Thailand too prosperous to qualify for development donations: EuropeAid
AS THAILAND becomes more prosperous, development assistance from abroad is being phased out with the European Commission (EC) the latest executive body to announce changes, saying the Kingdom will no longer qualify to receive assistance from EuropeAid nex
Michele Rizzi, EuropeAid’s international cooperation officer, said current projects in the pipeline would not be affected.
Rizzi, who spoke to a select group of Asean journalists last week in Brussels, said Thailand was classified in the same bracket as countries like China, India and Malaysia.
However, the EU, which is the Kingdom’s third-largest trading partner, will continue to support Thailand in areas such as higher education – particularly in the field of European Studies – the environment, good governance, and human rights. Since 2007, some 500 Thai students have received scholarships from EU member states.
Rizzi said relations with Thailand would be increasingly geared towards mutually beneficial partnerships instead of handing out development assistance.
In cases of severe hardship, however, even prosperous nations like Japan received aid assistance from the EU, another EU official working in disaster relief said. He cited the 2011 earthquake off the Pacific coast of Tohoku and the consequent nuclear leak in Fukushima as examples.
One of EuropeAid’s past projects with Thailand involved sustainable organic-waste management in the Nonthaburi municipality between 2002 to 2005.
The goal was to intervene in the production of urban waste – controlling and improving its collection and utilisation. The project included construction of a plant to transform organic waste into fertilising compost. EuropeAid contributed 423,400 euros to the project, which helped reduce the municipality’s production of solid organic waste by 20 per cent. The new plant also created 350 new jobs and positively affect 42,000 people in the district.
The European Union constitutes Thailand’s second-largest humanitarian and development donor after the United States.
EuropeAid will continue to be active in the Asean region. Between 2012-2013 it provided 150 million euro in aid to assist the new Myanmar government in its political-reform process. In Vietnam, the EU has also provided 23 million euro in aid to develop sustainable tourism in the country.