On the occasion of the Seventieth Anniversary Celebrations of His Majesty’s accession to the throne on 9 June 2016, the Royal Thai Embassy in Riyadh, in cooperation with the Royal Thai Consulate-General in Jeddah and  “Saudi Gazette”, one of the most leading English Newspaper in Saudi Arabia, disseminate the article entitled “Sufficient Economy, a Key Success for Sustainable Development” in Saudi Gazette on 10 June 2016, to cherish H.M. the King’s Sufficient Economy Philosophy and his promotion of sustainable production and consumption.

            The article represents Thailand’s constructive role and outstanding examples of successful application of sustainable development based on H.M. the King’s philosophy. It also emphasizes on Thailand’s ongoing quest to achieve sustainable development as well as unique challenge and experience to be shared. Thailand would also looks forward to building partnership with the international community, including Saudi Arabia which announced its Saudi Vision 2030:  a blueprint for the country’s development, through the dialogue of sustainable development in the hope of creating true progress for mankind. 

(http://saudigazette.com.sa/opinion/sufficient-economy-key-success-sustainable-development/)

 

“Sufficient Economy, a Key Success for Sustainable Development”

              The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development calls for a revitalized Global Partnership at all levels with all countries and stakeholders working in solidarity to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by the United Nations in 2015, aiming to be signposts for connecting and harmonizing the economic, social and environmental aspects of development , so that our growth will not be at the cost of the future generations and for their pursuit of sustainable development policies through the year 2030. 

             As the world is moving towards the adoption of SDGs, Thailand is also moving forward in accordance with its stated vision for 2015-2020: stability, prosperity and sustainability. A once agriculture-based economy and a community-based society, Thailand is now an industrialized country, with highly populated urban areas and westernized in many respects. However, the economic growth has also impacted Thailand’s culture, values and ways of life inevitably.  

            This growth creates progress of material and public utilities, modern communication systems  and improvement, and expansion of education. However, few of these results have reached rural areas or the underprivileged in the society. The rise of “consumerism” has also led to a state of economic dependence and deterioration of natural resources as well as the dissolution of existing kinship and traditional groups to manage them. The traditional knowledge and wisdom that have been employed to solve problems and accumulated in the past are forgotten and have started to disappear.

             However, to tackle with these challenging problems, Thailand has developed its own framework for Sustainable Development which is called “Sufficient Economy”, the phrase coined by the  King Bhumibol in 1997 which means a “just-enough economy”. The Sufficient Economy Philosophy (SEP) was formalized and came into popular parlance in Thailand after the Asian Financial crisis in 1997. Thailand’s economic crisis or so called “Tom Yum Goong Crisis” served as a costly lesson of unbalanced and unstable growth, partly due to the improper economic and social development process, in which the economy relied heavily on foreign capital inflows and external markets.

             SEP is a method of development based on three pillars: moderation, reasonableness and prudence, along with the conditions of morality and knowledge as guidelines in living. Significantly, there must be intelligence and perseverance which will lead to real happiness in leading one’s life. SEP can be applied to all levels – from the individual to the family and to the national sphere. Nonetheless, SEP is not a “ready-made” or a “one-size-fits-all” models. It is also an approach that can be applied to different circumstances of each country for the common benefits. 

 

[1] The 17 Goals of SDG address: 1) Poverty 2) Hunger 3) Well-being 4) Education 5) Gender Equality 6) Water and Sanitation 7) Energy 8) Economy and Employment 9) Infrastructure and Industrialization 10) Inequality 11) Cities and Human Settlements 12) Production Planning and Sustainable Consumption 13) Climate Change and Impacts   14) Marine Resources 15) Ecological System and Biodiversity 16) Society and Justice 17) Partnership for the Goals  

 

           Neither being taught to under-produce nor to consume thriftily, SEP stresses that whatever we do in our lives, it must be based on knowledge, understanding and reason. It must be proportionate in our needs and our circumstances which vary from one person to another. Whatever we do, we must do it with mindfulness and moral values. While we gain, we must not harm others nor the society nor the environment. The Thai King called this “sufficient economy” a careful balance between “enough” and “wasteful excess”.  

           His Majesty once mentioned that people are the main driving force for development. We must empower them at both individual and family levels. Once the members of the society become strong, then our community will be strong. This fact reflected when Thailand has faced many crises in the past, including the 1997 economic crisis, the 2004 tsunami and the 2007 global financial crisis, but we were able to recover and emerge from those crises speedily.  

           In May 2006, the first UNDP Human Development Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to the King in Thailand by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to mark the 60th anniversary of the King’s accession to the throne, and honored his Sufficient Economy Philosophy and his promotion of sustainable production and consumption.

            As a member of the United Nations since 1946 and a founding member of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1967, Thailand will continue to share its constructive role and outstanding examples of successful application of sustainable development based on SEP of H.M. the King.

Today, as Chair of the Group of 77 (G-77)  in 2016, Thailand announced the theme “From Vision to Action: Inclusive Partnership for Sustainable Development” to be used as an underpinning principle during its chairmanship. SEP is also highlighted as an approach of a universal framework to implementing SDGs in various areas of development - from agriculture to business to society, etc. 

             On the occasion of the Seventieth Anniversary Celebrations of His Majesty’s accession to the throne on 9 June 2016, the Royal Thai Embassy in Riyadh joins hands with the Royal Thai Consulate-General in Jeddah, as well as Thai community in KSA, to cherish H.M. the King for his philosophy that has inspired individuals, communities, business and governments with decision-making principles to apply toward sustainability. Thailand would also looks forward to building partnership with the international community through the dialogue of sustainable development in the hope of creating true progress for mankind.    

 

Royal Thai Embassy, Riyadh, 9 June 2016 

Source: www.thailandsustainabledevelopment.com 

 

[2] G-77 is the largest intergovernmental organization of 134 developing countries at the UN established in 1964 by    77 developing countries, seeking to provide the means for developing countries to “articulate capacity on all major international economic issues within the UN system, and promote South-South cooperation for development.