CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION
5.2 Recommendation
5.2.2 Readjusting Functions and Roles
Although this research focusses on the implementation of sister city relationship policy by provincial governments, provincial governments alone cannot be the only agency that needs to adjust its role and function to improve implementation effectiveness. Every involved organization, including the central government, provincial government, and local organizations, needs to adjust its roles
and functions while some organizations need to incorporate additional responsibilities for the policy to be successful.
5.2.2.1 Central Government
The Ministry of Interior needs to make the following adjustments.
First, the ministry needs to conduct some form of academic study on the policy for better understanding of the policy, and to make further improvement.
Although the policy has been implemented for many years, there no academic study was found on Thai sister city relationship policy. The policy is being randomly implemented based solely on the leadership decision by the central and provincial governments with no academic guidelines. Academic study and evidence would establish a strong understanding foundation for all involved organizations to follow as a guideline while making adjustments accordingly. Furthermore, a follow up study on the success of the policy needs to be incorporated. The ministry, provincial governments, and the local organizations are still unable to determine whether the policy can have any impact on provincial development, but the policy is still being continued and implemented by all levels of organizations regardless of the results.
With the results, all involved organizations can make the most appropriate decisions on the policy. For example, the central governments can determine whether to continue with full support or to terminate the policy, and provincial governments can determine whether they should allocate their resources to the existing partnership or discontinue the partnership.
Second, the ministry needs to be able to provide necessary support that will ensure a more supportive environment for the implementation process by the provincial government. As was explained in an earlier section, the implementation process by the provincial government is still facing many obstacles due to unsupportive implementation environments, such as limited rules and regulations, budgets, and working personnel. The provincial governments are not in control of overcoming these limited factors, while the ministry can provide the support. Based on the National Government Organisation Act, B.E. 2534 (1991), the central governments are the organizations that can make adjustments to the rules and regulations depending on the necessity of the issues. Regarding sister city relationship policy, under the Ministry of Interior’s functions and roles, the ministry
can alleviate the rules and regulations, seeking a larger budget to support the policy or even request more working personnel for the provincial government
Although the process will involve many central agencies in the decision process and sometimes can be very time consuming, this process is the only way in which the policy can be complimented with a more supportive environment.
Third, the ministry needs to create an additional organization or administration to oversee sister city relationship policy. Currently, the Ministry of Interior only assigns one employee to supervise sister city relationship policy. This officer oversees all sister city relationship related activities from all 76 provinces with over 91 partnerships and other international related activities and the tasks mainly are limited to routine paper work without any new initiations, such as conducting follow up projects, policy study, and evaluation. It is obvious that one officer cannot oversee all sister city relationship related activities and this may lead to a lack of understanding of the policy. Therefore, the ministry needs to set up additional organizations or at least assign more working officers to oversee sister city relationship policy in order to ensure effective implementation according to the central government’s perspective.
Lastly is setting up a follow-up and evaluation method. Evaluation is the most crucial factor in ensuring implementation effectiveness. The process of evaluation is the very first step for this policy to make any necessary improvements, as evaluation results will help the central agencies and all involved organizations determine whether the policy is still worth investing in. The Ministry of Interior needs to conduct a follow-up or evaluation method that displays the positive outputs and outcomes of the policy. Good implementing results will ensure that the policy will receive more support for implementation, as mentioned in an earlier section.
Therefore, for this policy, evaluation is inevitable.
5.2.2.2 Provincial Government
The provincial governments need to make the following adjustments.
First, the provincial government needs to encourage more local participation. The implementation of the policy by the provincial government is still facing many limitations, such as limited rules and regulations, lack of budgets and working personnel, lack of continuity, changes in leaderships and changes in policy
direction. By encouraging more local participation, the province can overcome these limitations and ensure that the partnership is constantly active, which may lead to sustainability. With local participations, it is true that the scale of impact might be smaller and limited to only within the responsible jurisdiction, but through local implementation, the policy will be sure to have at least one responsible agency that will constantly utilize the relationship for organizational benefit. Local participation will also ensure more constant leadership, policy directions, flexible implementation processes in terms or budgets and working personnel, factors that deter the provincial government from implementing policy effectively. Therefore, the province needs to assign at least one responding agency while encouraging more local participation for the partnership in order to ensure the sustainability of the relationship.
Second, in order to be able to assign at least one responding agency or to encourage more local participation, a province needs to find a suitable partner with which to establish a partnership. It is tempting for some provinces just to establish a relationship based on personal familiarity or just as a symbolic partnership for the province. These types of relationships tend to lack benefit and are not sustained. The province needs to find a suitable partner that can benefit the province as a whole or at least some local organizations. In order to find a more suitable partnership, a province can encourage local participation throughout the entire process of implementation, including searching for a partner, approaching a partner, partner evaluation, and so on.
A more suitable partnership will attract more local participation and expand areas of collaboration, which will result in greater involvement and eventually may lead to sustainability.
Third, the province needs to emphasize utilizing the sister city relationship framework. There are many policies being implemented through provincial governments, and some are being focused on more than others. If sister city relationship policy is to be implemented more effectively, the province needs to focus on and emphasize the policy, and the province needs to consider the policy as important as other policies, knowing that it can contribute to provincial development.
The directions of the policy need to be clear; more resources need to be put into the implementation, and more local participation is needed.
Lastly, the province needs to assign a specific employee to be responsible for sister city relationship policy. We can see that without a responsible officer, policy is not being emphasized as it should be or in some provinces it might not be mentioned at all. A capable and active employee can at least ensure a smoother implementation process and continuity of the policy.
5.2.2.3 Local Organizations
The suggestions for local organizations are as follows.
First, the local organization needs to report the implementation results to provincial governments. As mentioned earlier, the policy lacks an evaluation method; however, based on the evidence found, the local organizations can utilize the framework and produce tangible results. These results are still unknown to the central government. Therefore, the local organization needs to be sure to report the results to provincial governments so that they can report the results to the central government, which can help to promote policy success.
Second, we can see that provincial governments are facing many limitations in implementation compared to local organizations. Therefore, it is important for provincial governments to encourage local participation in order to overcome these limitations, and it is crucial for local participation in every process of establishing a sister city relationship, especially during partner search and selection as local organizations will be the main implementing agency. With a more suitable partner that local organizations find beneficial and useful, the policy will be carried out more effectively with continuity, which can contribute to provincial development.
A summary of the recommendations can be seen in the figure below
Figure 5.1 Recommendations for Involved Implementing Organizations
5.2.3 Integrating the Central Government, the Provincial Government,