Call for national agenda to cut oil consumption

He was speaking during a seminar entitled "Rising Oil and Food Prices: Their Effects and Life Adjustments" at Rangsit University's Sathorn campus. Manoon was the representative one of five organisations speaking at the seminar.

He said the government and the public should work together. The government might have to enforce special measures such as zoning areas that charge specific premiums for vehicles with few passengers, or order housing developers of high-end homes worth more than, say, Bt5 million to install solar cells.

Consumers must also think more carefully when they spend money, he said.

"Since 2002, oil prices have increased fourfold," he said. "Although demand for oil in many countries in Europe and in the US has been decreasing, the decrease has been offset by rising demand in many countries in Asia and the Middle East, particularly in emerging countries such as China and India. Therefore, oil prices will show no decrease in the next three years."

In addition, some governments apply measures such as oil-price subsidies to minimise the effect of soaring crude, and still continue to increase their oil consumption.

An expert recently forecasted that oil consumption in Asia would rise to 60 per cent of overall global demand by 2030. Therefore, it is out of the question that oil prices in Thailand will fall to the same relatively cheap level as before.

Fiscal Policy Research Institute director Kanit Sangsupan said the government should also start to think seriously about how to effectively remanage the country's logistics systems.

"Logistic costs currently represent 20 per cent of the country's gross domestic product, which is too high. It should be only 10 per cent," he said.

Kanit said the government should consider alternative energy, such as establishing clean coal-fired power plants, and put plans into action now.

CP Intertrade managing director Sumet Laomoraporn suggested the government exercise good management at a time when energy and food are strongly linked, as energy is necessary for food production and more agricultural area is being devoted to growing crops for biofuel.

Anusorn Dhammajai, dean of Rangsit University's Faculty of Economics, said many countries were starting to pay more attention to genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in accelerating food production. Thailand should also think about how to increase production in a limited agricultural area, as there is little room for expansion beyond existing areas.

"The next decade will be an era of 'green revolution' as countries with high development potential, particularly in the Western world, will accelerate their development in increasing productivity and will pay more attention to GMOs," he said.

Currently, the US and countries in Europe have developed their technology to be 20 years ahead of the rest of the world."