Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bangkok Post - June 24, 2004
Preeyanat Phanayanggoor
Arkhom Termpittayapaisith, senior adviser on policy and planning at the National Economic and Social Development Board, said the MDG Plus targets were development challenges. The idea was to go beyond the development targets set by the United Nations.
The goals included cutting poverty below 4% by 2009, cutting HIV among adults to 1% by 2006 from 1.5% now. About 6.2 million people were below the poverty line of 922 baht a month in 2002, or 9.8% of the population, while there were about 604,000 people living with HIV/Aids in 2003.
The indicators also aimed at achieving universal lower-secondary education by 2006 and universal higher-secondary education by 2015, which now stood at 82.2% and 54.8% respectively, and doubling the proportion of women in parliament, local government and executive positions in the civil service by 2006.
The targets also aimed at cutting the infant mortality rate from 22 per 1,000 live births in 2002 to 15 by 2006, and the maternal mortality rate from 24 per 1000 live births to to 18 per 1,000 live births by 2006.
The goals also included cutting malaria in the 30 border provinces to less than 1.4 per 1,000 by 2006 and increasing the share of renewable energy in the commercial sector to 8% by 2011, a sixteen-fold increase from current levels.
Robert England, UNDP resident representative, welcomed the goals but said Thailand was setting the bar high, particularly in its aim to cut poverty to below 4% by 2009.
The poverty goal was ambitious because every country has a level of structural poverty.
Meanwhile, the first Thailand MDG report was released yesterday showing it managed to cut poverty from 27% in 1990 to 9.8% in 2004.
However, the report said it was worried about persistent income disparities among regions and groups within the country particularly in the northeast, the remote highland areas of the North and the three southernmost provinces.
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