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Published on September 14, 2007

Thammasat University economists this year have been focusing greater attention on the effects of globalisation upon Thailand.

Several studies were presented at an annual symposium hosted on Wednesday by the Faculty of Economics, and panellists also debated Thailand's economic prospects under the forces of globalisation.

Former finance minister MR Pridiyathorn Devakula complained these forces had caused regulatory measures to become less effective or even obsolete. One good example is the huge inflow of capital that strengthened the baht at the end of last year, when Pridiyathorn was finance minister. He and the central bank apparently failed to stem the baht's rise despite the introduction of capital controls. The higher baht has hurt Thai exports badly.

Globalisation will force Thailand not only to open up its economy, but also to improve good governance; otherwise, the country will be punished by the markets, as happened during the 1997 financial crisis.

Some economists at the symposium said they believed good governance in both the public and the private sectors would not be improved overnight.

Dr Nipon Poapongsakorn, dean of Thammasat's Faculty of Economics, suggested a gradual liberalisation of the economy would be the best option.

Those economists who research the local-community level blamed the market and the government for depriving communities of their rights to manage their own natural resources, such as forests and water.

They argued that private firms (including foreign ones) and the government control much of the country's natural resources at the expense of local communities.

Other researchers who look at financial markets blamed the stock market and commercial banks for offering financial services to only foreigners and the rich while the great majority of the poor do not benefit from the financial markets.

Social activist and former senator Jon Ungpakorn called for the Kingdom to move towards a social-welfare state, providing at the least education and healthcare services. He reasserted the rights of Aids patients over the rights of private companies that hold drug patents.

His campaign for Aids victims to have access to patented drugs - a practice called "compulsory licensing" - appears as a counterforce to globalisation, in which the intellectual-property rights of drug companies are strongly promoted.

Participants at the seminar were told that since developed countries, multinational firms and international institutions like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organisation were behind globalisation, they should be held responsible for its negative effects.