum areas, shortage ofwater supply, traffic congestion, sewage and drainage pro-blems, and almost a total lack of parks and recreationalactivities.

To remedy the situation, it is proposed that theCity Planning Act be promulgated during the first years ofthe Plan, that the metropolitan government be revised toensure greater efficiency, that the now scattered housingauthorities be amalgamated to take charge of all publichousing activities, the water works authority be reorga-nized, a metropolitan traffic plan be drawn up, a specialroad authority be set up, and the construction of sewageand drainage systems be started.

Health

Standing out among the major programmes in thedevelopment of the health sector are the family planningprogramme aiming at reducing the population growth rate to2.5 per cent per annum by the end of the Third Plan periodand the programme for rural health which includes, amongother things, the improvement of nutrition for the youngrural population and the provision of the v....11age watersupply.

Education

Educational development activities encompass theupgrading of the different levels of education as well asincreasing the number of school enrolment. For primaryeducation, the programme includes increasing the numberand upgrading the quality of the teachers as well as theprovision of teaching materials to needy children. Thestrategic stage in the primary education ladder thatreceives special attention in the Third Plan is the lastleg of the ladder, i.e., Grades 5 through 7, where it isestimated the school enrolment will jump from 32 per centof the number of the Grade 4 population to 50 per cent bythe end of the Third Plan period,

27

For secondary education, the development activitiesinclude the expansion of this level of education into someadditional 180 districts where no secondary schools nowexist and the improvement of special comprehensive secondaryschools in the rural areas. To strengthen the quality ofsecondary education run by private schools, a private schoolteachers' training centre is contemplated.

Development programmes for vocational educationinclude the improvement of agricultural and industrialvocational schools, which is an extension of the activitiesstarted during the first two plan periods, and the strength-ening of the vocational teachers' training programme.

The guiding philosophy in the development of highereducation under the Third Plan is to stress the quality ofeducation in applied scientific fields, i.e., medicine,agriculture, science and education. Enrolment at theuniversity level is expected to increase from 45,100 atpresent to some 63,500 by the end of the Third Plan period.

Policy Instruments

Policy instruments and measures envisaged in theThird Plan can be classified into four major groups:1

(1) those designed to correct the present andanticipated balance of payments diffi-culties;

(2) those designed to maintain economicstability;

11(3) those designed to promote the desired

change in economic structure; and

(4) long term measures which will providecontinuity in the planning process.

Policies on the Foreign Trade Sector

As the foreign trade sector is considered to be alimiting factor on growth during the Third Plan period,several policy instruments are contemplated and made expli-cit in the Third Plan.

1Ibid pp. 107-133.

28

35

(1) Export promotion measures. Three broadpolicy measures are proposed to boost ex-port earnings during the Third Plan period:

(a) promotion of the line of export inwhich Thailand has a clear comparativeadvantage by way of tax incentives de-signed to lower the cost of production;

(b) public investment in overhead facilitiesto bring down the transport and servicecomponents in the cost of exports, e.g.,expansion and improvement of the portfacilities; and

(c) encouragement of private investment insilos and warehousing facilities forexporting agricultural produce is alsocontemplated.

(2) Measures to improve the import structureconsist of:

(a) tax measures designed to reduce con-sumption by the wealthier classes ofluxury goods having high import con-tents;

(b) promotion of import substituted pro-ducts such as cotton, tobacco, pulp,iron. ore and dairy products; as it isrecognized that there is a long gesta-tion period in promoting these products,the plan proposes that pending the suc-cessful implementation of this programme,the products may be imported throughlong term financing to alleviate currentpressures on the balance of payments;

(c) discouragement of imastment in theproduct lines already having excesscapacities so as to prevent wastes inimport contents; these industries willbe encouraged to make fuller use oftheir capacities so that capital importcapacities may be released for use inother industries; and

(d) outright curtailment of consumptiongoad imports by way of tariff and, ifnecessary, by direct import control.

29

In addition, activities which bring in foreignexchange, e.g., tourism, airlines and shipping industrieswill be promoted while foreign exchange using activitiesincluding foreign travel by Thai citizens will be dis-

couraged.

Measures to Maintain Economic Stability

The Plan is quite explicit in admitting thatduring the Third Plan period the Thai economy will be in

an unfavourable financial position. During the periodunder the first two Plans the economic expansion has beenaccompanied by the built-in-stabilizers as tax revenuesand cash on hand had accumulated along the way siphoningoff the potential excess monetary demand. At the beginningof the Third Plan period the economy has turned into a lull,thus taxing the capability of the government to effectspeedy adjustment. To correct the situation the followingfiscal and monetary policies are proposed:

(1) Tax incentives will be given to export-oriented industries to assist in therecovery of the economy. It is re-cognized, however, that this measure,unacc'mpanied by the collection ofother taxes, will reduce the tax basethus limiting the capability of thegovernment to undertake needed develop-ment activities. Thus the long termplanning and implementation of theoverall tax reform programmes is deemednecessary for development and equitypurposes.

(2) Ways and means will be found to effectspeedy disbursement of public funds.In the past the ratio of.the actual dis-bursement and budgeted allocation hasshown a declining trend,thus creating anundesirable "fiscal drag ". A number offactors have accounted for this slowdisbursement process including inadequateoperation planning, cumbersome fiscal andbAdFetary management and tardiness on thepa::.t of the financial persok.nel.

(3) Revision of the public debt policy. At

present, the law stipulates a gross debt

ceiling at 20 per cent of the annualexpenditure budget, with the resultthat the size of net borrowing dependson the amount of loan repayment in aparticular year regardless of theeconomic conditions prevailing in thatyear. Thus the debt policy instrumentis rendered a less potent tool foreconomic stabilization. The plan pro-poses that the ceiling should be stipu-lated on a net basis.

(4) Improvement of debt management. In thepast, the government has primarily reliedon long term debt financing, i.e., issuinglong term bonds carrying high interestrate. This has at times resulted in anincongruent stabilization policy, i.e.,long term bonds are issued at times ofeconomic recession while it should havebeen more appropriate to issue short term,highly liquid treasury bills. Thisinappropriate use of the public debtinstrument, apart from rendering it a lesspotent stabilizer, has also resulted inhigh financial costs. A reorientaticn ofthe debt management is thus required.

(5) A more effective monetary policy. Theplanners believe that the history ofmonetary policy has accounted for muchof the economic stability experiencedby the economy. During the Third Planperiod, it is proposed that apart fromthe maintenance of stability, the monetarypolicy should have as one of its objec-tives the promotion of the desired changein the economic structure by using selec-tive credit policies as promotionalmeasures.

Measures to Promote the Desired Change in the EconomicStructure

It is recognized that agriculture will continue tobe the most important sector of the Thai economy, at leastin the foreseeable future, while at the same time it hasbecome increasingly apparent that reliance on traditionalagriculture will not pay off. To accommodate the change

31

in the world demand structure while keeping agriculture atthe front linepthe following measures are proposed in thePlan:

(1) Strengthening the market for Thai rice.Apart from the abolition of the ricepremium (the rice export tax) systemand the sale of rice on a long termfinancing plan both of which had becomeeffective prior to the promulgation ofthe Third Plan, the Plan also advocatesthe sale of rice on a barter basis andmore aggressive trade policies towardsimporting counLries.

(2) Improving agricultural productivity.The programme instruments include theintroduction and extension of superiorstrains for priority crops, i.e., maize,soybean and coconut; the improvement ofirrigated agriculture; allocation ofland to landless peasants and the liberalprovision of agricultural credit.

(3) Adjustment of the industrial structure.Measures will be given to promote priorityindustries by way of tax measures and pro-vision of industrial credits on liberalterms. Industries on the priority list,include those with good export prospects,labour intensiv, industries requiringdomestically produced raw materials andindustries which can be put up outsidethe metropolitan region.

(4) Promotion of the housing industry. Thisindustry is singled out in the Plan forspecial consideration because it is animmediate job creator and because it hasa low import content.

(5) Development of national resources. At-tempts in this area will be directedtowards surveys of natural resources suchas land, water, forest and mineral re-sources and the introduction of efficientutilization process consonant with theconservation requirements.

32

39

Long Term Policy Instruments

To provide continuity between the Third and sub-sequent Plans and to indicate the direction where theeconomy is going) the following guidelines are offered inthe Third Plan:

(1) Agriculture will continue to be the mostsingle important sector but changes in thecomposition of the sector towards moremodernized elements will be necessary.Agriculture-related industries and serviceswill be promoted and encouraged.

(2) Thailand will continue to subscribe to thefree market system within the framework ofoverall social benefit principle. As such,the government will play an important rolein formulating development policies as wellas implementing these policies. It willactively guide the development efforts,both in the public .end the private sectors.Thus cooperation between the government andthe business community is to be activelysought and maintained.

(3)

(4)

The diffusion of economic growth among theregions is considered an important develop-mental goal. Efforts will be directedtowards seeking active participation in thegrowth process by the different groups,especially by the farmers who form the bulkof the population.

Population planning has become a long termmeasure to achieve a reasonable balance inthe man-resource ratio. Population controlactivities have still been limited but thefact that there is an official populationpolicy which is publicly proclaimed is animportant step forward.

The Role of the Private Sector

Every development plan has advocated the efficientfunctioning of the free market system subject to the socialbenefit constraint. Public development efforts thus farhave been directed towards providing social overhead facili-ties needed for the private sector's development, and

33

40

BE% COri

towards developing measures affecting the nature and thedirection of the private sector's growth.

It is estimated that during the Third Plan period,the demand for investible funds originating from the pri-vate sector would amount to 13,100 minion baht comparedwith 92,000 million baht estimated under the Second Plan.'The private sector's demand constitutes some 67 per centof the total demand for investible funds during the ThirdPlan period. A large amount of these fund requirements isexpected to be supplied by retained earnings, the unorga-nized market and foreign sources, while about 15 per centis estimated to be generated from the organized financialinstitutions and money and capital markets. Table VIIindicates the different sources of investible funds.

Special attention is paid in the Third Plan to theidentification of the measures to induce the organizedfinancial market to make greater contributions to thedevelopment of the private sector. The whole gamut of thepublic policy measures includes: (1) the special privilegesto be granted to the commercial banks which are activelyinvolved in providing agricultural credits and loans forlocal development; (2) extension of rediscounting servicesoffered by the Central Bank to the commercial banks, theBank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives and theIndustrial Finance Corporation of Thailand; (3) greaterequity participation by the government in the capitalstructure of the Bank for Agriculture and AgriculturalCooperatives; and (4) designing a more effective controlsystem for insurance companies, aiming at increasing publicconfidence in their transactions. Several measures arealso contemplated to develop a small and young capitalmarket in the country, including legal and tax measuresdesigned to encourage the creation of public companies,private pension and provident funds.

The role assigned to the private sector can bebetter appreciated by investigating the public policiestowards its main competitors, i.e., the state enterprises.A state enterprise is legally defined as one in which allor more than 50 per cent of the equity capital belongs tothe government.2 As defined, there are at present 80 stateenterprises, 49 of which the government possesses total

libid, p. 142.

2Ibid., p. 146.

34

4i,

TABLE VII

Sources of Inveetible Funds in the Private Sector 1972-76

(million baht)

Domestic corporate and household savings

96,700

Foreign sources

13,850

Financial institutions

20,450

Commercial Banks

12,500

Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural

Cooperatives

3,250

Industrial Finance Corporation of

Thailand

1,700

Small Business Finance Office

300

Insurance Companies

200

Money and Capital Markets

2,500

TOTAL

131,000

Source:

The NEDB, The Third Five Year NationalEconomic and Social Development Plan,

p. 142.

Note:

Net Investment.

ownership, the rest being partially owned.1 The develop-ient expenditures of state enterprises were estimated at8,655 million baht in the First Plan, 9,858 million bahtin the Second Plan and 21,257 million baht in the ThirdPlan.2 The figures for the first two Plans are not com-parable to the one estimated for the Third Plan as thelatter includes both the expenditures on "developmentprojects" and the investments in regular assets while theformer includes the first type of expenditures only.

The past performance of the state enterprisesduring the first two Plans left much to be desired, asexplicitly admitted in the Third Plan. Major difficultieswhich have accounted for poor performancel and in somecases, outright losses, are listed below:3

(1) Poor management. It is found that manystate enterprises have not formulatedlong range plans for their operations,resulting in misallocation of invest-ment funds, inadequate control systemand poor staffing.

(2) Inadequate market research and marketingplanning. This has resulted in poor saleperformance and high cost of sales.

(3) Poor accounting and performance reportingsystem. This gives rise to inadequateworking capital and cash management.

(4) Some state enterprises have travelled farfrom the territories demarcated for themby laws and by public policies to competedirectly with the more efficient privateenterprises.

(5) Profitable public enterprises have tendedto reinvest their profits in lines whichmay not be consonant with the nationaldevelopment objectives while in some casesit might have been more desirable to

1lbid.

2Ibid., p. 149 Table 2, pp. 156-157.

3I bid., pp. 152-153.

36

43

transmit earnings to the public treasuryfor better utilization elsewhere.

To remedy the situation) the following policyguidelines concerning public enterprises are proposed inthe Third Plan.'

(1) The enterprises to be given support tomaintain their present state enterprisestatus are:

(a) public utilities;

(b) enterprises requiring substantialinvestment with low t-cqpomic returnsduring the initial period but withgood prospects for substantial sub-sequent returns; once self-supporting,these will be sold off to the privatesector;

(c) enterprises which are security relatedmonopolies which must be reserved forthe government for revenue purpose andthose which should be government runfor the purpose of training and increas-ing the Thai entrepreneurial ability;the merit of maintaining the stateenterprise status of the enterprises ofthis nature will be considered on aspecific case basis; and

(d) enterprises which, if left to the pri-vate sector, would be monopolized, orenterprises which should be state ownedto maintain price stability.

(2) As a general rule, the state will not setup new enterprises nor expand existing onesto compete directly with private firms exceptin cases warranted by public interest andsecurity consideration.

(3) The government will tailor activities ofstate enterprises to place them in linewith the national development policies aswell as to improve their management toachieve efficiency.

lIbid., pp. 153-154.

44

37

(4) The government will review the activitiesof all state enterprises to ensure thatthe guidelines and policies originallylaid down for them are adhered to.

Administrative Machinery for Planning and Implementation

The administrative machinery for the developmentplanning and implementation has been evolving throughexperience and commitment, from a rudimentary skeletonsince the introduction of formal development planning inThailand to a more sophisticated and systematic machineryas it stands at present. The machinery may be discussedat the national, regional and local levels.

I. National Planning Machinery

Planning at the national level is carried out bythe cooperative efforts of the National Economic Develop-ment Board (the NEDB), the central planning agency, theindividual ministries and departments responsible fordevelopment activities in specific sectors, and the agenciesinvolved in central financial and fiscal functions, i.e.,the Bank of Thailand, the Budget Bureau, the Ministry ofFinance, and the Department of Technical and Economic Co-operation. The bulk of the central planning function restswith the NEDB whose activities are described below but thecoordination network extends to all of the agencies men-tioned above.

The National Economic Development Board is organizedinto three layers, i.e., the Board, the Executive Committee,and the Office of the NEDB which serves as the Secretariatof the Board.'

Members of the Board include the Prime Minister andthe Deputy Prime Minister, who serve as the Chairman and theVice-Chairman of the Board respectively, the Secretary-General of the NEDB, and other qualified members appointedby the Cabinet. The Board meets infrequently, usually oncea year, to decide on matters submitted to it by the Secre-tariat and to formulate broad policy guidelines.

1The planning machinery as well as the functions of the Office of the

NEDB are described in detail in Snoh Unakul, "History of Economic

Development Planning in Thailand", op. cit.

Operative functions are relegated to the ExecutiveCommittee of nine members who usually meet once a week todecide on matters within the jurisdiction of the NEDB. Thestaff work is carried out by the Office of the NEDB, whichis a government unit having a departmental status headedby a Secretary-General and attached to the Office of thePrime Minister.

The functions of the Office of the NEDB as pre-scribed by the National Economic Development Board Act areto:1

(1) propose, in the light of the analysis andexamination of the economic conditions ofthe country, for study by the NationalEconomic Development Board the economicdevelopment objectives and policies forachieving economic development and main-tenance of economic stability;

(2) evaluate, in cooperation with respectiveministries and departments, economic plansand development wojects originating fromsuch ministries and departments and toprepare an aggregate development plan fora given period of time in the light ofdevelopment objectives and availableresources as well as of the priority inallocating resources for approval by theNational Economic Development Board;

(3) examine maters concerning existing andpotential resources and propose for con-sid4ration by the Board alternativecourses of action by which the governmentmay meet its financial requirements;

(4) prepare recommendations, in cooperationwith the ministries and departments con-cerned, on matters involving acquisitionof assets by state enterprises and theirfinancing;

(5) investigate actual expenditures and bud-getary requests for the maintenance ofassets used in promoting economic develop-ment and make recommendations on therevision of such expenditures to ensureefficiency;

/Ibid., pp. 121-123.

39

(6) investigate actual expenditures and budget-ary requests for providing economic servicesand make recommendations on necessary revi-sions;

(7) evaluate requests for foreign technical andfinancial assistance and foreign loans,advise on project requests and coordinate,in cooperation with ministries and depart-ments concerned, foreign assistance requests;in this connection the Office of the NEDBmay recommend such additional assistancerequests as may be deemed necessary;

(8) investigate and make progress reports on theimplementation of development projects aswell as recommend more speedy action on, orre4rision and liquidation of, any projectsas may be deemed desirable;

(9) propose for consideration by the NationalEconomic Development Board any policy mea-sures designed to promote economic develop-ment;

(10) evaluate and prepare development plans ofcorporations and juristic partnerships whichare non-state enterprises but in which thegovernment has equity participation whensuch enterprises agree to abide by the pro-cedures laid down for state enterprises; and

(11) perform any other functions stipulated bylaws.

The proposals, recommendations and advice whichare not to be submitted to the Board must be placed beforethe Council of Ministers.

The list of the functions of the Office of theNEDB described above indicates the comprehensive nature ofthe activities performed by the Office. It should be noted,however, that in all cases no final authority rests withthe Office: either it must seek the approval of the Boarditself or it has to refer to the Council of Ministers.

Operating procedures followed by the Office of theNEDB may be briefly summarized here. All matters referredto the NEDB by the various ministries, departments and stateenterprises will be first studied by the staff economists

40

47

of the NEDB. This may involve joint efforts of the NEDBstaff and the staff of the ministries and departmentsconcerned. The matters are then s witted to the NEDBSecretary-General, who will then maze appropriate commentsor instructions on the matters and pass them on to theExecutive Committee of the Board for further consideration.The Executive Committee, in deliberating on the matters,usually requests the staff economists, or in some cases,the staff of the originating ministries and departments,to ?resent their arguments and then reach their own deci-sions. The matters may then be passed on to the PrimeMinister in his capacity as Chairman of the Board or maybe referred back to the Office of the Board as deemedappropriate.

Any matters to be submitted by the Office of theNEDB to the Board itself must be first scrutinized by theExecutive Committee of the Board.

As regards the relationships between the Office ofthe NEDB and the miniatries, departments and state enter-prises, the procedure is that the projects originatingfrom these organizations are studied jointly by their staffand the staff of the Office of the NEDB. By nature of itsstaff functions, the Office of the NEDB does not originatenor write up detailed projects for the operating depart-ments but will give advice on project preparation, projectanalysis and the analysis of the relationships of a givenproject to the overall development policies, the spillovereffects of a given project on other projects, and theinterrelationships between a given project and the aggre-gative resource constraints.

The planning functions of the Office of the NEDBrequire that close coordination be maintained between itand the Budget Bureau, which is responsible for the pre-paration of the overall annual budget. Especially impor-tant is the allotment of annual development and currentexpenditures in line with the expenditure pattern indi-cated in the Plan. At'present, there is a close workingrelationship between the Office of the NEDB and the BudgetBureau but there is room for improvement in their coordi-nating efforts. Firstly, it appears that the two agencieshave not reached agreement on the definition of the"development expenditures" and on the criteria to appraisea development project. Secondly, agreement should be madeon the progress reporting of the implementation of develop-ment projects so that annual budget allocation may be morein line with the economic justification as visualized bythe planners.

The interrelationships among the different compo-nents of the NEDB and between the NEDB and other agenciesare delicted in the following chart.

II. Regional Planning Machinery

Growing regional income disparity has been a majorconcern of the Thai government for quite sometime butattempts to find a solution to this widening gap by ad hocregional policy measures during the periods under the firsttwo plans had not proven successful and the regional incomedifferences grew wider. The realization that the regionaldimensions of the first two plans were inadequate has ledto a more systematic attempt at regional planning for theThird Plan.1

The country is geographically divided into fourregions: the North, the Northeast, the Central Plain andthe South. For development purposes, however, the NEDBclassifies the country into six development regions bysubdividing the Central Plain into three developmentregions: the Central, the East and the West, while keepingthe other geographical regions intact. A Regional Develop-ment Committee has been set up for each region with broadfunctions related to regional development. Two RegionalPlanning Projects have been initiated, one for the North-east (North East Economic Development Project, or NEED),the other for the North. A summary of the "plans!' for thetwo regions appear in the Third National Plan.2

III. Local Planning. Machinery

Two types of local plans may be distinguished fordiscussion purpose: those for local governments, and thosefor the provinces, the subsidiaries of the central govern-ment. The coverage of development activities of local

1For the history, techniques and principles of regional planning in

Thailand, see Snoh Unakul, "Principles and Policies in Regional

Planning", in Monetary and Fiscal Policies and Economic Development

Planning in Thailand, op. cit., ch. '2, in Thai.

2Actually what appears in the Third Plan are not the "plans" for the

two regions as such but rather brief statements of objectives policy

guidelines as well as some major sectoral development projects to be

undertaken in the two regions.

42 49

The Executive Committeeof the NEDB

Various National

Committees

Ministry of Finance

The Bank of Thailand

The Budget Bureau

The Prima Minister

Chairman of the NEDB

CamitteesSub CommitteesWorking Grays

AutonomousState

4.1 Enterprises

Department of Technicalland Economic Cooperation

1111111'

Ministries

and Departments

Specific DevelopmentCommittee appointed

by the Council ofMinisters

Other Organizationand Goverment

Institutions

Operating line

Coordinating relationshipaim Resolution of the Council of Ministers

Instruction of the Prime Minister

Source: Snoh Unakul, "History of Economic Development Planning

in Thailand," .gp, oil, p.124.

43

st)

governments under the first category includes the develop-

ment or the Bangkok Municipality and the development of

activities of al: other local governments. The plan for

these local governments is treated as an integral part ofthe Third National Plan and appears as its 14th chapter.However, the plans for provincial development in the North-eastern region do not appear in the Third National Plan.

The section of the Plan or Bangkok Municipalityincorporates a broad assessment of anticipated major urbanproblems of which four were singled out: city planning,housing, wate..-. supplies and traffic congestion; a list of

major measures and projects envisaged during the Five-YearPlan period; and the size and sources of financing. For

other local governments, the content of the plan: generallyfollows the same pattern.

The local plan of this type was prepared throughthe joint effort of the local government organizations arid

the NEDB, the central planning agency. The NEDB sent outquestionnaires to be filled out by the local governmentsstating their plans of operation: for the five-year periodas well as the anticipated size and sources of fina.lcing.

The sources of financing include the local governmeni-stown revenues and grants from the central government. The

programmes and projects were then submitted to the NEDBthrough the Department of Local Administration and werescr.aened and adjusted by the NEDB planning staff and thestaff of other agencies concerned with local governments.The coverage of the local development plan as appeared inthe National Plan is not limited only to those activitiesto be performed by the local governments themselves but

also extended to the provision of public facilities in thelocal areas by the various central government agencies.

The link between the local plan of this type andthe regional plans is non-existent, simply because thelocal plan covers the development activities in specificlocal jurisdiction while the regional plans deal witheconomic sectors ignoring the spatial dimension. The localplan and the national plan save linked together simply bythe fact that the former is treated as one of the "sectors"of the latter, and also that some of the local developmentfinds will have to be financed from the central governmentgrants.

Apart from the plan for local government organiza-tions, which appears as a separate l'sectoru of the NationalPlan, there are 15 Provincial bevelopment Plans prepared byeach of the province in the Northeast, which have been

44

singled out for an experiment on provincial planning onaccount: of the relatively urgent need for local develop-ment of this region.'

Each Provincial Plan is prepared by the Provin-cial Planning Project Committee appointed from provincialofficials. The Committee is assisted in technical mattersby the centrally appointed Provincial Planning WorkingGroup, chair d by the Director-General '7.f the Departmentof Local Administration with representatives from centraloperating agencies involved in local development as mem-bers. The NEDB has also prepared a provincial planningmanual for the local committees to ensure consistency inmeth.)dology. Coverage includes macro considerations suchas economic and social situations of the province, develop-ment objectives, financing and sectoral development pro-jects. Development activities of all operating agencies,including the.local governments, planned to be undertakenin a province are included in the Provincial Plan. TheProvincial Plans, upon completion, are supposed to be sub-mitted to the Regional Development Committee for inclusionin the Regional Plan, and ultimately passed on to the NEDBfor inclusion in the National Plan. Thus the links betweentile three levels of plans will be more or less formedthrough the process of summation along the sectoral andfunctional dimensions. At present, these links have notyet been established.

Machinery for Plan Implementation

Implementation of a plan may be discussed at twolevels: implementation of policies and measures proposed inthe plan and execution of development projects by operatingagencies. At the national level, planned policies and mea-sures are implemented through the resolution of the Councilof Ministers, the highest executivc body, and, in somemajor cases, through the legislative acts. The executionof development projects is translated into annual implemen-tation through the annual budgetary process.

The NEDB has access to the highest politicalleadership through a number of channels. Organizationally,the Prime Minister chairs the Board while members of theCabinet serve as advisors to the Board. The Board members

1For details in provincial planning, see Snoh Unakul "Techniques itProvincial Planning", in Monetar and Fiscal and EconomicDevelopment Planning in Thailand, op. cit., ch. 5, in Thai.

45

are drawn from qualified personnel in various fields. Themembers of the Executive Committee of the Board areappointed from high-ranking government officials andretired personnel usually well regarded by the politicalleadership. The Secretariat of the NEDB is attached tothe Office of the Prime Minister. Moreover, the Secretary-General of the Board, who supervises the work of theSecretariat, Las access to the Prime Minister throughregular briefing sessions. Of course, access to the highpolitical leadership does not necessarily guarantee theapproval of the Council of Ministers of policies and mea-sures proposed by the NEDB, but on the whole the degree ofsuccess has been fairly high. In this connection, however)it should be noted that the NEDB as the central planningagency has contributed relatively little in terms ofs?ecific economic policy matters except to lay down broaddevelopment guidelines.1

At the operating level, the working relationshipsbetween the Budget Bureau, the NEDB, the concerned minis-tries and the Ministry of Finance are crucial in translat-ing the plan into annual implementation. More will besaid on this matter later.

At the regional and local levels, implementationof the plans is constrained financially by the amount offinancial resources made available for spending directlyby the central operating agencies in the regions or in thelocal areas, or indirectly as grants to the local authori-ties as well as by the revenue proceeds of the localgovernments themselves. Given the limited tax collectionauthority of the local governments and the tax base, sizablecentral government grants are required each year to imple-ment the development projects, The Department of LocalAdministration and the Office of Accelerated Rural Develop-ment in the Ministry of Interior serve as the coordinatingbodies through which the central government grants aregiven to the local authorities. Grants are divided intothree categories: general and specific grants, and grantsfor primary education. The general grants are nominal andare given on welfare bases determined some years back whilethe specific grants are evaluated on a project basisinvolving the usual bargaining process between the coordi-nating bodies and the 'Budget Bureau. Grants for primaryeducation are given from the Ministry of Education's budgetto Provincial Administrative Organizations through the

1Snoh Unakul "Annual Planning in Thailand", in ibid., ch. 37, P. 542.

46

53

Department of Local Administration. A host of problemsand issues exist in the area of grant management, notablythe lack of systematic allocation procedure, inefficientgrant disbursement system and the problem of grant con-trol.1

1For detailed discussion of central government grants to municipali-tie:,,see Prasert Bunsue, "Grants for MuniciAlity", unpublishedM.A. thesis, National Institute of Development Administration, 1968.

47

iii. MAJOR PROBLEM AREAS

Technical Problems in Planning

As mentioned earlier, the planning process inThailand has been continuously improved from a mere as-

sembly of public development projects to a more detailedplanning with some sort of macro economic model to ensurc

the internal consistency of the plan. Yet several pro-blem areas can be identified where further improvement can

be made. To facilitate the discussion, the problem areas

may be classified according to their scope, i.e., at the

macro, micro and sub-national levels.

I. NaalmEsarlaratELITILaa.

Macro economic planning in Thailand involves thesetting up of the macro economic targets, establishingoverall economic balance, the estimation of the size ofpopulation, the financing of the plan as well as manpowerand employment planning.

The process of establishing mario targets and over-

all economic balance involves fixing the targets for exoge-

nous variables of which three are important: (1) export

earnings, government expenditures and the desired levelof foreign exchange reserves; (2) fixing the overall GDPgrowth target within the capacity constraints; and (3) thedevelopment of the expenditure model to test the consis-tency of the GDP estimates derived from production dataand the articulation of the government policy instrumentsto make the growth targets achievable.'

For forecasting purpose, exports are divided into

four major groups:2

(1) traditional exports including rice, rubber,tin and kenaf;

(2) significant products: maize, soybeans,groundnuts, shrimp, silk and livestock;

ISnoh Unakul, "Macro Economic Plan1Ling Methodology for the Third Plan",

in Monetary and Fiscal Policies Rnd Economic Development Planning in

Thailand, op. cit,.,77,74o.92c1.

2Ibid, pp. 493-494.

48

(3) products which have good export prospects,but whose production costs should bebrought down to be competitive in theworld market, include tobacco leaves,mungbeans, cotton, oilseeds, fluorite andcertain industrial products using localraw materials; and

(4) other export products.

Two working groups consisting of the staff of the operatingagencies and representatives from the private sector jn-volved in export trades were set up for the purpose.

The overall economic target of the Third Plan, i.e.,the GDP growth rate of 7 per cent per annum, was fixed onthree basic considerations:1

(l) The GDP growth rate should be sufficientlyhigh not to generate an unacceptable un-employment rate.

(2) The growth rates of respective sectors,the summation of which is an overallgrowth rate, shoUd be consistent withthe desirable changes in economic struc-ture as dictated by the change in thedemand structure.

(3) The overall growth performance should bewithin the capacity constraints in eacheconomic sector.

In determining the size and financing of the plan,the Office of the NEDB in preparing the Second Plan reliedon the incremental capital-output ratio which, when appliedto the estimated growth in output, gave the size of theinvestment required. In preparing the Third Plan thispractice is abandoned as it was believed that the incre-mental capital-output ratios computed were not realistic foran agricultural economy like Thailand where the vagaries ofclimate and world market conditions loom large.2 For theThird Plan, the expenditure model referred to above was con-structed and used to estimate the endogenous variables ofthe system. The exogenous variables include government

/Ibid., p. 495.

2lbid., p. 491.

investment and consumption expenditures, earnings fromexport of goods and services and proceeds from exporttaxes. The targets for these exogenous variables werearrived at through studies of each important item byspecial committees with the Office of the NEDB acting asthe coordinating body. The simultaneous solution to thesystem yields values for the Gross Domestic Product,private consumption and investment expenditures, and dif-ferent categories of imports.' This expenditure model wasused to test the GDP growth determined independently bythe production approach.

Three problems may be raised here. For a countrywhose exports are largely agricultural, the difficultiesin making accurate forecasts should be evident, given thevagaries of weather, the violent changes in the agricul-tural price levels in the world market, and the changesin the tariff and non-tariff policies of the importingcountries. A model which hinges heavily on the highlyuncertain future export earnings must therefore be takenvery cautiously. Moreover, no intensive foreign marketresearch activities exist to provide the planners withbasic information on which to make sound forecasts.

The second problem is concerned with the treatmentof private investment expenditures. For prediction pur-poses, the parameters obtained from a linear regression ofinvestment on changes in GNP might be employed in estimat-ing future investment expenditures. But as investment isan important determinant of the changes in GNP, one wouldprobably need to isolate the exogenous effect of invest-ment on changes in income. This gap has been partiallyfilled by treating government investment s an exogenousvariable. Yet one would be happier if the effect of thetotal investment expenditure on changes in income is takeninto account.

The third problem is that the reliability of theGDP estimates is determined in large part by the reliabi-lity of production data. It is known that agriculturalproduction data, despite the long history of collection insome cases, still leave much to be desire'' in t.Arms ofreliability and coverage. In the case of paddy productionwhich looms large in the national income estimation, forexample, there are at least four different data sourcesgiving conflicting figures. The time series collected by

/Ibid., pp. 500-506.

50

the Rice Department invariably indicate a lower productionthan what can be substantiated by the Agricultural Censusor by the per capita consumption figure revealed by theHousehold Expenditure Survey, and by the evidence fromcrop cutting surveys conducted by the National StatisticalOffice. In estimating annual production for nationalincome accounting purpose, the NEDB adjusted the RiceDepartment's figures by a correction factor determinedlargely from the result of a survey.'

Production data on other major crops and on live-stock were also adjusted by appropriate correction factors.

The criticism on the reliability of production dataloses some weight, however, if the interest centres aroundthe trend because in that case, consistency in the methodof estimation is of primary importance. The Office of theNEDB has apparently decided on the estimation method and .

revised the national account series back to 1960 using thesame estimating procedure.

Another data problem which should be noted hereis the inconsistency of the f.iscal year, the crop year andthe construction season. In 1961 the start of the fiscalyear was changed from January 1 to October 1 which is thebeginning of the long dry season during which governmentconstruction activities can be undertaken without inter-ruption. But the budget calendar requires that revenueand expenditure estimates be submitted for considerationto the cabinet by the middle of June so that the budgetmay take effect on October 1. Now the estimation ofrevenues hinges heavily on the estimate of the rice pro-duction, the planting of which starts only in June."Since the planting may be delayed in certain years andin certain parts of the country, and rice production maybe greatly affected by the course of rainfall during thegrowing season, it is extremely difficult to predictaccurately in May and June the amount of rice crop in thecurrent year ".2 This problem is particularly serious inconnection with annual planning.

The Office of the NEDB has become increasingly con-scious of the need for inter-industry analysis to establishplanning consistency among different sectors, and has for a

1See Office of the NEDB, National Income of Thailand 1968-69 edition,Appendix B, p. 190.

2Snoh Unakul, "Annual Planning in Thailand", op. cit., p. 529.

515

long time pushed for the construction of an input-outputtable for the economy of Thailand. It appears that a pre-liminary 54 x 54 table may be completed in time for thepreparation of the Fourth Plan.' Two basic problems maybe identified in this connection, i.e., the paucity of thedata needed and the lack of technical capabilities on thepart of the NEDB staff. A few inter-industry studies arebeing undertaken on a piecemeal basis by the NEDB but theseare a far cry from the workable inter-industry matrix. A

necessary data input for the construction of an input-output table is a good census of the industrial sector fromwhich inter-industrial technical coefficients may be com-puted. The first industrial census in Thailand was under-taken in 1964 covering the 1963-64 period,2 but the typesof the information obtained, inadequate coverage and theunreliability of the responses made the construction of theinput-output table unfeasible while the second industrialcensus is not yet in sight.

At present, a Japanese specialist is being assignedto the Office of the NEDB to get the inter-industry studyproject off the ground. No Thai technical counterparts,however, can be found to collaborate with the Japaneseexpert who is being assisted only by j"nior staff with noprevious exposure to this type of work.

Under the present circumstances, the best one couldhope for is what has been recommended by the Japanesespecialist, i.e., the construction of preliminary input-output matrix using technical coefficients which have beenfound to exist in other developing countries and frompiecemeal studies made by the NEDB.3 Given the lack ofdata and technical expertise on the part of the Thai staff,the construction of a comprehensive input-output matrixderived from local conditions does not appear likely beforethe Fourth Plan to be commenced in 1976.

Another weak spot in overall planning in terms ofthe quality of the data and the technique used is the plan-ning for manpower and employment. The objectives of manpower development are:

From an interview with the Chief of the Capital Formation Division,

Office of the NEDB.

`The National Statistical Office, Industrial Census, 1964.

3Fi,om an interview with the Chief of the Capital Formation Division,

Office of the NEDB.

52

59

(1) to generate sufficient employment toabsorb thr increasing labour force, and

(2) to improve the quality and quantity ofhuman resources needed for development.

The increase in the labour force was determined bythe growth in population and by the assumption on the anti-cipated participation rate. The Third Plan envisages adecline in the population growth rate from the present 3.2per cent per annum to 2.5 per cent per annum by 1976, theend of the plan period.1 This goal appears rather ambitiousgiven the existing high rate of growth and the small-scalefamily planning currently practised. The participationrate, however, is unlikely to undergo a radical change,especially in-the short run.

\

Other dubious assumptions were made in the projec-tion of the balance between future growth in the labourforce and the employment potential, the most important ofwhich are the projected labour productivity increases indifferent sectors. The indices of labour productivitywere given by the GDP per worker and assumptions were madeas to the likely changes in sectoral GDP per man.2 Missingfrom the calculation is the likely capacity utilizationrate, the probable changes in the choice of techniques andthe probable effects in the improvement of the organiza-tional methods on labour productivity.3 It is in thesespecific areas that research studies are needed to generatenecessary information for planning purposes.

II. Micro Planning

At the micro level, two major problems may be iden-tified. The first is that greater interest and more t:: mehave been devoted both by the central planning staff andthe staff of operating agencies towards project evaluation

1The Third Plan, p. 190.

4These same assumptions were made in manpower planning for the SecondPlan, see Office of the NEDB, "The Methodology for Preparing theSecond Economic and Social Development Plan of Thailand", op. cit.,PP. 59-60.

3Theee criticisms were voiced with respect to the Second Plan, inibid, and are also applicable here.

53

rather than piecing various development activities togetheras a package whole.' In other words, development activitiesare considered rather on a project basis but inadequateattention has been paid to sectoral programming.

Another problem is the lack of efficient informationsystem relevant for planning and implementing decisions.Good planning requires that important and relevant informa-tion be made available in a reasonably short time. It wouldbe pointless to expect the complete availability of allinformation needed for planning purposes but the presentinformation system is such that the available informationis not made in the form relevant for planning. A major-case in point is the classification of the project expendi-tures for budgetary approval. The budget is usually sub-mitted by operating units using the standard classification,i.e., salary, land and equipment, materials and supplies,etc., but this system of classification applies to thetotal budget propo.sed by the operating units and not at the

project level. In most cases, the expenditures proposedfor a given project appear as a lump sum, making it impos-sible for the planners to identify the different cost com-ponents of the project. Thus when the budget of an operat-ing unit is cut, the cut applies across the board affectingall projects, or certain cost components of all projects.Until the various cost components of the project can beidentified and grouped according to the standard classifi-cationithe process of budget allocation for developmentpurposes would be misguided.

III. Sub-national Plannins

At the sub-national level, a major problem lies in

the fact that the regional analysis and planning techniquesused were sectoral in nature based on conventional sectoralaccounts with little consideration of the spatial dimen-sions. The link between the regional plan and the nationalplans appears to be such as would tend to negate the wholeconcept of regional planning. For example, the developmentoutlays recommended for the Northeast by the North EastEconomic Development Planning Advisory Group was merely asummation of the public development expenditure estimatesproposed by various operating agencies to be included inthe Third National Plan and to be expended in the Northeast

1Snoh Unakul, "Annual Planning in Thailand", op. cit., p. 530 and pp.

553-554.

during the plan period.' Thus the national developmentfunds were merely regionalized on the sectoral basis in-stead of being allocated on the basis dictated by regionalcomparative advantages, existing as well as potential.This same observation is also applicable in the case ofprovincial planning which has been attempted in everyprovince in the Northeast region.

Political Constraints

Planning is an effective exercise insofar as it isfully accepted and given support by the highest politicalleadership. As has been indicated in several places inthis study, the Thai political leaders have begun to becommitted to planning as an instrument for national develop-ment. Several constraints, however, still have to be facedby the Thai planners, the major ones of which are summarizedhere.

Firstly, although the Council of Ministers as agroup is committed to planning and although several keyministers serve as advisors to the NEDB, this sense of com-mitment has not been equally shared among the top cabinetministers. There have been occasions where certain influ-ential cabinet members have shown apathy (and one may goso far as to say "outright antagonism") towards the NEDB,the central planning agency. The relationships between theministries and the Office of the NEDB depend very much alsoon the personalities of the top executives of the planningBoard itself. Over the years the relationships between theBoard and the operating agencies have been carefully culti-vated with the staff of the NEDB realizing that the burdenis on them to sell the planning ideas. Yet these relation-ships have left something to be desired, as evidenced bythe fact that important projects originating from theministries have not been submitted to the Executive Com-mittee of the NEDB for scrutinizing.

Secondly, by nature of their coordinating function,the planners have to come to grips with political jealousyamong operating agencies, especially when vested interestsare involved. Thus it may happen that certain projectsfall within the jurisdiction of an operating unit but donot get approved by the highest authorities on the groundsthat influential organizations will not get credit for the

1Phisit Pakkaeem, "Thailand's Northeast Economic Development Planning:A Case Study in Regional Planning", unpublished Ph. D. dissertation,University of Pittsburgh, 1972, p. 33.

55

job if they are not given the authority to execute theprojects. There is not much one can do about this poli-

tical reality as political infighting will always exist,but ways and means should be found to reach a compromisein one way or the other so that the projects get startedinstead of being in a state of impasse to the detrimentof the public.

Thirdly, the NEDB is directly concerned with plan-ning for development expenditures while the Budget Bureauhas the authority in the preparation of the annual budgetand the Ministry of Finance has the responsibility in mak-ing revenue estimates. The Budget Bureau generally acceptsthe Five-Year Plan as a guideline for budget preparationyet it could always exercise its "legal rights to make itsown judgements on the annual budget receipts and expendi-tures, whether developmental or non -developmental ".1 Anattempt has been made to institutionalize the coordinatingmachinery by setting up a high-level Financial Policy Sub-

committee. The Chairman of the NEDB Executive Committeeserved as Chairman of this Sub-committee and its othermembers were the Under-Secretary of State, Ministry ofFinance; the Director of the Budget Bureau; the Directorof the Fiscal Policy Office, Ministry of Finance; theGovernor of the Bank of Thailand; and the Secretary-Generalof the NEDB. As is true of numerous other committees andsub-committees, the lack of active participation of certainkey members has effectively put the Sub-committee out ofaction even before it started functioning. The coordinat-ing work has, however, continued through unofficial agree-ment among the parties concerned and also through personalcontacts outside of the official channels.2

Socio-cultural Constraints

There do not appear to be overriding socio-culturalconstraints acting directly upon the planning process inThailand. The individualistic nature of the Thai peoplemay make difficult the realization of group effort which isessential to the planning process but the national traitdoes not prevent planning to take place Also the pragmaticrather than the ideological approach to the pursuit ofnational goals automatically makes for flexibility in execu-ting the plan. This is all for the better as the changesin the circumstances may be adequately accommodated. There

1Snoh Unakul, "Annual Planning in Thailand", op. cit., p. 545.

2lbid., p. 546.

56 63

BEST .:OPY

always exists the possibility, however, that given indivi-dualism and pragmatism, planning may be taken too lightlyand hence no serious commitment is given to the planningprocess itself.

One may argue that the long subjugation of the Thaipeople to autocratic rule both before and after the adventof the constitutional monarchy makes it difficult to elicitthe popular participation of the masses in the planningprocess, thus rendering the bottom-up" approach planningan irrelevant concept in the case of Thailand. What appearsin the plan and what is undertaken by the government isalmost exclusively what the government or the plannersbelieve the people want. It is not fruitful, however, be-yond a certain point, to press for the type of planning asdictated by the "felt needs" of the populace as there arelimitations to the degree to which those "felt needs" canbe translated into a formal plan at the national level. Aproper place where this transformation of the public needsinto government action would seem to be at the local govern-ment level and it is here that popular participation hasnever been strong in Thailand. To cope with this problem.requires a major overhaul of the local government system,the subject of which cannot be adequately dealt with here.

Administrative Obstacles

Development planning and implementation operateswithin an administrative system which may impede or facili-tate the functioning of the planning process. The presentadministrative setup in Thailand poses a number of problemsin the organization for planning and implementation.

(1) Inadequate coordination among differentgovernment units concerned with essentiallythe same task. For example, at least threeorganizations are involved in the provisionof water supply to the rural population,i.e., the Department of Health, Ministry ofHealth; the Department of Mineral Resources,Ministry of Industry; and the Department ofLocal Administration, Ministry of Interior;but coordination among the three in termsof setting up priority lists in well diggingand scheduling is lacking. Also thereapparently has not been a coordinated effortamong the agricultural extension service,agricultural research organizations andagricultural credit institutions. Other

57

64

examples of the lack of coordinationamong government units can be adduced,especially in the field of industrialdevelopment and public utilities. Duringmore than a year of absolute rule afterthe coup in 1971, the National ExecutiveCouncil had attempted to simplify theadministrative setup and to facilitatecoordination among government units byamalgamating the units which had dupli-cating functions, such as putting .0-previously scattered housing activitiesunder the newly created National HousingAuthority, creating coordinating commit-tees, such as the Committee on PublicUtilities Planning, the Committee onRural Development, etc. These measuresconstitute a step forward in the attemptto achieve better coordination and shouldbe welcome a., they are long overdue.

(2) Excessive centralization of authority inthe capital city. The present admini-strative setup does not permit flexibleimplementation of the development planas the authority of the provincial gover-nors and district officials is quitelimited. There are many instances wherea provincial governor has to refer to adirector-general in Bangkok for approvalbefore he can disburse even a small sumincurred in executing rural developmentprojects.

(3) Bureaucratic personnel management Theweakness of the Thai civil service sys-tem has long been recognized and manyattempts have been made to improve theefficiency of the system. Underlyingthis poor state of affairs is the incen-tive system which does not encourage workproductivity. The low basic pay scale,the promotion scheme which rewards m...,dio-cre performance, and the fact that insome cases, individual talents are aotfully utilized because of misplacement,bureaucratic rules and regulations, leadto a demoralized civil service systemand the bidding away of scarce talentsby private enterprises. Although thenet loss to the government is a net gain

58

6S

to the private sector, the economy as awhole is likely to suffer from this"brain- drain" as the mediocre or down-right inefficient performance of theformer is likely to damage the function-ing of the latter. It is not impliedhere that all those who remain in theservice are of mediocre capability; onthe contrary, many have outstandingqualifications, but in order to supple-ment their income, not a few have tospread themselves thinly over severalpositions with the end result thatactivity is likely to suffer.

Manpower Constraints

Manpower constraints upon development planning inThailand apply to all levels: national, ministerial aswell as local. At the national the Office of theNEDB with its varied planning functions, has been and stillis understaffed. Table VIII below shows the number ofprofessional staff of the Office of the NEDB, the sourcesof their academic degrees.

TABLE VIII

Professional Staff of the Office of the NEDB

(1973)

Degree Doctorates Masters Bachelors Others Total

Foreign 4 76 16 8 104

Local . 11 100 1 112

rTOTAL 4 87 116 9 216

Source: From the file of the Personnel Section, Office of the NEDB.

The number of professional staff shown in the abovetable does not indicate the scarcity of the technical capa-bility in planning which is generally admitted.1

1See, for example, Snoh Unakul, "Annual Planning in Thailand ", ,op. cit.,p. 538.

59

G

Of the four doctorates listed, only one is ineconomics while the others are in mathematics, law andpublic affairs. The bulk of the bachelor's degree holdersare junior staff, who have limited experience having justgraduated from college. Yet, the scarcity of the technicalcapability is greatest at the middle and upper levels wherea high degree of professionalism is required. The number offoreign master's and bachelor's degree holders may lookimpressive but the figure does not indicate the effectivecontributions to planning capability of these personnel,as many of them lack the skills required.

Moreover, the manpower problem laced by the NEDBis that the rate of turnover of the professional staff israther high, especially at the strategic levels. The reasonbehind this is that highly capable personnel with years ofexperience behind them will naturally be offered positionselsewhere, which are more lucrative or more glamourous, orwhere there are better prospects for promotion. It isestimated that an average of three years of experience isrequired to produce a good economist-analyst.' The highrate of turnover of top professional staff having thestatus of the Chief of Division or higher will probablylengthen this gestation period. During the period of lessthan the past two years, the Office of'the NEDB has lostat least three top planners to other government organiza-tions, including a Deputy Secretary-General, the Directorof the Planning Division and the Director of the SocialDevelopment Projects Diision. More would probably haveleft had the "free transfer system" been operating. Butone doubts whether those who must stay because they are notallowed to move can contribute much to Lhe organizetion towhich they do not nbeloAge

Manpower problem at the ministerial and local levelsmay be briefly discussed. In the major reorganization ofthe administrative system made in late 1972 by the NationalExecutive Council, several planning units were set up, bothat the ministerial and departmental levels. At the minis-terial level, there are planning units at the Ministries ofAgriculture, Communications, Commerce, Education, Interiorand Health.

The creation of planning units at the ministeriallevel is a big step toward improving the planning processin Thailand, but much more experience is needed -on the part

1From an intorview with Mr. Krit Sombatsiri, Deputy Secretary-General

of the NEDB.

6?6o

of the planning staff in the way of project preparation andevaluation. Moreover, ministerial planning units withcertain exceptions are largely staffed by the personnel ineach ministry, who may claim the knowledge and expertise intheir own specialized fields but who have never been exposedto planning techniques and who lack appropriate knowledgein such planning aspects as social cost and benefit analy-sis, evaluation of economic choices, the repercussions ofthe project on other sectors and establishing a monitoringsystem for the project. The same observations are applica-ble in connection with the shortage of planning staff atthe local level.

61

68

IV. THE ROLE OF THE UNIVERSITY,

A Brief Description of Higher Education Development inThailand

The system of higher education in a country islargely shaped by the needs and aspirations of its arti-culate members. The universities and institutions ofhigher learning are called upon to play an important rolein fulfilling the manpower needs dictated by the currentstage of development. Apart from being expected to pro-duce technicians and intellectuals, the universities arealso expected to articulate the hopes as well as thedirection towards which the country is moving. The his-tory of higher education in Thailand reveals a closeinterrelationships between the nature and functions ofthe universities and the demands placed on them by thesociety.

The contact of Thailand with the West during thereign of Rama IV broLght with it a complex of forces work-ing toward modernization. The grim reality of the impe-rialistic expansionism threatening national security madeit clear that in order to survive, the country must some-how get on the road of modernization' which implies a hostof basic economic, social and administrative reforms. Thepragmatism of the Thai absolute rulers was clearly demon-strated in the outward looking approach toward accommodat-ing the change. The personal interest of the King Rama IVhimself in Western sciences and technology was also respon-sible for the acceleration of modernization. Contactswith the West through personal observations, commercialand cultural intercourses also widened the horizon ofchoices and perspectives of development potentials andopportunities on the part of the Thai ruling group.

The long history of absolute rule and the absenceof popular participation in the political process neces-sarily imposed upon the government the modernizing role.It was in this context that a higher education system inThailand was born.

The first Medical School in Thailand was founded in

1Ingram, or. cit., p. 33.

62

63

1889.1 Eight years later, a Law School was established inthe Ministry of Justice. In 1902, the Royal Pages Schoolwas set up to train young persons for government service;later in 1910, the name of the School was changed to thenCivil Servants! Schooln which would offer training inthe fields of education, medicine, agriculture, jurispru-dence, commerce, foreign relations, and public administra-tion. However, only the Engineering School was establishedin 1913.

The first university in Thailand was founded in1916 when the Civil Servants! School was elevated andnamed Chulalongkorn University incorporating the MedicalSchool and the Engineering School established previouslyin addition to the newly created Faculty of Arts andSciences and the Faculty of Political Science.

After the 1932 revolution, the University of Moraland Political Science was created, at first offering onlycourses in law and jurisprudence, and later in economics,commerce and political science.

It can thus be seen that the institutes of higherlearning were created to train men far the government ser-vice which needed to be improved, created and expanded tomeet the new challenges arising from changing conditions.As stated by a former Minister of Education of Thailand,"... the chief motive for the establishment of the firstuniversity in Thailand was mainly to train civil servantsto serve the numerous branches of the government of thecountry which was emerging from feudal past into the newera as a modern state, and concurrently fighting extremelyhard to survive and to keep intact her age long indepen-dence The University established at that time asmeant to meet the manpower needs as required in the attemptto run the country, fully determined to maintain its ownsovereignty and the independence of its people who h14c1never been under alien tutelage before".2

Following the creation of the University of Moraland Political Science, or Thammasat University as it isnow known, the creation of monocollegiate university wasapparently quite fashionable. Thus in 1942, the Faculty of

1Sukich Nimmanheminda, "Higher Education in Thailand", Journal of theNational Education Council, January 1970, p. 11. This article is

the main source of the material given in this section.

2lbid., p. 12.

63

70

Medicine was separated from Chulalongkorn University, andelevated to the University of Medical Sciences under theMinistry of Health. Kasetsart University (literally means"Agricultural Science University ") was created in 1943under the Ministry of Agriculture aiming at improving thefield of agriculture. In the same year, the SilpakornUniversity was established within the Ministry of Educationto engage in the study and preservation of Thai art andarchaeology.1

In an apparent attempt to improve the teachingprofession, and with the assistance offered by the U.S.government, the College of Education was instituted in1954 offering courses in the liberal arts in the firstyears and courses in educational profession it the lastyears. Educational research and educational administrationwere also the principal concerns of the College.2

The institution of the monocollegiate or the"single profession" universities under the jurisdiction ofdifferent ministries was not only characteristic of thehigher educational system of the country, i.e., to producetrained manpower needed in the different areas of thegovernment service but was also characteristic of the Thaibureaucracy in going it alone without adequate coordinat-ing effort in the light of overall assessment of thedemands placed on the higher educational system.

Following the 1958 coup which ushered in the eraof formal planning for economic and social development,the five existing universities (Chulalongkorn, Thammasat,Kasetsart, the University of Medical Sciences and Silpakorn)were all taken out of the then respective ministries andput under the jurisdiction of the Office of the PrimeMinister apparently to facilitate overall coordination andto make available greater financial support, while theCollege of Education was and still is left under the juris-diction of the Ministry of Education.3

Thailand has a long history of sending a limitednumber of her bright young men abroad for advanced trainingbut du/ ag the fifties these youngsters were sent abroad in

1lbid., p. 13.

2Ibid.

3Ibid.

64

great number for academic and professional training underthe auspices of the Thai government as well as a number ofinternational agencies, notably International CorporationAgency of the U.S. government. Toward the latter part ofthe decade, these promising young men had begun to returnhome and brought with them the technical skills they hadacquired from their respective places of learning, thehopes for their potential contributions to the nationalcauses as well as the frustrations necessarily broughtabout by the many limitations obstructing the realizationof their contributions. Many of these foreign trainedintellectuals and technicians were assigned to variousuniversities and other institutes of higher learning.

The widely felt urgency for the need for economicand social development planning with the attendent man-power requirements together with the fact that the trainedpersonnel had started coming back from abroad during thelate fifties and the early sixties led to increasing awa,e-ness on the part of the academic world of its role in thedevelopment process. This academic awakening resulted inthe attempt on the part of the universities to expand theircourse offerings, upgrade the quality of their facultymembers and set up graduate programmes in various fields.Courses such as the sciences and the humanities wereinitiated to provide a strong liberal arts orientationbefore specialized professional training was given. Toupgrade the quality of teaching staff, young facultymembers were sent overseas for further training, andfaulty research was encouraged.

The National Education Council was established in1959 to serve as the coordinating machinery as well as theclearing house for higher educational planning.

In an attempt to meet the increasing manpower re-quirements and to achieve a more geographically balancedeconomic and social development, regional universitieswere set up in different regions of the country, namely,Chiengmai University in the North in 1964, &ion KaenUniversity in the Northeast also in 1964 and the Prince ofSongkhla University in the South in 1968. It should benoted, however, that a major objective in setting up theseregional universities, namely, to induce local young peopleto enrol in their local universities in order to maximizethe contributions made by native talents is partiallycancelled by the enrolment system. Applicants into theuniversities are required to state their preferences forplaces of study they would like to be enrolled in, andusually the most prestigious universities located inBangkok are chosen by the candidates. If their relative

65

72

performance does not warrant the entrance into theseprestigious universities, they may be admitted to one of

the regional universities which appear in the bottom of

their priority list. This method of admission has two

unfavourable effects on regional development: thosestudents admitted into the regional universities tend to

be inferior in quality and the enrolment into these univer-sities tends to bear no relationship with the geographicalorigin of the students admitted.'

In 1966, the National Institute of DevelopmentAdministration (NIDA) was established to offer graduateprogrammes in public administration, business administra-tion, development economics and applied statistics. NIDA,

which is an outgrowth of the Institute of Public Admini-stration formerly associated with Thammasat University, isthe only institution which is engaged in full-time graduate

education. Chulalongkorn, Thammasat and Kasetsart Univer-sities offer graduate programmes on a part-time basis.Finally, Ramkhamhaeng University was founded in 1971 pur-portedly to serve as an "open" university.

To cope with the expanding need for higher educa-tion and the shortage of teaching staff, a recommendationwas made in 1964 that a... in order to improve theireducational standards and achieve expansion in enrolment,all universities should pool their resources and developstrong graduate programmes in certain specific areas inaccordance with the manpower needs of the country, espe-cially in connection with the National Economic and SocialDevelopment Plan0.2 To implement this recommendation, a

Univet ,ity Development Commission was set up in 1967. One

of the Commissions is earliest projects was to develop grad-uate programmes of high standards in certain fields whichwere seen as an avenue by which the acute shortage ofteaching personnel might be alleviated. On the prioritylist to be implemented during the initial period weregraduate programmes in English, mathematics, physics,chemistry, biology and economics.

As of now only the English programme has been

implemented. Bright young university teachers who are now

Starting from the 1973 academic year, apparently to retain local

the top 10 per cent of high school graduates in each region will

admitted to the university in their region without having to sit

entrance examination.

2Suxich Nimmanheminda, op. cit., p. 16.

66

73

talents,befor the

teaching or will be teaching mathematics, chemistry,physics, biology and some area of social sciences have .

been given intensive training in English in preparationfor extensive work in the graduate programmes in theirrespective fields where English is an essential.too1.1

So far the development of higher education hasbeen limited to those institutions which are operated bythe government. All universities and institutes of higherlearning are government agencies and all the staff membersare government employees. During the past ten years, how-ever, it has been apparent that the demand for highereducation resulting from the spectacular increase in theuniversity population has far outstripped the capabilityof the government to accommodate them. To meet the excessdemand private colleges have sprung up, all in the Bangkokarea. At present there are seven private colleges, sixoffering courses in the field of business administrationand related subjects while only one offering courses inengineering.

These private colleges have long applied for thepermission by the government to grant degrees to theirstudents. It was recently agreed that the private collegesmay grant undergraduate degrees after their curricula havebeen adjusted to meet with the National Education Council'srequirements.

At present there are 14 non-military universitiesand institutes of higher learning operated by the govern-ment (counting six colleges of education as one) and sevenprivate colleges. The student enrolment in 1970 reportedby the state universities and institutes is shown in TableIX.

Note that Table IX includes the graduate studentsenrolled in the Asian Institute of Technology which islocated near Bangkok. However, as its name implies, thisInstitute caters to the students from the region in thefields of physical sciences and engineering. The enrolmentin the six private colleges stood at 1,893 in 1970.2

The breakdown of the student enrolment by fieldof study indicates a heavy concentration in the fields ofsocial sciences and education as is shown in Table X.

1Ibid.

2Office of the National Education Council, Educational &mart,

AInstitutions of Higher Education.Thailand. 1970, p. 174.-

67

TABLE IX

Enrolment by Levels and Universities'

(1970)

Under Graduates

Graduates

Total

Kasetsart University

4,648

304

4,952

Khon Kaen University

1,154

-1,154

Chulalongkorn University

10,309

1,156

11,465

Chiengmai University

5,447

-5,447

Thammasat University

10,399

1,364

11,763

Nahidol University

4,146

183

4,329

Silpakorn University

913

-913

Prince of Songkhla University

533

-533

National Institute of Development

Administration

-556

556

Asian Institute of Technology

-195

195

College of Education

10,465

319

10,784

Thai - German Technical Institute

133

-133

Thonburi Technical Institute

882

-882

Nonhaburi Institute of Telecommunication

488

-488

Military and Policy Academy

1,653

-1,653

TOTAL

51,170

4,077

55,247

Source:

Office of the National Education Council, Educational Report, Institutions of Higher Education,

Thailand 1970, Table 1.

`Does 21 ix..

3 enrolment at Ramkhamhaeng University, opened in 1971.

TABLE X

Enrolment by Level and Field of Study

Academic Year 1970

Under Graduates

Graduates

Total

Humanities

2,995

135

3,130

Eduction

12,935

741

13,676

Fine Arts

879

-879

Social Sciences

12,463

2,339

14,802

Law

3,548

120

3,668

Sciences

2,734

155

2,889

Engineering

4,381

264

4,645

Medical Sciences

6,164

183

6,347

Agriculture

3,486

140

3,626

Military and Police Academy

1,653

-1,653

TOTAL

51,238

4,077

55,315

Source:

Educational Report:

Institutes of Higher Learning,

op. cit., Table 2.

In 1969, the total number of students who graduatefrom the state universities and institutes was recorded at10,023.

Some 7,500 teaching staff members were involvedin the 1970 academic year. Their academic background isshown in Table XI. The overall student faculty ratioregistered at a little more than 7 : 1.

Table XI indicates that almost 60 per cent of theteaching staff possess academic qualifications lower thanthe Master's level. The task of upgrading the qualifica-tions of the teaching staff is thus quite apparent.

The figures on enrolment and the number of teachingstaff do not include those pertaining to the RamkhamhaengUniversity, which purports to be an "open!' university andwhich, after some eight months of preparation, was startedin August 1971. The total enrolment of the universitystands at 1,700 in the last semester of the 1972 academicyear.

Coordination of Higher. Education Planning with NationalEconomic Planning

In an attempt to coordinate education planning withnational economic and social development planning, foureducational planning committees were set up to draw up theThird Educational Plan.' The committees consist of high-ranking representatives from government agencies involvedin education operations, i.e., the Office of the NEDB, theDepartment of Local Administration, the National Statisti-cal Office and the Office of the National Education Council.

The Third Educational Plan has as its objectivesthe production of manpower in sufficient quantity andquality to fill up the development needs of the country,the inculcation in the population attitudes conducive tothe maintenance of social stability, and the preparationof the country for its place in the age of science andtechnology.2

During the Third Plan period the increase in

1Office of the National Education Council, The Third National EducationPlan, 1972-76, Bangkok, 1972, in Thai.

2lbid., p. 6.

70

77

TABLE XI

Number of Teaching Staff by Qualifications,

Academic Year 1970

12

3if

56

7

Full-time Teaching Staff

43

379

1,669

467

2,274

287

5,119

Part-time Teaching Staff

18

304

659

93

701

117

1,892

Foreign Teaching Staff

297

96

7101

5308

Other Instructors

--

421

38

124

187

TOTAL

63

780

2,428

588

3,114

533

7,506

Source:

Educational Report, Institute of Higher Learning, sasil Table

5.Note:

1 = Honorary Doctorates

2 m Doctorates

3 = Masters

4 = Higher Certificates

5 = Bachelors

6 = Diploma & Lower

7 = Total

manpower requirements in all fields of occupation isestimated at 2,586 million,1 not all of whom will needhigher education training. The assessment of the increasein manpower needs in important fields and the increase inthe supply likely to come forth during the Third Planperiod is shown in Table XII. Several things are broughtout by these figures and brief comments on them are inorder.

As can be seen, the most acute shortage in skilledmanpower will be in the area of management. This is sodespite the fact that sizable number of students havegraduated from business courses and other related subjectseach year. Academic training cannot quite alleviate thisshortage, as the requirements are located at top and middlelevel management requiring a great deal of practicalexperience. This shortage will be the more acute in thelight of the new Alien's Business Act requiring partici-pation of the Thai citizens in the management and ownershipin a long list of industries.

The Plan admits that academic training offered bythe universities and other institutions would not be ableto cope with this shortage;2 indeed many graduates inbusiness administration, commerce and economics cannot findjobs as these new graduates lack practical experience inmanagement, the qualification which is most looked for inthe business community.

In the field of medical science, increasing efforthas been made to remedy the acute shortage of medicalpersonnel which has long plagued the country. It isestimated that some 2,000 additional doctors will be pro-duced during the Third Plan period and that some 6,200doctors will be in active practice at the end of the planperiod, raising the doctor population ratio from 1 : 8,000at the end of the Second Plan period to 1 : 7,000.3 Whilethis ratio is still short of what is desired, the majorproblems in this connection are:

(1) to raise the quality of graduatingdoctors;

1The Third National Economic and Social Development Plan, Table 3,p. 194. The following paragraphs draw heavily on the Third Plan.

2Ibid., p. 196.

3Ibid.. p. 197.

72

7

TABLE XII

Manpower Requirements and Supplies

in Selected

Important Occupations 1971-76

Requirements

Supplies

Difference

Surplus

Defl:.i-

1.

Executives and

managers

30,000

.2,000

30,000

30,000

2..

Doctors

2,700

2,000

-700

3.

Nurses and midwives

14,000

7,600

-5,400

4.

Scientists

8,500

3,400

-5,100

5.

Engineers

2,500

4,700

2,200

Beginning of plan

6.

Agricultural operations

110,300

12,200

11,900

period and qualified

- University level

3,600

5,400

2,300

engineers

- 15 year education

5,700

3,700

-2,000

.- 13 year education

1,600

3,200

1,600

7.

Teachers and professors

101,400

- scientific and technical

14,500

assessed in 4 to 6

- academic

10,500

20,0002

9,500

- teachers taining

80,900

77,000

at least 3,000

- vocational certificate

5,400

assessed in 8 and 9

3.

Technical workers

7,600

15,300

7,700

9.

High school vocational

17,100

8,9003

8,200

certificates

20,600

20,600

Source:

Office of the NEDB, The Third National

Economic mid Social Development Plan, 1971-76,

Table 5.

Bi Notes:

1. Maximum requirements:

if the development effort slackened

owing to budget constraintsor if the

increase in production were less thananticipated, the requirements during the Third

Plan period

would be less than calculated here.

2. Includes only graduates in

education.

3. 8,00c graduates from vocational

schools operated under the loan

programme::, axd 20,600 graduates

from other schools.

(2) to induce more doctors to take uppractices in the area outside theBangkok metropolis; and

(3) to arrest the brain-drain flowing toforeign countries.1

At the end of the Third Plan period, the supply of nurseswill be 5,4100 short of the requirements and the major pro-blems pertinent to the case of doctors apply in the caseof nurses as well.

During the Third Plan period, some 8,500 science-based personnel with university training will be requiredcompared with 3,400 additional graduates expected duringthe same period, leaving a deficit of 5,100 persons. Thesefigures, however, do not tell the whole story as it appearsthat the more pressing problem will be to upgrade thequality of the graduates.

An anomaly is found in the requirement-supplyrelationship in connection with engineers. During theSecond Plan period owing to economic expansion, especiallyin construction and industrial activities, the shortage ofengineers was acutely felt and production of additionalengineers was much emphasized.2 A retention system wasinitiated whereby students who did not plan to work withthe government agencies upon graduation were required topay a sum of 5,000 baht whereas those who wanted to do sowere not. Twilight classes were also open to accommodatethe required increase in enrolment. During the Third Planperiod, however, on account of the anticipated slowing downof certain industrial sectors, only some 2,500 additionalengineers will be required compared with the 5,000 engi-neers to be newly graduated. The surplus of engineers isexpected to coincide with the shortage of experiencedspecialists in this field.

This anomaly is also found in some areas of agri-culture. An additional 3,000 technicians with universitytraining will be required during the Five-Year Plan periodcompared with 5,260 expected graduates. The anticipated

1lbid. For the problem of brain-drain in Thailand, see Office of theMEL "Problem of Brain-Drain in Thailand", Technical Paper A.1,Manpower Planning Division, June 1972, mimeographed.

2The Third Plan, p. 198.

surplus is a spillover from the attempt to redress theshortage of agricultural technicians experienced duringthe first two plan periods. The requirements were esti-mated on the basis of the needs of government agencies,assuming that the agricultural development plan would befully implemented. Despite the anticipated surplus,effective manpower may be short of the requirements becauseof two main reasons. First, the quality of training forthese technicians is low and apparently needs upgrading.The second reason is that some of the technicians will takeup employment in the cities which is not related to theiragricultural training because they are not willing to bebased in the rural areas where their services are required.Thus the major task facing planners is not to produce moreuniversity graduates in agriculture but to upgrade thequality of training for the graduates and to find ways andmeans to induce these young graduates to take up employ-ment in the outlying regions.1

As for teaching manpower, the surplus is envisagedat the degree level while the demand for teachers holdinghigher certificates will be 3,000 short of supply. Inaddition to increasing the production of teachers at thislevel, the tasks also include raising their quality aswell as distributing them among the different regions ina more balanced manner.

In quantitative terms, the increase in the numberof technical graduates with 15 years of education will begreater than what is required with the implication thatat least in the immediate future no additional technicalschools of this nature should be set up and that greateremphasis should be placed on curriculum improvements aswell as strengthening the quality of the teaching staff.2

The most glaring problem in ',educated unemployment',is located at the vocational high school level. Increasingnumber of these graduates have joined the unemployed astheir training has not sufficiently fit in with the re-quirements of the market. It is estimated that 20,600 ofthese graduates will not be able to find jobs after theirgrad.aation. A remedy was proposed in the Third Plan toraise the standards of all of the 121 vocational schoolsto those schools operated under the loan programme whosegraduates have apparently been successful in finding

1

Ibid., pp. 199-200.

2lbid.

8275

employment. At present there are 14 such schools withappropriate training facilities supported by the loanprogramme.1

The brief description of the manpower requirementsand the production of graduates indicates a number of pro-blems which need to be seriously considered. First, exceptin the case of medicine, the manpower deficiency lies inthe low quality of the graduates rather than in the quan-tity. Several factors may have been responsible for thisdeficiency. The nature of the curriculum is largelyacademically oriented with little and inadequate practicalrelevance. Thus the graduates spend their time learningthe things that are not required and not learning what areneeded. Lack of qualified teachers, especially in practi-cal experience, lack of facilities, shortage of textbooksin the Thai language and shortage of teaching materialssuitable to the local conditions all make for poor educa-tion. The second problem brought out by this brief surveyof the manpower requirements supply situation which isrelated to the first problem is that the educated unemploy-ment problem, especially in the urban area, will grow toserious proportions unless drastic changes are made ineducation planning. Despite the explicit acknowledgementof the potential seriousness of this problem in severalplaces, the Third Plan anticipates the expansion of alluniversities and all departments in a university. More-over, the creation of Ramkhamhaeng University appears tobe unjustified in economic terms considering the fact thatthis new "open" university offers courses in precisely thefields where manpower surplus is already existing (educa-tion, and other social sciences). Although there is anacute shortage of business executives and managers, some5,000 students enrolled in the School of Business Admini-stration of the new University cannot be cxpected to fillup this huge gap but rather to add to the urban unemploymentnow prevalent on account of inadequate training. One mayargue whether opening a new university of this type may notbe an expensive method of postponing the urban unemploymentproblem which does not get solved but whic-h may indeed takea more serious form as the graduates join the labour forcein droves.

A Survey of University Resources Available for DevelopmentPlanning

It is impossible to determine in exact quantitative

1Ibid., p. 201.

7 683

and qualitative terms the university resources availablefor development planning purposes, as it would depend onthe fields of academic training of the faculty members,their time availability and their personal as well asprofessional interests. The following account may givethe picture of the potential available resources in thebroadest terms.

.According to the latest data available for the1970 academic year, some 7,506 faculty members wereinvolved in university teaching. Of these, 5,119 werefull-time teaching staff while 1,892 faculty memberstaught part-time, the rest being foreign teaching staffand other instructors.' A large number of the teachingstaff, especially those ho'_ding bachelor's degrees, eventhough classified as full-time instructors were notactively teaching but rather were being trained or waitingto be trained either abroad or at home. Also many facultymembers who were classified as part-tim., teaching staff inone university actually were full-time teachers in anotheruniversity; thus the total number of faculty members asappeared in the statistics is to some extent inflated. Ifwe arbitrarily assume that only full-time doctor's andmaster's degree holding faculty members constitute themanpower pool which can be potentially tapped for develop-ment planning activities, then the number is reduced to2,048. Of course, a large proportion of these facultymembers cannot be readily drafted to work on developmentplanning on account of lack of academic training in theplanning related fields, and time constraints.

Even if we arbitrarily assume that 10 to 15 percent of these teaching staff can be acively involved inplanning, the number would still range between 200 - 300.By involvement in planning activities we mean undertakingresearch work related to development planning and imple-mentation, giving consulting services to the ministriesand departments, and serving as active members in develop-ment planning committees.

If the definition of university capacity in thisconnection is restricted to the doctorates in economics,the field most closely related to economic developmentplanning, then not more than 20 university personnel arenow available for planning. But it should be evident thatthis definition is too restrictive as it excludes the

1See Table XI.

77

highly qualified non-doctorate holders and the doctoratesin other important fields such as sociology, education,public administration, business administration, agricultureand the physical sciences. Altogether the number ofdoctor's degree holders teaching in the universities wasreported at 379 in the 1970 academic year.'

The above assessment of vniversity resources avail-

a le for planning is highly arbitrary and was made diffi-cult by the fact that the time availability of capableuniversity personnel cannot be accurately estimated. One

of the major constraints on the contributions of thefact.ty members to outside agencies is precisely the time

limtation. More will be said on this point later on.

Extent of University Involvement Currently Prevailing inthe Formulation and Implementation of Development Plans

In the narrowest terms of actually assisting indevelopment plan formulation and implementation, theuniversity involvement is still very limited. Some 14university personnel actually served in the various com-mittees appointed to assist in preparing the Third Eco-nomic and Social Development Plan.2 Two of these facultymembers assisted in the formulation of agriculturaldevelopment plan, two in social development plan and 12in educational development plan. A few others were en-gaged in the evaluation of these plans.

In broader terms, the university involvement indevelopment planning has been greater than indicated inthe previous paragraph. Right after the RevolutionaryParty took over power in late 1971, some university staffmembers were assigned to work in various committees orworking parties of the National Executive Council.

The NEC was divided into four directorates: theDirectorate of National Security; the Directorate ofDevelopment, Agriculture and Communications; the Direc-torate of Health and Education; and the Directorate ofFinance, Industry and Commerce. In the Directorate ofNational Security alone, some 20 university faculty

1See Table XI.

2From various official records obtained from the Office of the NEDB,

and the Office of the National Education Council.

4

members were involvedl while some others were assigned toother directorates, notably the Directorate of Health andEducation. While none of these committees were involvedin the formulation of any specific development plans, allwere involved in the formulation of policies or thereorganization of the administrative setup which has impor-tant impact on the development of the country and on theimplementation of the Third Plan now in effect. Thecommittees were engaged in many diverse fields such asagricultural and rural development, public utilities,housing, reorganization of the national and local admini-strative systems, educational and health development, etc.The university personnel worked on these committees jointlywith other people outside the university on a part-timebasis while retaining their teaching load without anymonetary compensation. While the experience of the dif-ferent committees varied from one area to the other, onthe whole, important contributions were made during theNEC rule of a little over a year. The contributions tookthe form of laws and regulations as well as policy guid-ances in a number of important fields.

Apart from the experience of actually assisting inthe preparation of the Third Plan and in taking up variousassignments during the NEC rule, university involvementin national affairs affecting the development of thecountry is also sv,,,n in the recent appointment of theNational Legislative Assembly and the Constituent Com-mittee. Of the 299 members appointed to the NationalLegislative Assembly, 10 are university personnel and ofthe 21 members of the Constituent Committee, four areuniversity professors. It muses be noted, of course, thatthe National Legislative Assembly is a political bodywithin the framework of a rather rigid regime, and byvirtue of the fact that university- personnel constitute atiny fraction of the total membersaip, it would be unreal-istic to expect significant contributions on the part ofthe appointed university people.

Looking even more broadly and in a more significantsense, the university as an academic institution has beenmore actively involved in the development process thanpreviously indicated. We can take up the contributions ofthe universities to national development planning by dis-cussing the traditional roles of the academic community,namely, training, research and consultancy.

1From official record of the Directorate of National Security.

79

I. Training

Apart from preparing graduates to fulfill manpowerrequirements as previously discussed, the universities inThailand have been giving training to people directlyinvolved in the formulation and implementation of the

development plans. The creation of the Institute of PublicAdministration (IPA) in Thammasat University in 1958 wasone of the earlier attempts to give the students who werelargely government officials exposure to basic publicadministrative principles and techniques needed for carry-ing out government activities. The whole concept of creat-ing the National Institute of Development Administration,which is an outgrowth of the IPA, is oriented to preparedevelopment administrators both in the public and theprivate sectors. NIDA offers graduate education in fourfields: Public Administration, Development Economics,Business Administration and Applied Statis+ics; in addition,it has a Research Centre, a Training Centre and a Develop-ment Documentatio.. Centre. The Programme in DevelopmentEconomics offers, among others, courses in general -theoryof economic development, economic planning and projectevaluation while the Programme in Public Administrationcovers many areas of development administration includingperformance evaluation. The School of Applied Statistics,apart from offering courses in quantitative techniquesextremely useful for development planning such as program-ming techniques, also includes in its curriculum courses in

such applied fields as operations research and demographicanalysis. The School of Business Administration designs itsprogramme to train junior managers for the private sector.

In addition to training given to master's degreecandidates, NIDA has been conducting training programmesfor government and private agencies either by its TrainingCentre or by the various Schools. Some of these trainingprogrammes are offered on a regular basis while others areon an ad hoc basis as demanded by the requesting agencies..Examples of the regular training programmes which should becited include the Executive Development Programme given eachyear to the special grade government officials (mostly pro-vincial governors) by the Training Centre and the Programmein Economic Development for middle level government officialsconcerned with development planning and implementation con-ducted by the School of Development: Economics.' Recently,the School of Business Administration has conducted the

1There was also a training programme in 1968 on Project Evaluation

offered jointly by the NEDB, NIDA and Thammasat University.

!E)

Junior Executive Development Programme for businessmanagers in cooperation with the Thailand ManagementAssociation.

As a result of the reorganization of the-admini-strative system recently instituted by the NationalExecutive Council, which set up the planning and policyoffices in practically all government departments01 theneed for planning capability on the part of the staff ofthese planning units has become more evident and NIDA hasbeen requested by the NEC to conduct training programmeson planning for the government planning personnel at alllevels--a gigantic task compared with the training pro-grammes which NIDA has been giving in the past. NIDA iscurrently at the planning stage to map out this newassignment in terms of the requirements, resource capa-bility, possible foreign assistance, and the scope andsubstance of the programmes to be offered.

II. Research

An important role of the university in the develop-ment process is to increase knowledge which has bearing onthe development planning through research. Io:ally, theknowledge obtained from research activities should be of apractical nature and should be made available to the plan-ners in due time, and it should be of value to the formu-lation of development policies and action programmes. Theideal, of course, is difficult to achieve, especially whenthere is a lack of coordinating effort to set up a prioritylist specifying the research areas which have the mostrelevance tothe development problems of the country, andwhen research studies are not accessible or accepted by thepotential users. The end result is that the scarce man-power is largely engaged in producing something irrelevant,or something which gets shelved the minute it is published.

In the 1969 academic year, of which the latest dAtaare available, some 720 faculty members or 17 per cent ofthe total full-time staff of all universities and institu-tions of higher learnii,g were engaged in research on some520 research topics.2 Of these, 82 research workers were

1The NEC Announcement No. 5, 256, 257, 262, 263, 264, 265, 267, 268,269, 271, 272, 274 and 277.

2Office of the National Education Council, Educational Report,Institutions of Higher Education, Thailand 1970, Table 12, p. 159.

81

88

from Kasetsart University working on 61 research topics.The research problems under study involved such technicalproblems of agriculture as effects of soil and fertilizerson yield improvement, breeding of fish) forestry research)agricultural economic research, labour utilization in ruralareas, etc. In the same year, 117 faculty members ofChulalongkorn University were engaged in conducting re-search on some 100 research studies, ranging from pathologyto politics, while 317 faculty members of Mahidol Univer-sity were involved in some 240 research studies in themedical field. The faculty members of other universitiesalso undertook research projects of some kind. The numberof faculty members involved in research) the number ofresearch topics and the amount of research funds for the1970 academic year are shown in Table XIII.

The research funds were financed both by theuniversities and other agencies) domestic as well as inter-national. Some universities have research promotion fundswhich are granted to applicants upon approval of the re-search committees. It is difficult to evaluate the utilityof the research efforts financed by the varied universityresearch funds, but two general observations may be made.First) in one case the university research funds have: beenset up primarily for welfare purposes and not primarilyfor producing research output. A major original objectiveof establishing a research fund at NIDA was to supplementthe regular income of faculty members in the form of 25per cent bonus if their research projects are approved bythe Research Promotion Committee. The faculty membersare entitled to draw from the Institute's research fundsan extra salary to the amount of 25 per cent of theirbp is salaries as long as their research projects are stilloutstanding. The bonus is terminated when the deadline isdue. The effectiveness of this kind of research promotionsystem depends crucially or the screening and follow-upprocess, as there is a tendency for applicants to over-estimate the length of time required to undertake theresearch projects and to cram up the research activitiesduring 0-- short time just before the due date. Underthese circumstances, it is difficult to expect a goodquality research output. This observation by no meansimplies that no good quality research has been produced,but on the whole it is natural to expect sub-standard re-search work from this kind of incentive system. The secondobservation to be made is that there does not seem to becoordinating effort in assigning priorities to the researchproblem areas to make the research projects relevant todevelopment planning and implementation. The coordinatingwork should not be limited to all universities but mustinvolve the research using agencies as well.

82 88

TAME XIII

Faculty of Research

(1970)

Institution

No. of Faculty

Members Involved

No. of Research

Topics

Amount of Funds

(haht)

Kasetsart University

82

61

1,198,730

Khon Kaen University

88

-Chulalongkorn University

117

101

746,995

Chiervpai University

33

14

118,516

Thammasat University

11

4290,000

Mahidcl Universi!-y

317

243

1,192,680

Silpakorn University

77

58,300

NIDA

105

70

1,022,355

Colleges of Educaticn

4o

920,000

TOTAL

720

517

4,647,576

Source:

Office of tie National Education Council,

Report on Institutions of HigherLearninK, Table 12.

Another major problem in connection with facultyresearch is the limited time availability of faculty mem-bers for research as a result of competing demands on theirtime resources. An example of a one week time allocationof instructors of Chulalongkorn University is shown inTable XIV.

As can be seen, more than 75 per cent of the totalhours were devoted by faculty members to teaching, teachingpreparation and student guidance, while only 13 per centwere taken up in research. The above figures dO not revealthe allocation of earning hours or the hours on weekends,but it is a common practice for a large numl-ax of facultymembers to take up extra teaching at evening schools inorder to supplement their regular income. Research doesnot necessarily render remunerative benefits and requiresmuch self-discipline which not all the faculty members areprepared to accept.

There are many areas where fruitful research couldbe carried out to provide the information needed by theplanners. Three areas have been identified by a lead4ngplanner.' The first involves the identification andspecification of economic relationships and changes intechnology such as aggregates as well as sectoral capital-output ratios, the capital-labour ratios, substitutabilitybetween various factors of production and discovery of newtypes of raw materials. The second problem area has to dowith socio-economic characteristics of the population, in-cluding their social behaviour and motivation. The con-struction and simulation of the development motels of thecountry should constitute the third area of useful researchby university staff members.2

1Thalerng Thamrongnawasawnt, The Need of D6velopment Planning Agenciesfor University Academic Services", paper presented to the Seminar onCooperation between the Universities and the Government, jointly organ-ized by the Office of the National Education Council and RIHED, atBangsaen, March 9-11, 1972. This paper also appears in The Journal ofthe National Education Council, April 1972, pp. 18-23.

aIbid. At present, two faculty members, one from the Faculty of Econo-mics, Chulalongkorn University, and the other from the Faculty ofEconomics and Business Administration. Kasetsart University, areworking on a comprehensive econometric model for the development ofthe Thai Economy, financed by a grant from U3AID. Also, a number offaculty members of Chuialongkorn, largely from the Faculty of Engi-neering, have been conducting studies on the urban problems of theBangkok Metropolis.

S4

TABLE XIV

Time Allocation 01 Chulalongkorn University Instructors

(1970)

Achivities

Hours

Percentage

Teaching

10.7

28.2

Teaching preparation

12.7

33.4

Student consulting and guidance

5.6

14.7

Administrative work

4.0

10.5

IResearch

5.0

13.2

TOTAL HOURS IN ONE WEEK

38.0

100.0

Source:

Chattip Nartsupa, et. al., "Problem in Faculty Research in

Chulalongkorn University", in A Seminar on Academic Crisis

in Chulalongkorn University, 17-18 January 1970, Chulalong-

korn University Faculty Club, Bangkok, 1970, p. 96, in Thai.

Other areas of fruitf,a research which should beundertaken jointly by the university personnel and thestaff of the concerned operating agencies are the study offoreign market research, the tariff structures of importanttrading blocks, pre-investment feasibility studies in allfields and the regional resource endowments and potentials.

Some good works on demographic aspects of planninghave been made by the Institute of Population Studies, anautonomous research unit attached to Chulalongkorn Univer-sity, staffed entirely by the university personnel andassisted by foreign as well as local specialists. Apartfrom carrying out research, the Institute also providesconsultative services to government agencies concerned withpopulation matters and also offers graduate programmes in

varied areas of demography. As of 1971, the Institute hasproduced six publications, and 44 reports, articles andtheses on population studies apart from organizing seminarson a wide range of subjects of demography.l

III. Faculty Consulting

Apart from training and research activities,university faculty members are also engaged in consultingwork. Faculty consulting in development planning has beenquite limited but is increasing as a result of the recentestablishment of planning units in operating ministries.A NIDA faculty member has been giving consulting servicesin the area of regional planning for quite sometime, butnow a large number of NIDA staff are assisting in variousplanning activities launched by the Ministry of Interiorand the newly founded Bangkok Metropolis government. Thearrangement is still largely informal: faculty members,through personal contacts, are requested to sit in workinggroups and committees on different aspects of planning and,in some cases, to actively get involved in actual planningwork on a part-time basis. So far the services are givenwithout any sort of compensation but arrangements are beingmade to provide the outside personnel with nominal compen-sation.

A comment is in order on the effectivene3s offaculty consulting planning as it is currently practised.Due to time limitations and a load of other commitments on

1From s brochure of the Institute of Population Studies, ChulalongkornUniversity, 1972.

the part of the faculty members, it ispobably safe tosay the provision of consulting services 611 an ad hocbasis would be somewhat short of the ideal. Planningrequires the assessment of the present situation, theproblems faced by the operating personnel, the potentialsfor development and the areas in which limited resourcescan be put to most'effective use. The study of all thesefacets presupposes a certain minimum of time which thepresent arrangements do not make available.

Problems Preventing Closer Cooperation between the Univer-sities and the Government

Despite the efforts made by the academic communityto serve development planning and implementing agencies, anumber of problems and difficulties stand in the way ofcooperation. In March of 1972, a conference was held inBangsaen to discuss the relationships between the univer-sities and operating agencies by the represent1tives ofboth groups.l The concensus appeared to be that a two-waycooperative effort is needed in order for the academiccommunity to make the greatest contribution to the develop-ment planning agencies.2 Several problems have been cited,some being concerned directly with the universities them-selves and others with the operating agencies. Internalproblems of the academic commqpity are:

(1) Inadequate capability of the universitypersonnel. Despite their high academicachievement, some university teacherslack the ability to identify problemsfaced by the planners. Given a welldefined problem, academicians are

1Thalerng Thamrongnawasawat, 'The Need of Development Planning Agenciesfor University Academic Services", paper presented to the Seminar onCooperation between the Universities and the Government, jointlyorganized by the Office of the National Education Council and RIHED,at Bangsaen, March 9-11, 1972. This paper also appears in The Journalof the Nationa'. Education Council, April 1972, pp. 18-23.

2See for example Pattaya Saihoo, "Cooperation and Ccordination betweenthe Universities and Development Planning Agencies", Paichitr Uathavi-kul, "Problems and Difficulties in the Cooperation between the Univer-sities and Development Planning Agencies", papers presented to theSeminar; the papers also appear in The Journal of the National Educa-tion Council, April 1972, in Thai.

87

equipped with technical capability toproceed with the analysis but they often-times are at a loss if asked to tacklethe vague problems which need to be moreclearly identified in the first place.'Lack of experience, unfamiliarity withthe practical aspects of operations andirrelevance of the nature of the coursestaught in the university to the realworld problems are some of the factorsaccountable for this inadequate capa-bility.

(2) The present incentive system does notact as an inducement for capable univer-sity personnel to make contributions togovernment agencies. Low pay level inthe civil service forces many universityprofessors to take outside paying jobs,e.g., teaching or conducting researchfor international agencies, leaving notime for making available their freeservices for government units. Moreover,internal promotion is usually evaluatedon the basis of the work accumulated atthe university: university teachers work-ing for other government units are therebypenalized promotionwise.2

(3) Oftentimes, academicians insist on theadequacy of data before taking up theanalysis work. But a major problem inplanning in developing co,Antries is pre-cisely the unavailability and unreliabi-lity of pertinent data. Under thesecircumstances, academicians would beasking for something which does not existand as a result conclude that no contri-butions on their part could be made.3Until the academicians realize that theirtasks are to make the best of available

1Paichitr Uathavikul, "Problems and Difficulties of the Cooperation

between the Universities and Development Flanning Agencies", oacit., p. 51.

2Ibid., pp. 59-60.

3lbid., p. 56.

9

data and to suggest ways and means tomake available those data that arecurrently missing: the contributionsfrom the academicians will regrettablyfall short of what is required andexpected.

Not all the barriers preventing closer cooperationbetween the agencies and universities originate from thelatter alone. Problems arising from the side of theoperating agencies are summarized below.

(1) The operating agencies tend to expecttoo much from the academicians, hopingfor ready-made solutions to the plan-ning problems they are facing which canbe immediately implemented.' When theacademicians cannot produce a magicformula, the trust and the confidenceof the operating agencies in the academi-cians' capability wanes, making futurecooperation difficult.

(2) Part of development planning involvesthe articulation of the areas whereinstitutional changes are needed to makepossible the smooth execution of develop-ment work. But changes are likely toentail the conflict of vested interestswhich, given the parochial nature of thebureaucracy, are strongly resisted.2Bona fide advice given by the academi-cians would then be looked upon asunrealistic, impractical or politicallyunfeasible, thus giving rise to frustra-tions on the part of the advisors andpossibly creating the uneasy climate ofdistrust and misgiving.

(3) Another weakness on the part of theoperating agencies is what may be calledthe "dependency syndrome ". It has beena practice among the operating agenciesto request foreign assistance in the form

lIbid, p. 55.

2Ibid., p. 58.

96

of advisors whenever problems arise.1It is by no means implied here that theservices of all foreign advisors havebeen useless; what is being stressedhere is the "dependent" attitude or thementality of a number of high-rankinggovernment officials to seek foreignadvice. It may be true that the useof foreign experts is dictated bypolitical reasons when controversialissues are involved, but it may bequestioned whether the price is nottoo much in terms of resources usedand in terms of the opportunity lostof not using and developing locallyavailable talents. It should be addedthat this foreign dependency syndrome"is not limited to the planning bodiesand other operating agencies alone.

' One can see it at work in the academiccommunities as well.

(4) The lack of cooperation between theacademic communities and developmentplanning agencies may arise becausethese agencies do not feel the ne,..f.dfor the services of the universitypersonnel either because no systematicplanning is being don.- at the ministri/-4,or because internally available servicesare thought to be adequai,Q in the lightof the type of planning envisaged by theagencies.2

The provision of services of university personnelhas so far been carried out largely through personal con-tacts on an individual basis. An attempt has been made bya group of university teachers to mobilize research andconsultancy capabilities outside the official framework byfounding in 1971 the Thai University Research Association(TURA) under the auspices of the Social Science Associationof Thailand. At 'present, TURA is engaged in a two-yearresearch into the different aspects of urbanization of theBangkok Metropolis with an objective of providing alterna-tives to sound metropolitan planning.

1 Pattaya Saihoo, op. cit., p. 41.

2Ibid.

90

9

It should be pointed out, however, that within theofficial framework increasing contacts have been madebetween the operating agencies and the departmental andministerial units. An example is the request for the ser-vices of NIDA's teaching staff by the newly created Officeof Policy and Planning, Ministry of Interior. NIDA itselfis in the process of framing guidelines to systematize theprovision of this type of services to outside agencies.

varcrSomeRecommendationsto%,ationbetweenmtthe University saithe22/212pment P anniagmac21

To alleviate the problems cited above, a few follow-ing recommendations are proposed:

(1) The university personnel in designingcourse outlines for teaching purposeshould enhance the relevance of thesecourses by incorporating the situations,problems and prospects in the local scene,both for the benefit of the students andas a means to familiarize the teachersthemselves with what is going on locally.Familiarity with the local, practicalproblems is a prerequisite to the buildingup of a viable relationship between theacademic community and the developmentplanning agencies.

(2) The first recommendation made aboveimplies that research activities must becarried out. Two types of research worksare envisaged here. One is more of apedagogical nature and the other more ofpractical use to the planners. Under thefirst type of research, case studies onthe decision-making process in planning,institutional and administrative con-straints on planning and implementation,project preparation and evaluation,evaluation of different segments of thedevelopment plans, etc., should be writtenand used as teaching materials in planningcourses. These case studies should beappropriate for the exercise and trainingof problem solving capability. The secondtype of research involving more time andresources should address itself to increas-ing knowledge needed by planners. The

91

identification and filling up of datagaps, the long term behaviour of aggre-gative economic variables and theirrelationships, the economic and socialmotivation mechanism which brings aboutdesired changes, the responses of dif-feent economic and social groups tomotivating forces, the effective planmonitoring system, foreign market re-search, pre-investment studies, andregional resources and potentials artsome of the major areas where fruitfulresearch could be made.

(3) To promote research activities, a bettersystem of research management is required.All universities and institutions ofhigher learning have their research pro-motion funds, but to get the most out ofthese funds requires research planning,indicating priority research areas, and amore effective quality control system.The philosophy of using research funds forwelfare purposes, though appealing in thecontext of the poor pay scale offered bythe civil service system, should be doneaway with as it tends to encourage poorquality research while welfare can bebetter improved by other methods.

(4) To meet the needs of the planning bodiesand to inform them about the researchactivities being carried out as well asto make available the relevant researchoutput produced by the university person-nel, a joint Planning Bodies-UniversityResearch Committee is proposed. ThisCommittee should comprise the representa-tives of the planning units, the univer-sity community, the representatives ofthe Office of the National EducationCouncil and the Office of the NationalResearch Council. It should be chargedwith the functions of identifying theresearch areas, research planning andcontrol, remuneration system as well asthe dissemination of research output andother research clearing house activities.To fit in with the role of the Office ofthe National Research Council, thisCommittee may be set up and located in

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that Council which provides the admin:.-strative services to the Committee.

(5) To make available the consulting servicesof the academic community on a more per-manent basis, faculty members should begranted a leave with pay to work full-time with planning agencies for an ade-quate euration. This recommendation maybe difficult to implement in some caseswhere teaching staff is in acute shortage,but certainly there is room to manoeuvrein many other cases by appropriate coursescheduling and faculty rotation. It isdifficult to generalize as to what con-stitutes adequate duration since thiswould depend on a specific case require-ment. Of course, to be effective, theconsulting services offered to the plan-ning bodies would have to be counted asan output produced by the faculty membersand should have appropriate bearing ontheir promotion. Moreover, the arrange-ments should be institutionalized ratherthan made on an individual basis.

(6) All recommendations proposed above wouldcome to naught if the planning bodies arenot willing to accept the services of theacademic community nor appreciate its rolein the development process. The use offoreign experts may still be necessary insome cases, but there are many instanceswhere talents from local universities areavailable and could be put to more effec-tive use. Neither too great an expecta-tion (hoping for ready-made solutions) nortoo little expectation on the part of theplanning personnel is conducive to theneeded joint cooperation. A resolution ofthe Council of Ministers to the effectthat wherever possible local talentsshould be tapped for development planningand related activities would probably bea welcome move. But, ultimately, theeffective use cf university resources woulddepend to a large extent on the perceptionon the part of the planning bodies of therole of the universities in the developmentprocess.

V. CONCLUSION

There is no question that Thailand has beencommitted to take up the difficult task of modernizationnot only to raise the standard of living of her largelyagrarian masses but also to gain her respectable place inthe community of nations. During the past decade throughexogenous factors beyond her control, through sheer 1,uckand conscious effort, the country has weathered the painsof growing rather well.

Basic problems, however, still remain. Thedestruction of valuable natural resources, the unevendevelopment pattern responsible for the rural-urban incomedisparities, the sluggish growth of merchandise exports,urbanization, pollution, the social tensions brought aboutby changes and the encroachment of new life styles on thecherished cultural heritages are some of the outstandingbasic economic and social problems, which have to heseriously coped with through careful planning and multi-dimensional efforts.

Planning has been accepted as the expression ofthe governmentts will to develop and as an indispensabletool for rational resources allocation. There is noobjective way to judge how much planning has contributedto the growth of the nation but prima facie at least itis not claiming too much to say that considerable wasteshave been prevented through planning. Planning problemsstill exist: inadequate planning techniques dictated byinadequate data bases, shorbtage of capable planners,especially at the middle and upper levels, and the pre-servation of parochial vested interests on the part ofoperating agencies are some of the major problem areasthat 1:he planners will have to face with fcr sometime.Some c'f these problems will be alleviated in the courseof time when planning experience has accumulated andpertinent data are increasingly available. Yet theacadem ...c community has an important role to play in help-ing to solve these problems.

The role of the universities in the developmentprocess has in the past been largely in the area of theproduction of manpower needed to perform the varieddevelopment tasks in the public sector. This productionof skills will have to continue and expand in some crucialareas, especially in the medical, management and technicalfields, &id at some levels of teacher education, but cautionmust be taken in expanding some areas of the social

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sciences, 1%,3t the problem of the "educated unemployment"w4ll get out of hand.

More will have to be done by the universities inthe areas of training in planning, research and consul-tancy. It appears that university resources are puten-tially available for these purposes and can be madeeffective if certain conditions are met. The role of theuniversities in the development process will have to bebetter understood both bQr the academic community and bythe operating agencies. University personnel will haveto take upon themselves the task of upgrading theircapability ir. the application of theoretical knowledge andtechniques to the local situation and, at the same timemake the courses they are teaching relevant to the Thaisetting. Research management and control will have to beimproved through a better incentive system and betterinformation flow. The university authorities shouldrecognize that research and consulting services offeredto outsic.e agencies constitute important elements of thetotal output produced by the faculty members and should berewar, i accordingly. en the part of the planning practi-tionel too high hopes or too low expectations for thecontribgtions of the academic community would not behealthy to the cooperative efforts.

We may conclude this study on the optimistic notethat given the will power, the honest recognition of theroles and limitations of either partner, the cooperativeventure .n improving the planning process as a meanstoward national development will pay rewarding dividends.

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102

BiBLIOGRAVHY

Bank of Thailand. Monthly Economic Report, various issues.

Chattip Nart.supa et. al., qlroblem in Faculty Research inChulalungkorn University ", in A Seminar on AcademicCrisis in Chulalonckorn Univertnuary1970, Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University Faculty Club,1970, in Thai.

Chulalongkorn Alumni Association. the Present and theFuture of the Thai Society Bangkok: ChulalongkornUniversity, 1971. in Thai.

Committee of Arts Conservation. Notes on the Seminar onFuture Social Identit of Thailand, Bangkok:Association of Arts and Environment Conservation,1972, in Thai.

Duan Bunnag. Pridi: The Elder Statesman, Bangkok: SermvitBanakhan, 1957, in Thai.

Ingram, James C. Ecouomic Change in Thailand 1152.1117Q ,Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1971.

International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.A Public Development Programme for Thailand,Baltimore: John Hopkins, 1959.

The National Statistical Office. Industrial Census 1964.

Office of the NEDB. ENaluation of the First Six-Year Plan1961 - 1966.

. The First Six-Year Economic DevelopmentElaalif7- 1,963

"The Methodology for Preparing theSecond Economic and Social Development Plan ofThailand", mimeographed.

Edition.. National Income of Thailand 1,96 8 - 1969

"Problem of Brain-Drain in Thailand' ,,Technical-Paper/A.1, Manpower Planning Division,Juno 1972, mimeographed.

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Office of 4-,he NEDB. The Six-Year Plan: Second Phaselliti1966.

. The Third Five-Year National. Economicand Social Development Plan 1971 - 19761 in Thai.

Office of the National Education Council. EducationalReport, Institutionr of Higher Education: Thailand,1969 and 1970.

. The ThirdNational Educationhan 1972 - 1976.

Phaichitr. Uathavikul. "Regional Development and Planningin Thailand", Research Paper No. 125 presented tothe Committee on Research Promotion, NIDA, 1970.

ommilidlil.r "Problems and Difficulties in theCooperation between the Universities and Develop-ment Planning Agencies", The Journal of theNational Education Council, April 1972, it Thai.

Pattaya Saihoo. "Cooperation and Coordination between theUniversities and Develo:-ment Planning Agencies",The Journal of the National Education Council,April 1972, in Thai.

Phisit Pakkasem. "Thailand's Northeast Economic Develop-ment Planning: A Case Study in Regional Planning",unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University ofPittsburgh, 1972.

Rozental, Alek A. Finance and Develo ment in Thailand,New York: Praeger, 1970.

Siam Rath Daily, March 30, 1973.

Snoh Unakul. "Annual Planning in Thailand", in SnohUnakul, Monetary and Fiscal Policies and Develop-ment Planning in Thailand, Bangkok: Ramindra Press,1972.

"History of Economic Development Planning inThailand", in Snoh Unakull Monetary and FiscalPolicies and Economic Develo ment Planning in

"Macro Economic Planning Methodology for theThird Plan", in Snoh Unakul, Moretary and FiscalPolicies and Economic Development Planning inThailand.

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Snoh Unakul. "Principles and Policies in Regional Planning",in Snoh Unakul, Monetary and Fiscal Policies andEconomic Develument riariarIn

Sukich Nimmanheminda. "Higher Education ih TI Iland,Journal of the Nationa.L Education Coua Al January1970.

Thalarng Thamrongnawasawat. "The Need of Development Plan-ning Agencies for University Academic Services",The Journal of the National Education Council, April1972, in Thai.

REGIONAL INSTITUTE OF HIGHER EDUCATION ANDDEVELOPMENT

R I HED is a regional and autonomous institution established forthe purpose of stimulating and facilitating co-operation among theuniversities and the governments of the countries in Southeast Asia, andto enhance the contributions of higher education to the social andeconomic development of the countries of the region and of the regionas a whole. To achieve this primary objective, the activities of RIHEDare focused principally on the following:

(i) To provide statistical, clearing-house and documentation services;

(ii) To conduct or arrange for the conduct and publication of studiesof ways to extend the contributions of universities to develop-ment and of the functioning and of anization of universities inthis role;

(iii) To sponsor seminars and conferences;

(iv) To provide advisory and technical services;

(v) To co-operate with other agencies whose objects are related to theobjects of the Institute; and

(vi) To encourage and facilitate inter-university and inter-country co-operation in the planning and conduct of mutually beneficialprojects in higher education and development.

The Institute is supported and financed jointly by the Govern-ments of Indonesia, the Khmer Republic, r aos, Malaysia, Singapore,Thailand and the Republic of Vietnam and the Ford Foundation.