Powering Up - Industry and communities go head to head

Round one to industry at Map Ta Phut, but Thailand takes note 

"Whilst the government is investigating and evaluating the effects on local communities, attention is also beginning to turn to 1,700 factories outside the industrial estates."

After a year long suspension, hundreds of billions baht and tens of thousands of jobs lost, 74 projects in Map Ta Phut got the green light from the Central Administrative Court in September to resume operations. Two petrochemical projects have been included in the list of 11 harmful activities, which means the companies can only regain their operating licenses once they pass new Environment and Health Impact Assessments (EIA/HIA). The court verdict and new environment guidelines, whilst offering businesses clarification after a long dispute, leaves government agencies to try and regain investors’ confidence in Thailand once again.

There is likely to be a positive legislative ending to the Map Ta Phut impasse, but local residents and activists are still voicing their opposition. They consider the list of 11 harmful activities endorsed by the government, reduced from 18, as based on the best interests of the businesses and not the communities who have fought to improve the environmental health and living conditions in the local area. Today, they continue to fight, requesting a revision of the list, and say that they will appeal to the Supreme Court unless the government agrees to their proposals.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has called for local residents to await the study on Map Ta Phut’s capacity that will focus on buffer zones and green areas between industry and the communities. Yet Abhisit and other government ministers concede that poor law enforcement in the past has been and may yet remain a root problem of the current dispute. 

Map Ta Phut is said to have already exceeded its capacity limit. However, the Board of Investment (BoI), which governs the numerous projects applying for BoI promotions and privileges, expects operations to expand following the government’s clarifications. 

As might be expected, community representatives have demanded no further increases in Map Ta Phut operations and assert that petitions for acceptable public hearings be held on the resumption of all halted operations. They underline, however, that they have no problem with industrial developments, but the environmental costs borne by the communities. 

NGOs and a four-party panel (comprised of academics, government, private sector and public representatives) have stressed the importance of implementing new environment regulations and town plans to include green buffers and the proper delineation of industrial zones. Enforcing stricter construction and environmental codes has also been touted in order to prevent any future incidences, including excavating 100,000 cubic metres of silt from the Charkmark River estuary, the building of a dyke to block contaminated silt and enforcing a 2km distance between petrochemical factories and residential areas. 

Government agencies and business representatives, however, firmly insist that construction and environmental codes in Map Ta Phut are already on a par with international standards.

But whilst the government is investigating and evaluating the effects on local communities, attention is also beginning to turn to 1,700 factories outside the industrial estates in line with the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) plan to promote the development of eco-friendly industry nationwide.
Looking at the history of industrial development, Thailand could take lessons, anti-pollution measures and technology from Japan's city of Kawasaki, once polluted by heavy chemical industries. After an almost-two-decade legal battle, investors acknowledged their responsibility for any 'leakage or accident.’ Petitions were dropped and Japanese investors kept their word. Could Thailand do the same? Indicators, though preliminary, are yes.
Five Tigers of Map Ta Phut’s big investors - PTT Group, SCG, Dow Chemicals, Glow and Banpu - recently set up a community partnership centre with the budget of THB 100 mn for an initial 3-year operation to address critical issues and share information between industry and local communities. Although academics agree with the initiative, they note it needs to be more that just corporate social responsibility or a public relations phenomena.
Following the court ruling, government agencies and related organisations are all gearing up to support investors, and to ensure the country's and future economic growth and competitiveness. 

Kasikorn Research Centre (KRC) has forecast that the end of the Map Ta Phut conflict will be a factor buoying domestic investment in the years to come, with Thailand's investment growth at 8.1 to 8.8 per cent this year, and 7.5 to 9.3 in 2011. Impressive economic growth it may be, but decisions concerning the environment and public health are no longer in the hands of a few. 

Transparency remains the key to sustainable investment in Thailand. No one can claim that industry or the Thai government are not cognizant of the matter, but both need to prove they have turned away from past trends of concealing information until a problem arises. In parallel, investors are demanding clear policy and less corruption, and they will certainly look very closely at the issues before taking the future investment plunge into Thailand. 

August’s protests on the tropical island of Samui, long famed for its five and six star luxury resorts popular with foreign and domestic tourists, against offshore adjacent oil platforms are symptomatic of a far more assertive Thai society that has emerged in the last ten years. One which will continue to fight industry to protect its resources and communities.  BRT

This article was first published in Business Report Thailand, Issue 1, October 2010