Govt failing to support R&D, council says
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Fiscal 2013 budget is .18% of GDP, far short of govt's own target: expert
In stark contrast to the Pheu Thai-led government’s long-term goal to increase the country’s annual research investment to 2 per cent of gross domestic product, the amount to be spent on research and development next year will be just 0.18 per cent of GDP, a top official said yesterday.
National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT) secretary-general Prof Soottiporn Chittmittrapap said the annual research budget had been cut to 0.18 per cent of GDP for this year and next.
Thailand’s GDP next year is expected to total Bt11 trillion. The research budget allocated by the government amounts to Bt9.7 billion of the total annual budget allocation of Bt2 trillion for fiscal 2013. The private sector’s research budget is forecast at Bt10 billion. Together the two budgets total Bt19.7 billion, which is equivalent to 0.18 per cent of the GDP, Soottiporn said.
“The amount is … likely to drop,” from the current fiscal year, Soottiporn said.
The NRCT itself has requested a research budget of Bt3.5 billion for fiscal 2013, because it plans to provide Bt300-million grants to researchers in 10 targeted fields. However, the government only approved Bt1 billion.
Soottiporn said this would cause problems for the development of the country’s research capabilities, as the government has not supported the mechanism of research-based domestic technology development.
“It is impossible in practice to meet the government’s target of providing a research budget of 2 per cent of GDP in the next four years, in which the government wants the private sector to share 50 per cent of the country’s research investment. Two per cent of GDP means the country would have to spend around Bt200 billion per year, or 10 times the current amount,” he said.
Even if the government was willing to spend 10 times more, the country would still face a shortage of researchers. A more realistic possibility for Thailand would be an investment target of 0.5 per cent of GDP by 2015, which means the country would have to invest nearly Bt30 billion, he said.
“The NRCT wants investment to reach 1 per cent of GDP in 2017. This would require the government to allocate a much bigger budget. If it can only give Bt15 billion to research and development in the future, it should seek more funds from state enterprise agencies. Two per cent of their profits should be provided as a research budget,” Soottiporn added.
