THE SOCIAL, CULTURAL, ECONOMIC ASSIMILATION OF LOCAL COMMUNITY IN AMPHOE BAN KHOK UTTARADIT PROVINCE ON ENTRY THE PERMANENT OPENING OF A PHU DOO INTERNATIONAL POINT OF ENTRY UNDER THE DEVELOPMENT IN THE GREATER MEKONG SUBREGION

Abstract

The objectives of this research were to examine the social, cultural, economic changes of people in the local communities, to investigate the social, cultural, economic accommodation of people in the local communities, to study the factors affecting the social, cultural, economic accommodation of people in the local communities, and to develop policy recommendations and guidelines in solving the problems of government agencies and people in the local communities towards the opening of Phu Doo Border Checkpoint under the development stream of Greater Mekong Sub-region. The samples recruited by purposive sampling were 400 residents in 4 Local Administrative Organizations including Ban Khok Sub-district Municipality, Nakhum Sub-district Municipality, Bo Bia Sub-district Municipality, Muanjedton Sub-district Municipality Ban Khok District; government and private organizations including 1) Local Administrative Organization; 2) Government Agency; 3) Educational Institution; 4) Private Organization. The research instrument was questionnaire and the data was analyzed by descriptive statistics. The results showed that :

1. The changes of society, culture and economy of people in the community due to the opening of Phu Doo Border Checkpoint found that the overall were at the moderate level. The change of social structure and social behavior in overall were at the moderate level. The change in culture, thinking, belief, custom, tradition in overall were at the high level. 2.The assimilate features on social, economic, cultural aspect of the local communities towards the opening of Phu Doo Border Checkpoint had adjust with change condition which indicated that the communities showed adjustment towards the changes of social that affected the cross-border trading businesses. The communities along the border viewed that the impact towards cross-border business in entering AEC was at the moderate level. The government officials in charge of cross-border trading viewed that the impact on cross-border trading in entering AEC were career and income attributes and land possession. 3.The factors affecting the changes showed that, among 9 sets of independent variables, only 6 sets were able to explain the variance of social, cultural, economic changes of people in local communities due to the opening of Phu Doo Border Check Point at the significance level of .05 that included Economy, Attitude, Social, Culture, Ecology, and Population. 4.The guidelines in solving problems for government agencies and people in the local communities due to the opening of Phu Doo Border Checkpoint found that the government agencies, local administrative organization, local communities, and private organizations had proposed the way integrative problem-solving in 4 domains, as Physical Linkage, Human Linkage, Economic Linkage, and Political Linkage.