Foundations promote new research

The Asia Foundation in partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday held a press conference at the ministry to promote a study called “Asean as the Architect for Regional Development Cooperation”.

“The objectives of the research are to study how Asean can play a more catalytic role in development cooperation, how Asean can maintain its centrality through shaping development assistance, and how Asean can improve understanding to enhance collaboration with development actors,” said Thomas Parks, the Asia Foundation’s country representative for Thailand and the study’s project manager and lead researcher.

According to the study, Thailand’s economic success and security are closely linked with its neighbours, especially Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.

These countries are major trading partners for Thailand in the energy, agriculture and service sectors.

Key components of the research include a case study on the response to natural disasters. A relatively recent example was the 2011 flooding in Thailand, which was the worst flood in modern Thai history.

According to the research, it inundated 9.1% of the country’s total land area, disrupted the lives of more than 13 million people, caused 680 deaths and resulted in losses worth 1.5 billion baht.

Many Asean countries provided assistance to Thailand after the flood, and several flood-management and mitigation centres have since been established.

“This response to natural disasters is a typical example of Asean’s leadership and catalytic role [in the region],” said former Asean Secretariat and former United Nations Development Programme official Larry Maramis.