Thailand's regional energy cooperation - Time for influence

Shahab Sabahi

Energy and Environment for Development - Policy Analysis Research Group

The pressures from economic growth, social structure changes in Thailand besides a shift in regional geopolitical and climate change, force the country to think over innovative solutions for its future energy supply challenges. 

Thailand has a significant contribution and consequently global-scale influence in the food supply chain and also blesses its strategic geographical location. Despite the mentioned strategic potions, Thailand has moderate (if not least) influence in its regional governances and does not fully realize its potential capabilities. It causes that Thailand could not benefit effectively from its potentials, possessions and intrinsic values. 

Perhaps BIMSTEC, a regional cooperation between the South East Asian states   would be a gate of opportunities for Thailand’s influences in the regional governace and consequently benefit the nation as a whole.

BIMSTEC, however, could offer opportunities and also carries threats and it would be Thailand’s choices to pick out the best opportunities and mitigate all threats. Energy and technology cooperation are among important bullets of BIMSTEC’s agenda. To identify, analyse and understand the energy related opportunities and threats and their associated impacts on Thailand’s national security and economy, we launched a study which focuses on BIMSTEC’s energy supply potentials and its interfaces with other regions and regional cooperation. It brings out evidence, arguments and analysis in extended details, based on the available data, and eventually suggests based upon its analysis a set of the long term fittest strategies for Thailand’s engagement in the BIMSTEC energy and technology cooperation. The study suggestions strongly support the idea of “Thailand future as the South – South East Asia energy gate”

One may ask “how would it come when Thailand is not accounted as a major energy resource holder?” Holding vast energy resources does not guarantee a dominance role in energy market (think of Singapore)

The study’s proposed fittest strategies were screened through SWOT analysis. To evaluate and compare the strategies in order to find optimum ones, the study deployed GAME theory and Dynamic optimization.

The analysis assumes, within BIMSTEC, there is ONLY a pure cooperation WITHOUT energy market competition. The BIMSTEC member states cooperate on total regional required quantities when they maximize their aggregated national profits  

South-East Asia: policy challenge and social innovation issue

Shahab Sabahi

Energy and Environment for Development – Policy Analysis Research Group

The definition of social innovation still has to continue to evolve in South East Asia. Definitions and the field of action are in constant flux as the challenges of society change, so it makes it impossible to give one concise interpretation. (Hamalainen 2011) One may define social innovation, in the context of South East Asia, as new ways of reaching specific goals and they include, new organization forms, new regulations and new life styles that solve problems better than traditional practices do and that are worth imitating or institutionalizing.

Innovations in the social aspects have to change the direction of social development.

The most significant achievement and strength of an innovated society is its critical thinking education, small income disparities, little poverty, reciprocal altruism and the wide participation of citizens in political and economic life (some points from Sitra 2006).

In South East Asia the focus has been predominantly on export-oriented industrial growth and left behind environment and forest preservation, critical thinker development in universities, examining robust policy and planning for sustainable development with the use of new materials and functional technologies. In this part of the world, technological development and technological innovations are generally considered the pivotal point for socio-economic growth.

As yet South East Asia countries have no clear development strategy for social innovation. The area of social innovation will have to continue to evolve in order to improve the quality of life and the performance of society.

Their problems have to be tackled if they look forward to having stability and security.  The problems are: income raised and lose of competitiveness, entrepreneur and critical thinker shortage, environmentally degraded region, and more damage costs from natural disasters because of their poor infrastructures.

A part of entrepreneur shortage would be structural and now coexists with lack of motivation for cultivating critical thinker. Further issues are income disparities, huge poverty, healthcare and weak institutions and law enforcement and lack of attention to the importance of the infrastructure development.  

Innovation policy in the strong technical orientation is not enough, while the social dimension of innovation has been given less attention.