The National Thai Studies Centre is hosting a workshop this Friday on the “sufficiency economy concept.”

Thailand: The Sufficiency Economy Concept
Seminar Room E (Coombs Building), Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University
Friday 1 June, 2007 2:00-4:30

Following the overthrow of the Thaksin government on 19 September 2006 Prime Minister Surayud declared a new economic direction based on the concept of a ‘sufficiency economy’. This has attracted wide public interest, particularly as it came at a time when the government intervened to impose currency controls and began drafting a new, more restrictive Foreign Business Act. Does this concept represent a turning inward and away from Thailand’s traditional open economy? Or is it a realistic policy to curb excesses of the past?

The keynote address will be given by Dr Kobsak Pootrakool. Dr Kobsak is an Executive member of the Macroeconomics Division in the Bank of Thailand. Since joining the Bank in 1996 he has written widely on macroeconomic issues, and has been an important participant in the debate on the concept of a sufficiency economy and its application in Thailand. Among many other publications he wrote Sufficiency Economy and the Government, as a Background Paper for the UNDP Human Development Report: “Sufficiency Economy and Human Development in Thailand,” September 2006.

Presentations will also be given by Professor Peter Warr from the Economics Division, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies and Dr Andrew Walker, Resource Management in Asia Pacific Program in RSPAS.

All are welcome.