Feature
Friends in high places
Jon Key thinks New Zealand can hang onto the shirttails of a Southeast Asian economic recovery. Thailand's Mekong institute may well provide the kind of contacts we need.
Scoffing and guffaws echoed around the nation when Jim Bolger first declared New Zealand to be part of Asia. It was 1993. There would probably also have been scoffing had he foretold a sub-prime meltdown, or the nationalisation of the United States banking system, or that the one nation in the world rich enough to rescue the US economy might be China.
To the politician with the vision go the spoils. You will find, when you arrive at the Mekong Institute, on the Khon Kaen university campus in Northern Thailand, a number of things Kiwi: a New Zealand flag, a bus emblazoned with the words “Mekong Institute supported by Government of New Zealand”. But most arresting is the name in large wooden letters above the entrance to the auditorium: the James B Bolger Conference Room.
The appreciation is sincere. New Zealand aid funding helped found the institute, a live-in training centre where middle- and higher-level government officials come to learn techniques of administration and modern management: how to move your economy towards the free market; how to get the most from your development projects; how to get along with your neighbouring governments.
The roll call of institute members – Myanmar, Thailand, Yunnan Province and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of China, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam – recalls the headlines of older newspapers: the B-52 bombers, the Domino Theory, Year Zero, killing fields, suffering on the Mekong Delta.
“We fought each other a long time,” says the director of the institute, Suchat Katima. “We have adopted the motto: chain the battlefield to the marketplace.”
Since the Mekong Institute opened in 1996, 2900 public servants – and 600 private sector students – have come to learn about development, modern management, public sector reform and an endlessly changing menu of courses: sustainable rural development, labour migration management, leadership in corporate enterprises. A course next month discusses strategies to reduce poverty.
For those familiar with the cost of a day’s management training in Auckland, the prices look surprisingly affordable. A four-week course costs NZ$5000, covering travel, training, accommodation, meals. Shorter ones run at about $1600 a week. But this is expensive in a region where average income is low – under $1000 a year in Cambodia, less still in Myanmar. Funding for the institute makes scholarships possible – partial for participants from Thailand and China, fully funded for those from poorer countries.
From 1996 to 2003, funding came from a number of sources: the Thai Government, Khon Kaen University, other agencies and the New Zealand International Aid and Development Agency (NZAid).
“New Zealand should be proud,” Suchat says, not only of the expertise the participants have gained, but also because of the effect on intergovernment relations.
When they leave, many participants return to senior roles in government administration. In Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, about 10% of senior- and mid-level employees are alumni. In Laos, at least three have since become governors. In more prosperous and populous Thailand and China, the influence is less pronounced – but there, too, the institute’s reputation is growing.
Study together, learn to work together; many of the alumni keep in touch and share a bond. Suchat offers the example of government officials involved in a border conflict between Myanmar and China. Because they had been together at the institute years earlier, the prospects were good when they sat down at the table, he says. “They were able to say, ‘Hey, you and I spent four months together’, and they moved on from there.”
Similarly, immigration matters proceed more smoothly, less impeded by protocol, when the people on each end of the phone once studied together. “It can be a matter of making a phone call to say to the person you know from the programme, ‘Hey – come and pick up your people.’”
The project is expected to foster more co-operation and integration of the economies of member countries, but there’s a lot more to do, Suchat says. Before the world economy hit the wall, the region had rapid growth – double digit in Vietnam and China – but the proceeds weren’t evenly enjoyed. “We have the emerging issue of the divide between rich and poor. Vietnam, for example, has a lot of resources, but the rural upland is still disadvantaged.” Infrastructure progress has been faster than human development. “We need to prepare people for that change,” he says. “Our role is to ensure that development is sustainable. It’s people-centred, not money-centred development.”
Funding by NZAid and its partners was finite. The expectation was that the institute would ultimately become independent and arrange funding itself, which it has successfully done, but the institute can always use more friends, more partners and more resources. It has an open door to academic researchers, and New Zealand businesses interested in developing a relationship are welcome. Suchat says the institute would be glad to help with introductions, providing contact information for alumni who operate in a relevant field of interest.
The door is open, but who will come?
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