POLICY APPROACHES FOR DRIVING KHON KAEN MUNICIPALITY TOWARDS THE MODERN CITY

Abstract

         The objectives of this research article were to 1) analyze the fundamental potential of Khon Kaen Municipality in order to drive into a modern city 2) to purpose the public policy for the Khon Kaen City’s development to become a modern city. This research article was using qualitative research by interviewing with 30 informants using Purposive Sampling for selecting, the informants were included the people with knowledge of urban development, the urban development scholars, and the executives with expertise in Khon Kaen City Development Management, consisting with a group of 3 local government administrators in Khon Kaen Province, 12 officers from a group of relevant with government agencies and local government organizations, 5 representatives from private organizations and 10 representatives from the citizen of Khon Kaen city. The used instrument for the data collection were in-depth interviews and descriptive analysis. 1) The fundamental potentials of Khon Kaen City development consists of 1.1 ) Geographical advantage as the center city of the North - Eastern region and resourceful with the historical cost. 1.2) The local government administrators’ long - term visions 1.3) Acquisition the local executives from the business sector 1.4) Stakeholders collaboration 1.5) Having the appropriate collaboration model 1.6) The influence from the province’s policy able to manage itself. 1.7) The public sector’s awareness. 1.8) Having the forefront of the educational institution and 1.9) Khon Kaen city is the economic area which able to generate the GDP for Thailand. 2) The Policies Guideline for driving the Khon Kaen Municipality into a modern city consists of 2.1) Promote and support the province’s self-management. 2.2) Promote and support  the coordination between the government and private sectors. 2.3) Promote and support Semi - direct democracy 2.4 Support more centralized transfer of government missions.