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Thailand’s Promotion of Sustainable Cities: Policies, Plans, and Goals
Thailand’s Promotion of Sustainable Cities: Policies, Plans, and Goal
Coinciding with the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals: SDGs, Thailand has formulated policies that put significant emphasis on ‘sustainable development,’ one of the essential global developmental agenda.
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In 2013, Thailand established the ‘Committee for Sustainable Development.’ Currently, the community has the Prime Minister sitting as the Chairman with the office of the committee for national economic and social developments as the committee and secretary. The committee has assigned agencies responsible for the tangible and steadfast support and implementation of 17 Sustainable Development Goals: SDGs). The goals have been re-prioritized and elaborated into 30 objectives that best correspond with Thailand’s current situation and context.
Sustainable Development Goals are crucial to the change in the developmental trajectory of every sector in Thailand, particularly the local communities or local administrative organizations. They are the government organization with the closest connection and access to the public sector. The Thai government highlights the importance of the formation of policies and other related strategies to clearly outline the approaches to achieve sustainable development of the urban environment.
20-year National Strategies (2018-2037) Give significance to the distribution of power to localities and the public sector’s participation alongside the eco-friendly urban development.
The Twelfth National Economic and Social Development Plan (2017-2021) Emphasizes the importance of sustainable and environmentally friendly growth of cities and communities by including it as a part of the plan’s environmental growth strategies for sustainable development.
The national environmental quality promotion policy and plan (2018-2037) States one of its visions: “Thailand has a sustainable and balanced foundation of natural resources and environmentally friendly society.”
The 20 Year National Strategy (2018-2037) On environment works towards the 20-year air pollution management vision, “The state-public collective to solve air pollution problems and protect environmental quality,” aiming to achieve a ‘standardized environmental quality in every sector.
Development Goals: Thailand’s sustainable cities
Member States of the Association’s ASEAN Community Vision 2025 and the ASEAN’s Implementation Plan 2016-2025 shine a brighter light on environmental issues with a consensus to achieve 11 topics related to collaborative ecological development goals. One of the goals is to improve urban living standards. What ensues is every ASEAN country’s conscientiously mobilization ‘urban environment’ and initiation of an urban development promotion project, ‘ASEAN Sustainable City Model.’ The project follows a sustainable and environmentally friendly approach to urban development. Also included is the development of ASEAN Sustainable Environmental Management Criteria to deliver an accurate evaluation.
The current Thai government has put a great deal of emphasis on facilitating urban development upon people’s improved living standards and environmentally friendly way of life. On October 10th, 2018, the cabinet agreed upon the principles and mobilization of sustainable cities and assigned the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment’s Department of Environmental Quality Promotion together with the Minister of Interior, Ministry of Education and other involved agencies to take part in outlining a concrete and sensible approach to mobilize the inception and development of sustainable cities. The initial objective is to achieve the ‘1 province one sustainable city’ goal with every province in Thailand by 2020.
