Thailand development: governance matters

IN THEIR columns, Juan Mercado (Inquirer, 3/5/11) and Rigoberto Tiglao (Inquirer, 9/30/10) lamented that the country’s population size is holding back its development. But Yoshihara Kunio, Kyoto professor, in an article titled “The Nation and Economic Growth: The Philippines and Thailand (Oxford University Press, 1994)” (available in the Filipiniana section of the National Library along Kalaw Street), hardly touched on population; instead he traced the reversal of Thailand’s fortunes to the stronger political and economic institutions: central bank, judiciary, police, schools, the political system, etc. (The Philippines had an edge over Thailand in the early 1950s, being twice as rich; by 1970 Thailand had caught up with us; by 1990, Thailand was twice as rich as the Philippines.) Today our annual per capita income is $3,500, Thailand’s is $8,000 plus.

Could it be that Professor Kunio thought that governance is more significant than population vis-à-vis development?

—FR. PEDRO S. CENZON JR.,
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