A Guideline for Development Administration of Chiang Rai Special Economic Zone

Abstract

The objectives of this research were aimed (1) to study policy, plans and strategies of Chiang Rai Special Economic Zone, (2) to study conditions of development administration of Chiang Rai Special Economic Zone, and 3) to study problems and obstacles of development administration of Chiang Rai Special Economic Zone. Derived from purposive sampling, the data of this qualitative research was collected from 15 key informants: policy determiners, policy pushers, administrators of local administrative organization and relevant stake-holders in term of economy. The data was analyzed through content analysis and was verified by checking various information sources.
The findings revealed that the border special economic development zone was immensely important because of commercial reason at the border. The border trade was valued up to 1.5 trillion baht per year. For the administration structure and process, it was found that the government had applied a management concept on a project for coastal development of Thailand’s Eastern Seaboard. However, it was not practically successful and encountered many problems and obstacles because different context of border zone. Moreover, an operation guideline under the present laws did not facilitate for the development management. For the budget, it was found that the government had continuously allocated the budget in form of strategic integration since 2015 – the present, but its tendency was decreased. For administration behavior, it was apparently different in term of principle of thinking and law between the policy determiner organizations in the border area and those of the internal area of the country. All the regional and local offices had to encounter a fluctuation of the laws, a scope of power and problems on practical integration. For surrounding, it was found that the development area allocation (land) and the laboring countries’ policy were the most significant factors–internally and externally-in which were uncontrollable. By this, factors on structure, development area, law, policy determiners/in-service-area administrators, foreign affairs, and personnel were the problems affecting of development administration of Chiang Rai Special Economic Zone.