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Published on April 5, 2008

At first, Kanokvipa, 46, thought of the United Kingdom, but her father noted that China should also be considered as a destination for higher education, given the country's rise as a global economic powerhouse.

Kanokvipa, currently president of Stream IT Consulting Ltd, herself spent nine years studying in Singapore, where she graduated in 1984 with a dual degree in computer science and economics from the National University of Singapore under an Asean scholarship.

Later on, she continued her education at Sasin, the business and management graduate school of Chulalongkorn University, where she got a master's degree in management.

Fluent in Thai, English and Mandarin Chinese, Kanokvipa exemplifies the linguistic quality in the up-and-coming generation of top Thai business executives who are aspiring to tap fast-growing cross-border professional and entrepreneurial opportunities.

Professionally, over the past few decades, a tri-lingual person has had a better chance of employment at big Thai multi-nationals operating in China, such as Charoen Pokphand Group.

As for entrepreneurs, the competitive advantage in being tri-lingual is no less important, as shown by the siblings of older-generation tycoons such as Vit Viriyaprapaikit of the Sahaviriya Steel Group or Dhanin Chearavanont of Charoen Pokphand Group.

In short, there has been a growing convergence of East and West as Chinese and other East-Asian economies become more and more important on the global stage - in terms of being a vast market, a global factory, as well as a global trader/investor.

Kanokvipa recalled her years as a student in Singapore during the late 1970s and mid-1980s, saying that creativity wasn't a strength in the Singaporean education system at the time.

Yet, creativity is now often hailed as a pre-requisite for a country's international competitiveness, especially in this era of globalisation.

Given that education (formal as well as informal) is undoubtedly a foundation for any creative endeavours, it's necessary for parents to prepare their children competently as far as education choices are concerned.

In the case of Kanokvipa, she is stuck between Western (UK) and Eastern (China) choices.

On the one hand, a Western education - especially in the US or UK - is generally more effective in polishing creative traits in students, due to the more favourable cultural and environmental factors such as political openness and individualism. This means individual creativity is encouraged and fully rewarded when it bears fruit.

On the other hand, East-Asian culture is more favourable for collective creativity due to the emphasis on social harmony, among other factors - as exemplified by Japan's post-war economic success, as well as China's new prosperity.

However, China has started to reward individual creativity, especially in sports and music, more handsomely.

Back in the 1980s, I was told one Chinese table-tennis world champion could afford to own a Ferrari while everyone else in his neighbourhood was still riding a bicycle to work.

Such a trend underlines the fact that China is also moving towards promoting individual creativity as well as individualism, even though it still keeps a lid on political liberalisation after opening up its economy more than two decades ago.

The next generation of Thai business executives probably have no better choice but to embrace Mandarin Chinese as another foreign language in addition to the mother tongue and English. It could mean the best of three worlds.

Nophakhun Limsamarnphun

nop1122@yahoo.com