Regular New Mandala readers know that we have an ongoing interest in the practical and rhetorical use of Thailand’s “sufficiency economy”. Over the past 6 months it has become an important crutch for the military regime as it struggles to steer the ship of state. Today, the Deputy Prime Minister’s use of “sufficiency” caught my eye.

From MCOT News (my emphasis added):

Deputy Prime Minister and Industry Minister Kosit Panpiemras on Monday voiced confidence that the Thai economy will begin to grow again in the third quarter of this year.

He said the government’s economic team would apply the sufficiency economy policy in conjunction with capitalism.

About 25 per cent of the budget set aside for people at the grass-roots level will be given to provincial and tambon (sub-district) administration organisations instead of to provincial governors — styled as ‘CEO governors’ in the language of the ousted Thaksin administration — so that local people can play a larger role in managing their own budgets.

Simultaneously, a policy of “living in happiness” would be also adopt to jointly drive the country’s economy, he said.

In the past, New Mandala has hosted vigorous discussion of “sufficiency economy” and its implications.

As one of the key ideological and policy planks of Thailand’s Surayud regime it is worth keeping one eye on its deployment and ongoing evolution.