Focus on balanced growth and happiness: Bhutan PM

The prime minister of Bhutan and economic gurus urged Thailand to adopt sustainable policies that will promote economic growth as well as create balance and happiness in society - instead of focusing only on development. They spoke at a seminar in Bangkok yesterday.

Meanwhile, the chief of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) warned Thailand not to rush into joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as the country may not get full benefits from the pact and could face difficulty complying with many of the commitments.

At the 30th annual conference of the Thai Chamber of Commerce in Bangkok yesterday, Bhutan Prime Minister Lyonchoen Jigmi Y Thinley said the kings of Thailand and Bhutan have very similar ideas on sustainable development, like the sufficiency economy, which aims to promote happiness for the people.

"The concept of Gross National Happiness [GNP] will promote equality, sustainability, and happiness. We do not mean to ignore growth and foreign investment, but we are rather concerned about sustainable investment," the Bhutan PM said.

His country was looking at investment that promoted not only economic growth but was also sustainable and advanced people's knowledge, he said. The preferred areas were tourism, hospitality, education, plus information technology, health-care, hydro power, and green industry.

Bhutan was also interested in forging closer cooperation with Thailand to promote trade, tourism, investment, and social development between both countries. Closer cooperation could come through some kind of agreement that promotes collaboration between the public and private sector. Businesses in Bhutan would like to learn from Thailand's world class healthcare and hospitality, he said.

The four pillars of GNP that promote the economy and basic happiness were: sustainable and equitable socio-economic development, conservation of its fragile mountain ecology, promotion of cultural growth and diversity and good governance.

Supachai Panichapakdi, secretary-general of Unctad, said Thailand needed to focus on long-term development and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) or Asean+6 agreement rather than hurriedly join the TPP.

He warned the government to carefully conduct a study to weigh the positive and negative impacts of the TPP before making any commitment to the US.

"President Obama's visit to Thailand is a good sign to show the world that Thailand is one of the interesting nations. But we should focus on the RCEP and Asia before moving to join the TPP," he said.

Speaking on "Direction for balancing sustainability growth through sufficiency economy: the solution to the global society," Supachai expressed worry about the global economic system as the world used too many resources and was over-spending, which could lead to another financial crisis.

For instance, Quantitative Easing 3 was not a good solution for the US economy because it led to more speculation. Supachai said Unctad was not against the market system, but wanted to improve balanced and sustainable growth, and for that countries needed to adopt good governance and morality in doing business and to promote equal growth.

The sufficiency economy policy would limit liabilities, limit the spending of natural resources, develop a small community, and the focus on trade and labour welfare would help ensure a stable global economy, he said.

Chamber chairman Phongsak Assakul also said that sufficiency economy was an effective ideology businesses should adopt. He said the concept could be adopted to fight corruption, lift governance, corporate social responsibility, and help created shared values. These ideas would ensure fair treatment for all involved and create sustainable growth for business and society.