Thailand’s intention to push the Bio-Circular-Green economic model on the agenda of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings is mostly aimed at benefiting domestic big conglomerates, rather than driving regional economic development for the mutual benefit of all stakeholders, according to critics upset about being excluded from the implementation.
The Thai government, under its APEC theme — Open. Connect. Balance. — believes that the BCG economic model could be a paradigm shift to achieve a more balanced and sustainable post-COVID economic recovery.
“At the core of the BCG model is a campaign to rally each and everyone to shift their behavior to balance all things. It reinforces continuing global efforts on climate change, and compounds those efforts to accelerate the achievement of sustainable development goals,” according to the official APEC 2022 website.
The BCG, in Thailand’s local context, is a model to commercialize biodiversity and cultural richness as well as employ high technology and innovation to transform into a high-value economy, as the conventional strength of industrial production for export is running out of steam.
‘Greenwashing’
The Thai government has embedded the BCG into its 20-year national strategy and has already mapped out an action plan for 2021-2027.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha is the head of the BCG Executive Board Committee to drive the economic model together with representatives of big conglomerates from various sectors as members of the committee and sub-committees. Key private sector representatives in the committees include executives and senior officials of Mitrphol Group, CP, ThaiBev, Betagro Group, PTT, SCG and Thai Union Group.
Bio-diversity advocate Witoon Lianchamroon of BIOTHAI said at a recent workshop that the real driving force of the BCG is the combination of the government and private business sectors. “People who championed biodiversity conservation and environmental conservationists are not included in this economic model,” he said.
“Pushing this economic model in an international forum is mostly for domestic purposes,” Witoon said. “The government and big conglomerates are simply exploiting the APEC forum for their ‘greenwashing’ process to make them look green, as environmentally concerned entities.”
Under the BCG framework, people from the government and private sectors would regulate and deregulate extraction of natural biodiversity for their own interest, he said.
They are looking forward to an amendment of the 1975 Plant Variety Act to include plant varieties invented by new technology, he said. Gene engineering technology would be used for the purpose of agricultural development, said Witoon, who has fought against the dark side of genetically modified organisms in the farm sector for decades.
Tara Buakhamsri, director of Greenpeace Thailand, said at the same workshop that the BCG linked climate change with big corporations’ interests, as the government planned to give concessions to companies to grow huge plantations for carbon credit trading.
They might need as many as 600,000 rai (96,000 hectares) of land for the plantations, he said, and questioned the source of the land and whether the project would create conflict with local communities and farmers.
Citizens’ groups want APEC leaders to prioritize people’s problems
Can BCG make headway?
The APEC in fact has a key mission to accomplish the Putrajaya Vision 2040 adopted in 2020 when Malaysia hosted the meeting, and implement the Aotearoa Plan of Action endorsed last year when New Zealand chaired the grouping.
The vision is to create an open, dynamic, resilient and peaceful Asia-Pacific community by 2040 for the prosperity of all people and future generations.
Under the action plan, the members have been tasked individually and collectively to achieve the vision by pursuing three economic drivers: trade and investment; innovation and digitalization; as well as strong, balanced, secured sustainable and inclusive growth.
To that end, the APEC is working on a free trade area. They need progress in the liberalization of trade in goods and services by reducing unnecessary barriers and fostering regulatory reform.
They have commitments to adjust their respective policies for promoting a digital economy and innovation. They also need to promote economic policies that support global efforts to address all environmental challenges including climate change and natural disasters.
The delegations to the APEC meetings spent most of their time over the past year discussing ways to reach the destinations. However, the BCG economy could be compatible with the vision and action plan but has not been specifically discussed in the APEC meetings since Thailand took over the chairmanship last November. As the host, the Thai delegation managed to insert BCG into almost every statement of the chair.
The statement after the meeting of trade-related ministers in May says, “We take note of ongoing APEC efforts, including the development of a standalone statement for leaders’ consideration, to support the Bio-Circular-Green Economy as an approach for achieving inclusive, balanced and sustainable recovery from COVID-19, long-term resilience in economic growth and environmental and climate objective.”
The statement of the chair after a meeting of forest ministers in August says, “…encourage the application of a more holistic and synergized approach, such as Bio-Circular-Green Economy, in the forest sector”.
The hosts did not exclude a reference even at a meeting last month on women and economic forum, which seemingly has no connection with the BCG. The official statement of the meeting said in the fifth paragraph, “we welcome the sustainable and resilient economy envisioned through the women and economic forum 2022 themed ‘Women’s Empowerment through the BCG Economy’”.
The so-called standalone statement to be issued during the summit on November 18-19 would appear in public as a Bangkok declaration on BCG. But it may not reflect the reality that it has limited potential to go forward for further discussions when the APEC Summit is hosted by the US next year, according to a seasoned diplomat keenly following international conferences.
By Thai PBS World’s Regional Desk
Bio-circular-green economy: Good for the World, Good for the Country
