At the same time, citizens in the countryside must not be left behind. The issues of poverty, inequality, social cohesion, strength within the community and family and cultural preservation must also be considered.

The question of how to manage these two forces raises the challenging issue of whether Thailand can effectively identify the equilibrium that balances these forces in a way that sustainable development will be achieved. That is, how to balance internal social cohesion, and economic competitiveness at the international level.

This writer believes that sufficiency economy is a universal philosophy, which can be applied to any level, from macro-structure to micro-behaviour, from policy formulation to policy implementation, from the national context to the global context, and from the "people sector" to the private sector.

As sufficiency economy has an enormous impact, it must be understood.

Sufficiency economy has three simple principles: to be moderate; to be knowledgeable and reasonable; and to be immunised. To be moderate is to take the middle way: just how sufficiency economy should be followed. That is, we do not overspend or over-invest. If we have the potential to compete at the world level, we should go international; however, if we only have the potential to compete within a region, we should remain at that level.

To be knowledgeable and reasonable is to be careful and to know how to adapt to an outside culture. This is important, as we are in an open economy. There is a misunderstanding that sufficiency economy is a closed economy - which is not true. The fact is, His Majesty the King's concept is employed in a dynamic context. The issue is how to adapt government administrative systems, private competitive strategies, and community living patterns according to this dynamics of globalisation.

To be immunised is to build strong relationships within and among families as well as within and among communities. In the private sector, the question is how to build competitiveness as well as collaborative networks to enhance competitive advantage.

Past economic crises imply that a sufficiency concept is not being properly utilised. Also, the recent political situation reflects a divergence in opinion among the citizens. Consequently, today's definition of wealth of the nation needs to be redefined. The former thinking, which emphasised only sound economy, is not adequate without the aspects of social and political participation taken into consideration.

Capitalism under globalisation must be examined for both benefits and shortfalls. As Thailand has a dual economy structure, the country needs to find a balance between market capitalism, which is important for the private sector to compete on the world stage, and social capitalism, which is the grassroots of the nation. However, the long-term goal of this dual-track strategy has to be clearly identified. 

What we need is socio-economic diversity, which is pluralism in the light of occupations, interests, and activities. In addition, each group should cooperate and be treated equally in order to create a democratic process.

Thankfully, Thailand has plenty of cultural diversity and biodiversity. If the country can also create socio-economic diversity, together these will be the essential endowments necessary to sustain the creation of wealth for the nation.

These endowments - cultural diversity, biodiversity and socio-economic diversity - are necessary. However, they are not sufficient for sustainable development, or for the achievement of a society with equal opportunities for every member. An equal-opportunity society will not exist if corruption is still rife at every level. Thus, eliminating corruption is the important key to sustainable development.

There is no trade with zero competition, no financial activity with no risk, and no investment without conditions. This is a fact of capitalism.

Lessons from last decade's economic crisis warn us to live sufficiently, to not overspend and invest excessively. Only these lessons will protect us from experiencing the same financial difficulties and the long period of recovery. 

However, in the new competitive landscape, even if we are self-sufficient, do not over-invest or spend, we must understand external factors and conditions as well as the changing nature of competition and consumer behaviour, otherwise business may fail.  

Both corporations and individuals should understand and become immunised - to be able to cope with the opportunities and risks.

Wealth should not be created from the public sector. The role of government must be altered from that of a regulator to a facilitator of cooperation among sectors. The idea is to convince the "people sector" and private sector to coordinate with the public sector in the form of a private-public partnership or a people-public partnership.

 "Global Capitalism" by Jeffry A Frieden summarises the history of the modern economy from two perspectives. First, the individual economy will be best driven if opened to the world market. Second, the individual economy will be best driven if the government realises the flaws of global capitalism and makes decisions based on the well-being of the people. Hence, the 21st-century global capitalism challenge is to combine globalisation with government that is fully aware of political responsibility and is able to fulfil social demand. The challenge is great. Nonetheless, studies from both historical and theoretical aspects affirm that globalisation can, with determined government, raise people's quality of life.

To this point, we believe a government that has sufficiency economy as the foundation of its national strategy will be able to fulfill all of its social responsibilities. Such a government will lead the country to genuine prosperity under globalisation.       

Dr Suvit Maesincee is a former vice minister for commerce and is currently professor of marketing at Sasin Graduate School of Business Administration, Chulalongkorn University.

This is the second of a two-part series on sufficiency economy in the context of globalisation.