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Figure 7.3 Wichian Phongsathorn

7.6.2 The “Wind Beneath the Wings” Model of Pracharath Rak Samakkee
Pracharath Rak Samakkee is a group of companies established under the “Pracharath Rak
Samakkee Initiative” during the administration of Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha.
The initiative aimed to bring together the three pillars of Thai society, namely the public sector,
the private sector, and civil society, to jointly drive social, economic, and environmental
development in all provinces across the country. Executives from Thai Beverage Public Company
Limited (ThaiBev) took on the lead role for the private sector within the working group for

grassroots economic development. The central goal of the initiative was to generate income for
local communities and enhance public well-being. The approach was guided by a community-
first mindset, framed around the code 1/3/5/76/1. The number 1 signifies a single overarching
goal: to generate income and improve community well-being. The number 3 refers to three
areas of work, agriculture, agricultural processing, and community-based tourism, which
together form a production-consumption value chain by attracting outside consumers into local
communities through tourism. The number 5 refers to five collaborative work dimensions:

access to production inputs, knowledge creation, marketing, communication and public
awareness, and sustainable management. The number 76 reflects the number of provinces in
which the initiative was implemented (excluding Bangkok), and the final number 1 reiterates
the unifying objective of community happiness. The initiative was operationalized through
collaboration among five sectors: 1) the public sector, which supported infrastructure and
financing through state financial institutions based on lending criteria; 2) the private sector,
which played a driving role by providing business management expertise, market access,
business planning, and funding through commercial banks and mentoring programs; 3) the
academic sector, which provided research and development expertise, particularly in

agricultural processing and production technology; 4) civil society, which helped strengthen
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