Economics, money making
to be stressed in village fund revival
By Jon Fernquest |
On the front page of today's Bangkok Post an article discusses the revival of the Village Fund project.
One wonders what kind of projects were funded by this scheme in the past.
In rural Chiang Rai where I live, shortly before the coup, plans for laying pipes to provide public water to local communities on the outskirts of Chiang Rai town were in the making.
Public water had become more essential as dry season droughts were drying up wells and making life difficult for the villagers and people who lived a little ways out of town.
After the coup nothing more was heard of this project.
Will projects like this be revived?
(See photo on right of villagers heading back to Bangkok for seasonal work after the end of Water Festival (Songkran) which is most enthusiastically celebrated in the provinces)
Here is the article in full.
Tighter rein on village loan funds
Govt wants moneyto be better spentPIYAPORN WONGRUANG & KING-OUA LAOHONG
Thursday April 17, 2008
The government has pledged to be more selective with community-based proposals for funding under the so-called SML (small, medium, large) village grants scheme to ensure more prudent spending amid scepticism from social and economic experts.
Anek Permvongseni, in his capacity as secretary to the SML committee, said the government will give more emphasis to proposals that are aimed at raising local incomes to ensure the money would truly help boost communities and the village economy.
"The SML scheme has been brought back with a work structure similar to the previous one, but we will try to implement it with closer monitoring.
"Making money will be emphasised. The challenge before us is how to make the scheme a vehicle to drive the local economy," said Mr Anek, also deputy secretary-general to the prime minister, in charge of administrative affairs.
The SML scheme under which villages received grants for community development was launched by the Thaksin Shinawatra government.
About 18 billion baht was granted to support community development projects, proposed by about 77,000 villages nationwide.
Under the scheme, villages received a portion of the money to run projects. The villages were classified as small, medium, and large and received as much as 300,000 baht per project.
After the Sept 19, 2006 coup, the project was partly kept on, under a new name, then restarted by the Samak Sundaravej government as a flagship policy. Cabinet has granted the SML committee, chaired by Finance Minister Surapong Suebwonglee, 10 billion baht to run the scheme. The fund is likely to be distributed by the end of this month.
Under the Thaksin government, the scheme drew criticism from social and economic experts who said it would spur spending rather than strengthening community development.
A study commissioned by the government showed that nearly 70% of the proposed projects, or about 108,000, involved public facility development and community welfare.
"The survey conducted by the National Statistics Office showed the villagers were pleased with the initiative because it allowed them to think for themselves.
"That was the reason this government brought it back and made it as part of its policy," said Mr Anek.
The sustainability of the villagers' proposals depended on their capacity to think and act.
However, Assoc Prof Narong Petprasert of Chulalongkorn University's economics faculty said the government's approach was unlikely to help the rural economy.
The government had to make sure villagers increase production and do not spend too much on costs such as farm material imports, he said.
He also suggested the government set aside some of the SML money to promote the spending power of low-income workers, too. The government seemed to focus only on how to generate income in limited parts of the rural sector rather than stimulating the rural economy as a whole.
Poldej Pinprateep, former deputy minister for social development and human security, suggested the government hold nationwide meetings to review the scheme. The scheme was sound, he said, but the government was in a rush to implement it rather than listening to people's views.
(Source: Bangkok Post, front page, 17-04-08, PIYAPORN WONGRUANG & KING-OUA LAOHONG, temp-link)
Vocabulary:
laying pipes - putting pipes underground
public water - water provided by the government in pipes, rather than from personal wells [Thai: Nam Prapa]
the outskirts of a town - the edge of a town
a little ways out of town - out of town, but not far from town
in the making - being created, plan being put into action
droughts - a period of time when there is little rainfall and water is very scarce
revived - brought back to life
tighter rein - stricter and more complete control
SML (small, medium, large) village grants scheme - name of Thaksin administration government program that provides local communities with money for projects
village loan funds - the money that the government provided to loan out to local communities under the scheme
pledged - promised
be more selective - being more careful when selecting, not selecting as many
proposals - a plan for a future project
prudent - acting carefully and with caution, not acting too quickly
scepticism - doubt, questioning whether something is true
in his capacity as secretary - acting as secretary, performing the work duties of the secretary
sustainability of the villagers' proposals depended on their capacity to think and act
implement - putting a plan into action, executing a plan
closer monitoring - looking at the details of what is actually happening during the whole life of the project
a scheme - a plan, a planned policy (See glossary)
a vehicle to do Y - something used to achieve goal Y
drive the economy - create economic activity, the producing, buying, and selling of goods and services, this generates wealth and economic growth
make the scheme a vehicle to drive the local economy - use the policy to create economic activity and growth in the local economy
community development projects - projects that help a local community to develop and grow economically (for example, roads, electricity, water, flood prevention, irrigation, etc)
flagship - the most important in a group of things (for example, the conglomerate's flagship company)
a flagship policy - the most important policy of the government
spur - encourage or cause something to happen (See Wikipedia)
facilities - equipment and buildings provided for a purpose (for example, recreational facilities or lab facilities)
public facility development - building equipment and buildings to serve all the people who live in an area (the public)
welfare - the health, comfort, and happiness of people
a community - all the people who live in a neighborhood, people who share something in common (for example, an online community of coin collectors)
community welfare - the health, comfort, and happiness of a community
an initiative - a new plan or idea to solve a problem (See glossary)
think for themselves - when a group of people makes their own decisions rather than being told what to do all the time, working independently
sustainability - project can be continued for a long time (so future generations can enjoy the benefits too) (See glossary)
farm material imports - buying things like fertiliser, important for farming, from other countries
promote the spending power of low-income workers - give poor workers more money to spend
rural - the farming areas outside of the city
stimulating the rural economy - taking action to help the farming areas outside of the city grow and prosper
