CHAPTER 4 FINDING
4.4 Sister City Relationship Policy as Top-Down Approach Implementation
4.4.2 Conditions for Effective Top-Down Approach Implementation
implementation on sister city relationship policy, we will examine if sister city relationship policy contains the conditions to achieve effective top-down implementation.
1) Clear and consistent objectives
The objective of sister city relationship policy is clear—to promote international cooperation at the local level. This objective has always been the goal of the policy and every level of involved organization realizes this objective. However, the implementation process and the evaluating process are still unclear and even missing.
2) Adequate causal theory
As the world is now globalized, the world is becoming smaller and opportunities in terms of international cooperation are always present. International cooperation is no longer limited to only government to government as before. It is of the utmost importance to expand international cooperation at all levels of government.
The Thai government sees this policy as an opportunity to promote local development through international cooperation. This policy presents an opportunity for regional governments to expand and explore additional development possibilities that can contribute to regional development. Therefore, this policy is suitable and should be prioritized in the current socio-economic conditions. However, the implementation process of sister city relationship policy is still facing many limitations and constraints which make the policy less prioritized and not aligned with the causal assumptions.
3) Structure for enhancing the compliance of implementers
The implementation of the policy involves three layers of governing bodies; the central government, the provincial government, and the local government.
For sister city relationship policy, every governmental level is involved in carrying out the policy as explain in earlier sections. However, with the imposed rules and regulations and limitations, this implementation structure does not create a compliance environment for the implementers, especially for regional governments.
Even worse, some implementers resist following the established rules and regulations, or some organizations abandon the policy entirely.
4) Committed and skillful implementing officials
Throughout the interviews, there was a mixture of capable and incapable implementing officials. Usually, a skillful implementing official will be able to carry out the policy with continuity. On the other hand, an unskillful or a newly assigned officer will have little to no knowledge of the policy and will be less likely to promote this policy within the province.
All of the provinces are facing the same problems regarding assigning implementing officials, where none of the implementing officials is an international relations officer and works in other departments, such as the strategic division, Damrongdhama center, or even the vice governors’ secretary office. Unlike the central government, where the position of the international relations officer exists, the provincial governments do not have this position. International related activities are assigned to those that are able to speak English regardless of the department, which makes this policy less important.
5) Support of interest groups and sovereigns
Once the relationship is established, some provinces find support by the locals, and some do not. The support of interest groups and sovereigns within the province depends on the extent to which a province emphasizes the policy. If a province is able to create awareness of the policy, the policy is likely to gain support from interest groups, as in Chiang Mai and Khonkean province. However, for Rayong and Pathum Thani province, where the policy is less prioritized and implementing officials are not familiar with the policy, the provincial government will be less likely to receive any support from the local organizations.
6) Change in socio-economic conditions that do not substantially undermine political support or causal theory
As this policy is formulated from the opportunities that arise from globalization, where international collaboration has proven to be one of the conditions for development, this policy will continue to exist even if there is a change in socio- economic conditions. On the other hand, this policy might even receive more political and local support as international networking may provide benefits and more development opportunities for the locals. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Chiang Mai province received surgical masks from a sister city in China that had established a relationship under the sister city relationship policy framework.
In addition, this policy is not one of the prioritized policies of the Thai government and the Thai government has been implementing this policy for many years; with or without success, the policy will be implemented depending on provincial preferences.
We can see that the implementation of sister city relationship policy somewhat meets successful top-down approach implementation conditions. Sister city relationship policy has clear and consistent objectives. It also contains partial causal assumptions; however, the existing implementing structure is still an obstacle for implementers to achieve effective implementation. In addition, due to rules and regulation limitations, the policy cannot fully acquire capable and committed working personnel or the support of interest groups. We can conclude that, although sister city relationship policy is adopting a top-down approach model, it does not contain successful implementation conditions.