His Majesty's greatest gift to the country?

The grounds of the palace have been home to at least 30 R&D projects initiated by His Majesty. They include experimental rice fields and mills, a demonstration forest, fish culture ponds, windmills, mulberry (“Sa”) paper production, a plant tissue culture lab, dairy farm, solar-powered house, wind-energy project, organic fertiliser producer, Spirulina culture plant, candle factory, cheese production, and more. These projects were not initiated haphazardly, but well planned and well thought-out in line with the King’s philosophy of “sufficiency/sustainable economy”.
A little further afield, internationally renowned educators have marvelled at HM’s initiative of Klai Kangwon School in Hua Hin.  At first, some were taken aback when they were invited to visit.  They didn’t think there could be anything worth spending time on at this rural school. The tour soon opened the eyes of these experts and PhDs to just how innovative His Majesty’s education R&D was and how successfully it had been translated into practice.
However, the King’s “long view” and well-placed focus on R&D has not been matched by the government’s “vision” when it comes to planning for the country’s future, its direction and priorities.  Thailand’s budget for R&D last year was a meagre 0.25 per cent of our total gross domestic product (GDP). In fact, it has been on the lowest rung of our national budget for years.
To put things in perspective, last year the US spent 2.8 per cent of its GDP on R&D, in Purchasing Power Parity terms, which amounted to $450 billion.
China’s R&D spending was second-highest at 1.8 per cent of GDP ($258 billion), then Japan at 3.4 per cent ($163 billion), Germany at 2.8 per cent ($92 billion) and South Korea at 3.6 per cent ($61 billion). In Asean last year, Singapore ranked top with 2.6 per cent of its GDP ($9 billion), then Malaysia at 0.8 per cent ($4 billion), and Indonesia, which doubled its R&D budget to 0.2 per cent ($2 billion) in 2013. By comparison, Thailand budgeted a lowly $1.5 billion.
Historically, the US has been the world’s largest R&D investor for the last 40 years, with total spending of $465 billion projected for this year. However, China’s growing R&D budget is expected to surpass that of the US by about 2022, if not sooner.  It’s also noteworthy that China’s spending is more on development and less on basic research.
While it is true that R&D funding is not the sole indicator of how a nation, region or industry will perform, it is definitely a fundamental criteria among other factors like science, technology, engineering, mathematics, capital markets, healthcare, manufacturing, intellectual property rights, infrastructure and, most importantly, innovation. And innovation is next-to impossible without proper funding.
R&D spending does not come from government alone – the private sector also contributes a large sum. In the US, companies like Exxon Mobile, General Motors, Apple, Proctor and Gamble, and Hewlett Packard spend billions of their own money on R&D. In Thailand, Siam Cement (SCG) has led the pack in R&D spending and has reaped results from its investments. Its revenue from high-value-added (HVA) products nearly quadrupled, to $4.5 billion in 2013, up from $1.1 billion in 2007. SCG’s research and development budget this year is $121 million, up from $11 million in 2007. HVA sales as a percentage of SCG’s total revenue amounted to 35 per cent in 2013, up from 34 per cent in 2012 and 17 per cent in 2007. This is a clear demonstration of the multiplier effect of R&D investment.
In the 21st century, countries and companies need innovation to survive and prosper – more so than in the 20th century. Many may say that total R&D spending does not necessarily correlate with results or innovation, that is it is not a sufficient condition for innovation. But it is nonetheless a necessary condition. In the last century, R&D was “expensed” rather than capitalised, and cutting its budget could yield immediate increases in profits. 
But we are now living in a century where barriers to entry have broken down, eroding distribution monopolies, customer ignorance and proprietary technologies. As a result, innovation has become central to everything in today’s world.  It is the very key ingredient in the recipe for success of our time.
Decades ago, long before many of us even thought about it, His Majesty had the foresight to see the vital role R&D had to play in the country’s development. And he has matched his vision with a life-long dedication, working steadily and unobtrusively. Sadly, not everyone has paid heed to his guiding light.
Aesop’s fable about the cockerel and the jewel rings true in many instances here in our land, but never more so in this case. The moral from of the fable is, “Cockerel, you represent a fool; jewel, you stand for the fine gift of wisdom; for the fool, this corn has no taste.”
So tomorrow, as we celebrate the birthday of His Majesty, we must remember all the invaluable lessons he has offered us by his own deeds, reflect upon them and learn. It’s the least we can do in return for his life-long work and selfless dedication to the country and every one of us.