Population Policy Analysis for Human Resources Planning in Thailand.

Abstract

Thailand’s population policy has been integrated into the National Economic and Social Development Plan since 1972. The current Sixth Plan (1987-1991) has its goal to further reduce the rate of population growth to 1.3 percent by the last year of the Plan. Evidence indicates that a substantial decline in population growth rate in Thailand has been the results of the family planning programs as the supply side or direct determinants of the decline in fertility. Moreover, the modernization processes or socio-economic factors serving as the demand forces or indirect determinants have also helped in reducing fertility in Thailand. In order to achieve the population target for the present plan as well as to attain a zero population growth rate in the long-run, the comprehensive population policy measures, namely comprehensive family planning services, incentives and disincentives, population education, and socio-economic development are needed. Population policy has played and continue to play a major role in human resources planning both in the short-run and long-run. In the sort-run, population plan aims at a continuing reduction of fertility. The relies not only on the effective measures being used but also on the improved and adjusted ones. In the long-run, however, the human resources planning will focus on issues of aging population, stationary population, and achievement crisis of planning in particular. Long-run policy measures must be more restricted beyond the voluntary basis.