Source : www.thaigov.go.th

Mr. Mechai Viravaidya, Chairman of the board of sufficiency economy program announced the direction of sufficiency economy program.

At the Government Press Center, Naree Samosorn building, Government House, Mr. Mechai Viravaidya, Chairman of the board of sufficiency economy program announced the direction of sufficiency economy program that the idea of sufficiency economy program is to improve the community by quality of life improvement program according to sufficiency economy philosophy. The Government adheres to utilizing the sufficiency economy philosophy into tangible implementation that is beneficial to the people by bringing together people from every region to share the ownership of this project. The activity/project to be implemented must serve the need of community?s majority, which then benefits all within the community including minority and the poor across all ages: children, youths, women, and elderly.

To make project to be sustainable, people must have synergy to determine the community?s needs and cooperate in preventing others to take advantage of this activity/project directly or indirectly, and this cooperation will result in the continuity, efficiency, and effectiveness of the project. Thus, the sufficiency economy program to improve the community in fiscal year 2010 is a quality project, which emphasizes on the long term rural development in a way that the community can propose more than one project. Moreover, the budget spending must be for community benefit with transparency and accountability---there is no need for speedy spending for the budget to be exhausted. The efficient budget management of the project will result in a sufficiency fund for the community and emphasize on the targeted people. Also, the promoting of new youths in the community can be done through the schools as centers of development by assigning students role to monitor and audit the project within their communities in order to create the public awareness and take part in future?s community development.? Furthermore, this project will draw every sector together including private sector, state owned enterprises, and other Government agencies to fully support the project. The Ministry of Finance will act as a coordinator in tax incentives for any department that join and support the project.

The project selection criteria for budget approval is the project with sustainable implementation and continuous result, which is not a one time project and must also be classified into one of these categories as follow: 1) Project that involves minorities and unemployed people in the community to develop into sufficient living, consuming, and spending, which is an initial goal of sufficiency economy philosophy. 2) Project that supports and promotes cost reduction and factors of production such as in agricultural sector. This is to enhance employment?s potential, raise income, reduce expenditure, create job opportunity, and improve capacity in the foundation of economic development. 3) Project that supports and promotes energy conservation or alternative fuels. And 4) Project that supports and promotes the conservation of natural resources, environment, arts and cultures, and tourism.

The chairman of the board of sufficiency economy program also added about the project?s financial situation that the project receives the Government budget of Baht 24,210 million of which about Baht 6,000 million comes from the SML project and the fiscal year 2009 budget of Baht 15,200 million, totaling Baht 21,200 million. The budget spending in the year 2009 amounts Baht 5,595 million with the left over of Baht 15,205 million. For the year 2010, the additional budget is about Baht 3,010 million. Hence, the current project budget to be distributed is Baht 18,215 million. There are 84,563 communities across Thailand of which 65,546 communities have submitted project proposal and 31,582 communities got projects? approval for a total of Baht 8,432 million. The budget transfer has been done to 21,716 communities, amount Baht 5,367 million and 7,938 communities already made a disbursement of Baht 2,018 million.

Government Spokesman Bureau
Foreign Relations?Division