INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN THAILAND AND SOUTHEAST ASIA

Pornchai Matangkasombut

Summary: The application of science and technology in industry, health, natural resources development and agriculture, as accomplished during the last hundred or so years. in the developed countries, have had great impacts on the quality and longevity of life in these countries. Most of these countries have attained the present stage not without long and painful processes of trials and errors. It would appear that the developing countries have the advantage of being in a position to avoid these long and painful experiences and could simply "import" the appropriate developed methods and technological processes and transplant them to our ever lasting benefits. This view is supported by the contention that developing countries are, in general, poor and could afford neither the investment nor the delay necessary to develop science from the basic foundation.

Unfortunately and ironically, we can not deny that we have learned a painful lesson of a different nature. The judgement of the "right kind" of applicable science and technology to be imported and the ingenuity in adapting what we import to our set of circunjatances proved to be difficult, and mistakes costly. Furthermore, the kinds of technology. that we need in developing own resources may not be available elsewhere where circumstances are different. When available, we often found that most specialized methods and procedures that have good economic potentials are either patented or guarded as industrial secrets. We may not be so aware of this pain until we consider the fact that Thailand, for example, in an attempt to modernize, began to import science and technology more than 60 years ago and yet today the state of our domestic technology is as far, if not further, from that at the points of export. Lesson number one is, therefore, importing science and technology can be as painful as fundamental development and in addition we will become forever addicted to it.

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