April 5, 2013, at 1100hrs, at Ball Room II and III, Conrad Hotel, Bangkok, PM Yingluck presided over the opening ceremony of the ASEAN Executive Management Program, and gave a keynote speech on “The Visions of Thailand under the Context of Regional Changes and ASEAN Framework”. The Program was organized in correspondence with the Country Strategy (2013-2018) by Office of the Civil Service Commission (OCSC), in collaboration with PM’s Secretariat Office, NESDB, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration of Chulalongkorn University. Participated in the Program were high level executives from the public sector (permanent secretarial levels, provincial governors, top management from state enterprises and the private sector, and representatives from the civil society.
OCSC’s Secretary General Nontikorn Kanjanajitra reported to PM Yingluck that the ASEAN Executive Management Program was one of the OCSC’s programs to prepare workforce in the public sector for the launch of ASEAN Community. OCSC developed the Program in collaboration with PM’s Secretariat Office, NESDB, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration of Chulalongkorn University with an aim to enhance knowledge, in-depth understanding, and necessary skills and competency for executives in the levels of permanent secretaries, director generals, provincial governors, top management from state enterprises and the private sector, and representatives from the civil society in order to precisely and comprehensively cope with the global and regional rapid changes, as well as to promote shared understanding, and integrative work between public, private, and the people’s sectors.
For the fiscal year 2013, there would be 2 batches of the ASEAN Executive Management Program, the first one during April and May, and the second, during July and August 2013. The Program’s content would be divided into 5 major sections, that is, 1) global mobilization and directions; 2) ASEAN landscape; 3) national agendas; 4) cooperation and integration skills; and 5) field visits in the ASEAN countries. Reputable and world renowned opinion leaders as well as honorary resource persons, and experts would be invited to share and exchange experiences with the participants. The Program included field visits in other ASEAN countries.
PM Yingluck, later, gave a keynote speech. Gist is:
The ASEAN Executive Management Program is organized in congruence with the Government’s policies and national strategies in order for high-level executives from both public, private, and the people’s sectors to discuss and exchange views as well as to forge shared understanding and development on competitive enhancement as part of the preparation for the ASEAN Community in 2015.
According to PM Yingluck, the world’s rapid changes and economic fluctuation, as well as the realization of ASEAN Community in 2015, could be both challenges and opportunities for the enabling of economic stability and livelihood upgrade for the 600 million people of Thailand and the whole ASEAN region. ASEAN Community is comprised of 3 pillars, namely, 1) ASEAN Political-Security Community (APSC); 2) ASEAN Economic Community (AEC); and 3) ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC).
With the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) pillar, tariff on all goods would be cut off to 0% which would make ASEAN a free trade area. Thailand should, therefore, be well prepared to make the most use of this scheme. For instance, raw materials could be imported for local production; workforce could be upgraded at least one step up from non-skilled labor to semi-skilled labor, and from semi-skilled labor to skilled labor; investment of infrastructure projects on transportation for local and regional connectivity as well as labor migration, particularly to the border areas that would be further developed as economic zones, could be promoted.
The ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) pillar was aimed to upgrade people’s livelihood and culturally connect the people of the ASEAN region which would result in cultural tourism development, more revenues, and unity among the people of ASEAN.
ASEAN Political-Security Community (APSC) pillar was a crucial foundation of the ASEAN Community which would lead to economic stability. This includes the issues of customs borders, extension of opening-closing hours of border crossing points, and upgrade from semi-permanent border crossing points to permanent border crossing points, etc.
According to PM Yingluck, the Government had announced 4 national strategies as a development framework for the country to be push forwarded in the same direction. The national strategies would also promote sustainability of socio-economic development as well as prepare Thailand for the launch of ASEAN Community. They were:
First Strategy: Capacity building to enhance national competitiveness which would subsequently increase national gross revenue. However, the fact that Thailand was upgraded to a middle-income country, thereby, GSP privileges that the country once enjoyed was cut had remarkably affected Thailand’s competitiveness. Therefore, capacity building to enhance sustainable competitiveness in a long run was a must, as well as negotiations on the issues of FTA, and other related Agreements and Laws.
Second Strategy: Reduction of disparity. The Government had given priority to provision of equal opportunities, for instance, through access of water sources for consumption, and investment on infrastructure development in order to reduce disparity and boost confidence of the private sector for their investment. Integrative welfare of elderly and disadvantaged people as well as children and women had been concretely attended to with the establishment of the One-Stop Crisis Center (OSCC). Nevertheless, once the ASEAN Community was realized in 2015, concerned ministries and agencies were requested to consider expanding the OSCC scheme to cover the 600 million people all over the ASEAN region.
Third Strategy: Environmentally friendly growth. All industries must grow into being environmentally friendly which would subsequently help develop further green investment in the ASEAN region, for example, alternative energy utilization.
Fourth Strategy: Balance and development of public administration to catch up with global and regional geographical/economic changes and the realization of ASEAN Community. Public administration was a significant mechanism to help mobilize the private sector as well as to promote overseas investment of the private sector and vice versa through simplified procedures in order for the country to become investment friendly and transparent.
PM Yingluck also expressed her hope for the output of the ASEAN Executive Management Program that the big picture of the resolutions must be individualized in detail for each area of the country in order to truly enhance national competitiveness. Thailand was well located as a hub to further connect to other countries in the ASEAN region. Therefore, regional connectivity would be a key factor for the success in creating opportunities for new jobs and income generation for not only the 60 million Thais but the whole 600 million people of the ASEAN region. PM Yingluck also hoped for joint workshops between Thailand and other ASEAN countries in order to create mutual understanding of strategies, tariff, laws, and cultures of one another.