ThaiME project


Under the provision of Emergency Decree on Authorizing the Ministry of Finance to Borrow Money for Economic Recovery due to Corona Virus 2019 Pandemic B.E. 2563 (พระราชกำหนดให้อำนาจกระทรวงการคลังกู้เงินเพื่อแก้ไขปัญหา เยียวยา และฟื้นฟูเศรษฐกิจและสังคม ที่ได้รับผลกระทบจากการระบาดของโรคติดเชื้อไวรัสโคโรนา 2019 พ.ศ. 2563), 400,000 million Baht (approx. 12,500 USD) loan ceiling is granted for social & economic recovery related government projects. Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council of Thailand (NESDC), which is responsible for project proposal review, has publicly opened all proposals on ThaiME.com. Project name, budget, responsible agency, targeted area, and project details are provided. However, as of June 12, 2020, the website has not provide any feature to download CSV/Excel in machine-readable format. Thus, Charin Polpanumas and I has scraped, cleaned, and published the data for further analyses by anyone who is interested.

Our work was used and cited at least as the following:

  • Representative Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut’s official Twitter on June 13, 2020
  • Thai PBS interview (with Charin) on June 16, 2020
  • CARE Group launch party’s talk by Dr.Supavud Saicheua on June 17, 2020, 49th minute
  • An article in Citizen 2.0 column, the Momentum magazine by Sarinee Achavanuntakul on June 18, 2020

Our analyses on ThaiME here
Sarinee Achavanuntakul’s further analyses in Citizen 2.0 column, the Momentum magazine (June 18, 2020)
Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut’s tweet on June 13, 2020

Impact

NESDC announced the progress of proposal review on June 26, 2020 that road construction, building construction, and event projects were eliminated from the loan ceiling in accordance with Sarinee Achavanuntakul’s suggestion (using our CSV) to eliminate these kinds of projects which are not directly related to human development.

Issara News’ article on NESDC announcement

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