The Thailand-initiated Economic Cooperation Strategy (ECS) is an excellent strategy for richer neighbours to help poorer ones, but the recent episode involving Burma and loans from Thailand distorts all the good effects the strategy is supposed to have. Forged last November, the initiative was drawn up at a summit of leaders from Thailand, Burma, Cambodia and Laos in Bagan, Burma. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra announced after the summit that the Thai government would allocate at least Bt10 billion to finance ECS development projects.
Helping neighbouring countries is a very noble thing to do, but the Burma episode appears to reveal a hidden agenda in which the government is attempting to directly benefit a group of businesses.
Under the scheme the Export and Import Bank of Thailand approved a Bt600-million loan to Burma's Ministry of Communication, Post and Telegraph Union to develop broadband Internet and enable satellite-based long-distance calls. It is part of a Bt4-billion credit line Thailand offered the country to improve its infrastructure. The only condition attached is that the project's materials must be purchased from Thai suppliers.
But an ugly aspect emerged when it turned out that the sole benefactor of the loans was Shin Satellite, a company with close ties to the prime minister's family. Owner of the iPSTAR satellite, the company was quietly picked by Burma as the sole eligible provider of broadband satellite telephony and Internet services for the project.
Indeed, internationally accepted practice should have required Burma to hold a competitive bidding process that all Thai companies would have been allowed to enter.
They have the right, having generated the income taxes that are part of Exim Bank's business. If Shin Sat had proved to be the most suitable bidder, it would have won, but in a more transparent manner.
This actual situation sets an unfortunate precedent for Thailand, which is attempting to build itself up as an international donor. To aspire to that status, it must first draw up a clearer code of conduct that aid-receiving countries must live up to.
That is something aid-recipients across the world have been practising when receiving loans or grants from genuine world-class donors like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Certainly we Thais should remember the stringent rules that came with the US$17.2-billion (Bt716.7-billion) bail-out loan from the IMF following the financial crisis.
The ECS itself appears to be a good policy for promoting cooperation and providing assistance to Thailand's immediate neighbours for mutual benefit, but this Burma deal reflects a serious flaw.
If the fund is misused it will damage not only Thailand's reputation but also that of our neighbours.
In coming up with any kind of assistance, we should ensure we do not also create a monster.
The provision of funds must be linked to internationally accepted practices that all countries, including Thailand, are subject to. For Thailand to earn world recognition as an international aid donor, it must strictly follow these guidelines.
The single most important consideration for Thailand as a donor is to see to it that there is transparency. This is one of several measures to ascertain that such cooperation or assistance brings maximum benefits to the citizens of the aid-receiving nation. It is not enough for Thailand and its government to appear to want to do good to neighbouring countries and their citizens.
Of course, Thailand as a country, though more accustomed and better adapted to such things as good governance, transparency and fair competition, cannot hold itself up as a good example to its neighbours in these respects.
But that doesn't mean that the Thai government shouldn't at least refer to international standards in its role as an international aid-donor start-up.
Given the political climate and difficult circumstances faced by the citizens of countries that receive aid from Thailand, perhaps the least Thai taxpayers can do is make sure their money is used wisely and honestly.
Only then can Thailand look at itself as a country that genuinely aspires to become a civilised nation, able now not only to stand on its own feet but also to reach out to others that lack its advantages.