Throughout his reign the King has devoted himself to developing poor rural areas using his own approaches and resources. Over the past six decades he has studied and experienced first hand the conditions in rural areas through extensive travel to every corner of the country. This enabled him to understand Thai rural problems and arrive at his philosophy of a "sufficiency economy".

The concept of "sufficiency economy" is not one that can be found in any textbook; it was an entirely new idea that arose from his experience in dealing with rural problems and issues. His Majesty has been developing this theory consistently, and it is wonderful to see his personal idea becoming accepted the world over.

What the King advocates by "sufficiency economy" is a feasible approach to achieving the common objective of stable, equitable and lasting development in the country. For decades he has kept on developing this model, resisting the lure of quick-fix and populist approaches. His interest is long-term and is not conditional on ballots, so he can see through his development programmes, which sometimes last decades.

When the economic crisis hit Thailand in 1997 with catastrophic results, everybody was looking for a way out. The authorities began to seriously study the King's philosophy. The excesses of the high-growth development model were suddenly no longer popular after the economic turmoil. Before that Thailand was considered among the world's most booming economies, with growth in two digits. But for the speed at which we developed we had to pay the very high price of complacency. Once the economic crisis struck, the Thai people started to think how their country could survive the disaster and move towards sustainable development.

In past years the concept of a sufficiency economy has been better articulated and interpreted as the community economy, meaning village or local self-sufficiency, which aims to give people the means to ensure they have the basic necessities of life, starting with enough to eat. It is important to reiterate that the King has talked about the need to ensure quality of life at the same time. Yet there must also be some insufficiency as the King's theory advocates exchange and cooperation among villages, districts or provinces.

When UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has an audience with the King in late May to present him with the prestigious prize, it will put His Majesty's theory of sufficiency economy on the world map. Annan has taken great interest in His Majesty's development work, so it is no surprise that he should want to present the prize himself.

Now the United Nations is taking sufficiency economy a step further. The UN Human Development Programme will next year focus on sufficiency economy and sustainable development. It is also high time that our own government and authorities looked into this philosophy in detail and transformed it into tangible policies.

The King used to joke with Thai officials and his audience at his birthday speeches that he would be willing to explain the sufficiency economy again and again until they understood.