Thailand is becoming a significant donor nation, says study

Thailand is becoming a significant donor nation, says study

Paris Lord, Agence France-Presse/Bangkok

Thailand is becoming a significant aid donor especially to the
world's poorest countries, a new report shows, highlighting a
rapid shift in the nation's fortunes.

The joint study by the United Nations and the Thai foreign
ministry says that Thailand now gives a greater percentage of its
income to those countries than do rich Asian nations like Japan.

That marks a sharp turnaround for the nation which received a
$17.2 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
to recover from the 1997 financial crisis.

But years of strong economic growth allowed Thailand to settle
its IMF debt early, and the latest report shows the country now
feels able to share its improved fortunes.

In Southeast Asia and beyond, Thailand is becoming a key donor
by helping with infrastructure projects like roads and bridges
for its impoverished neighbors Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, the
report says.

Thailand has also helped those countries by opening its
markets to their goods, it adds.

Bangkok declined financial assistance after last December's
Asian tsunami. Last week it sent rice and forensics experts to
the hurricane-hit United States, the first aid it has ever given
the world's richest country.

Hakan Bjorkman, deputy chief of the UN Development Program's
(UNDP) Thailand office, told AFP that middle-income countries
such as Thailand have an important role to play in fighting
poverty.

"They'll never be able to mobilize a huge amount of resources
that (the richest nations) can, but countries like Thailand and
Brazil have an edge because they have more recent experience of
what it takes to reduce poverty and improve health care," he
said.

Relative to the size of its economy, Thailand's overall
foreign aid in 2003 was almost as high as that of the United
States and Japan, according to the report released last week.

Most of that aid went to countries classified as among the
world's poorest, meaning Thailand gave a greater percentage of
its income to those nations than does the world's second-largest
economy Japan, the report said.

Thailand gave at least $167 million in development aid in
2003, representing 0.13 percent of its gross national income,
compared with 0.15 percent from the United States, 0.2 percent
from Japan, and 0.25 percent from Australia.

Most of Thailand's aid -- 0.12 percent of gross national
income -- goes to the poorest nations such as neighboring Laos,
Cambodia and Myanmar, compared to 0.04 percent from Japan and the
United States for the poorest countries.

Thailand's efforts to help improve roads in the region have
improved tourism facilities in Laos and Cambodia, which are now
drawing more Thai visitors, the UNDP-Thai report said.

"In 2001 Thai tourists were the largest single buyers of
tourist services in Laos, accounting for 26 percent of all
international arrivals and spending 40 percent more among all
foreign passport-holders than the average," it said.

Manop Mekprayoonthong, acting head of the foreign ministry's
department of international organizations, said Thailand is now
looking to help fight poverty outside Southeast Asia.

"Thailand is now extending cooperation and assistance beyond
its immediate neighbors ... and actively promoting cooperation
with countries in South Asia and Africa," he said.

Thailand notably has experience in fighting HIV/AIDS and is
sending its expertise -- as well as its condoms and drugs --
farther afield.

Bangkok has already held an anti-AIDS workshop in Kenya and
plans another in South Africa for November, the UN's Bjorkman
said.

"That's very promising," he said.

As for other Asian countries, the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD) said South Korea spent $366
million in development assistance in 2003 but did not say how
that compared to the size of its economy.

China, due to stop receiving low-interest loans from Japan by
2008 as its economy booms, does not reveal the amount of its
development assistance programs.

Japan gave $8.88 billion in aid in 2003, with China,
Indonesia, the Philippines, India and Thailand leading the list
of recipients.